Newt Gingrich (via anticapitalist)

(via mohandasgandhi)

univisionnews:

Durbin, a leading proponent of the DREAM Act, used the tale of suicide victim Joaquin Luna to call on lawmakers to pass the bill. (Getty Images)

By JORDAN FABIAN
Channel: Politics

Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) on Tuesday called on Congress to pass the DREAM Act in the wake of the suicide of Joaquin Luna, a teenage boy in Texas whose family says took his life out of frustration over his undocumented status.

Durbin, the Senate’s chief proponent of the DREAM Act, cautioned that he did not want to “jump to conclusions” about the circumstances surrounding Luna’s death, but said that it should serve as a wake-up call for lawmakers to pass the measure, which provides a pathway to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants who join the military or graduate from college.

“His story, I hope, will inspire others to step up and speak up for those who are promoting the DREAM Act,” Durbin said during a speech on the Senate floor. “I want to bring this to the floor again. I want to pass it, I want to make sure that the hopelessness and despair people feel is replaced by the hopeful belief that if they continue to work hard in their lives and continue to be dedicated to  America United States, they can make this a better and stronger nation.”

(Watch Durbin’s speech here).

Read More

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mohandasgandhi:

Speaking of our brothers and sisters to the south (of the U.S.), various news stories from the last week or so have made me fall in love with Latin American politics all over again. Seriously. We’re right in the middle of another love affair. Here are some of my favorites, and not necessarily because I agree with every single thing mentioned in the articles. (I always have to mention that or people flood me with rage.)

If you haven’t been following the Mexican presidential election or Enrique Peña Nieto, get on it. I don’t want to hear the excuses. It’s an amazing thing to witness. Also:

• Leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean have approved the creation of a new regional bloc that excludes the United States and Canada. But, unlike the Washington-based Organisation of American States, the new group (known by its Spanish initials as Celac) includes Cuba.
• Thanks to increased labor income and public spending, the poverty and inequality levels of Latin America are the lowest they’ve been since 1990, according to a new report by the U.N.’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Between 1990 and 2010, the region’s poverty rate fell from 48.4 percent to 31.4 percent, with a predicted drop to 30.4 percent by the end of 2011. The indigence (extreme poverty) rate is currently at 12.3 percent.
• Chevron, the second-largest U.S. crude producer after Exxon Mobil, may be fined $84 million by Rio de Janeiro state for environmental damage from an offshore oil spill.
• Argentina widens rights for transsexual police
• In support of Chile’s ongoing student protests, and voicing their own demands, thousands of people took to the streets in more than a dozen cities in Latin America demanding quality public education.
• The Obama administration is turning to Asia for the defining competition of the next century. But if the United States actually wants to win, it’ll need Latin America.
• How the Occupy Movement Came to El Salvador
• In the New Gangland of El Salvador
• Arrests of undocumented migrants trying to cross the southern U.S. border have plummeted to levels not seen since the early 1970s, according to tallies released by the Department of Homeland Security last week, a historic shift that could reshape the debate over immigration reform. The Border Patrol apprehended 327,577 illegal crossers along the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2011, which ended Sept. 30, numbers not seen since Richard Nixon was president, and a precipitous drop from the peak in 2000, when 1.6 million unauthorized migrants were caught. “We have reached the point where the balance between Mexicans moving to the United States and those returning to Mexico is essentially zero,” said Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center, whose conclusion was shared by many migration experts.
• U.S. lawmakers push for American aid to Mexico based on treating immigrants better.

stefanifity-n-beyond:

[Yarelis Bonilla, five, of Elizabeth in New Jersey, has lymphocytic leukaemia and her best hope is a bone-marrow transplant from a perfect match donor.

Her seven-year-old sister, Gisselle, would fit the bill but she lives in El Salvador and has twice been denied a visa by the US embassy.

Marian Habib, the lawyer representing the family of Yarelis, who was born in the US, said: “It is truly an emergency. This is a race against time.” She said the US embassy in El Salvador has to be convinced that the girl’s life is at risk and that her sister will return to her home country after the transplant.

The family of the girls insisted that the operation cannot be carried out in El Salvador as the country cannot provide the level of medical care required.

“A report from the paediatrics department at Newark Beth Israel Medical Centre described Yarelis’s condition as “life-threatening”….

“ There is often a fear, in cases like this, that the recipient of the visa will not return home,” said Espinal.]

this is beyond belief. how? like what is wrong with these people? you rather a little girl die than risk ONE more possible illegal immigrant? i give up. i cant.

Yarelis Bonilla, five, of Elizabeth in New Jersey, has lymphocytic leukaemia and her best hope is a bone-marrow transplant from a perfect match donor.

Her seven-year-old sister, Gisselle, would fit the bill but she lives in El Salvador and has twice been denied a visa by the US embassy.

Marian Habib, the lawyer representing the family of Yarelis, who was born in the US, said: “It is truly an emergency. This is a race against time.” She said the US embassy in El Salvador has to be convinced that the girl’s life is at risk and that her sister will return to her home country after the transplant.

This is truly horrible and tragic. I’m not sure what we can do but here is the email for the U.S Embassy in El Salvador ACSSanSal@state.gov I hope this story gets more attention.

(via allnaturalytwashedblipsterbitch)