作成者アーカイブ: admin

Immigrant rights advocates say judge's ruling won't stand

投稿日時: 投稿者:
返信

Ignoring a federal judge’s decision to block President Obama’s move to scale back deportations, immigrant rights advocates are pushing ahead with their efforts to get illegal immigrants enrolled in the program.

The advocates argue that the ruling to suspend Obama’s expanded deferred action programs was ideologically driven and will eventually be overturned by higher courts.

“Immigrant families remain on a path to justice,” Rocio Saenz, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, said Tuesday in a statement. “This ruling — issued by a lone, out-of-touch judge, singularly sought out by extremist Republican governors and attorney generals — is a temporary disappointment, but in no way a permanent setback.”

Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, said the decision falls “far outside the legal mainstream,” noting that other courts have dismissed similar lawsuits.

“Opponents’ declarations of victory today are premature,” Hincapié said in a statement. “We are confident that the courts will ultimately side with the scores of legal experts, state leaders, city officials, and law enforcement leaders who say that these immigration initiatives are both in full compliance with law and deeply beneficial to our communities, society, and country.”

Handed down Monday by Andrew Hanen, a federal judge in Brownsville, Texas, the ruling blocks Obama’s push to halt deportations and offer work permits for millions of immigrants living in the country illegally. Twenty-five states had joined Texas in suing the administration after Obama announced the program in November, arguing that it marked a case of executive overreach that would saddle their budgets with exorbitant new costs.

Hanen, a longtime critic of the administration’s immigration policies, found that the states had a legitimate basis to bring the case. His decision prevents the administration from moving forward with the program, including the processing of applications officials were poised to begin accepting Wednesday, before he rules on the merits of the case.

“The [Department of Homeland Security] has adopted a new rule that substantially changes both the status and employability of millions,” Hanen wrote. “These changes go beyond mere enforcement or even non-enforcement of this nation’s immigration scheme.”

Republicans on Capitol Hill, who have accused Obama of violating the Constitution with his executive moves on immigration, were quick to hail the decision.

“We cannot allow one man to nullify the law of the land with either a stroke of his pen or a phone call,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) said in a statement.

The White House issued a statement disputing the findings and vowing to appeal.

“The Supreme Court and Congress have made clear that the federal government can set priorities in enforcing our immigration laws — which is exactly what the President did when he announced commonsense policies to help fix our broken immigration system,” the statement reads.

The immigration reform advocates said they’re confident that, despite the delay, the president’s program will eventually be adopted.

“In the meantime, it is of the utmost importance that those who are eligible continue gathering all necessary materials and prepare to submit their applications as soon as the program starts,” Janet Murguía, head of the National Council of La Raza, said Tuesday in a statement.

Source Article from http://thehill.com/homenews/house/232931-immigrant-rights-advocates-say-texas-ruling-wont-stand
Immigrant rights advocates say judge's ruling won't stand
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/232931-immigrant-rights-advocates-say-texas-ruling-wont-stand
http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=immigrant
immigrant – Yahoo News Search Results
immigrant – Yahoo News Search Results

Immigrant rights advocates say Texas ruling won't stand

投稿日時: 投稿者:
返信

Ignoring a federal judge’s decision to block President Obama’s move to scale back deportations, immigrant rights advocates are pushing ahead with their efforts to get illegal immigrants enrolled in the program.

The advocates argue that the ruling to suspend Obama’s expanded deferred action programs was ideologically driven and will be eventually be overturned by higher courts.

“Immigrant families remain on a path to justice,” Rocio Saenz, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, said Tuesday in a statement. “This ruling — issued by a lone, out-of-touch judge, singularly sought out by extremist Republican governors and attorney generals — is a temporary disappointment, but in no way a permanent setback.”

Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, said the decision falls “far outside the legal mainstream,” noting that other courts have dismissed similar lawsuits.

“Opponents’ declarations of victory today are premature,” Hincapié said in a statement. “We are confident that the courts will ultimately side with the scores of legal experts, state leaders, city officials, and law enforcement leaders who say that these immigration initiatives are both in full compliance with law and deeply beneficial to our communities, society, and country.”

Handed down Monday by Andrew Hanen, a federal judge in Brownsville, Texas, the ruling blocks Obama’s push to halt deportations and offer work permits for millions of immigrants living in the country illegally. Twenty-five states had joined Texas in suing the administration after Obama announced the program in November, arguing that it marked a case of executive overreach that would saddle their budgets with exorbitant new costs.

Hanen, a long-time critic of the administration’s immigration policies, found that the states had a legitimate basis to bring the case. His decision prevents the administration from moving forward with the program – including the processing of applications officials were poised to begin accepting Wednesday – before he rules on the merits of the case.

“The [Department of Homeland Security] has adopted a new rule that substantially changes both the status and employability of millions,” Judge Hanen wrote. “These changes go beyond mere enforcement or even non-enforcement of this nation’s immigration scheme.”

Republicans on Capitol Hill, who have accused Obama of violating the Constitution with his execute moves on immigration, were quick to hail the decision.

“We cannot allow one man to nullify the law of the land with either a stroke of his pen or a phone call,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) said in a statement.

The White House issued a statement disputing the findings and vowing to appeal.

“The Supreme Court and Congress have made clear that the federal government can set priorities in enforcing our immigration laws—which is exactly what the President did when he announced commonsense policies to help fix our broken immigration system,” the statement reads.

