President urges passage of contentious immigration bill

By Mike Lillis President Obama on Tuesday used the bully pulpit of the State of the Union address to urge Congress to approve contentious legislation it shot down just a month ago: the DREAM Act. That proposal — which would provide illegal immigrant students a way to remain lawfully in the country — passed the House in December but didn't survive its run through the Senate. Obama on Tuesday said it deserves another look. "Today, there are hundreds of thousands of students excel...

New reports highlight anti-immigrant leader’s bigotry and its cost to Americans

by Stephen Piggott Two reports were released today on attorney Kris Kobach, Kansas’ newly elected Secretary of State. Kobach has long worked as legal counsel for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, the legal arm of anti-immigrant group Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). The reports go into detail about Kobach’s ties to the political right – especially white nationalist John Tanton – and the high price to American communities for his local immigration strategies. The ...

How Much Do Anti-Immigration Bills Really Cost?

New America Media, News Report, Valeria Fernández, Posted: Jan 26, 2011 PHOENIX, Ariz.—Legislators across the nation are considering passing bills to fight illegal immigration, citing its costs to taxpayers. But two recent reports point to the high price of legal battles that could ensue. “Jurisdictions would spend substantial amounts of money to pursue proposals that in most cases are going to lose in the courts,” said Angela Kel...

Mother describes border vigilante killings in Arizona

By Nicholas Riccardi, Los Angeles Times Gina Gonzalez says her 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia Flores, pleaded for her life. Opening arguments begin in the trial of Shawna Forde of the Minutemen movement, who is accused in the killing of the girl and her father. Reporting from Tucson — As her mother tells it, 9-year-old Brisenia Flores had begged the border vigilantes who had just broken into her house, "Please don't shoot me." But they did — in the face at point-blank range, prosecut...

Homeland Security Junks Billion Dollar ‘Virtual Fence’

By Spencer Ackerman It only took nearly a year of hiatus and $1 billion in sunk costs, but the Department of Homeland Security has finally gotten rid of the networked suite of sensors that made up its virtual border fence. But some of its technology may live on as zombie border protection. The virtual fence “cannot meet its original objective of providing a single, integrated border-security technology solution,” Secretary Janet Napolitano conceded in a statement today heralding the p...

On Perfect Immigrants and Imperfect Stories

by Julianne Hing I am a storyteller by trade, and a new one still learning my way around. Earlier this week I happened on this report about Marcos Gerardo Manzano Jr., a 26-year-old California Border Patrol agent who was charged with giving shelter to an undocumented immigrant, and a twice-deported one at that—his 46-year-old father Marcos Gerardo Manzano Sr. Manzano Jr. reportedly lied to federal investigators who came around asking about his father's whereabouts after someone in the ...