Yesterday, in a near party-line vote, the House of Representatives approved an amendment by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) to the Homeland Security appropriations bill that would prevent the Department of Homeland Security from prioritizing immigration enforcement.  Republicans voted to oppose sensible prioritization in favor of unfettered deportation — voted against a focus on dangerous criminals... Continue »
By Following Lead of Lamar Smith and Steve King on Immigration, Republicans Continue Down Self-Destructive Path  Yesterday, in a near party-line vote, the House of Representatives approved an amendment by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) to the Homeland Security appropriations bill that would prevent the Department of Homeland Security from prioritizing immigration enforcement to focus... Continue »
Cross-Posted at The Huffington Post: Having alienated Latino voters in the primary with hard right immigration positions and dehumanizing anti-immigrant rhetoric, what will GOP nominee Mitt Romney and his surrogates do in the general election to attract the 40% of Latino votes experts say he needs to win the... Continue »
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith is holding yet another hearing on his proposal for mandatory E-Verify.  A blog post by Dara Lind, program associate at America’s Voice Education Fund, highlights Smith’s strong reliance on the “experts” from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), an anti-immigrant think tank founded... Continue »
You might remember E-Verify. It’s House Judiciary Committee Lamar Smith’s pet project to singlehandedly boost the American economy by expanding regulation and costing hundreds of thousands of legal American workers their jobs.  The bill stalled after it passed the House Judiciary Committee last fall, and it’s no more politically... Continue »
As we've been writing about all week, House Immigration Subcommittee Republicans like Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) hit a new low on Wednesday with their "Holiday on ICE" detention hearing, in which they spent some 90 minutes insisting that our nation shouldn't bother providing immigrant detainees with adequate health care. Continue »
In his recent op-ed, "Alleged illegal and criminal immigrants should not be taxpayer-supported guests," Rep. Lamar Smith gets several things wrong. While attacking the newest detention facility opened by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Rep. Smith complains that the facility's cost was " $30 million taxpayer dollars."... Continue »
To some Republicans in Congress, U.S. immigration detention facilities sound like resorts. That was the premise of a hearing Wednesday by the House immigration subcommittee, where Lamar Smith argued that reforms to immigrant detention by President Barack Obama's administration , including medical treatment and protection of detainees, were too... Continue »
As the House Immigration Subcommittee hearing, "Holiday on ICE," gets underway, a press call today highlighted flagrant and repeated violations inside our nation's immigrant detention centers and questioned why House Republicans are making light of an issue so seriously in need of reform. Continue »
As the House Immigration Subcommittee hearing, "Holiday on ICE," gets underway, a press call today highlighted flagrant and repeated violations inside our nation's immigrant detention centers and questioned why House Republicans are making light of an issue so seriously in need of reform. Continue »