Last week U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raided the home of prominent immigrant rights activist Erika Andiola, and took away her mother, Maria, and her brother, Heriberto. Erika and her family had been working in Arizona organizing for immigrant reform in the days leading up to the raid. Erika previously had a leadership role in Presente.org working on their elections campaign.
I spoke with Arturo Carmona, Executive Director of Presente.org, about the arrests.

Stellar reporter Gregory Pratt takes CNN’s Ruben Navarette. Jr. to task, in a gentle yet relentless way that should leave a mark, if Navarette Jr. has a conscience.

The people Marrero views as extremists to the right in the immigration debate of recent years have both crushed the ability of many immigrants to progress and hamstrung the country’s ability to harness the energy and labor of this generally younger immigrant class that is essential to the country’s long-term economic health.

These ideas would seem particularly relevant these days, as an incoming Congress is expected to take up the issue of immigration reform.

My understanding is that Republicans oppose the DREAM Act because they oppose a path to citizenship for any undocumented immigrant, regardless of their circumstances. They don’t really care if the individual came into the country as a child, brought by their parents, with no recollection of their former country.

So I’m puzzled by this attempt to craft a Republican alternative to the DREAM Act, led by Florida’s Marco Rubio, which seems to be merely a weaker version of the original bill, with all of the path to citizenship elements that would make anyone disinclined to support an “amnesty” bill scream.

Given the changing demographics of the country and the prominence of what you could frankly call identity politics in this week’s election, it would be political malpractice for Democrats not to press their advantage and work to build their support among the Latino community. It’s not just that comprehensive immigration reform would foster goodwill among Hispanics, it’s that at the most crass level, it would smooth the flow of millions more Democrat-friendly, non-white potential voters into the country legally. That’s true of not just the Hispanic community but the Asian community, which is actually growing faster and which swung 72% for Obama.

Senate Democrats have signaled that they will make this a top priority in 2013.

In October of 2011, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law the California Dream Act—which allows undocumented but high-achieving immigrant students to receive state funds to help pay for college. It was a monumental victory for tolerance and the culmination of a long fight—Arnold Schwarzenegger repeatedly vetoed similar measures during his tenure in the California governor’s office.

Come November 6, however, that fight could begin all over again if California’s Proposition 32 passes.

In a move that could increase participation in the Obama Administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, Mitt Romney said in an interview with the Denver Post that he would not deport those young immigrants approved for the program.

The first day of the Obama Administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program saw thousands of DREAM-eligible youth line up for the chance to apply for two years of temporary legal status. This policy shift was touted heavily at the Democratic National Convention. After the initial flush, however, applications have slowed amidst a variety of issues.

“USA!!! USA!!!” they chanted at us to drown out our own chants of “DREAM ACT AND FULL EQUALITY!” The gay priest was at the front of our little group, and a balding man with a red face and sunglasses got within a few inches of his face to scream. Balding Guy, a member of Gay Priest’s former congregation, grabbed the priest and pushed him back violently. The next thing I knew, a man in a cowboy hat and large, crooked, cigarette-stained teeth that he was baring bulled his way into our priest. Erika was behind him, and took a misfired punch in the face as Cigarette Teeth barreled forward, cursing, swinging and pushing. A few people were sent back into me, and for a minute there he stood in front of me in the open. I wasn’t sure if I should take a swing or not to slow the guy down for my friends.

Federal courts have consistently trimmed back attempts by states to write their own immigration laws. The Supreme Court overturned much of the Arizona immigration law in June, and federal judges have done the same to parts of laws in several Southern states. We saw another example of this yeterday, when the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the state of Alabama and its draconian immigration law. However, the precedent set by the Supreme Court on Arizona did hold, and the “papers please” parts of immigration laws in Alabama and Georgia were upheld for the time being.