Adela de la Torre, communications manager at the National Immigration Law Center, sends us this. 

The civil rights issues at the heart of S.B. 1070, Arizona’s notorious racial profiling law, finally had their day in court Tuesday. After more than two years of legal challenges mounted by our civil rights coalition and the federal government, we, along with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), MALDEF and others, presented evidence of what we all already know: S.B. 1070 was written with the intent to discriminate against Latinos and other people of color. This evidence was introduced as part of a request that the district court consider additional legal grounds that were not before the U.S. Supreme Court when it determined that section 2B of S.B. 1070, which forces police officers to demand “papers” of those they suspect are in the country without proper authorization, should be allowed to go into effect.

Immigrant-owned new businesses are critical to jump-starting the U.S. economy and creating jobs, according to a recent report by
the Partnership for a New American Economy.

Immigrant-owned businesses now employ one out of every 10 U.S. workers at privately owned companies and add more than $775 billion of revenue to the U.S. gross domestic product.

Imagine if you were a child and living in constant fear of losing your parents.

For many children of aspiring citizens, potential loss of one or both parents is a day-to-day reality. Deportations can force children into foster care when their parents are shipped out of the country and leave single mothers struggling to make ends meet.

A new Center for American Progress report highlights how deportations break up families and negatively affect the entire community.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is holding a field briefing in Birmingham, Ala., on the impact of state anti-immigrant laws, like Arizona’s infamous S.B. 1070 and Alabama’s H.B. 56. The commission describes itself “as an independent, bipartisan, fact-finding federal agency, [whose] mission is to inform the development of national civil rights policy and enhance enforcement of federal civil rights laws.” It came as quite a shock to see groups that are not only vehemently anti-immigrant but have been identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center on the witness list, including Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). 

Donna Gratehouse, who blogs at Democratic Diva and elsewhere on all things Arizona, sends us this.

Hundreds of activists gathered at the state Capitol Thursday morning in Phoenix to denounce Gov. Jan Brewer for the appalling executive order she issued on Wednesday, which was the day the Obama administration's Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals went into effect. The federal policy change allows the young people known as "DREAM Act kids" or "DREAMers" to stay in the country and apply for work permits provided they meet certain conditions. An estimated 80,000 Arizonans who were brought into the country illegally as children may be eligible for the program, and many have been excitedly lining up at federal immigration offices around the state to get the forms and instructions. 

A question Cuahuctemoc Salinas often gets when he tells carwash customers about the poor working conditions carwash workers experience is “So why are they still working here?”

To which he replies:

They’re afraid. Jobs are sacred right now. They have to provide for their families.

Thomas Paine, one of America’s founding fathers, is back—and weighing in on the national dialogue around immigration.

Channeling Paine, actor Ian Ruskin describes how Paine and all those who came from other countries to found the United States were—drum roll, please—immigrants (see video).

There are so many myths and misconceptions about immigration, oftentimes it’s hard to get the facts. That’s where the Center for American Progress’ new immigration policy brief comes in handy.

Donna Gratehouse, who blogs at Democratic Diva and elsewhere on all things Arizona, sends us this.

Opening arguments were heard on Thursday morning in a class-action lawsuit brought by the Arizona ACLU charging that Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has been engaging in a shocking pattern of profiling and harassment of Hispanic residents. The suit could put S.B. 1070 on the skids, as the ACLU has produced several e-mails from then-Sen. Russell Pearce (often cited as the main architect of S.B. 1070) expressing paranoid racist vitriol. The plaintiffs say the e-mails demonstrate that the infamous "show your papers" law was indeed racially motivated, as opponents of the law have charged from the beginning.

What unites working families is much more powerful than anything that divides them. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka expressed his desire to unite the labor and immigrant communities at the National Council of La Raza convention in Las Vegas, Nevada today.

Trumka spoke about the shared values the two groups have in common and how they are committed to working together to build a stronger America and a robust economy for future generations.

Here is an excerpt of his remarks: