Human rights advocates see the Biden administration’s expansion of detention-reliant immigration enforcement as a betrayal, guided by political headwinds rather than operational necessities. In a letter to President Biden delivered Thursday, 200 organizations voiced “outrage over your administration’s expansion of the cruel and unnecessary immigration detention system.” The groups, most of them longtime opponents of the practice of immigration detention, are incensed over skyrocketing detention spending, with $3.4 billion destined to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention bed ..read more

President Biden’s left flank is pushing for expanded work permits for immigrants living in the country illegally, not just as a humanitarian imperative, but as a political boon ahead of November. Speculation over Biden’s next play on immigration has reached a fever pitch, with reports of imminent executive action on two fronts: expanded work permits and a crackdown on asylum at the border. While the administration is widely expected to do both, civil rights advocates say action on work permits will do more to move the needle in Biden’s favor. “It’s not just good policy, it's good politics. Re ..read more

Civil rights icon Dolores Huerta and the United Farm Workers (UFW), the union she founded alongside Cesar Chavez, on Wednesday endorsed Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) in his Senate bid. Endorsements from Huerta and the UFW, key players in the birth of Hispanic political power, hold a special significance for many Latinos, particularly in the Southwest. “Ruben is a stalwart advocate for immigration reform and his commitment to advancing the circumstances of working people, especially Latinos, is undeniable,” Huerta said. Gallego called Huerta “a true champion for civil rights and one of our natio ..read more

Republican use of the term “invasion” is putting party officials at odds with the immigration restrictionists behind much of the GOP's ideological framework on the issue. The term has become a mainstay of Republican political rhetoric ahead of elections in November, but its use as a descriptor of the situation at the southern border has been widely panned as inaccurate and incendiary, even by groups including the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and NumbersUSA. At a House Natural Resources Committee hearing earlier this month, Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) outlined the dangers of the so-call ..read more

A coalition of more than 100 civil rights and immigrant rights groups are calling on Congress to fund legal representation for foreign nationals in immigrant detention. In a letter to the top appropriators in the House and Senate on Monday — Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Reps. Kay Granger (R-Texas) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) — the organizations said Congress should allocate $400 million for immigrant representation. Immigrants who are detained and put in removal proceedings currently have scant due process rights and no right to a government-appointed attorney ..read more

The Pacific Northwest is emerging as a staging ground for Latino political representation, as a trio of federal elected Latina officials from the region face their first reelection campaigns, with others potentially joining them in Congress. From 2011-23, former Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) was the only federal elected Hispanic official from the Pacific Northwest. Though Herrera Beutler lost her reelection bid in 2022, Reps. Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.), Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) won their elections and tripled the region’s Hispanic representation ov ..read more

Actor John Leguizamo obliterated a small horse piñata while reciting a thorough catalogue of Spanish-language profanities on “The Daily Show” Tuesday in response to a New York Times/Siena poll that reported former President Trump leads President Biden among Latino voters. Of the poll’s Hispanic respondents, 46 percent they would vote for Trump if the election were held today, and 40 percent said they would vote for Biden. “You may be thinking, how is this possible? ‘Build the wall’ Donald Trump? ‘Mass deportations’ Donald Trump? ‘Guy who thinks Daddy Yankee is a baseball player’ Donald Trump ..read more

The Democratic House trio who became known as the “Three Amigos” for their defiant efforts to protect undocumented immigrants are now urging the Biden administration to use its executive powers to grant legal work permits for that group. Reps. Jesús “Chuy” García (Ill.), Adriano Espaillat (N.Y.) and Lou Correa (Calif.) will deliver a letter Wednesday to President Biden, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ur Jaddou, outlining what they believe the administration can do on work permits and why it’s in their best interes ..read more

Hispanic Democrats are throwing their weight behind Rep. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.), the first-term lawmaker who occupies the House seat once held by his father, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who is under indictment for corruption. The younger Menendez, a former commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was elected to the House in 2022 after the retirement of former Rep. Albio Sires (D), as part of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s (CHC) largest first-term class ever. Menendez now faces a serious primary challenge from Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla amid fallout over his father’s le ..read more

Former President Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) are teaming up to promote a bill to keep noncitizens from voting in federal elections, according to a report by USA Today. Johnson is set to visit Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence Friday to drum up the proposal, amid tensions with his Trump-aligned right flank over bipartisan proposals in the House. A show of mutual support between the two top Republicans on a unifying issue for the party could help to heal the rift between Johnson and House conservatives, or at least stop the bleeding in the wake of an embarrassing procedural defe ..read more