The immigration reform advocates said they’re confident that, despite the delay, the president’s program will eventually be adopted.

“In the meantime, it is of the utmost importance that those who are eligible continue gathering all necessary materials and prepare to submit their applications as soon as the program starts,” Janet Murguía, head of the National Council of La Raza, said Tuesday in a statement.

Source Article from http://thehill.com/homenews/house/232931-immigrant-rights-advocates-say-texas-ruling-wont-stand
Immigrant rights advocates say Texas ruling won't stand
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/232931-immigrant-rights-advocates-say-texas-ruling-wont-stand
http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=immigrant
immigrant – Yahoo News Search Results
immigrant – Yahoo News Search Results

Jose Antonio Vargas partners with Los Angeles Times

投稿日時: 投稿者:
返信
jose antonio vargas
Jose Antonio Vargas, a journalist and undocumented immigrant, is joining forces with the Los Angeles Times to create a new section devoted to race, immigration and multiculturalism.

Jose Antonio Vargas, a journalist and undocumented immigrant, is joining forces with the Los Angeles Times to create a new section of the Times web site devoted to race, immigration and multiculturalism.

The partnership will be called #EmergingUS and, in an unusual arrangement for a newspaper, it will be shared between the Times and Vargas.

Austin Beutner, the publisher and CEO of the Times, said #EmergingUS is the first of several “verticals” of news coverage the newspaper will establish in the months to come.

He cited the New York Times’ DealBook section of mergers and acquisitions coverage and Politico’s coverage of Washington as two examples of the approach he’d like to take.

The name of the venture announced on Tuesday can be read two ways: as “Emerging Us” or “Emerging U.S.” for the United States.

Vargas said it is “a multimedia platform that, through articles, original videos, shareable data and graphics, will focus on the intersection of race, immigration and identity and the complexities of multiculturalism.”

Race isn’t just about white and black, he and Beutner said, and immigration isn’t just about the border. The new venture will try to capture those complexities.

#EmergingUS will exist primarily on the web, but some of the work will eventually appear in the newspaper as well. The venture will produce videos and hold events.

Since being appointed the publisher last August, Beutner, a former investment banker, has spoken of “unburdening” his journalists from print formats.

The Times’ web traffic shows “really high engagement” at the 100-word level and the 1,000-to-2,000-plus-word level, he said.

“You find the dead zone in the middle, 500-700 words. That form factor, which exists in many newspapers, doesn’t exist because Steve Coll and the Columbia Journalism School thinks 500-700 words is the best form factor. It’s because five of those stories fit on a printed page. So we’re unburdening our journalists from that format.”

Journalist is a key word. While Vargas has been an immigrant activist for several years, he has been a writer and reporter for more than a decade, and he said #EmergingUS “utilizes every skill I have” from those jobs.

In 2008, while at The Washington Post, he was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting.

Vargas moved to The Huffington Post in 2009. After he revealed his undocumented status in a 2011 essay for The New York Times Magazine, he created a nonprofit group called Define American aimed at “elevating the conversation” about immigration.

The group sought to share stories from contributors who are undocumented, thereby attaching sympathetic faces to the fractious immigration debate.

Related: Jose Antonio Vargas: Why I made ‘Documented’

Vargas also directed and starred in a documentary about his experience, “Documented,” which was televised by CNN last year. He is now working on another documentary, this one for MTV, about whiteness.

Stephen Friedman, the president of MTV, said it will premiere sometime this spring or summer.

“Jose has been very open about being undocumented and being — both as a person of color, a person who’s openly gay — constantly questioned on his status and what it means,” Friedman said.

Because Vargas lacks citizenship, “it has been a unique challenge to figure out, legally, how we all make it work,” Friedman acknowledged.

He said MTV looked to CNN as a model. (CNN, which is the parent of this web site, acquired “Documented” from Vargas’s production company.)

Similarly, The Los Angeles Times can’t hire Vargas directly, “but we can become a business partner with him,” Beutner said. “So that’s what we’ve chosen to do.”

#EmergingUS will include other staff members, some of whom may work directly for Vargas’s production company.

Vargas declined to comment on the ownership structure of the venture, but said “if #EmergingUS does well, then I do well.”

Beutner emphasized that Vargas is coming on board as a journalist, not an activist.

“The point of view” of the venture, he said, “is that this is an important topic to be talked about. It’s not meant to be advocacy, and it won’t be advocacy. But the mere fact that we’re telling more stories will change, we think, the way people view the topic.”

Source Article from http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/17/media/jose-antonio-vargas-los-angeles-times/index.html?section=money_latest
Jose Antonio Vargas partners with Los Angeles Times
http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/17/media/jose-antonio-vargas-los-angeles-times/index.html?section=money_latest
http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=immigrant
immigrant – Yahoo News Search Results
immigrant – Yahoo News Search Results

On Trade and Immigration, the GOP Has It Backward

投稿日時: 投稿者:
返信

There are two debates in Washington right now about movement across borders. The first regards trade deals, the second the issue of undocumented immigrants. Based purely on economic evidence, you’d expect trade to be the more difficult issue to agree on. Despite its overall benefit, trade creates domestic losers as well as winners. Immigration, on the other hand, is at worse a wash and at best a huge net positive for groups across the economic spectrum. 

