VAWA passed the Senate, slightly bruised. Now what?
lifting the U visa cap from 10K to 15K the derivative fix for for U …visas unfortunately the new aggravated felony for 3 dui’s.
It will be challenging to try to keep off negative provisions in the House bill so I encourage you all to be in touch with your House members to impress upon them the importance of NOT rolling back protections for immigrant victims. In particular: ask them not to undermine victim safety by narrowing the circumstances in which one can get a U visa certification, or allowing the self petition process to become a tool for abusers by allowing access to application information. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/2chambers/post/violence-against-women-act-reauthorized-by-senate/2012/04/26/gIQAJ12mjT_blog.html
Don’t Turn Local Officials into Federal Agents-Stop “Secure Communities”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is telling local officials to implement its “Secure Communities” program. This requires that all people booked into jail be run through a federal database and possibly be turned over to the feds, detained, and deported – even if they have committed no crime.
Turning local officials into federal immigration agents harms the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve. Secure Communities actually makes our communities less safe. King County doesn’t have to support this violation of due process rights. Please tell King County officials to take the lead in our state in rejecting Secure Communities.
https://secure.aclu.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=WA_Secure_Comm_Petition
Scholarships for Undocumented Students In Washington State
Attached is information about scholarships for undocumented students. As you know, with the passing of HB 1079 in 2002, undocumented students may receive residency status for tuition purposes in Washington State, but most often, these students still have difficulty covering the in-state tuition costs.
http://www.campanaquetzal.org/images/stories/CQ_ScholarshipResourceGuide4_12.pdf
GOP’s DREAM Act Counter
Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, has reportedly been cobbling together an alternative to the DREAM Act which “would allow young illegal immigrants to remain in the United States but denies them citizenship,” the Associated Press reports. Is this simply a political ploy by a potential Vice Presidential nominee aimed at closing the 36 point gap by which President Obama defeated John McCain among Hispanic voters in 2008 or is this a real attempt at reform that could and should ultimately garner widespread support?
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/04/18/rubio-to-propose-gop-immigration-reform/
ICE Accelerates Separating Families
In the first half of 2011, ICE deported nearly 47,000 undocumented individuals claiming to be parents of at least one child in the U.S. This is a stark contrast to the decade between 1998 and 2007, when a total of about 100,000 such people were removed. In other words, ICE’s deportation of parents has accelerated to a pace ten times what it was in the very recent past. A recent New York Times op-ed piece highlights troubling statistics about the likely impact of this type of government action on our society going forward. Ultimately, the policies that will lead ICE to reach President Obama’s established quota of 400,000 deportations each year are, at best, shortsighted and, more realistically, setting us on a path to only continue widening the growing wealth disparity been the “haves” and the “have nots” among us.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/21/opinion/deporting-parents-ruins-kids.html
