News & Comment
Blogs and Opinion
Movements Making Noise by Frances Fox Piven, The Nation | February 1, 2013
American political history is usually told as the story of what political elites say and do. The twists and turns, advances and setbacks, wars, disasters and recoveries, are said to be the work of the founders, or of the presidents, or of the courts, or of the influence of a handful of great people who somehow emerge from the mass. But this history can also be told as the story of the great protest movements that periodically well up from the bottom of American society and the impact these movements have on American institutions. There would be no founders to memorialize without the Revolutionary-era mobs who provided the foot soldiers to fight the British; no films about the quandaries of Abe Lincoln during the Civil War without the abolitionists and the thousands of runaway slaves; no Labor Day to celebrate without the sit-down strikers; no Martin Luther King to beatify without a movement of poor blacks who defied the Southern terror system. read more »Wanna Get Involved in the Coming Immigration Reform Fight? Here’s How. by Julianne Hing, colorlines.com | February 1, 2013
President Obama and Senate negotiators kicked off the national immigration reform process mere days ago, but the contours of the would-be bill are already in sight. With Obama’s proposals only a hazy shade more inclusive than the Senate’s plan, and with the inevitable back room dealing and negotiating already underway, is there any room for everyday people who aren’t lobbyists and professional activists to insert themselves? Is there political space for the policy framework that’s been proposed to be improved upon? Does your lone voice matter? I spoke with activists, experts, community leaders and advocates who said: yes, yes and yes. Read on for six concrete things you can do to help make sure what ends up happening on immigration this year is as equitable and just as can be. read more »America’s New Progressive Era? by Jeffrey Sachs, project-syndicate.org | January 31, 2013
The “Reagan Revolution” had four main components: tax cuts for the rich; spending cuts on education, infrastructure, energy, climate change, and job training; massive growth in the defense budget; and economic deregulation, including privatization of core government functions, like operating military bases and prisons. Billed as a “free-market” revolution, because it promised to reduce the role of government, in practice it was the beginning of an assault on the middle class and the poor by wealthy special interests. For more than three decades, no one really challenged the consequences of turning political power over to the highest bidders. In the meantime, America went from being a middle-class society to one increasingly divided between rich and poor. Maybe, just maybe, Obama’s recent address marks not only the end of this destructive agenda, but also the start of a new era. read more »The New Politics Of Immigration by E.J. Dionne, The Washington Post | January 31, 2013
Think back to the battle over health-care reform. Can you imagine that Republicans, upon hearing that President Obama was about to offer his own proposals, would want to rush ahead of him to put their own marker down — and take positions close to his? That’s the comparison to keep in mind to understand the extraordinary transformation of Beltway politics on immigration reform. Until Obama was reelected, party competition translated into Republican efforts to block virtually everything the president wanted to accomplish. On immigration, at least, the parties are now competing to share credit for doing something big. It’s wonderful to behold. read more »Immigration, Yes. Indentured Serfdom, No by Michael Lind, salon.com | January 30, 2013
The outlines of a bipartisan plan for immigration reform have been announced by a group of senators. While most of its provisions are reasonable — a path to citizenship for most illegal immigrants, increased skilled immigration and increased law enforcement — one provision stinks to high heaven and should be rejected by Americans of left, right and center. That provision is a massive, special-interest-driven expansion of indentured servitude in the United States, in the form of a new “guest-worker program.” Indentured servitude or contract labor, like slavery, is a form of unfree labor. Unfortunately, the U.S., having abolished slavery, still has pockets of indentured servant labor. Whether relatively well-paid, like many highly educated H-1B workers, or poorly paid, like many H-2A agricultural workers, indentured servants are, in effect, indentured serfs read more »Can The Rising Progressive Tide Lift All Ships? by Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Washington Post | January 29, 2013
The growing progressive coalition that helped elect President Obama has emerged at the end of a failed and exhausted conservative era. The media now chronicle the flailings of Republican leaders slowly awakening to the weaknesses of a stale, pale and predominantly male party in today’s America. But the central challenge to this progressive coalition is not dispatching the old but rather defining what comes next. Will it be able to address the central challenge facing America at this time and reclaim the American Dream from an extreme and corrosive economic inequality? read more »How Will Immigration Reform Affect Black America? by Marlon Hill, thegrio.com | January 29, 2013
Let’s make no mistake about it: as the years pass, America is becoming a “browner” nation. With the present discourse over immigration reform, we have an extraordinary opportunity to mix our understanding and appreciation for race, culture and language with public policy. We, the people of America, have been wrestling with our self identity, and will continue to do so in the near future. With Black History Month imminently upon us, we can not only celebrate our history, heritage and culture, but we can also insert ourselves in a critical national debate on how to fix our broken immigration system. Likewise, this immigration debate provides the black community an opportunity to learn more about the stories and challenges of black immigrants who increasingly populate our states as asylees, refugees, legal immigrants, and undocumented persons. read more »A Striking New Consensus on Immigration Reform—Thus Far by Seth Freed Wessler, colorlines.com | January 29, 2013