Yet the political winds blow in precisely the opposite direction. President Obama’s efforts to secure new free-trade deals have bipartisan support, while his calls for immigration reform are bitterly opposed by Republicans. That raises the question: Why is moving stuff so much less contentious in Washington than moving people?

More from Bloomberg.com: Copper Futures Decline Most in a Week on Chinese Housing Data

At recent Senate hearings, Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah called President Obama’s chief trade negotiator, Ambassador Michael Froman, one of the best trade representatives the country has ever had. Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, also a Republican, suggested that most of the opposition to giving the administration powers to negotiate the upcoming Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal came from Democrats. On immigration, by contrast, the Republicans have tied Department of Homeland Security funding to legislation overturning President Obama’s executive actions last year, which delayed deportation of undocumented immigrants. Senate Democrats have blocked that legislation, and the President would veto it regardless. If one side doesn’t back down, the DHS will run out of money on Feb. 27.  This shouting match will likely go down to the wire, and hopes for more comprehensive immigration reform appear dead.

From an economic perspective, supporting free trade but not immigration makes no sense. Even free trade advocates concede that past trade agreements have really hurt some at home—those with manufacturing jobs, for example—and that the current U.S. negotiating position is increasingly dominated by special interests rather than the common good.  Studies of the impact of China’s World Trade Organization accession suggest it was a factor in the rapid drop in U.S. factory jobs in the past decade—a total decline of nearly a fifth from 2001 to 2007. The freer trade that resulted was an overall net benefit to the U.S.—lowering prices and creating jobs elsewhere—but a lot of people lost out and received little help to recover from that loss. Estimates by MIT’s David Autor suggest that the Federal Trade Adjustment Assistance Program provided just 23¢ to help retrain displaced workers for every $1,000 in additional Chinese imports.

More from Bloomberg.com: Canada Stocks Rise as Consumer Rally Offsets Raw-Material Slump

The Trans-Pacific deal will have a comparatively minor impact on manufacturing jobs in the U.S., simply because most of the barriers to manufacturing imports are already gone. That’s also why the broader benefits of the deal are likely to be small. And when you add in the impact of giveaways to special interests, such as intellectual property provisions that lengthen and extend the reach of monopolies granted to pharmaceutical manufacturers, the overall economic effect of the treaty is likely to be somewhere between a small net positive and a small net negative.

With immigration, the potential economic benefits of reform are huge. Angel Aguiar and Terrie Walmsley of Perdue University modeled the difference in overall economic impact between a policy of deportation of all undocumented workers and a policy of full legalization. They suggested the gap was around 1.14 percent of GDP—or a benefit of around $250 billion to the U.S. economy if Congress chose the latter. The group most often assumed to suffer from immigration is low-skilled native workers, but tthere simply isn’t the evidence to back that assumption up. In the words of migration expert Michael Clemens: “Many of the world’s best labor economists have spent the last quarter century exhaustively looking all over the world for negative effects of immigration on low-skilled workers. They cannot find such effects.” 

More from Bloomberg.com: Euro Climbs as Greece Said Ready to Seek Extension of Bailout

What makes the GOP’s divergent positions on trade and immigration even more puzzling is that they’re at odds with public opinion. According to Pew, 55 percent of Americans support the proposition that the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal is “a good thing”—and only 49 percent of Republicans share that view. Compare the percentages backing the policy of “allowing illegal immigrants who are the parents of children with legal status to stay in the U.S. for three years without being subject to deportation, if they pass a background check and have lived in the country for at least five years.”  This substance of Obama’s Executive Action is supported by 76 percent of Americans, including more than two-thirds of Republicans, according to PRRI polling. In addition, 60 percent of Republicans (and more than two-thirds of all Americans) support the provisions of the Dream Act: that illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children should gain legal resident status if they attend college or join the military.

Those numbers change when the question about Obama’s Executive Action is labeled as “President Obama’s policy”—Republican support drops to 51 percent. Similarly, support for the Dream Act drops from 60 percent to 37 percent among Republicans if it is identified with Obama. The natural inclinations of most Republicans are in favor of immigration reform, until they find out that puts them on the same side as the President.

So why has immigration been made into a wedge issue, while Republicans are happy to work with the administration on trade? One explanation points to the process: President Obama is coming to Congress to ask for trade negotiation authority while he bypassed the House and Senate with executive orders on immigration. A more cynical interpretation is that partisan bickering over immigration gives meat to the Tea Party/Minutemen wing of the Republican Party, which opposes immigration for all sorts of reasons unconnected to its economic impact. And it does so in a manner that’s comparatively harmless to Congressional reelection prospects.  While there’s a large overall payoff to immigration reform, the benefits are pretty diffuse—and the biggest benefits undoubtedly flow to the undocumented workers themselves, who can’t vote. 

Whatever it is that’s driving the debate  in Washington at the moment over the global movement of goods, services, and people, one thing is clear: It isn’t the economy, stupid.

