USA Today - Mexican slur has long history in politics Mexican slur has long history in politics
When Rep. Don Young used a slur to refer to migrant workers Thursday, he became just the latest elected official to step on a politically charged tripwire of immigration policy and identity politics. The seven-letter word for an illegal Mexican immigrant has sparked dozens of mini-scandals over the years, from a Texas governor to a cabinet secretary. Many have been forced to apologize. Read more here…
NBC Latino - Rubio, Cruz pledge to oppose, filibuster gun control legislation
Republican Senators Ted Cruzand Marco Rubio are threatening to use the practice of filibustering – talking for hours on the Senate floor so that a bill either gets delayed or never gets a chance to be voted on – to state their opposition to bringing a gun control legislation bill to a vote. Read more here…
McClatchy - After outcry, Rep. Don Young apologizes for using ethnic slur
National leaders of both major political parties condemned Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young on Friday for calling Latino farmworkers "wetbacks," a slur that comes at a time when the Republican Party is desperately courting Latino voters. Read more here…
AP - Alaska lawmaker apologizes for ethnic slur
Rep. Don Young, the gruff Republican veteran who represents the entire state of Alaska, apologized Friday for referring to Hispanic migrant workers as "wetbacks" in a radio interview. "I apologize for the insensitive term I used during an interview in Ketchikan, Alaska," Young said in a statement after lawmakers from both political parties called on him to apologize. Read more here…
Washington Times - Immigration agreement ‘very close' in Congress; guest workers still a hurdle
Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, warned Wednesday against rushing an immigration bill through the Senate. He said Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat, is outlining a timetable for the legislation that's too rapid. Read more here…
NBC Latino - As Supreme Court hears arguments, Latinos increasingly in favor of gay marriage
When it comes to gay marriage and Latino public opinion, the last few years have seen dramatic changes, according to Ingrid Duran. She and her partner, Catherine Pino, are one of the nation's most visible – and powerful – gay Latina couples. Read more here…
Roll Call - Immigration Vote Splits Gang of 8
The Senate’s bipartisan immigration working group split along party lines during a contentious budget vote to prevent illegal immigrants who receive legal status from receiving federal health benefits. The Senate early Saturday morning defeated the amendment to the budget resolution which would have put the Senate on record as opposing access to health care under Medicaid or the Affordable Care Act for undocumented immigrants who get a green card. Read more here…
Roll Call - Budget Votes Expected to Highlight Immigration Debate
Advocates of an immigration overhaul warned both parties Friday that votes during the budget vote-a-rama in favor of what they consider to be anti-immigration amendments will be remembered come Election Day. Read more here…
Voxxi - Latino leaders are cautiously optimistic about RNC autopsy report
Latino leaders say they are cautiously optimistic about the Republican National Committee's (RNC) recently announced plan, dubbed by some as the RNC autopsy report, to address the image problem the GOP has among many Latinos. Read more here…
ABC/Univision - More Latinos Likely To Vote Republican If Immigration Reform Passes
What role the Republican Party plays in comprehensive immigration reform will have an important impact on whether or not Latinos, a key political demographic, will consider voting Republican in the future,a new poll finds. A recent poll by Latino Decisions, a firm that conducts research on Latino political opinions, reported that 32 percent of Latinos would be more likely to consider voting Republican in the future if comprehensive immigration reform passed. Read more here…
San Antonio Express-News - GOP report urges more inclusion, citizenship path
As part of a sweeping effort to breathe new life into the GOP, the Republican National Committee urged party members Monday to embrace immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship. Reacting to an unflinching post-mortem of the Republicans' weakness in the 2012 election, GOP Chairman Reince Priebus announced a $10 million outreach to minority voters and plans to attract more women, gays and lesbians to the party. Read more here…
Huffington Post - Ed DeMarco's Actions 'Inexplicable,' Says Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has run out of patience with the nation's top housing official. On Monday, after more than a year spent arguing that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should permit mortgage principal balance reductions in some instances, Coakley joined with other influential state attorneys general, including New York's Eric Schneiderman, in a letter calling for the ouster of Federal Housing Finance Agency acting director Ed DeMarco. Read more here…
ABC/Univision - Immigration, Voting Rights Record Could Stall Obama Labor Nominee
President Barack Obama on Monday officially nominated Justice Department official Thomas Perez to his become secretary of labor, but several Republican lawmakers indicated Perez could face stiff resistance in confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill. Read more here…
USA Today - Obama to tap Perez to head Labor Department Obama to tap Perez to head Labor Department
President Obama will name the Justice Department's top civil rights enforcer Thomas Perez to be his next Labor secretary, according to a White House official. Obama will make the formal announcement on Monday, according to the official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been officially made. Read more here…
AP - Hispanic group to return national convention to KC
