Immigration

My grandfather came from a small village outside of Minsk in Belarus. It was a real Fiddler on the Roof situation. Open farms, horses and hard times. You know anything about Belarus? These are the jokers who were so drunk they shot down an air balloon a few years...

Immigrants held in immigration detention facilities are not just suffering and dying because of the bad management documented so thoroughly in recent stories by the New York Times, the Washington Post and on 60 Minutes; they're suffering and dying because the situation of undocumented in the U.S. bears more than...

On May 1, 2006 millions of immigrants and their supporters took to the streets in 140 cities in 39 states across the United States as part of a wave of mass marches that spring in repudiation of extreme anti-immigrant legislation, passed by Republicans in the House of Representatives. The vast...

The battle for immigrant rights rages daily in the heart, mind and lanky 10 year-old frame of Chelsea resident and May Day marcher, Norma Canela. Norma's mother Olivia illegally crossed the borders of Guatemala, Mexico and the U.S. almost eleven years ago from Honduras. Born shortly after her mom came...

Through his typo-ridden decision that declared illegal the presentation of voter information in any language other than English, Iowan Polk County District Judge Douglas Staskal joined the Civil Rights Rollback Hall of Shame.

On March 31st, Judge Staskal upheld the claim of petitioners that it was illegal for...

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When I hear the word "raid" these days, the first thing I think of us the war in Iraq. Something like, "US Forces Raid Shi'ite Stronghold of Sadr City." I have images of American forces going home by home, banging down the doors, threatening anyone they find...

Washington, January 20, 2009 -- John McCain was sworn in as the 44th president at noon today, vowing to end "the era of rancor" and pledging to work with Democrats to vanquish what he called the triple peril of terrorism, climate change, and runaway entitlement spending. "These are the challenges...

John McCain's campaign is attacking Barack Obama for Obama's rather indisputable comments about the rise of anti-immigrant fervor in small town America. Obama said that the rise of such fervor has a lot to do with bitterness.

But wait - didn't John McCain say something similar in...

Two hours after starting his new job at a food processing plant in 2006, Fernando Tinoco got fired. "I went to work, felt really good to have a new job and started going to it," says Tinoco, a 53-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen who lives in Chicago. "And then they called...

The first thing I noticed about Juan when I met him is his presence. For a young man, just graduated from high school -- that period when most of us were shy and awkward at best...

Over the course of our country's history, foreign-born innovators have made enormous contributions to our national prosperity. That much is indisputable. Companies like Google, Intel, Yahoo!, Sun Microsystems, and eBay have been founded by foreign-born entrepreneurs. As the global competition for talent grows more intense, we should take care to...

On that fateful day, 9/11/2001, I found myself trapped at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport in Nigeria. I was returning to NY from the Durban World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance and my plane had stopped to refuel in Lagos. The plane took off earlier than scheduled with...