 

 

More from Bloomberg.com

Source Article from http://finance.yahoo.com/news/trade-immigration-gop-backward-145032894.html
On Trade and Immigration, the GOP Has It Backward
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/trade-immigration-gop-backward-145032894.html
http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=immigration
immigration – Yahoo News Search Results
immigration – Yahoo News Search Results

The Note: Obama's Immigration Actions Hit a Speed Bump

投稿日時: 投稿者:
返信

By
@shushwalshe
Follow on Twitter

The Note 2/17/2015

The Note: Obama’s Immigration Actions Hit a Speed Bump

 

By SHUSHANNAH WALSHE (@shushwalshe)

NOTABLES

  • BREAKING OVERNIGHT: A federal judge in Texas has blocked President Obama’s executive action on immigration, giving Texas and 25 other states time to pursue a lawsuit that aims to permanently stop the orders. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen’s decision comes after a hearing in Brownsville, Texas in January and puts on hold Obama’s order, which could protect millions of immigrants who are here illegally from being deported, ABC’S KATHERINE FAULDERS and DAN GOOD report. Hanen wrote in a memorandum accompanying his order that the lawsuit should go forward and that without a preliminary injunction the states will “suffer irreparable harm in this case.” “The genie would be impossible to put back into the bottle,” he wrote, adding that he agreed with the plaintiffs’ argument that legalizing the presence of millions of people is a “virtually irreversible” action. The ruling will remain in place until a trial before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. http://abcn.ws/1E0XvCd
  • WHITE HOUSE REACTS: “The Supreme Court and Congress have made clear that the federal government can set priorities in enforcing our immigration laws—which is exactly what the President did when he announced commonsense policies to help fix our broken immigration system. Those policies are consistent with the laws passed by Congress and decisions of the Supreme Court, as well as five decades of precedent by presidents of both parties who have used their authority to set priorities in enforcing our immigration laws,” the statement reads. “The Department of Justice, legal scholars, immigration experts, and the district court in Washington, D.C. have determined that the President’s actions are well within his legal authority…The district court’s decision wrongly prevents these lawful, commonsense policies from taking effect and the Department of Justice has indicated that it will appeal that decision.”
  • WHAT THE DREAMERS ARE SAYING: Cesar Vargas and Erika Andiola, Co-Directors of the Dream Action Coalition issued a statement saying they weren’t surprised by the judge’s decision. “The injunction is clearly based more on politics than law, and is now part of an aggressive effort by the rightward fringe of the GOP to scare Dreamers and parents from applying,” the statement reads. “Nevertheless, we will not let this temporary obstacle stop us from holding forums, encouraging people to collect their paperwork and eventually apply; this injunction is only temporary after all.”
  • ANALYSIS — ABC’S RICK KLEIN: A federal judge in Texas may or may not have delivered Republicans the policy result they wanted in blocking President Obama’s immigration executive order. But Judge Andrew Hanen’s decision could alter the roadmap sufficiently to provide GOP leaders the exit ramp they need so urgently in the current Capitol Hill showdown. Mixing the immigration order with funding for the Department of Homeland Security hasn’t produced the desired results. But in making the case among Republicans for a new strategy, the (at least temporary) success of a legal challenge just might be persuasive. The latest development won’t be the final word on the never-ending wars over immigration policy. Republicans, though, needed a new script – and just might have gotten one, just in time.
  • WATCH ABC’s JON KARL on GOOD MORNING AMERICA today from a snowy White House. Karl reports there’s a good chance – if not likelihood – that courts will ultimately rule in Obama’s favor on this given legal precedent. http://abcn.ws/1CDPCR6
  • THE WHITE HOUSE TODAY, COUNTERING EXTREMISM:  The 3-day White House summit aimed at building and amplifying a counter-message to Islamic extremist groups kicks off today – it will proceed despite the weather, notes ABC’S DEVIN DWYER. The first focus is on domestic strategies to reach out to young, disenfranchised Americans who could be susceptible to recruitment.  They’ll highlight model cities of Minneapolis, Boston and LA, which have what authorities see as effective programs. There will also be discussion of how communities can better use social media to push an alternative message online. Worth noting that this summit, which was scheduled for last fall, is drawing criticism for having too broad a focus (no specific mention of “Islamic” extremism, or ISIS) and for what some see as a too academic approach to an urgent problem. AND ASH CARTER SWORN IN:  The Vice President swears in Ash Carter as the Obama administration’s 4th defense secretary at 11am.
  • ON THE TRAIL: Jeb Bush will attend two DC-area fundraising events for his PAC Right to Rise today. Rand Paul is the guest at a Clermont County, Ohio Republican Party dinner. –Ali Weinberg

 

THE ROUNDTABLE

ABC’S SERENA MARSHALL: The immigration fight is just beginning.  A Texas federal judge issued a halt to President Obama’s executive action on immigration last night. While he didn’t rule the action unconstitutional he halted the ability to implement until legal questions have been answered. Tomorrow USCIS was scheduled to begin accepting applications for expanded DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). No word from them yet on if they will accept applications or not. With rallies already scheduled across the country for DACA we can expect them to use this new ruling to fuel protests, with immigration groups calling it a “temporary setback” as the Justice Department will appeal.  While the Texas judge was assigned the case randomly, it comes as little surprise given a blistering response he wrote to a case in 2013 claiming the government participated in criminal conspiracy to smuggle children into the US. He compared the government reuniting undocumented children with parents the same to them assisting in gun smuggling. So the immigration fight rages on, but most early reaction from immigration seems to be they anticipate this ruling to be overturned.

