Join us on our next National Faith and Immigration Conference Call, Monday August 3^rd at 4 pm EST, you can join people of faith throughout the United States by calling 800-920-7487 and the code, 76723736. After receiving an update on legislative and other national issues we will talk about our August Month of Action. 

Join faith communities throughout the country in August for a Month of Action. Your faith community can choose to host a prayer vigil, plan a Neighbor to Neighbor in-district meeting, or collaborate with other congregations and host a town hall with your member of Congress called, Breaking Bread and Barriers. All are focused on meeting with your Member of Congress and urging their support of comprehensive immigration reform. Below are all the materials you need to plan any of these events – now just add your creativity and determination! The focus is to mobilize faith communities in strategic states and districts to have contact with Members of Congress and urge their support for comprehensive immigration reform in the fall. The means of Member contact will vary, based on what the local faith communities feel is most effective and appropriate for their context:

• Host a prayer vigil and invite your Member of Congress

• Neighbor to neighbor in-district lobby visit

• Invite your Member of Congress to a potluck/town hall meeting called, Breaking Bread and Barriers, hosted by several congregations, with the purpose of having Congressional Representatives share their stance on comprehensive immigration reform, answer questions, and for the community to highlight positive contributions of immigrants.

The 76^th General Convention and Immigration Issues

The 76^th General Convention of the Episcopal Church took placed this month in Anaheim, California. Thousands of Episcopalians gather to discuss the future of the Church, its mission and to adopt important resolutions. On immigration issues there were two resolutions passed. Both of them are very important to guide us in our work on the issue. The resolutions are the following:

·        Resolution B006-2009: Immigration: Economic Justice Implications

·        Resolution D076- 2009: Immigration: Support for Immigration Equality of Same-Sex Couples

State Directors / Coordinating Organization and INTERIM Contact Information

The Reform Immigration For America has hired State Coordinators to help us in the grassroots work to move Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Please contact your State Coordinator (if there is one in your State) to be part of the work at the local level. 

PLEASE NOTE that all of this contact information will likely change once State Directors are placed in an office and are assigned a campaign email address. This is a preliminary contact list, for internal campaign use ONLY.

Acting State Director: Petra Falcon, tel 520-360-6128

Email pfalcon@immigrationforum.org
Campaign Associate: Raquel Terran, tel 602-326-5854
Email Raquel_teran@yahoo.com

ARKANSAS
State Director: Jose Gomez, tel 214-681-1785

COLORADO
State Director: Sam Lopez (starts June 22), tel 720-331-7000
Email lopez-5@msn.com
FLORIDA
Interim State Director: Juan Pablo Chavez, tel 727-729-7510
Email juanpablo@floridaimmigrant.org
ILLINOIS
Coordinating Organization: Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Artemio Arreola, Political Director, tel (312) 332-7360 Ext.224, email aarreola@icirr.org
Salvador Cervantes, Senior Organizer, tel 312-593-6411, email scervantes@icirr.org
MAINE
Coordinating Organization: Maine People’s Alliance
Ben Chin, tel 207-782-7876
Email ben@mainepeoplesalliance.org

MICHIGAN
State Director: Ryan Bates (starts June 22), tel 248-787-6767

Email dasbates@gmail.com
NORTH CAROLINA
State Director: Ruben Campillo (starts June 22), tel 704-309-9388

OHIO
Coordinating Organization: Ohio Organizing Collaborative (collaborating with HOLA)
Paul Graham, tel 513-505-1960
Email paulfgraham@gmail.com

PENNSYLVANIA
State Director: Ali Kronley (starts June 24), tel 267-408-5582
Email akronley@gmail.com
VIRGINIA

Last week, the Senate passed five immigration-related amendments to the Senate Homeland Security appropriations bill, proposed by Sessions, DeMint, Grassley, Vitter and Hatch.  The Hatch amendment provided legislative fixes for widows and orphans of citizens and permanent residents and extended the religious worker visa program.  Meanwhile, the other amendments, respectively, made E-verify permanent and required for all federal contractors; set a deadline for construction of a border wall in which vehicle barriers don't count; made a requirement that E-verify users re-verify all their current employees, not just new hires; and prevented DHS from using funds to rescind the SSA "no-match" rule as it had just announced it would do. 

SSA No Match: Senator Vitter (R-LA) offered an amendment (1375), that would stop the administration from carrying out its plan announced on July 8th to rescind the Bush administration's regulation spelling out for employers what they must do if they receive No Match letters from the Social Security Administration. The amendment prohibits the administration from spending any funds to change the regulation.  The amendment was adopted by unanimous consent.  The Bush administration's No Match regulation has never been implemented due to litigation in the courts.

E-"Re-Verify":  Senator Grassley (R-IA) offered an amendment (1415) that would allow employers who use E-Verify to re-verify their existing workers if they chose to do so.  Currently, E-Verify checks are only done for new hires.  The problem with this amendment is that if employers use the system for all of their current employees, they will be required to terminate even long-time employees who will not be able to present the government-issued identification they will be required to produce or who are misidentified by the database as not eligible to work.  (For example, approximately 11% of U.S. citizens do not have government-issued photo identification.) The amendment was adopted without a recorded vote. 

Operation Streamline: Senator Kyl (R-AZ) offered an amendment (1455) that requires DHS to submit a report on "Operation Streamline" that provides details on which "additional Border Patrol sectors" should employ it and what resources are needed to expand it and make it "more effective."  (Apparently, learning whether Operation Streamline is a good idea in the first place is not an objective for this report.  Learn more about Operation Streamline in this blog post from Lena Graber.) The amendment was adopted without a recorded vote.