Yesterday the U.S. Senate set down the path toward the most significant shift in U.S. immigration policy in two generations. It has been more than a quarter century since the last significant immigration legalization passed. So when a bi-partisan group of senators appeared yesterday on a Capitol Hill stage to declare 2013 the year of immigration reform, they restored a vision of a way forward for many. The senators released a document of guiding principles that provides a path to legal residency for many of the country’s estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants. It also creates avenues for new immigration, while bolstering immigration enforcement at the border and in workplaces. If these principles lead to a bill, as expected, it could transform the social and political fabric of the country. Yet even as senators yesterday offered a genuine reform outline, with striking new areas of consensus, some worry they also wove into the agreement enough loose strings to cause its unraveling. read more »Senate Immigration Reform Proposal Surprisingly Good by Markos Moulitsas, dailykos.com | January 29, 2013
As we've seen today, a group of senators have jumped ahead of President Barack Obama's immigration proposal today and announced their own plan. It's okay, for the most part, except for one glaring problem: Full citizen rights for undocumented immigrants are contingent on Arizona wingnut Gov. Jan Brewer saying the border is "secure." But lest you think this is some sort of accidental flaw, it isn't. And while conservatives are furious at this proposal, they shouldn't be. Because this is the perfect solution for them. read more »Immigration Reform Now by Joe Peyronnin, Huffington Post | January 28, 2013
Immigration is one of the great stories of America's history. It is immortalized in the words penned by Emma Lazarus, and engraved on a bronze plaque that hangs on an inner wall of the Statue of Liberty, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." The United States is a nation built on the blood and sweat of immigrants; it is a great melting pot of cultures that together have strengthened the country, and have broadened its horizons. America, the land of opportunity, of immense freedom, and of a generous people, has attracted millions of people from all over the world. Nonetheless, immigration has been politicized for decades, and reasonable reforms have eluded Washington. But now is the time to do something meaningful. President Barack Obama will announce an effort to overhaul immigration on Tuesday in Las Vegas, Nevada, a critical state, where he carried the Latino vote this past November. read more »
The Latest
Reid: Senate Could Return to Pass Border-Security Bill This Week, thehill.com | August 11, 2010
The Senate could pass legislation to bolster security on the U.S.-Mexico border as early as this week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) office said Tuesday.
The House on Tuesday quickly passed the $600 million bill after a voice vote and limited debate, setting up a final vote in the Senate, which is in recess.
Border Security Bill Held Up by Procedural Glitch, articles.latimes.com | August 11, 2010
A $600-million bill to beef up border security should have been on its way to President Obama for signature after the House approved it Tuesday, but instead it has been derailed by a procedural glitch that requires a do-over by the Senate — which has adjourned until September. more »
White House Unloads Anger Over Criticism From 'Professional Left’, thehill.com | August 10, 2010
The White House is simmering with anger at criticism from liberals who say President Obama is more concerned with deal-making than ideological purity.
During an interview with The Hill in his West Wing office, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs blasted liberal naysayers, whom he said would never regard anything the president did as good enough.
Obama Exhorts Unions to Step up Election Efforts for Democrats, thehill.com | August 5, 2010
President Obama on Wednesday asked labor leaders to set aside their disappointments with his administration’s progress so far and rally around Democratic Party candidates ahead of the midterm elections. more »
Why California's Prop 8 Against Gay Marriage Was Struck Down, time.com | August 5, 2010
Dodd Presses Senate Freshmen To Back Off Effort To End Filibuster , Huffington Post | August 5, 2010
Recess '10: Democrats Work to Ensure a Friendlier Reception This Year, time.com | August 2, 2010
Last year's August recess was hardly a placid respite for Congressional Democrats. With the debate over health care reform nearing a boiling point, town-hall forums across the U.S. turned into scalding showdowns, with seething voters cramming into standing-room-only crowds to volley accusations at their representatives. more »
Border Deployment Will Take Weeks, The New York Times | August 2, 2010
No boots were seen tromping in the desert sand on Sunday. No commanders were heard barking out orders to their troops. The National Guard, which officials had announced would turn out en masse along the United States-Mexico border over the weekend for sentry duty, was nowhere to be found. more »
Immigration Memo May Be a Break for Immigrants, mcclatchydc.com | August 2, 2010
An internal memo prepared for the head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says it is possible to provide green cards or delay deportation for hundreds of thousands of immigrants who are now living and working in the United States without papers or permanent residence. more »
Arizona Democrat Closes Office After Finding Bullet, cbsnews.com | July 30, 2010
Arizona Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva, a vocal opponent of his state's controversial immigration law, has closed his district office in Yuma after a bullet was discovered inside, the Hill reports.
In a statement, Grijalva's office said one of the office windows had been shattered. more »
