Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Nuns On The Bus Tour for comprehensive immigration reform is coming to Arizona. Go to Nuns on the Bus – Network for more tour information and to RSVP. Date Type of Visit Place Jun 11, 2013 (10:00 AM) Voices from Annunciation House Casa Vides325 Leon St, El Paso, TX 79901 RSVP Jun … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The “Nuns on the Bus” are revving up their engines for another national
campaign, only this time the Catholic sisters are taking their mobile
platform for social justice along the country’s Southern border to push
Congress to pass immigration reform. Nuns on the Bus – Religion News Service:
“The ‘Nuns on the Bus’ is going on the road again!”
“This time we’re going out for common-sense immigration reform,” Sister Simone Campbell said to rousing applause.
Details of the latest tour are still to be announced, but the bus
trip is expected to start at the end of the month, beginning in New York
and winding up in California by way of Florida and the U.S. border with
Mexico.
Campbell believes the right moment and the right issue are coinciding
again, and like many longtime immigration reform advocates she is
willing to back the current bill despite reservations.
“We want to amend it, yes, but we want to pass it. We don’t want to
nitpick it to death. That’s what we did in 2007,” she said, referring to
the previous attempt to overhaul immigration, which ended in failure.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Remember when crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio, Sheriff of Maricopa County, told his ardent critics who accused him of having a policy of unlawful racial profiling of Latinos to "prove it" in court? Be carfeful what you wish for, old man.
Today, U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow specifically found from the evidence presented at trial that the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has a policy of unlawful racial profiling of Latinos, and issued an order enjoining that policy, with a 142 page Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law.
(.pdf). Awesome!
If you don't have time to read 142 pages, Stephen Lemons at the Phoenix New Times has his celebratory take, Joe Arpaio's Doomsday: Arpaio Loses ACLU Civil Rights Lawsuit, MCSO Enjoined from Racially Profiling Latinos:
U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow just handed the ACLU, the Mexican
American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the law firm Covington
& Burling, all Latinos and everyone who has strived for justice in
Maricopa County a reason to celebrate over the long holiday weekend by
ruling against Sheriff Joe Arpaio in the big Melendres v. Arpaio racial profiling lawsuit.
Essentially, Snow found that the MCSO does engage in racial profiling and discrimination, and he has ordered it to stop.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
It has often been said that people do not want to see the "sausage making" process of legislation, and nowhere is that a truer statement than with the "Gang of Eight" immigration reform bill.
After multiple attempts by Tea Party senators to add "poison pill" amendments to kill the bill — all defeated — there was a death-defying friendly amendment offered yesterday by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to treat gay partners equally under federal law for immigration purposes. Tea-Publicans howled that this was a deal breaker, and Sen. Leahy eventually withdrew his amendment.
Of course, Advocates
were outraged at lack of LGBT protection in immigration bill. This is a timing problem. This bill needs to move forward in the Senate now. The U.S. Supreme Court is not expected to rule on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) until June. Should the Court strike down DOMA, as most court observers anticipate, it would remove the obstacle to treating gay partners equally under federal law. The immigration bill will still be going through the "sausage making" process, and may be amended to respond to any Supreme Court ruling. Patience and perseverance are virtues in the "sausage making" process.
So it is good news that the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday approved its final mark-up of the comprehensive immigration reform bill on a vote of 13 to 5. Senate
panel approves sweeping immigration reform bill:
After five days of debate over dozens of amendments, the Judiciary
Committee voted 13 to 5 in support of the bill, with three Republicans
joining the committee’s 10 Democrats. The legislation emerged with its
core provisions largely intact, including new visa programs for
high-tech and low-skilled workers and new investments in strengthening
border control.
“The dysfunction in our current immigration system affects all of us
and it is long past time for reform. I hope that our history, our
values, and our decency can inspire us finally to take action,”
committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said. “We need an
immigration system that lives up to American values and helps write the
next great chapter in American history by reinvigorating our economy and
enriching our communities.”
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
On Sunday, the Arizona Republic for some reason felt compelled to publish a guest opinion (and video) by the disgraced and recalled former Senate President, Russell Pearce, writing on behalf of his anti-immigrant nativist hate group, BanAmnestyNow.com.
Pearce discloses a continuing working relationship with the anti-immigrant nativist hate group, Federation of American Immigration Reform (FAIR), whose lawyer Kris Kobach wrote SB 1070 for Pearce.
Pearce also cites the widely discredited Heritage Foundation report (.pdf) released last week, which was drafted, in part, by Jason Richwine, who subscribes to the controversial "science" of hereditarianism and eugenics. Richwine was forced to resign from the Heritage Foundation on Friday, presumably after Russell Pearce submitted his guest opinion to the Republic.
Ol' Russel writes, Immigration tug-of-war: Reform effort is a sham:
The 3-year-old Senate Bill 1070, America’s toughest anti-illegal
immigration law, has had a dramatic impact on Arizona. We are a better
place.
* * *
According to information from the Federation of American Immigration
Reform, Arizonans pay $2.6 billion per year to educate, medicate and
incarcerate illegal aliens. According to the Heritage Foundation, the
billions we pay today are but one-third of our eventual tab a decade
from now if the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill becomes law.
* * *
However, despite the many advances we have made, the burdens of illegal
immigration still are too high. This is why I call upon my fellow
citizens to join me in opposing the latest amnesty/citizenship bill. The
group of eight U.S. senators’ legislation (including Arizona Sens. John
McCain and Jeff Flake) risks America’s financial and national security.
This bill is the epitome of everything that is wrong, backward and
corrupt in Washington.