Clearing the Air
This week’s round-up kicks off with a bang—-and a breath of fresh air: Lou Dobbs, one of the most infamous figures to voice a public opinion about immigration in recent years, announced on Wednesday that he will be leaving CNN and his primetime talk show.
After years of enduring Dobbs’ constant fear-mongering and hateful speech, the announcement serves as a hard-fought victory for those of us fighting to purge xenophobia from the immigration debate. Included below are links to some of some coverage, including two public advocacy campaigns–Basta Dobbs and Drop Dobbs–that worked tirelessly to remove Dobbs by keeping constant tabs on his mis-truths and advocating for his ouster. Below find a round-up of coverage from partners and advocates:
Lou Dobbs? Not Tonight! (America’s Voice)
“Stong Winds of Change” Sweep Dobbs of the Air (Immigration Impact)
The Week in Politics
Those of you who follow immigration and health care reform know that, when confronted individually, both issues present their own series of complex challenges. Yet, immigration and health care are also intimately intertwined. As the aftermath of last Saturday’s historic House vote to pass sweeping health care reform filters into the public and media discourse, immigration has emerged at the center of attention as a hugely thorny–and potentially volatile–facet of the health care debate.
Many politicians are voicing serious concerns over unresolved issues that threaten to restrict access to health care for millions of immigrants as the debate moves into the Senate. As the Immigration Policy Center recently noted in a blog post on the topic, costly amendments like the 5-year bar, which restricts access to Medicaid for legal permanent residents during their first five years, were included in the House bill and are likely to keep millions off the insurance rosters. Even more troubling to many lawmakers is the unresolved issue over whether undocumented immigrants will be able to buy private insurance from the proposed insurance exchanges, a particularly thorny issue that restructionists will surely raise in an effort to derail the legislation.
Issues like these–how the US treats legal immigrants, and what rights it should grant to undocumented residents–reveal the framework of the larger debate over immigration reform that will take place in 2010, so make sure you stay tuned to this issue for possible implications in next year’s reforms. In the meantime, you can study up further on how the issues of immigration and health care intersect by checking out reports on the subject from the Immigration Policy Center and the Migration Policy Institute.
Headlines
Finally, we’ll leave you with a run-down of some of the week’s other headlines that came across our newsfeed. From all of us at the Campaign: Happy Friday, and thanks for all that you do!
- Secretary of DHS Janet Napolitano Makes Highly-Anticipated Speech on Administration’s Plans for CIR in 2010
- Veterans, Joining the Fight for Immigration Reform
- U.S. Anti-terrorism Laws Causing Immigration Delays for Refugees
- Chuck Norris Facts: Chuck Norris can Solve the Immigration Debate (particularly awesome)
- A Transgender Asylee Speaks Out Against Detention Injustices
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