Check out Representative Luis Gutierrez telling it like it is on the Ed Show last night.

Take a minute to tell newly sworn in Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner, that you’ll be watching to see if he sides with the xenophobic extremists of his party, or if he works to protect the 14th amendment and the American dream.

Tell Speaker Boehner you’re watching>>

In case you haven’t heard (because you’re living under a rock of some sort) the DREAM Act will go to vote today in both the House and the Senate.

Update: Check out the speech that Colorado Senator Bennet gave on the floor today.

Update: Check out the most recent footage of Gaby Pacheco and fellow DREAMers outside the halls of Congress. It’s only hours before the vote and DREAMers are ready to talk to lawmakers to be sure they are on the right side of history.

This morning, Senator Durbin Secretary of Education Arne Duncan,  Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano,  Congressman Luis Gutierrez and Congressman Howard Berman held a press conference in anticipation of today’s vote.

First up, champion of the movement, Luis Gutierrez:

And next, Sec. Arne Duncan:

DREAMers themselves are all over the Hill today, asking Representatives and Senators for last minute YES vote. Check out one DREAMers asking Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) for her vote. Hutchison has been a target for a lot of DREAM activism in the past few weeks, including a hunger strike outside of her office.

Check out the DREAM Army at the Vietnam War Memorial, asking Congress to let them serve the country they love.

Yesterday, DREAMers visited Senate offices, offering giant checks for $2.4 billion – the same amount of revenue that the DREAM Act would create in the next 10 years if passed.

Last night, Promise Arizona held a candlelight vigil and prayer for the DREAM Act in Phoenix.

Earlier this week, Los Angeles showed support for the DREAM Act with a vigil and a rally:

And last but not least, CNN featured two DREAMers this morning: Cesar Vargas and Gaby Pacheco.

DREAMers are taking over DC today and phonebanking across the country. The least the rest of us can do is make a phone call, right?

House: 866-967-6018
Senate: 866-996-5161

Let’s make some history today.

Have you called your Representative yet? Do it now. 866-967-6018

Representative Luis Gutierrez, a long time champion of the immigrant community and comprehensive immigration reform, has been under the political microscope in Chicago. For the past few weeks, there was much speculation that Representative Gutierrez would be throwing his hat into the race for mayor of Chicago.

However, yesterday, Representative Gutierrez released a statement that underlined his commitment to seeing our fight for immigration reform through to the end:

Today I tell you that I have an obligation to all of my constituents and all of the immigrant families I have met and learned from across this country.  I have an obligation to not give up the fight for fairness, for justice and for finally passing comprehensive immigration reform.

I have an obligation not to give up on the fight I’ve already begun.

I have unfinished business to complete.

So I will not be a candidate for Mayor of the City of Chicago.

But it is a decision I make knowing it is the right thing to do.   There is one and only one reason I am not running — I’m already engaged in the most important battle I can commit my energy and time and devotion to winning.  I am one-hundred percent committed to fighting for fairness and justice for immigrants, and to continue the battle for comprehensive immigration reform.

There you have it, folks. One of our champions is sticking around for the next phase of the fight.

Last night President Obama weighed in again on the immigration debate and Arizona’s controversial new law, according to Scott Wilson of the Washington Post:

President Obama told a White House reception Wednesday that he wants “to begin work this year” on comprehensive immigration reform, warning the audience that securing the legislation will be difficult but possible.

Addressing an audience celebrating Cinco de Mayo in the Rose Garden, Obama said, “America’s diversity is America’s strength.” That, he added, is why he has spoken out against Arizona’s recently passed immigration law, which has raised concerns of racial profiling.

“We can’t start singling out people because of who they look like,” he said to applause. “That’s why we have to close the door on this kind of misconceived action by meeting our obligations here in Washington.”

The Arizona law has given more urgency to the push for immigration reform, as have the imperatives of election-year politics.

The President has come under fire from Latino and immigrant advocacy groups in the past weeks and months for a perceived lack of concrete action on his promise to overhaul the nation’s dysfunctional immigration system in a fair way. This is epitomized by mounting criticism against the Administration’s ratcheted-up enforcement policies in the absence of federal reform. Right now there’s no way for undocumented immigrants to get into the system and get legal, and unscrupulous employers continue to be able to exploit workers.

According to the AP:

Latino groups have been calling for Obama to deliver on his campaign promise of making immigration reform a top priority, with some activists and lawmakers in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus complaining he wasn’t doing enough.

Obama clouded the issue last week by saying “there may not be an appetite” in Congress to deal with another hot-button issue immediately after grueling fights over health care and financial regulation.

