Give Lawyers to Immigrant Children - NYTimes.com

Give Lawyers to Immigrant Children - NYTimes.com:
"While the overall number of apprehensions of immigrants unlawfully entering the country is at a 40-year low, the number of children coming illegally and alone is surging, largely as a result of increasing drug-fueled violence in Central America, particularly Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. One in 13 people caught by the Border Patrol last fiscal year were under 18. Seventeen percent of them were 13 or younger. Close to 14,000 minors, twice as many as the previous year, were placed in federal custody. (This figure doesn’t include an equal number of Mexican children who were quickly deported.)"

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Leahy: Hearing on comprehensive immigration reform set for April 17 - First Read

Leahy: Hearing on comprehensive immigration reform set for April 17 - First Read:

 "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy has formally announced an April 17 hearing on comprehensive immigration reform legislation. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will testify. The hearing is in part the result of talks with the bipartisan Gang of Eight working on the soon-to-be unveiled legislation -- including Marco Rubio, who pushed for a slower committee process.

The mark-up is now not expected to begin until early May."

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LIers head to D.C. for immigration-reform rally

LIers head to D.C. for immigration-reform rally: 

"Hundreds of immigrants and their supporters boarded buses in Brentwood, Hempstead and New York City on Wednesday morning to join advocates from throughout the United States in a national rally meant as a show of force for immigration reform in Washington, D.C."

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Rep. Hank Johnson: Time Is Right for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Rep. Hank Johnson: Time Is Right for Comprehensive Immigration Reform:

"For reform to succeed, it needs three interactive elements: 1) it must create a roadmap to citizenship for 11 million immigrants here without immigration papers; 2) it must create an orderly 21st century legal immigration system that reunites families and grows our economy, and; 3) it must keep our borders secure and it must require that employers verify that all employees are legal."

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Immigration Reform 2013: A Critical Pro-Immigrant Bill, the TRUST Act, Gains Traction in California

Immigration Reform 2013: A Critical Pro-Immigrant Bill, the TRUST Act, Gains Traction in California:

"Those conditions merely mean to hold the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE to the standards they set forth when S-Comm was developed. To date, under guise of seeking to detain and deport serious or violent offenders, 72,694 Californians have been deported. 70% of those are "people without criminal records, including victims of domestic violence, or people charged with lesser offenses.""

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Immigration Reform 2013: Why is There Still Opposition?

Immigration Reform 2013: Why is There Still Opposition?:

"The United States is a country built on the backs of immigrants. Unless one’s ancestry is 100% Native American, we are all decedents of immigrants or we ourselves have immigrated. During tough economic times, this may be forgotten."

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Immigration reform: where things stand now - What’s the status of the negotiations? - CSMonitor.com

Immigration reform: where things stand now - What’s the status of the negotiations? - CSMonitor.com:

..."With this in mind, perhaps, the most prominent member of the Senate to openly object to immigration reform, Jeff Sessions (R) of Alabama, is asking for months of time to review whatever legislation a bipartisan “Gang of Eight” senators produces.

Other Republicans, including one on that Gang of Eight, are also calling for deliberation. Sen. Marco Rubio (R) of Florida argued that “in order to succeed, this process cannot be rushed or done in secret,” in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D) of Vermont"...

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