Photo by DoubleSpeak with Matthew and Peter Slutsky’s.

Immigration was not overlooked during Barack Obama’s momentous closing speech on Thursday night.

“Passions fly on immigration,” said Obama, “but I don’t know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This too is part of America’s promise - the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.”

At the very end of a Democratic National Convention during which immigration was often shadowed by the politics of the race and the burning issues of Iraq and the economy, Obama made sure that immigration was written into his history-making speech.
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Yesterday the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA)–a nonpartisan association of Hispanic organizations and leaders–announced a bold new policy agenda at the DNC, calling upon elected officials, candidates, political parties, the media and the general public to consider and adopt the NHLA platform.

The Hispanic Policy Agenda addresses prime policy issues facing Hispanics in six main issue areas:

• Education
• Civil rights
• Immigration
• Economic Empowerment
• Health
• Government Accountability

NHLA Chair and President of the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF), John Trasvina, began by introducing the purpose of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda as being the establishment of a set of principles and priorities that the candidates need to adopt if they want to gain the support of the Latinos. “We need to make sure that the truth is spoken about immigration and the needs of the Latino community and we don’t let others define what we are,” said Trasvina.
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Janet Murguia, CEO of President of National Council of La Raza was the final speaker at NDN’s Immigration Reform and the Next Administration forum event at the DNC.

Murguia wanted to add another dimension to the conversation by pointing out that as a Latina, she and her fellow Latinos care about a lot of issues–yet immigration is the single issue that crosses across the community and is mobilizing Latinos across the country.
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Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice was the third speaker featured at NDN’s Immigration Reform and the Next Administration forum event.

Sharry began by providing a definition for attrition through enforcement: From the policy point of view, attrition through enforcement assumes we have good laws and bad people and what we have to do is enforce the good laws so that the bad people go away. The idea is to make life so miserable so people will leave. He referred to it as more accurately being a form of “non-violent ethnic cleansing”–making a bad problem worse.
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The US-Mexican border at Nogales, Mexico. Photo by Baveta.

The next speaker at the NDN’s Immigration Reform and the Next Administration forum event at the DNC was Marco Lopez of Arizona, a rising star in American politics.

Lopez talked about what Arizona has had to do “creatively” to tackle the growing trend of migration from South to North, acknowledging that Arizona–as one of the fastest growing states–needs workers.
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NDN is currently holding a forum on Immigration Reform and the Next Administration at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

NDN President Simon Rosenberg began the conversation acknowledging that the Democrats have “woken up” to the relevance of the immigrant voting population in the upcoming election.

NDN Vice-president, Andres Ramirez, introduced Congresswoman and Chairman of the House Committee on Immigration Reform, Zoe Lofgren of California.
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Senator Biden talks about common-sense solutions to immigration.

This past weekend, presumptive Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, introduced Joseph Biden of Delaware as his vice-presidential running mate.  Pro-immigrant and labor groups have lauded Obama’s decision to run next to a six-term senator with foreign policy expertise and a firm commitment to comprehensive immigration reform.

Frank Sharry of America’s voice and a featured panelist at NDN’s Immigration Reform and the Next Administration forum event at the DNC said in a released statement ”As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he [Biden] has been a strong, consistent and unwavering supporter of common sense immigration reform. Biden understands, as do the majority of Americans, that the immigration system is broken and the current Administration has failed miserably to solve the problem.”
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Stay tuned all of next week to receive live updates on how immigration is being discussed and addressed at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Photo by psilver

This week the Police Foundation sponsored a two day conference, “The Role of Local Police: Striking a balance between immigration enforcement and civil liberties.”

One of the highlights was a speech by Mayor Phil Gordon of Phoenix, a vocal supporter of immigration reform and opponent of the antics of Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County. