Submitted by Amanda Ogus on Wed, 06/20/2007 - 4:52pm
in
  • The White House Council of Economic Advisors issued a report
    (pdf) today explaining why immigrants (referring to both documented and
    undocumented workers) “not only help fuel the Nation’s economic growth, but
    also have an overall positive effect on the income of native-born workers." The report, which attempts to distinguish the influence of immigration from
    that of other economic forces at work at the same time, found that immigrants complement, not substitute for, natives, and raise
    natives’ productivity and income. Overall, this report demonstrates that all people
    fare better when every individual has a fair chance to fulfill his or her
    dreams. Immigrants provide important
    contributions to communities all over the country.  Studies like these should be spread far and wide to help prevent further
    discrimination against immigrants trying to receive basic services like health care access
    and fair housing. Between 1992 and 2003 nearly 8,500
    complaints were filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
    on the basis of national-origin discrimination    .
  • Latina Lista reports on the grass roots actions of the
    Latino community to push for immigration reform. These activities include sending (an astounding) one million
    letters to Congress     in support of immigration reform, participating in the
    Dreams Across America train, and praying at the National Hispanic Prayer
    Breakfast    . After witnessing the organizing success of groups like grassfire.org in persuading senators to vote against
    the previous immigration bill, it's good to see pro-immigrant rights groups, like these
    Latino groups, taking action.
  • In case you haven't had your daily rueful chuckle, Immigration Equality Blog posts an ironic political cartoon
    about the struggles immigrants will have to go through even with the new
    immigration bill.
  • Over at Huffington
    Post    , Jeffrey Felman of FrameShop writes a thoughtful and educational response to the right-wing frame of immigration that
    has "polluted" the national conversation. Jeffrey explains that in order to have a balanced conversation about immigration, we must encourage people to avoid right-wing keywords that “convince us all to be afraid
    of foreigners", particularly the term "illegal."  To
    avoid falling prey to this racist conversation, one should focus on the ways
    in which we all can learn from immigrants and work for social programs that
    “bring together working people who share the common bond of trying to support
    their families.”