We’ve been saying for months that immigration is an overall net-positive for our recovering economy. With unemployment at a scary high and our economy still limping slowly towards recovery, many have repeated history by scapegoating immigrants as “taking our jobs” and have pointed fingers at the undocumented immigrant population as somehow responsible for the current economic climate.

These same finger-pointers are those yelling ‘amnesty’ loudly at the top of their lungs and arguing against comprehensive immigration reform.

Earlier this year, the Center for American Progress released a report whose findings pointed to immigration reform as serving to boost our economy across the board:

…we estimate that comprehensive immigration reform would yield at least $1.5 trillion in added U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years. This is a compelling economic reason to move away from the current “vicious cycle” where enforcement-only policies perpetuate unauthorized migration and exert downward pressure on already low wages, and toward a “virtuous cycle” of worker empowerment in which legal status and labor rights exert upward pressure on wages.

This week, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco released another report on the role of immigration in our economy and the results are unsurprising (at least to us). In short, the report found that immigrants do NOT somehow ‘take jobs from American workers’ and that immigration is a net gain for our economy.

To be frank, duh.

We’ve been saying this for a while now, but we’re glad to see others catching on. It’s the economy, stupid and immigration has been a part of our economic staying power for years.

For more on this, read the report itself and be sure to check out others who have written about it here, here and here.

At this point, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Jan Brewer is a liar. It’s a matter of fact that she lies. So is it news that she’s lying again?

In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Governor Brewer takes issue with a 1 line reference to Arizona’s racial profiling law in a 30 page report to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights:

Apparently, the federal government is trying to make an international human rights case out of S.B. 1070 on the heels of already filing a federal court case against the State of Arizona. The idea of our own American government submitting the duly enacted laws of a State of the United States to “review” by the United Nations is internationalism run amok and unconstitutional.

Apparently, it is irrelevant to Brewer that the one line referring to the Arizona law is:

“A recent Arizona law, S.B. 1070, has generated significant attention and debate at home and around the world. The issue is being addressed in a court action that argues that the federal government has the authority to set and enforce immigration law. That action is ongoing; parts of the law are currently enjoined.”

Thankfully, at least one reporter had the sense to call Jan Brewer a liar. Because she lies.

For the past few weeks, we’ve been highlighting stories from the We Are America site, and we are happy to report on a success story.

We shared the story of Yves Gomes, a DC-area teenager who was facing deportation. Two weeks ago, he was granted a reprieve.

From the Post:

Robin and Cecilia Gomes had tourist visas when they brought 14-month-old Yves to visit relatives in Silver Spring in 1994, according to lawyers, advocates and family members. The parents immediately set about establishing legal residency. During the process they obtained work permits and paid taxes. Robin was a hotel waiter; Cecilia became an assistant professor of computer science at Northern Virginia Community College. She gave birth to a second son, Aaron, now 15, an American citizen.

Robin Gomes’s appeal for political asylum was denied in 2006, and the family was ordered to leave the country. By that time, the family’s life was so rooted in the United States, it seemed impossible to go, Cecilia Gomes said. In 2008, the family was stopped by police for a faulty taillight. Days later, immigration agents surrounded its house off New Hampshire Avenue and detained Robin Gomes. It was the last time Yves and Aaron saw their father, who was deported to his native Bangladesh.

Cecilia Gomes had to wear an ankle bracelet as she was given time to sell the family’s house and organize their affairs before being deported last year to her native India. The boys moved in with their great uncle and aunt, Henry and Dominica Gomes, who are naturalized U.S. citizens.

Then it was Yves’s turn. The family’s immigration attorney, Cynthia Groomes Katz, who said she cut her fees in half because she believed in the case, won a delay in his deportation so he could finish high school.

Yves’ story is just one of the 1,100 that will be represented in Washington, DC on September 15th when community leaders from around the country gather to demand the relief, reform and respect the immigration reform movement deserves!