ABC’S ARLETTE SAENZ: The Texas district court ruling blocking President Obama’s immigration executive actions from taking effect comes just over one week before funding for the Department of Homeland Security is set to run out. Congress has been locked in a tight battle over the funding, which will expire on February 27th, as Republicans have tried to tie immigration to the funding, and with lawmakers home on recess, Congress will return with just days to pass funding for DHS. Last night’s ruling might give Congress a bit of breathing room to pass a short term funding bill without immigration attached to it. But it might also embolden some Republicans who want to ensure the block will be permanent. Overnight, Sen Ted Cruz, whose state led the lawsuit, tweeted the moment was a “HUGE victory for rule of law.” This morning, Sen. John Cornyn, also of Texas, noted in a statement, “Today’s victory is an important one, but the fight to reverse the President’s unconstitutional overreach is not over. The President must respect the rule of law and fully obey the court’s ruling.”

ABC’S JIM AVILA: The president’s executive order was to cover 5 million immigrants and the destructive factor here is the uncertainty again. Many immigrants were reluctant to sign up with the government in the first place for fear if there was an Administration change the order would be revoked and they would then be subject to deportation since they have already signed up giving the government all their information on where they work and where they live. And while it is likely to be overturned that uncertainty hurts the overall plan’s chance of success. This also begs the question of what mainstream Republicans and candidates think. This move reinforces the image that the GOP is the enemy of immigrants and it’s not a great place for the party to be as we approach 2016.

 

WHAT WE’RE READING:

“2016 Ambitions Seen in Walker’s Push for University Cuts in Wisconsin,” by Julie Bosman of the New York Times.  Atop a steep hill on the University of Wisconsin campus is a granite boulder affixed with a bronze plaque honoring the university system’s lofty mission: to benefit the entire state by promoting public service and a search for truth. Summed up in one phrase — “the boundaries of the university are the boundaries of the state” — the mission statement, known as the Wisconsin Idea, has been cherished by educators and graduates for a century. So when Gov. Scott Walker, a second-term Republican, presented a budget this month proposing to delete some of its most soaring passages, as well as to sharply cut state aid to the system, he ignited a furious backlash that crossed party and regional lines. http://nyti.ms/1EkkQMY

“Critics don’t budge Jeb Bush from backing school testing,” by Matt Viser of the Boston Globe.  Jeb Bush has pledged to campaign “joyfully” if he runs for president in 2016, proud of all aspects of his record. That joy will be seriously tested when it comes to his support of Common Core, a national education standard designed to boost student achievement but seen as a symbol of big government by the Republican Party’s conservative base. The former Florida governor has steadfastly embraced Common Core as he considers whether to enter the race, despite increasing criticism from potential rivals and demands that he reconsider his support for the program. Just saying the name Common Core generates animosity among some GOP primary voters. “It’s become Obamacare for education,” said John Brabender, a Pennsylvania-based Republican consultant who has been an adviser to Rick Santorum…To a limited degree, the dynamics are similar to Mitt Romney’s tortured relationship with conservatives over his universal health care plan in Massachusetts. http://bit.ly/1AhA1WH

 

 

THE BUZZ

with ABC’s VERONICA STRACQUALURSI:

RAND PAUL PUSHED KENTUCKY RULE CHANGE TO PURSUE PRESIDENCY AND SENATE. Rand Paul is actively looking for ways to run for both president and re-election to the U.S. Senate, something standard in many states, but not legal in his home state of Kentucky. However, the state GOP has some serious concerns about his desired scenario. Paul wrote a letter last week to the state party hoping to convince its members to create a presidential caucus, over a primary in 2016, the Lexington Herald-Leader first reported and the Kentucky GOP state party chairman confirmed to ABC News. Paul’s letter argued it would make Kentucky more relevant in the primary process, but it also deals with the prohibition on candidates appearing on the same ballot twice. Paul and his supporters have been strategizing a work-around since he announced his intention to seek re-election and is also considering a 2016 run for the White House, ABC’s SHUSHANNAH WALSHE reports. In the letter, he cites Rep. Paul Ryan, who lost the vice-presidency in 2012, but was re-elected to his House seat. There are other examples of victories and losses in states where it’s legal including then-Senator Joe Biden in 2008, amongst others, something Paul notes in the letter writing “My request to you is simply to be treated equally compared to other potential candidates for the presidency.” http://abcn.ws/1Eg4hlB

PRESIDENT’S DAY REWIND -

12 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT PAST US COMMANDERS IN CHIEF. Presidents Day is the federal holiday reserved for honoring the leading men of our country. It’s officially “Washington’s Birthday,” but the name has evolved informally over the years to honor not just the first president, but all 43 of them. Keeping this theme in mind, ABC’s MICHELLE MANZIONE notes 12 fun facts you probably didn’t know about our past commanders in chief, with some help from Steven Noll, an expert historian and senior lecturer at the University of Florida. Learn who was the oldest president to serve, which president helped coin the term “seventh-inning stretch,” and why Calvin Coolidge was given the nickname ‘Silent Cal.’  http://abcn.ws/1L5aXXL

HOW UBER RIDERS IN DC GOT TO CRUISE LIKE OBAMA. Uber riders in the nation’s capital got a Presidents Day treat Monday when they logged on to the app: In honor of the holiday, the ride service offered Washingtonians the chance to cruise around town just like the president, ABC’s MOLLY MITCHELL notes. By selecting the “Ubercade” option, riders (along with up to three of their closest “advisers”) could summon their own personal motorcade, consisting of a Cadillac STS escorted by two Suburbans (adorned with U.S. flags) with the entourage completed by Uber “Secret Service” Agents, according to Uber’s D.C. blog. Demand was “off the charts” for the limited-time service, which was priced like Uber’s most discounted ride and ended at 3 p.m., according to Uber. But the lucky Beltway customers who snagged an Ubercade naturally took to social media to show it off. http://abcn.ws/1MsIGMg