A national Hispanic civil rights group that pulled an earlier event out of Kansas City to protest the appointment of a member of an anti-immigrant group to a local board announced Thursday that it picked the city for its 2015 convention. The National Council of La Raza said its president and CEO, Janet Murguía, and Mayor Sly James will attend a formal announcement Monday at the Kansas City Convention Center. Read more here…
Christian Post - Hispanic Community Conflicted Over Gay Rights in Immigration Reform
Prominent Hispanic organizations such as the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) are backing provisions for gay couples in immigration reform talks – but Hispanic evangelicals want to keep immigration reform and gay rights as separate issues. Read more here…
Kansas City Star - La Raza to hold annual conference, family expo in Kansas City in 2015
Kansas City will be host to the 2015 annual conference of the National Council of La Raza and the National Latino Family Expo. This will be the first time the conference will be held in Kansas City. An estimated 5,000 registrants are expected to attend workshops, town halls and hear nationally recognized speakers. About 10,000 visitors are expected at the family expo. Read more here…
Gannett - Legal U.S. immigrants often wait years for their family to join them
The U.S. visa system forces legal immigrants to remain separated from their spouses and children for years, and Congress must address their plight as it moves toward comprehensive immigration reform, experts told a key House panel Thursday. Read more here…
Bay State Banner - Businessweek cover blames minorities for housing bubble
Bloomberg Businessweek magazine released its latest issue recently to much-deserved uproar and outrage. On its cover, the magazine featured Jim Crow-esque caricatures that portrayed people of color as money-hungry and implicitly suggested that they will cause a future housing bubble. Unfortunately, this offensive image is only the second worst thing about this cover. Read more here…
McClatchy - North Carolina students visit Congress to push for immigration overhaul
For high school senior Eddie Villanueva, walking the halls of Congress got easier this year. “This year I don't have any butterflies,” said Villanueva, an 18-year-old from Vance High School in northern Charlotte, N.C. “Years ago I'd be nervous, but not today. Today, I'm ready to go to war.” Read more here…
New York Times - 3 Fund-Raisers Show Latinos' Rising Clout
On a wall in his sun-drenched, art-filled Tudor home, Henry R. Muñoz III displays a memento of his childhood: a framed protest sign proclaiming, "Texas needs $1.25 an hour minimum wage.” He carried it when he was 6 years old while riding a burro during a farm workers' march alongside his father, a labor organizer, and the Mexican-American activist Cesar Chavez. Read more here…
ABC/Univision - Latino Group NCLR Wants 8-12 Year Citizenship Path
Dozens of Latino community leaders gathered in the Capitol on Thursday, united in support for immigration reform that includes a direct pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. The organizer of the event was the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), one of the most prominent civil rights organizations in the country and a longtime player in the politics of immigration. Read more here…
NBC Latino - Community leaders gather in DC on immigration reform advocacy
In the past couple of days, a group of people have been gathering in Washington to discuss immigration reform – but they are not House or Senate members. “I'm here with seven undocumented students,” says Mauricio Calvo, director of Latino Memphis, an advocacy and social services agency in Memphis, Tennessee. “All they are asking for is a chance to go to college, and one of them wants to join the military,” he says. Read more here…
Press Enterprise - Latinos view immigration as top issue, blame Republicans
Only four months ago, Latino voters rated the economy as the top issue they want President Obama and Congress to address. But a new survey by the polling firm Latino Decisions finds that immigration has surged to the top of Latino voters' concerns. Read more here…
Politico - Jeb Bush immigration comments spark uproar
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's changing immigration stances over the past two days sparked an outpouring of opposition on Tuesday, with liberal groups decrying the suggestion of of anything less than a pathway to full citizenship. Read more here…
National Journal - Jeb Bush's Poorly Timed Flip-Flop on Immigration
“The governor's goal is to create a path to bring individuals out of the shadows,” Emhof said in a written statement. “I would point out that current law requires legal residency to be achieved before citizenship. I would also point out not everyone who is undocumented wants to become a citizen.” Read more here…
Washington Post - Obama's second-term Cabinet to play bigger policy role
President Obama, facing a limited window of time to enact an ambitious second-term agenda, is rounding out his Cabinet with relative outsiders and empowering them with more policymaking responsibility than secretaries had during his first term. Read more here…
The Hill - Two women receive Cabinet nominations
President Obama on Monday nominated two women to his second-term Cabinet, appointments that could quell criticism about a lack of diversity in the top positions of his administration. Obama announced Sylvia Mathews Burwell as his pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget. Read more here…
Washington Post - Obama Cabinet picks add diversity, but still frustrate White House allies
For an administration under fire for lacking gender and ethnic diversity in its top posts, the nominations President Obama unveiled Monday have quieted some amount of the criticism — but not much. Obama's choice of Sylvia Mathews Burwell to head the Office of Management and Budget and Gina McCarthy to direct the Environmental Protection Agency adds two women to the Cabinet, in addition to Interior Secretary nominee Sally Jewell. Read more here…
ABC News - What Will Sequestration Actually Do?
