Game Changer
During a recent campaign event in Nevada, Hillary Clinton blindsided the 2016 Presidential contestants by stating her unequivocal support for comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) and a clear path to citizenship for the undocumented migrants in the U.S. She also...
Another Kind of Obstacle Course
Interesting piece by Kristina Wong in The Hill last week (Army already enlisting 'Dreamers' as Congress debates immigration) about 50 DACA recipients (“illegal immigrants” as the author calls them) joining the United States military. The US military has long tapped...
How One Life Was Changed at NDA
National Day of Action (what used to be called “Lobby Day”) is an AILA tradition that goes back a number of years. I’ve participated many times, and each time it is different. Each time I come out heartened by some Congressional visits, disheartened by others, but...
It’s Our Security, Stupid
I find myself in the unusual position today of agreeing with Rep. Peter King (R-NY) in his NY Daily News Op-Ed Wednesday (Guest column: Brooklyn terror suspects show it's insane to not approve money for Homeland Security ) where he argues that security of the United...
The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance
Or (Thank You Sean Penn for Starting the Immigration Discussion at the Oscars) I love film. I love the Oscars. To me, the Oscars, unlike the other award shows, represent the best of all aspects of the highly competitive, brilliant, and inspiring film industry. As...
Traitor? Not So Much.
I was called a traitor, twice, in less than an hour today. It’s not the first time in my role as AILA’s Executive Director that I’ve been called that, but it still offends. The fallacies about immigrants, about the undocumented, about our borders and our government’s...
Starting Off the New Year
I promised myself that this year I would sleep in and not rush to my email and/or open my computer before I had my first cup of coffee. Sigh. At 6:45 a.m. on the first day of 2015 I had already broken my first resolution. Resolutions are the bane of many an existence...
Building on a Shared Moment of Community to Move Forward
I was in the Copernicus Community Center last week, in the heart of Chicago’s Polish community, when President Obama stood in front of a diverse crowd of Chicagoans and made his case in support of the executive actions he announced on November 20. There was energy,...
Action at Last
I watched with bated breath. I listened to President Obama make his last case for why administrative action was not just the right thing to do, it was the only thing to do. And I heard from him what his plans entailed. I read, amazed, the barrage of news reports and...
Who Are We Turning Away?
A pregnant woman, separated from her husband in a time of regional conflict and instability, flees the central region of her country with a single suitcase and her 2 year old daughter and 1 year old son. The goal is to travel by train to the closest major southern...
