Comments made by Cecilia Muñoz, the White House director of intergovernmental affairs, could create problems for President Obama’s 2012 re-election bid—specifically his efforts to support among the Hispanic community that helped elect him in 2008. Muñoz was appointed by President Obama in 2009 to “help put government back in the hands of the people it serves.” But despite serving as former senior vice-president of the National Council of La Raza (1988-2009), immigrant activist groups are calling her resignation because she defended the Secure Communities (S-COMM) program during an appearance on the PBD documentary “Lost in Detention” last week.
(more…)

On October 20, 2011 the Americas Society presented in New York The Economic Impact of Immigrant-Related Local Ordinances, a white paper that compares the economic impact of restrictive versus non-restrictive immigrant-related local ordinances. As part of the public reception—to which over 80 people attended from the academia, private and public sectors— a discussion panel took place with the participation of Roderick Royal, President, Birmingham City Council, Alabama; Ronnie Steine, Member-at-Large, Metropolitan City Council of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee; and Melissa Mark-Viverito, Council Member, Co-Vice Chair of the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus, The New York City Council.
(more…)

On September 28, District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn upheld the central provisions of HB 56—Alabama’s immigration law. While the rhetoric surrounding this law has focused on the adult undocumented population (a group said to be responsible for taking jobs from those who are here legally and being a strain on public services), the immediate impact of HB 56 was witnessed among Alabama’s Hispanic children.

Section 28 of HB 56 orders elementary and secondary schools in Alabama to determine “whether the student enrolling in public school was born outside the jurisdiction of the United States or is the child of an alien not lawfully present in the United States.” Fearing that section 28 facilitate deportations, thousands of parents kept their children home on last Friday and more than five percent of the 1,435 Hispanic students in the state didn’t show up for class.
(more…)