Here’s a glimpse of the latest news in the immigration world:

• A new memo from Immigration and Customs Enforcement shows a more common-sense approach.  (via Americas’ Voice)
• Amtrak trains and Greyhound buses are the latest sites for immigration sweeps. (via the New York Times)
• The State Department says Arizona’s papers please law violates human rights. Surprisingly, Governor Jan Brewer disagrees. (via Politico)
• A new book chronicles stories of immigrants arriving at California’s Angel Island. (via San Francisco Gate)
• Last week’s primaries reveal little about what the upcoming elections will look like. (via Immigration Impact)
• In Florida, immigrant bashing fails as an election cycle strategy. (via America’s Voice)

Suzy tackles the immigration court backlog and its effects here, discusses Canada and Australia’s rightward shift on immigration, slams Obama for the increase in workplace audits, and talks E-Verify.

Make sure to check them out.

Right now, 1,100 people are deported every day under the Obama administration –  an all time high for deportations in the past 10 years.

Each person deported represents a family separated, a community suffering and a dream deferred.

On September 15th people of faith and community leaders will gather in DC to carry with them the stories of these families and of their own communities suffering. That day, they will call for Relief, Reform and Respect.

We deserve RESPECT as human beings.

We demand RELIEF from immoral deportation policies

We are determined to achieve real immigration REFORM for America.

We want to represent YOU in Washington, DC on September 15th. What does Relief, Reform and Respect mean to you? Tell us in the comments.

And then share this with your friends on Facebook and

Twitter to see what Relief, Reform and Respect mean to them too.

Despite a shameless campaign in which he violently rejected his former “maverick” mantle and swung hard to the right, Senator John McCain prevailed over perpetual buffoon and former Congressman J.D. Hayworth in the Arizona Senate primary. In recent months, Senator McCain has denounced his former position in favor of comprehensive immigration reform in favor of a “build the danged fence” message, which obviously paid off with the conservative Arizona primary electorate. But once he presumably returns to the Senate, will Sen. McCain find the political winds shifting again? That’s certainly what Senator Inhofe (R-OK) thinks — and what any casual observer of John McCain’s career can deduce as well.

Meanwhile in Florida, immigrant bashing did not pay off for Attorney General Bill McCollum (R-FL) in his primary against Rick Scott, the corrupt former hospital executive. Neither McCollum’s promises to bring Arizona’s “papers, please” law to Florida or his anti-health care reform lawsuit were enough to beat back Rick Scott’s late surge.

In Alaska, it appears as though Sen. Lisa Murkowski is going to be defeated by Tea Party favorite and Sarah Palin endorsee Joe Miller. Murkowski was a tepid immigration reform supporter (or, at the very least, not a firebreathing demagogue devoted to building giant walls and deporting 12 million people), while Miller is presumably in the mold of his Tea Party ilk — Sharron Angle (NV), Mike Lee (UT) and Rand Paul (KY) — favoring more restrictionist policies and zero solutions for the underlying causes of illegal immigration.

The last big set of primaries is September 14th, in states like New York, New Hampshire, and Delaware, which will have lasting effects on immigration reform.

Everything.

When the rights of one group are conveniently ignored for political gain, everyone suffers. You don’t have to be Muslim to be offended by the right wing reaction to the proposed community center 2 blocks north of the former site of the World Trade Center. If we stand by and allow Newt Gingrich to claim that all Muslims are Nazis, or Sarah Palin to call the first amendment “intolerable”, we allow them to trample on the Constitution, and on America’s ideals.

How can we expect immigration reform to become a reality when there are people willing to paint everyone as “others” and pit us against each other? Newborn babies become anchor babies and then terror babies, and suddenly the 14th amendment must be repealed to save us all. It’’s a tried and true tactic: divide and conquer. And they are winning — we have doubled the number of border patrol agents, quadrupled the hours spent patrolling the border, increased deportations and decreased crime along the border, but legalization and family reunification must wait until the right wing noise machine quiets down. Except, it’s never going to quiet down.