In fact, these concerns, mixed with outrage over Arizona’s new immigration law, boiled over on Saturday, May 1st. Hundreds of thousands of protesters in over 100 cities across the country took to the streets to peacefully but firmly put their foot down against Arizona’s SB 1070 and stand up for immediate, federal action on immigration. In Washington, D.C., these protests included escalated calls for action. Irish Central characterized Chicago Congressman Luis Gutierrez’ act of civil disobedience at the DC immigration rally a wakeup call for the Administration, in terms of how serious the Latino and immigrant communities are on this issue.

Watch the video of Rep. Gutierrez being arrested in front of thousands of supporters at the White House, to get a sense of the mood:

But it is not just Latino and immigrant communities who think a fair fix to immigration is long overdue.

Keep reading over at the America’s Voice blog.

Last night, nearly 30,000 immigration reform advocates joined an emergency strategy call with Representative Luis Gutierrez to discuss the moment we are in. On the call, Rep. Gutierrez talked about what has happened politically in the two weeks since he joined over 10,000 people at a rally in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Listen to (or download) a recording from the call:

At that rally in Las Vegas, Senate Majority leader Harry reid committed to moving immigration reform in the Senate in 2010. It was a huge moment in the push for legislation this year. Since then:

• President Obama has reached out to Republican Senator Scott Brown and is reaching out to other Republicans for support around an immigration push.
• Senators Lugar and Durbin have taken a big step in the right direction, calling an end to the deportation of DREAM Act eligible students.
• House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have released a joint statement that they would prioritize immigration reform in the legislative calendar before the mid-term elections this year.
• First Lady Michelle Obama has spoken publicly about the need for immigration reform.

Each of these steps was made possible, says Rep. Gutierrez, by the work that we have all been doing to keep the pressure on and build momentum for immigration reform in 2010. From the March For America on 3/21, to the phone calls, lobby visits and April 10th events, we have been holding elected officials accountable and have made it clear that we are not backing down.

He was also highly critical of the Obama administration’s stepped up enforcement tactics and their damaging effects on communities and families.

There are four million U.S. citizen children living with undocumented parents. And our government is saying to those children ‘We are going to make your parents disappear. It is immoral.

Representative Gutierrez, acknowledging the fight at the heart of the movement in Arizona right now, called the listeners to action on May 1st.

“May 1st, you need to pick a place, organize it and hold an event. We need to push Congress to do the right thing. And we need to be clear that it’s legislation or escalation.

I want each of you to look into your hearts and ask ‘What more do I need to do? What more can I do to make sure that it is intolerable for Congress not to act?”

With Senator Harry Reid calling for a deadline on a bipartisan immigration reform deal today, with thousands descending on Phoenix, Arizona to protest racial profiling, with 4 brave students merely days away from their DC destination on the Trail of Dreams, now more than ever, it is our moment.

On May 1st, Representative Gutierrez will be marching in Washington, DC. Will you answer the call to action and march in your area?

Check out a list of May 1st events here>>

By Mary Giovagnoli, originally posted at Immigration Impact.

Everyone pulled out the sports analogies last week when Congressman Luis Gutierrez and his 91 co-sponsors introduced H.R. 4321, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009—and rightly so, as this bill marks the opening bell in the 2010 immigration debate. It is not only the first major piece of comprehensive reform legislation introduced in the 111th Congress, but the first since the last debate on immigration reform, which took place in May and June of 2007 in the Senate.

But CIR ASAP also marks the end of a year that has been filled with movement on immigration reform. Most of it was not legislative, but reflected instead the change in Presidential administrations. Among the key developments:

• Janet Napolitano, governor of Arizona, an outspoken supporter of the comprehensive immigration reformand smart enforcement strategies, was named Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. She immediately called for review of enforcement programs that were highly criticized, including 287(g), E-verify, and worksite raids. This review ultimately led to major reforms in detention practices, an end to the massive worksite raids of the past, and a revamping of 287(g).

• President Obama reaffirmed his commitment to CIR over and over again, most notably by calling a White House summit of key Congressional leaders in May, naming Napolitano as his point person for getting reform done. Other cabinet leaders have been pulled into the effort, too. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, speaking at the Center for American Progress last week noted that cabinet secretaries and their staff are meeting weekly to coordinate administration efforts on reform.

• The President’s budget included a request for appropriated funds for USCIS, to pay for the costs of processing, asylum refugee, and military naturalization applications. Although Congress ultimately appropriated only a small portion of those funds, the mere fact that the administration recognized the need to revisit current fee structures (in which the agency must fund its operations almost exclusively through fees), marked a major policy departure, and the glimmer of true fee reform.

Still, there’s no denying the significance of the 644 page legislative package introduced last week. While it is a product of 2009, many of the proposals, including detention reforms and family reunification proposals, reflect tremendous work over the years by many of the co-sponsors—including Reps. Woolsey, Roybal Allard, Honda, Grijalva, Reyes, and Berman—while other sections incorporate legislation from Senators Menendez, Durbin, and former Senator Obama. As with all legislation of this type, it is a compilation of new and old ideas, woven together to reflect both a prescription for immigration policy and a plan for bringing along votes.

