An summit geared towards the immigrant community Saturday highlighted Illinois’ pro-immigrant policies and also controversy between Cook County and
federal immigration officials.
The Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights, which has 130 member organizations, held their 2nd annual Illinois Immigrant Integration Summit at Malcolm X College,
featuring appearances by Gov. Pat Quinn and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, among
other officials.
Lauding the Obama administration for its new policies on deportation, U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez announced plans to hold a public forum on September 10 to help educate the public on the changes and what they will mean for thousands of families across the nation. The congressman is making the move in hopes of cutting potential scams off at the pass.
"To the community we are saying, 'Be patient and be careful,'" Gutierrez said at a press conference earlier today. "We do not want you to fall victim to false promises and those who would exploit your hopes and fears for profit. We will work hard in the coming days to clarify these new policies and get you correct information."
U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez isn't going away. He recently kicked off a 20-city tour to make sure the White House keeps its promise of enacting immigration reform. The move comes as President Obama faces serious challenges both at home and abroad on several fronts -- the ongoing budget talks with Congressional Republicans, continued strikes in Libya, while the military is already fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the beginning of the 2012 re-election campaign.
U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, one of the leading advocates for a comprehensive immigration reform bill, said Rahm Emanuel "has not stood up for immigrants."
U.S. Representative Luis Gutierrez, nearly a contender for Chicago's open mayoral seat himself, has endorsed Gery Chico's campaign for that spot this past weekend, calling Mayor Daley's ex-aide "simply the best candidate to lead Chicago right now." The Chico campaign is already live with a Spanish-language advertisement featuring the high-profile congressman; you can watch it here.
The endorsement is as much a blow to Miguel del Valle's bid for mayor as a boon to Chico's. Del Valle, who has tacked to the left during the campaign, earning him support from some progressive Latino aldermen and traditional liberal organizations like IVI-IPO, might have expected to get the nod from Gutierrez. The congressman counts himself as a member of the House Progressive Caucus after all, and both grew their political careers out of Chicago's Northwest Side Puerto Rican neighborhoods. Furthermore, the City Clerk has been out front in criticizing mayoral frontrunner Rahm Emanuel over immigration, as has Gutierrez.
Del Valle acknowledged he disagreed with the congressman's decision in a press statement Sunday and drew some strong lines between himself and Chico. "My opponent, Gery Chico, has earned millions of dollars off his City Hall contracts," del Valle said. "A well-funded, highly connected insider can neither fix the budget nor halt corruption. It takes proven competence and strong ethics, and I will bring both to City Hall."
Chico, meanwhile, is also on television with two new English-language ads. Take a look at both, rolled here into a single YouTube clip:
With polls showing the American people want the Bush-era tax cuts for the richest Americans to expire, progressives around the country are bemoaning President Obama's "compromise" with congressional Republicans to extend the breaks for the rich for two years. Illinois Democrats have joined the chorus of disappointed liberals.
U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL-9), who is becoming a leading progressive voice on budget issues, cautioned on MSNBC that "I think there is still some negotiating to be done and still get it done by the end of this lame-duck session." Watch the interview here:
U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (IL-7) said he would vote no on the plan as is because he doesn't "think it does enough for the poor" or "the middle class." And U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (IL-4), who is currently fighting to get the DREAM Act passed, spoke to WLS' Don Wade and Roma about the tax plan this morning: "I think if you really begin to look at it, you've got to ask yourself, 'Why is it that early on in this process, we are saying to the country and the legislative body, that we're going to give hundreds of billions of dollars in tax write-offs to 2 percent of our wage earners -- and just so we're clear, 80 percent of whom make over $1 million -- while we have two wars going on?'" Listen to his comments here.
The president's plan garnered slightly more support from Democratic leaders downstate. A spokesperson for recently defeated U.S. Rep. Phil Hare (IL-17) said the importance of extending unemployment insurance for 13 months means he will have to give the deal "serious consideration." And some progressive writers and economists have said that while the deal is imperfect, it "is not the end of the world either." Still, if he expects the current plan to pass, Obama is going to have to quickly shift from luring Republican support to simply keeping his party by his side.
Key votes are expected in both the U.S. House and Senate tomorrow on versions of the DREAM Act, which would allow undocumented immigrants
who entered the U.S. before turning 16 and have lived here for at least
five years, have a
high school or GED diploma or have been accepted to college, and have
demonstrated "good moral
character" to apply for permanent status. While President Obama has made the bill's passage a priority of Congress' lame duck session, its prospects look dim. Indeed, even the chief Republican co-sponsor may not vote for it.
A lack of progress is causing one of Washington's major immigrant
advocates, U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (IL-4), to grow cynical about the
political process. In an interview with the Daily Beast, Gutierrez said
he is tired of "waiting for the mythical 60th vote" needed to end a
filibuster in the Senate, and that after tomorrow, he plans on changing
his tactics. From the article:
To hear Gutiérrez tell it,
Hispanic leaders are about to stage a full-tilt campaign of direct
action, like the African-American civil-rights movement of the 1960s.
There will be protests, marches, sit-ins—what César Chávez might have
called going rogue. The movement will operate autonomously, no longer
beholden to wavering Democrats, filibustering Republicans, and—perhaps
most tantalizingly—no longer beholden to Barack Obama.
It's hard
to blame Gutierrez. As he said so clearly to the Daily Beast, "If we
couldn’t do it when Democrats were nearly 260 in the House and 59 in the
Senate, how do we propose to tell people we can do it now?"
An summit geared towards the immigrant community Saturday highlighted Illinois’ pro-immigrant policies and also controversy between Cook County and
federal immigration officials.
U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez isn't going away. He recently kicked off a 
U.S. Representative Luis Gutierrez, 
With 
Key votes are 