The debate over the Muslim community center should not be seen as a brief reprieve from the hysteria about “anchor” babies and repealing the 14th amendment, rather as yet another symptom of the sickness of xenophobia that is gripping our country in these hard economic times.  We are all Americans, and we should all be standing for tolerance and respect for all of our communities.

Despite repeated debunking of wild right wing myths about surging crime statistics in the Southwest, tea party activists and immigration restrictionists continued their fear mongering this weekend in Hereford, Arizona.

The New York Times reports:

Hundreds of Tea Party activists converged on the border fence here in what is typically a desolate area popular with traffickers to rally for conservative political candidates and to denounce what they called lax federal enforcement of immigration laws.

[...]

The Obama administration insists that its statistics show that significant financing increases in the federal Border Patrol have helped bring down crime at the border and make the smuggling of immigrants and drugs harder than ever.

But the activists who gathered Sunday had a decidedly different take. The border, in their view, is still far too easy to get across and has become so dangerous that some of them brought their sidearms for protection. Organizers urged participants to leave rifles in their cars.

So despite statistics, facts and reality, the Times continues to indulge tea party fantasies with a serious piece, including the quote: “We don’t like illegals hiding under bushes when our kids wait for the school bus. This border needs to be secure.” That’s some high quality journalism.

Perhaps the strangest part of this cry for attention by “hundreds” of tea party activists was Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s proclamation that he’d scale the border fence, just to show how easy it is — if only the national media was there!

Will nothing short of an alligator filled moat satisfy this delusional crowd? Border enforcement is up. Deportations are up. The President just spent another $600 million on border security. Crime is down. And yet, hysteria is through the roof. It’s time for the Times and other media outlets to start calling out the right wing lies that are poisoning the debate and delaying comprehensive immigration reform.

(Photo Credit: Change To Win)

Taking to the pages of POLITICO, infamous pollster Mark Penn continues his streak of perpetual wrongness. Despite being associated with the success of former President Clinton, Penn is not particularly known for his political savvy or having his finger on the pulse of the mood of the country. So it’s not especially surprising to see POLITICO reprint this idiocy:

But absent that kind of bipartisan, centrist spirit, all attempts to get this done on a broader scale since then have quickly fallen apart. The Republican right wants fairly extreme measures against the undocumented aliens already here and refuses to create a path to citizenship; the left opposes the kind of crackdowns favored by the right and wants a more automatic path to citizenship. So with both the left and the right dead set against a compromise, no president has been able to keep his promise on this topic.

This is an issue that can only be solved through a centrist effort that would bring together moderate Republicans and moderate Democrats into a grand bargain on all of the major issues. The left and the right would vote down any likely compromise, but there probably would be enough votes in the center to get it done in a common sense, non-partisan way.

Penn, ever a booster for “centrism” and “moderates”, claims that the left and right will never come to an agreement on immigration reform. Of course, Penn completely neglects to mention that Republicans have abandoned common ground on immigration reform for political expediency. And that the Obama has INCREASED deportations. And Obama’s gestures to the right on border security. And the extreme rhetoric on the right about “anchor babies” and “terror babies” and “birth tourism”.

But 61 percent of Democrats and Independents and 59 percent of Republicans favor comprehensive immigration reform, argues Penn. Surely a “moderate” compromise can be reached! Considering that exactly 0 of 41 Republican Senators have endorsed a plan for immigration reform or proposed anything other than deportations and a border fence, and the entire Republican leadership has endorsed the xenophobic, crass political move of calling for repeal of the 14th amendment, Penn might note that these 59 percent of Republicans aren’t being adequately represented in the national debate. Or that the obstacle to comprehensive reform isn’t a lack of willpower, it’s a lack of a willing partner. Or really anything besides his tired trope calling for “bipartisanship”.