Does this mean that CIR ASAP is merely a marker bill, one designed to throw down the gauntlet, but not to move? Not exactly. Senator Schumer, as head of the Senate’s immigration subcommittee, and Congresswoman Lofgren, chair of the House Immigration subcommittee, are both expected to champion their own legislative packages in the coming year. It’s anticipated that Sen. Schumer will introduce his own comprehensive package early in 2010, which is likely to change significantly as it goes through committee, and then through the whole Senate. Assuming Senate passage, then the House will have to decide whether to simply take up the Senate bill, introduce a new package, or take CIR ASAP and its fellow proposals (and there will be more, it’s the nature of the game) through committee markups and so forth. So, it’s hard to tell what everything will look like by the time a bill hits the president’s desk. But CIR ASAP contains a number of viable solutions, and the final package will no doubt reflect some of those ideas—and hopefully some of the passion that infuses the bill.

So, while CIR ASAP may be the beginning of an era, it is also the end of a period of transition. The administration has made its position pretty clear. A big chunk of the House has now, too. The next move is Senator Schumer’s—and then the real games begin.

Photo by iQoncept.

By Frank Sharry, Executive Director and Founder of America’s Voice. Originally posted at the America’s Voice blog and the Huffington Post.

Yesterday, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), a key congressional champion for sensible immigration policy, introduced real immigration reform legislation in the House of Representatives. It’s called “Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity” (CIR ASAP).

This is the long-awaited legislative kick-off to repair our nation’s broken immigration system, which is in crisis.

Already, the bill has nearly 90 U.S. House sponsors, including members of the Congressional Hispanic, Black, Asian Pacific American, and Progressive Caucuses.

But won’t the first round of this debate take place in the Senate in early 2010? Yes, it will. But by coming out early and strong, Rep. Gutierrez and his colleagues in the House achieve three important objectives: 1) they have created a template for good policy that will influence future bills; 2) they are putting pressure on the White House and leaders in both the House and the Senate to keep their promise of moving on immigration reform in this Congress; and 3) they are ensuring a place for themselves at the final negotiations over what a final bill will look like.

The fact is that Gutierrez, Rep. Nydia Velazquez, Rep. Xavier Becerra and others in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus have taken on the responsibility of representing the voices of millions of Latinos who turned out in 2008 to cast votes for change, for their loved ones without legal status, and for national recognition of their contributions to America – in the workplace, in local communities, and on the battlefield.

In case anyone missed it, Latino voters were a huge factor in powering Obama’s victories in the formerly red states of Colorado, Florida, New Mexico and Nevada in 2008. And in the mid-terms in 2010 and presidential race of 2012 these same states may well spell the difference between victory and defeat for both parties.

Thus, the politics of this issue are crystal clear. So clear that we predict a small but significant number of Republicans will support comprehensive immigration reform and do something almost unheard of these days – make immigration reform a bipartisan breakthrough. How so? Smart Republicans get the political reality that to be competitive nationally as well as in a growing number of states and districts they have to stop driving themselves over the cliff by driving the fastest growing demographic in the country into the arms of their opponents.

Even if many in the D.C. chattering class haven’t figured it out yet, the fear that this issue will be a wedge that benefits Republican hard liners over Democratic reformers has turned out to be as big a myth as death panels. In the last election, in 20 of the 22 congressional races where immigration reform was an issue, voters picked candidates who chose comprehensive reform over anti-immigration extremism. Republican candidates who tried to use immigration as a wedge issue to divide voters failed. In addition, we know that the American people as a whole expect Congress to solve problems like immigration.

Look, we already know that the opposition will be fierce and noisy.

We’ve seen it all before – and this time we’re much better prepared, and much better organized. Nevertheless, anti-immigrant extremists like Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the Minutemen, and the designated hate group FAIR are going to do everything they can to maintain the awful status quo. Broken borders, broken families, broken system – all in hopes of driving 12 million undocumented immigrants out of their jobs, out of their communities, and out of the country.

There’s a better way. And the legislation crafted by Rep. Gutierrez points the way forward.

We look forward to working with Rep. Gutierrez and others in the House, as well as with leaders in the Senate, including Sen. Menendez and the Senate sponsor, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), to ensure that 2010 is the year we see real, comprehensive immigration reform enacted. While adherents to the conventional wisdom are busy writing otherwise, I predict immigration reform will be the biggest legislative surprise of 2010.

Yesterday, Representative Luis Gutierrez rang the opening bell on the fight for immigration reform in 2010. Below is a (non-exhaustive) round-up of both blog and media coverage.

To kick it off, we have Representative Luis Gutierrez’s own words about why the time is NOW:

“This is a crisis. It’s a crisis of human and civil rights, it’s a crisis of our economy and our workforce, and it’s a crisis of national security. This is why we cannot wait any longer.”