ONE FAMILY’S TRADITION YOU HAVE TO SEE TO BELIEVE. Friends of the Jensen family of Washington, D.C., know they shouldn’t expect Christmas cards. Instead, each year Marisa Jensen, her husband, Jeff, and their daughters, Matilda, 15, and Franny, 12, take part in a much more unusual tradition: Presidents Day cards. But these are no ordinary greetings. Marisa and Jeff, a historic preservation specialist at the General Services Administration, dress their children as U.S. presidents in honor of the national holiday, ABC’s VERONICA STRACQUALURSI writes. It all started in 2007 when the family was too busy for the traditional holiday family photo. So, instead for Presidents Day they mailed out a card with Matilda dressed as George Washington and Franny as a bearded Abraham Lincoln. “People have really embraced it and look forward to it,” Marisa Jensen said in an interview with ABC News. This year Franny and Matilda applied their own makeup and facial hair to become America’s 21st president, Chester Arthur and eighth president, Martin Van Buren, sideburns and all. http://abcn.ws/1AfmYF7


IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

HHS EXTENDS OBAMACARE SIGNUP DEADLINE. The Department of Health and Human Services has extended the deadline for people trying to enroll in Affordable Care Act coverage through the federal website until Sunday, February 22. The original deadline was Sunday but consumers cited technical delays and long wait periods on the phone. This is in addition to the states who announced extensions via their own exchanges over the weekend, ABC’s ALI WEINBERG reports. “For those consumers who were unable to complete their enrollment because of longer than normal wait times at the call center in the last three days or because of a technical issue such as being unable to submit an application because their income could not be verified, we will provide them with a time-limited special enrollment period for March 1 coverage,” a spokesperson for HHS said in a statement. The spokesperson said only people who started trying to enroll before the extension can take advantage of this extension – although it’s not clear how HHS will verify whether users started signing up before or after February 15th.

 

WHO’S TWEETING?

@ZekeJMiller White House: Due to inclement weather, the daily briefing has been cancelled

@ajjaffe And yet. RT @capitalweather: The winter storm warning has been canceled as accumulating snow has ended across region. http://wapo.st/1Dl0mH8 

 @CHueyBurnsRCP War on women clarion call sounded anew: Emily’s List launches new campaign targeting GOP presidential candidates http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/02/16/emilys_list_targeting_gop_presidential_candidates_125622.html …

@bethreinhard  NH will be “do or die” primary for @GovChristie, reports @heatherhaddon @reidepstein http://on.wsj.com/1EFPsZa  via @WSJ

@MatthewArco  ICYMI: Christie disclosed presidential platform for the first time http://s.nj.com/sYdBkBK 

 

 

 

Source Article from http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2015/02/the-note-obamas-immigration-actions-hit-a-speed-bump/
The Note: Obama's Immigration Actions Hit a Speed Bump
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2015/02/the-note-obamas-immigration-actions-hit-a-speed-bump/
http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=immigration
immigration – Yahoo News Search Results
immigration – Yahoo News Search Results

'Day of Action' unites immigrant families

投稿日時: 投稿者:
返信

DENVER – A unity celebration for immigrant families was held in Denver Tuesday.

The event was intended to celebrate the opportunity and share information on the new federal guidelines that were set to take effect Wednesday.

However, a U.S. District court judge in Brownsville, Texas has issued a preliminary injunction, blocking President Obama’s executive order offering a temporary reprieve for up to 5 million people who came to this country illegally – many of them children.

The White House says it will appeal.

MORE: Federal judge stalls Obama’s executive action on immigration

“We are moving forward despite the Texas judge’s ruling,” one speaker said during an event at the Denver Central Library at 10 W. 14th Ave. Pkwy. in Denver.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock was in attendance and voiced his support. 

Organizers of the event want to promote the president’s immigration actions and provide educational information about the immigration programs Deferred Action for Parents (DAPA) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA.)

For the past two years, we’ve had smaller rallies in Denver – at federal court and offices downtown – over issues surrounding the imminent deportation of illegal immigrants.

In 2006 and 2007, thousands of people marched through Denver for an “Immigrant Day of Action.”

PHOTOS: Immigration rally draws thousands

Members of the immigrant community have also rallied behind a man who is claiming sanctuary in a Denver church to avoid deportation. Arturo Hernandez Garcia took sanctuary in the church in October, and his family made a lobbying trip to Washington D.C. in December to plead his case.

READ MORE: Immigrant’s family returns from DC lobbying trip

Stay in Touch Anywhere, Anytime with News, Weather and Video — Download the 7NEWS app:

Android App

iPhone App

Source Article from http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/day-of-action-unity-celebration-for-immigrant-families-planned-tuesday-in-denver
'Day of Action' unites immigrant families
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/day-of-action-unity-celebration-for-immigrant-families-planned-tuesday-in-denver
http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=immigrant
immigrant – Yahoo News Search Results
immigrant – Yahoo News Search Results

'Day of Action' unites immigrant families

投稿日時: 投稿者:
返信

DENVER – A unity celebration for immigrant families was held in Denver Tuesday.

The event was intended to celebrate the opportunity and share information on the new federal guidelines that were set to take effect Wednesday.

