Immigration

Sen. Jeff Flake now owns the dubious title of most disliked senator

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

In just three short months in the U.S. Senate, our boy Jeff Flake has managed to dethrone the Septegenarian Ninja Turtle, Mitch McConnell, as the most disliked senator among Americans. Getting caught lying to a grieving mother who lost her son to gun violence will do that. The Atlantic Wire reports, How Jeff Flake Became the Most Unpopular Senator in America:

Public Policy Polling, in their latest survey on the fallout of the recent vote on gun legislation, explains just how much people don't like Mr. Flake:

FlakeJust 32% of voters
approve of him to 51% who disapprove and that -19 net approval rating
makes him the most unpopular sitting Senator we've polled on, taking
that label from Mitch McConnell.

Since December, it was hard to imagine anyone unseating McConnell because, according to PPP and
despite the Kentucky Senator's internal numbers, the Senate Minority
Leader was always' the old curmudgeon who represented the laughable state of America's hatred toward Congress.

* * *

So what happened to the junior Senator from Arizona? According to
PPP's polling, conducted April 25-26 in the aftermath of the gun vote
that killed legislation on background checks, it's blowback — Democrats
and independent voters have really flaked on Flake:

FlakePoll

Down with Drones: Protest at Ft. Huachuca Today

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by Pamela Powers Hannley Southern Arizona peace activists have organized a anti-drone protest outside of Fort Huachuca today, Monday, April 29. Drones are a big deal in Southern Arizona. Ft. Huachuca, Davis-Monthan, Raytheon, the University of Arizona, and Cochise College– all have a piece of the military industrial complex's drone pie, and if our esteemed … Read more

Rep. Raúl Grijalva on Senate immigration reform bill hearings

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Rep. Raúl Grijalva chastized Senate Republicans on
Monday for using the Boston Marathon bombing to fight against
comprehensive immigration reform. On Monday, Sen. Chuck Grasssley (R- iowa) threw a hissy fit trying to deny what he plainly said last Friday. POLITICO Tiger Beat on the Potomac reported, Terrorism enters immigration debate:

“We appreciate this opportunity to talk about immigration reform in
light of all that has been happening in Massachusetts,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee Friday at an immigration reform hearing.

Raw Story reports, Rep. Raul Grijalva blasts Republicans for using Boston bombings to stall immigration reform:

“To prey on the raw emotions of the American people right now, after
this tragedy in Boston, to prey on their insecurities and justifiable
anger, to try to delay a bill, stall a bill so nothing is done, is
nothing more than a tactic, and it’s very disappointing,” he said on
MSNBC. “If you want to have security in this country, part of the
package has to be comprehensive reform so the millions of undocumented
people out there come forward, we know who they are, and you begin to
cull who is eligible for a path to citizenship and who should not be
here.”

Ted ‘Calgary’ Cruz to lead Tea Party opposition to ‘Gang of Eight’ immigration reform bill

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Posted byAzBlueMeanie:

Well isn't this rich. . .

Sen. Ted "Calgary" Cruz (Tea Party-TX), was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. His mother was an American and his father was a Cuban refugee to the U.S. during the Cuban Revolution. Cruz's family moved from Canada to the U.S. when he was four years old.

Cuban refugees hold a special immigrant status under the Cuban Refugee Adjustment Act (1966). The law applies to any native or citizen of Cuba who has been inspected and admitted or paroled into the United States after January 1, 1959 and has been physically present for at least one year; and is admissible to the United States as a permanent resident.

The news media, which treats Hispanics as a homogenous and monolithic voting bloc, rarely ever reports that immigrants from Mexico, Central America and Carribean countries resent this "Castro Express Card" special immigrant status for Cubans. Cruz is unmoved by his own family's history of immigration.

Manu Raju at POLITICO Tiger Beat on the Potomac reports today that Ted "Calgary" Cruz will lead Tea Party opposition to the "Gang of Eight" immigration reform bill if it includes a pathway to citizenship. Ted Cruz v. Marco Rubio on Immigration:

The Texas freshman is sharply critical of the pathway to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants, a central part of the bipartisan bill that Rubio helped write. Cruz is weighing whether to aggressively oppose the immigration overhaul, a decision that could neutralize Rubio’s outreach to conservative activists in order to minimize their opposition.