From the of Peace and Politics blog:

“I attended the press conference for the introduction of the bill and, let me tell you, the room was packed. Members of Congress, Congressional staff, members of the press, immigration advocates, faith leaders, and immigrants of all backgrounds crowded into the room, cheering “Yes we can!” The energy was fantastic. While a lot of work remains for us to achieve humane and fair comprehensive immigration reform, Rep. Gutierrez’s bill offers important elements of reform.”

Feet in 2 Worlds discuss why yesterday was both important and historic:

The move by Gutierrez means that a plan to overhaul the nation’s immigration system is being introduced in a forum where no one has dared take it since 2007, when the last reform proposal died on Capitol Hill.

And the general strategy behind what CIR ASAP means for the broader political landscape of immigration reform in 2010:

Gutierrez’s effort could be considered a means of pressuring other Democrats toward a more progressive position.

Something Marisa at Latina Lista also comments on:

While Gutierrez and advocates admit that immigration reform is on the backburner for the time being for the Obama Administration, at least until the healthcare bill passes, this bill lays the starting foundation from which to eventually craft a bill that will recognize the problems that exist in our current immigration policies and clarifies the issue of border security

America’s Voice celebrates the bill, but highlights this is just the start of the fight:

“Today is the first step in what I anticipate will be a six month, all-out-fight to pass real, comprehensive reform that restores justice to our broken immigration system.  When it is signed into law, this legislation will be one of the largest leaps forward for civil rights that our nation has seen in over 30 years.”

The Service Employees International Union:

“Every day Congress delays, today’s dysfunctional system further drives down wages, costs taxpayers, devastates communities, and further undermines the rule of law. Until Congress passes comprehensive reforms, workers will continue to be pitted against each other–denied the opportunity to unite their strength and demand the labor and civil rights protections we need to lift our economy and raise living standards for everyone. This is unacceptable.”

From Duke at the Sanctuary, who dissects the future flow portions of the bill:

Perhaps the most effective method to address both labor demands and future immigration flow we’ve seen in any of the myriad of immigration reform proposals that have come down the pike in the last few years.

Rather than letting business interests, with their insatiable need for cheap, exploitable labor, dictate the flow of immigration through both legal and illegal channels, Gutierrez’s bill creates a new antonymous regulatory agency within the executive branch solely charged with setting both policy and specific levels for all future employment-based immigration.

Clarissa Martinez de Castro at Huffington Post, notes the significance of tackling the immigration debate during an election year.

Past election cycles have shown that voters reject candidates who simply demagogue this issue or adopt extreme enforcement-only approaches. For far too long, those who support the harmful status quo have been allowed to lead on this issue, even though they do not represent the can-do will of the American public. And it is clear that the immigration debate has rallied Latinos, the fastest-growing segment of the electorate, who participated in record numbers in the 2008 election, in large part in response to the promise of change. Latinos are watching. The American people are watching. And we have the public support to arrive at a solution.

The Washington Post:

“For those who say that given the state of our economy, given the unemployment rate, this is not the time, I would say to you there is no wrong or right time. There is a moral obligation,” said Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

The San Jose Mercury News wrote about how this is a strong opportunity for us to get the real reform we need:

“In 2007, the last time Congress grappled with the issue, a bipartisan Senate bill sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., failed when Republicans blocked votes over the amnesty issue.

But Democrats think immigration reform has a better shot this time around.

“Now, we have the White House,” [Rep. Mike Honda, D-Campbell] Honda said Tuesday. “And now we have leadership in both houses that want to see it happen.”

Working in the Shadows came up with an analogy:

In the words of Michael Buffer, “Let’s get ready to rumble!”

I predict a good clean start that lasts three or four seconds, followed by some serious dirty boxing, concluding with a fourth or fifth round knock out of the ALL CAPS crowd. From what we’ve seen with the healthcare debate, I don’t think we want this fight going into the later rounds.

I’m not going to keep quoting because I would take up way too much room for one post, but be sure to check out the rest of the coverage listed below.

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights - who has put together a great one-pager about what’s in the bill.

OneAmerica

The New York Times

RaceWire

Nezua at the Unapologetic Mexican

DREAM Activist

Change.org’s Immigration blog

Immigration Impact blog

The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition

California NOW

The AFL-CIO

CAUSA Oregon

LUPE

Progressive South Bend

Long Island Wins

Chicago Now

This is the first step in the fight for immigration reform in 2010 and we need all your voices to keep the pressure on Congress and the administration to get this done. Click here to send a fax to your members of Congress.

You can also check out our slide show of pictures from yesterday’s press conference. As you can see the energy in the room was high and the bill was met with lots of enthusiasm. Happy viewing.

You can read a summary of the CIR ASAP bill here.