Widows and Orphans, Doctors, and Religious Workers: In the good news department, Senators Hatch (R-UT) and Menendez (D-NJ) offered an amendment (1428) that will allow spouses and children of U.S. citizens or permanent residents to apply for immigration status even if their petitioning spouse or parent dies before the process of obtaining their status is completed.  This amendment also extends a special visa program for foreign doctors who are recruited to work in rural or inner-city areas.  The amendment extends the program (the "Conrad State 30 J-1 Visa Waiver") to September 30, 2012.  (It otherwise is set to expire on September 30, 2009.) In addition, the amendment extends a visa program for non-minister religious workers to September 30, 2012. (This program was also set to expire on September 30, 2009.) The Episcopal Church with several faith organizations signed a letter in support of the Senate Amendment Number 1429 offered by Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Bill Nelson (D-FL), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Appropriations Bill.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano announced today that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has standardized the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) used to enter into “287(g)” partnerships—improving public safety by removing criminal aliens who are a threat to local communities and providing uniform policies for partner state and local immigration enforcement efforts throughout the United States. Additionally, today ICE announced eleven new 287(g) agreements with law enforcement agencies from around the country.“This new agreement supports local efforts to protect public safety by giving law enforcement the tools to identify and remove dangerous criminal aliens,” said Secretary Napolitano. “It also promotes consistency across the board to ensure that all of our state and local law enforcement partners are using the same standards in implementing the 287(g) program.”

Published: July 12, 2009

Secretary Napolitano strengthens employment verification with administration’s commitment to e-verify Announces Intention to Rescind ‘No-Match’ Rule

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today strengthened employment eligibility verification by announcing the Administration’s support for a regulation that will award federal contracts only to employers who use E-Verify to check employee work authorization. The declaration came as Secretary Napolitano announced the Department's intention to rescind the Social Security No-Match Rule, which has never been implemented and has been blocked by court order, in favor of the more modern and effective E-Verify system.“E-Verify is a smart, simple and effective tool that reflects our continued commitment to working with employers to maintain a legal workforce,” said Secretary Napolitano. “Requiring those who seek federal contracts to use this system will create a more reliable and legal workforce.  The rule complements our Department’s continued efforts to strengthen immigration law enforcement and protect critical employment opportunities. As Senator Schumer and others have recognized, we need to continue to work to improve E-Verify, and we will.”

The lead Democrat steering an immigration overhaul through the Senate said he expects to have a bill ready by Labor Day that is more generous to highly skilled immigrant workers than those who are lower skilled and is tough on future waves of illegal immigration. In an interview with The Associated Press, Sen. Chuck Schumer said an immigration bill can be done by the end of the year or early next year that works out disagreements between labor and business interests on the flow of legal foreign workers. "I think we'll have a good bill by Labor Day," said Schumer, D-N.Y. "I think the fundamental building blocks are in place to do comprehensive immigration reform."

AZ: Associated Press: Arizona House rejects immigration enforcement bill

The Arizona House has defeated a bill that would have made it the only state in the nation to criminalize the presence of illegal immigrants by expanding its trespassing law. The House voted 26-15 for the bill to expand Arizona's trespassing law Wednesday morning, but that was five votes short of the 31 needed for passage. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jzyXtsrCHoiBv_kNFp2XCokc7r9QD995LME80

WA: Anti-illegal immigration initiative falls short An anti-illegal-immigration initiative failed to make the state election ballot again this year, falling thousands of petition signatures short of the requirement. Initiative 1043, sponsored by Wendell Hannigan of White Swan, Yakima County, would have required employers to use the federal E-Verify system to check the immigration status of prospective employees.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009415835_webimmigration04.html -

Council on Foreign Relations Calls for Sweeping Immigration Reform

The Council on Foreign Relations, one of the oldest and most respected non-partisan foreign policy think tanks in America, issued a sweeping report on U.S. immigration policy. Developed by an independent task force comprised of bi-partisan leaders, including former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Thomas "Mack" McLarty, the report finds that the passage of comprehensive immigration reform is vital to the national interests of the United States. The report offers a number of specific recommendations to reform current policy, but most notably insists that the time is now to pass comprehensive immigration reform.  Failure to do so, argues the task force, "threatens to weaken America's economy, to jeopardize its diplomacy, and to imperil its national security."   

As Congress wrangles with overhauling the country's healthcare system, there is one population that isn't being discussed. No proposal for a national health plan would cover the nation's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants. But it may not make as much difference as you might expect. Of the estimated 46 million Americans who are uninsured, a good 20 percent are foreign-born noncitizens. In fact, this has been the fastest growing segment of those without insurance. But figuring out how many in this group are illegal immigrants — and how much is spent on them — is tough.

Including Immigrants in Health Care Reform Makes Economic Sense
Experts, Members of Congress and the Administration generally agree that it is less costly in the long-run to include as many people as possible in our health care system. However, it gets trickier when they begin considering that approximately 12% of the U.S. population is foreign-born. While most in Washington have completely written off the possibility of including undocumented immigrants in any kind of coverage plan, Congress continues to be perplexed over legal permanent residents--our citizens-in-waiting. Yet loads of good data present a compelling argument for why it makes more sense to be inclusive..

The Department of Health and Human Services has proposed to remove the HIV-ban on travel and immigration to the U.S.  This ban has prevented hundreds of people, from refugees to short-term travelers, from coming to the United States.  The proposal is open for public comments until August 17, 2009.  Read more about the proposal and the ban at Immigration Equality: http://www.immigrationequality.org/template.php?pageid=5.

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