However, a U.S. District court judge in Brownsville, Texas has issued a preliminary injunction, blocking President Obama’s executive order offering a temporary reprieve for up to 5 million people who came to this country illegally – many of them children.

The White House says it will appeal.

MORE: Federal judge stalls Obama’s executive action on immigration

“We are moving forward despite the Texas judge’s ruling,” one speaker said during an event at the Denver Central Library at 10 W. 14th Ave. Pkwy. in Denver.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock was in attendance and voiced his support. 

Organizers of the event want to promote the president’s immigration actions and provide educational information about the immigration programs Deferred Action for Parents (DAPA) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA.)

For the past two years, we’ve had smaller rallies in Denver – at federal court and offices downtown – over issues surrounding the imminent deportation of illegal immigrants.

In 2006 and 2007, thousands of people marched through Denver for an “Immigrant Day of Action.”

PHOTOS: Immigration rally draws thousands

Members of the immigrant community have also rallied behind a man who is claiming sanctuary in a Denver church to avoid deportation. Arturo Hernandez Garcia took sanctuary in the church in October, and his family made a lobbying trip to Washington D.C. in December to plead his case.

READ MORE: Immigrant’s family returns from DC lobbying trip

Stay in Touch Anywhere, Anytime with News, Weather and Video — Download the 7NEWS app:

Android App

iPhone App

Source Article from http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/day-of-action-unity-celebration-for-immigrant-families-planned-tuesday-in-denver
'Day of Action' unites immigrant families
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/day-of-action-unity-celebration-for-immigrant-families-planned-tuesday-in-denver
http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=immigrant
immigrant – Yahoo News Search Results
immigrant – Yahoo News Search Results

'Day of Action' unites immigrant families

投稿日時: 投稿者:
返信

DENVER – A unity celebration for immigrant families will go ahead as planned in Denver Tuesday.

The event was intended to celebrate the opportunity and share information on the new federal guidelines that were set to take effect Wednesday.

However, a U.S. District court judge in Brownsville, Texas has issued a preliminary injunction, blocking President Obama’s executive order offering a temporary reprieve for up to 5 million people who came to this country illegally – many of them children.

The White House says it will appeal.

MORE: Federal judge stalls Obama’s executive action on immigration

“We are moving forward despite the Texas judge’s ruling,” one speaker said during an event at the Denver Central Library at 10 W. 14th Ave. Pkwy. in Denver.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock was in attendance and voiced his support. 

Organizers of the event want to promote the president’s immigration actions and provide educational information about the immigration programs Deferred Action for Parents (DAPA) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA.)

For the past two years, we’ve had smaller rallies in Denver – at federal court and offices downtown – over issues surrounding the imminent deportation of illegal immigrants.

In 2006 and 2007, thousands of people marched through Denver for an “Immigrant Day of Action.”

PHOTOS: Immigration rally draws thousands

Members of the immigrant community have also rallied behind a man who is claiming sanctuary in a Denver church to avoid deportation. Arturo Hernandez Garcia took sanctuary in the church in October, and his family made a lobbying trip to Washington D.C. in December to plead his case.

READ MORE: Immigrant’s family returns from DC lobbying trip

Stay in Touch Anywhere, Anytime with News, Weather and Video — Download the 7NEWS app:

Android App

iPhone App

Source Article from http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/day-of-action-unity-celebration-for-immigrant-families-planned-tuesday-in-denver
'Day of Action' unites immigrant families
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/day-of-action-unity-celebration-for-immigrant-families-planned-tuesday-in-denver
http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=immigrant
immigrant – Yahoo News Search Results
immigrant – Yahoo News Search Results

Today: Unity event for immigrant families

投稿日時: 投稿者:
返信

DENVER – A unity celebration for immigrant families will go ahead as planned in Denver Tuesday.

The event was intended to celebrate the opportunity and share information on the new federal guidelines that were set to take effect Wednesday.

However, a U.S. District court judge in Brownsville, Texas has issued a preliminary injunction, blocking President Obama’s executive order offering a temporary reprieve for up to 5 million people who came to this country illegally – many of them children.

The White House says it will appeal.

MORE: Federal judge stalls Obama’s executive action on immigration

One event is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at the Denver Central Library at 10 W. 14th Ave. Pkwy. in Denver.

“For immigrant families, it is a time to celebrate and a time to galvanize for the work of the months ahead,” according to a press release from the group Community Organizations and Labor Leaders.

Organizers are planning to promote the president’s immigration actions and provide educational information about the immigration programs Deferred Action for Parents (DAPA) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA.)

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock is scheduled to be at the event at the Denver Central Library.

For the past two years, we’ve had smaller rallies in Denver – at federal court and offices downtown – over issues surrounding the imminent deportation of illegal immigrants.

In 2006 and 2007, thousands of people marched through Denver for an “Immigrant Day of Action.”

PHOTOS: Immigration rally draws thousands

Members of the immigrant community have also rallied behind a man who is claiming sanctuary in a Denver church to avoid deportation. Arturo Hernandez Garcia took sanctuary in the church in October, and his family made a lobbying trip to Washington D.C. in December to plead his case.

