Commonsense immigration reform at the national level must “offer a short and direct path to citizenship for all aspiring citizens already in the United States.” That was the first of six broad principles adopted by Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights, a new organization of more than a dozen community groups that gathered in Northern Virginia last Saturday. A diverse assembly of more than 100 activists came together to plan for their campaign to convince members of Congress to support “true reform” of our immigration laws that respects the dignity of every individual, strengthens families and builds a stronger economy that protects workers' rights and meets the state’s needs for a trained workforce by providing access to education for all.

After reviewing unilateral changes Georgia made to its unemployment insurance (UI) rules, the U.S. Department of Labor has declared that the state has no “adequate statutory basis” for denying UI benefits to seasonal employees who work for private contractors providing services to schools. The strongly-worded guidance to Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler came in an Aug. 2 letter obtained by the Atlanta Constitution Journal and publicized in their front page story: State ordered to reverse itself on some unemployment claims.

Relying upon a bogus interpretation of federal law and regulations, the state of Georgia has begun to deny seasonal workers the unemployment insurance (UI) benefits they have received for 16 years during their off seasons. Thousands of workers are affected—contract school bus drivers, bus monitors, longtime crossing guards, cafeteria cooks, janitors, landscapers and teachers in private religious schools.