Sequester is a popular - or not so popular, really - word in Washington, D.C. right now. But what is it, and why does it matter? Sequestration is a big word for a series of automatic federal budget cuts that were agreed upon by Congress and the White House way back during the 2011 debt limit debate. Read more here…
AP - Nevada's Hispanics come of age politically
More than 125 years ago, after the 1874 elections, Pablo Laveaga became the first Hispanic ever elected to the Nevada Legislature, representing Humboldt County. The next Hispanic legislator in Nevada came 70 years later. The third was not elected until another 38 years had passed. Read more here…
Washington Post - Many immigrants in the U.S. stop midway along the path of citizenship
For 13 years, Rafael Cohen, an immigrant from Mexico, was eligible to become a citizen of the United States. But something held him back. “I guess I felt I was maintaining more of a connection to my Mexican citizenship by remaining a green card holder than actually becoming a citizen,” said Cohen, 36, a musician who moved to the District when he was 9 and became a permanent resident in 1994. Read more here…
ABC News - Significant Gap Remains in Access to the Internet for Poorer Students
Digital technology has become a critical component of the education of middle- and high-school students. They use internet databases to conduct research, read textbooks on iPads and use smartphone apps to learn math skills. Read more here…
Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Texas poised to go backward on education standards
Why is the Texas House determined to weaken high school graduation requirements? The Foundation Diploma, created by HB5 to let students select one of four paths to graduation, only weakens graduation requirements, no longer making students take Algebra II or advanced science courses. It would erase the progress we have made in Texas closing the gaps between student groups. Read more here…
NBC Latino - California org. focused on curbing population growth under scrutiny for anti-immigrant Stance
The nonprofit Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) is under scrutiny for comments made by a member of the organization who said the DREAM Act is dangerous because children of “illegal aliens” may be communists or drug smugglers and because of ads against proposed parts of immigration reform like legalization or a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, a dicey area to wade into for a nonprofit. Read more here…
Hotel Chatter - Hyatt Boycott Continues Over Alleged Maid Mistreatment
Hyatt got a pat on the back and an extra scoop of ice cream in November when it was named the top place to work for LGBT equality, but now the hotel chain is back in the doghouse and bearing the brunt of a boycott that, according to a release put out by the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), has cost Hyatt more than $27 million in business. Read more here…
Hispanic Business - Hispanic Voters Stand Ready to Reward, Punish: Poll
With the realistic possibility of Congress adopting comprehensive immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship for undocumented residents, interest in the issue among Latino voters has spiked -- and they stand ready to reward elected officials who take the lead and punish those who erect roadblocks. Read more here…
TPM - Poll: Latinos Want A Path To Citizenship, Are Following Debate Closely
If Jeb Bush is going to run in 2016 as the party's savior with Latino voters, his latest immigration proposal could be a problem. According to the latest survey by polling firm Latino Decisions, Hispanic voters are heavily invested in a path to citizenship and more focused than ever to immigration reform. Read more here…
CampusProgress.org - Majority of Latinos Support Climate Change Legislation
The notion that Latinos are the nation's most avid greens contradicts the general stereotype of white environmentalists who drive a Prius, but from record-setting storms such as Hurricane Sandy to severe droughts and devastating wildfires on the west coast, it's not just white people who are taking notice of the impacts caused by accelerating climate change. Read more here…