READ MORE: Immigrant’s family returns from DC lobbying trip

Stay in Touch Anywhere, Anytime with News, Weather and Video — Download the 7NEWS app:

Android App

iPhone App

Source Article from http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/day-of-action-unity-celebration-for-immigrant-families-planned-tuesday-in-denver
Today: Unity event for immigrant families
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/day-of-action-unity-celebration-for-immigrant-families-planned-tuesday-in-denver
http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=immigrant
immigrant – Yahoo News Search Results
immigrant – Yahoo News Search Results

[video] Obama's Orders on Immigration Are Halted by Federal Judge in Texas

投稿日時: 投稿者:
返信

(Bloomberg) — The blocking of President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration by a federal judge in Texas is fueling partisan debate in Congress over the plan to protect about 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation.

The order filed Monday by U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen in Brownsville, Texas, temporarily halts the administration from carrying out the policies Obama announced after the November elections. Hanen’s order found that Texas, which sued the administration along with 25 states, had satisfied the requirements to bring a lawsuit.

More from Bloomberg.com: Three Reasons Merkel Is so Stubborn

The judge blocked the administration from carrying out the executive order while the legal battle plays out. The ruling is likely to become fodder in a standoff in Congress between Republicans seeking to reverse Obama’s orders and Democrats who’ve maintained a united front in the Senate against even debating the matter.

The ruling “reinforces what I and many others have been saying for a long time: that President Obama acted outside the law when he went around Congress to unilaterally change our nation’s immigration laws,” U.S. Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, said in a statement. He added that “the fight to reverse the President’s unconstitutional overreach is not over.”

More from Bloomberg.com: Markets From Stocks to Debt to Euro Show Little Panic

Appeal Pending

The Obama administration said it would appeal the ruling.

“The Department of Justice, legal scholars, immigration experts, and the district court in Washington, D.C. have determined that the President’s actions are well within his legal authority,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement. “The district court’s decision wrongly prevents these lawful, commonsense policies from taking effect.”

Obama said in November the executive actions would focus the Department of Homeland Security’s resources on deporting violent criminals, protecting other undocumented immigrants from deportation. The executive order would allow undocumented parents of U.S. citizens to apply for work authorization under a “deferred action” plan that would also spare them from deportation.

More from Bloomberg.com: Dollar Risk at $115 Billion Looms Over Turkish Rate Cycle

The first part of Obama’s orders, an expansion of a 2012 program protecting children from deportation, was set to go into effect Wednesday.

The judge’s ruling means those under the age of 16 who arrived on or before January 2010 won’t be able to apply for the program, said David Leopold, past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Yet, the ruling has little effect on actual deportations, he said.

“None of this has to do with starting or stopping deportations,” Leopold said. “They were already using all of the resources available in deporting as many people per year.”

‘Minor Blow’

Immigration advocates cast the ruling as a minor blow since the White House was careful to legally vet the orders before issuing them.

“This ruling — issued by a lone, out-of-touch judge, singularly sought out by extremist Republican governors and attorneys general — is a temporary disappointment, but in no way a permanent setback,” said Rocio Saenz, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union.

Hanen has previously criticized the Obama administration for turning “a blind eye to criminal conduct.”

The judge said in his 123-page ruling that the states are “concerned about their own resources being drained by the constant influx of illegal immigrants into their respective territories, and that this continual flow of illegal immigration has led and will lead to serious domestic security issues directly affecting their citizenry.”

Political Debate

Republicans may use the decision to pressure a handful of Democrats, including West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, to join them to bring the legislation up for consideration when Congress returns next week. Obama’s has threatened to veto any legislation reversing his directives.

The Senate has voted three times on a House-passed bill that undoes the president’s November directives giving about 5 million undocumented immigrants a reprieve from deportation.

The measure is attached to a must-pass bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

“President Obama said at least 22 times he didn’t have the authority to do what he did on immigration. No surprise that Judge Hanen agrees,” House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement Tuesday. “We’ll follow the case as it moves forward. Hopefully, Senate Democrats who claim to oppose these unilateral immigration actions will now let the Senate begin debate on our bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security.”

The agency would face a shutdown of non-essential operations if Congress doesn’t agree on a spending bill before funding ends Feb. 27. Obama has said he will veto anything that cancels his orders.

Over the weekend, tensions between Democrats and Republicans intensified as House Speaker John Boehner said on the “Fox News Sunday” program that he’s prepared to let homeland security funding lapse if the Senate fails to act on the House-passed bill.

Defuse Standoff?

One Republican, Representative John Carter of Texas, who in the past has tried to craft a bipartisan compromise to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws, said the ruling could also help defuse the standoff.

Some rank-and-file Republicans have said Congress could pass a short-term bill to fund the department while the case is appealed, said Carter.

“This is a victory for the Constitution,” said Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott, in a Facebook posting.

“This ruling defends the Constitution and protects the rule of law,” Abbott wrote on his personal website.

The case is State of Texas, v. United States of America, 14-cv-00254, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (Brownsville).

To contact the reporters on this story: Toluse Olorunnipa in Washington at tolorunnipa@bloomberg.net; Heidi Przybyla in Washington at hprzybyla@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jodi Schneider at jschneider50@bloomberg.net; Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net Elizabeth Wasserman, Joe Schneider

More from Bloomberg.com

Source Article from http://finance.yahoo.com/news/obamas-order-immigration-halted-federal-123023049.html
[video] Obama's Orders on Immigration Are Halted by Federal Judge in Texas
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/obamas-order-immigration-halted-federal-123023049.html
http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=immigration
immigration – Yahoo News Search Results
immigration – Yahoo News Search Results