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Wild West: Arizona Takes the Anti-Immigrant Plunge—Immigration Reform Game Changer?
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- New York Governor Suspends Harmful Deportation Program
- Send Governor Cuomo a Message: Respect Immigrants' Rights
- DREAM Deferred, But Only Temporarily
- Dare to DREAM
- DREAMing Big
- Obama Finally Speaks on Immigration Reform; Why are We Underwhelmed?
- Crazy Arizona Immigration Laws Part Deux: The War on Babies
- Debunking the Immigration vs. Environment Myth
- Major Cities’ Police Chiefs Come Out Against Arizona Law… Where’s Ray Kelly?
- Obama’s Border Plans: That’s Not Change. That’s More of the Same.
- Today’s Second-Grade Lesson: We Need Immigration Reform
- NYCLU in the Journal News on ID Cards
- Standing While Latino Should Not be a Crime
- New NYCLU Video: LGBT Immigration Discrimination
- New Video: Show Me Your Papers!
- Upstate Town Goes English-Only; We Say “No/Nyet/Non”
- British Scrap National ID Cards – Are You Listening, Schumer?
- Paterson vs. Schumer on Due Process for Immigrants
- May Day 2010: All Over It
- Senate Democrats Release Blueprint of CIR Bill…And It Needs Work (A Lot)
- NYC Mayor Bloomberg: Immigration Reform FAIL is “National Suicide”
- Wild West: Arizona Takes the Anti-Immigrant Plunge—Immigration Reform Game Changer?
- Immigration Reform Bipartisanship Unraveling? Or Not?
- NYCLU, ACTS and RIFA in the Syracuse Post-Standard
- President Obama Says Immigration Reform is Next!
- NYCLU in the Poughkeepsie Journal: Justice and Common Sense: No Human Being is Illegal
- As Arizona Goes, So Goes the Nation? Let’s Hope Not.
- NYCLU in the Buffalo News: Schumer’s ID Plan Violates Basic American Principles
- GAME ON – At Vegas Rally Reid Promises Immigration Reform Bill This Summer
- Albany and Rochester Come out for Immigration Reform
- ICE Scandal of the Week: 400,000 Deportations Goal in FY10
- SHOCKER: 287(g) Program Lacks Oversight, Violates Rights
- NYCLU in the WSJ: Schumer’s ID Plan is ‘BEAST’LY
- We Came, We Saw, We Chanted…
- A Call for Justice: Rally in Washington for Reform
- Mr. President, Support Workable Reform, Reject National Worker ID
- The Gospel of Lindsey Graham; White House Punts on National ID
- And it Begins: WSJ on Schumer’s National ID Card
- Senator Schumer! Where’s Our Immigration Reform?
- Shakira at the White House: We Hope Obama’s “[L]ips Don’t Lie”
- Wings, Apples and Immigration Reform in Buffalo
- Former DA Morgenthau: Immigration System is a 'national disgrace'
- Immigration Reform: Coming to a Town Near You!
- Syracuse Comes Out in the Cold for Immigration Reform
- Immigration Reform. Who Cares?
- Representative Bishop – Can you hear us now?
- President Obama: We need more than that.
On Friday, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed SB 1070, the harshest state anti-immigrant law in the country and simultaneously threw the national immigration reform debate into a frenzy.
With massive street protests, a tidal wave of editorials opposing the law, opposition by Arizona police chiefs, national boycotts of Arizona planned, and lawsuits by the ACLU of Arizona and the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund coming soon (see Arizona Republic story here), the response with the greatest potential significance could be coming from the White House and Congress.
According to President Obama’s statement over the weekend, the President opposes the law and worries about more Arizona-style laws in the future, but what, if anything will he do about it? ABC News reports the White House is considering a range of options, including potentially having the Justice Department sue for an injunction to block implementation of the law, but everything is still up in the air.
The real question now is what Arizona’s law will mean for comprehensive immigration reform. Both Governor Brewer and President Obama cited the federal government’s and Congress’s decades of failure to address immigration as the root causes of SB1070, but could Arizona’s anti-immigrant policy actually spur action this year on reform?
According to the Washington Post this morning, the Arizona law has moved immigration reform higher up on the President’s agenda and the national media is aflame with debate and discussion about how the White House and Congress will respond and what role Senator Lindsay Graham and the Republicans in the Senate will play in a potential legislative effort.
Politico has a detailed piece today on the ins and outs of the politics of immigration reform but the lesson is clear: the immigration system is broken and will remain broken until Congress and the White House demonstrate the courage to actually solve the problem in a commonsense and just way. Arizona will be the first of many if we do not pass comprehensive immigration reform this year.
Congress is putting their collective fingers to the wind on immigration now—make sure they know which way the wind is blowing.
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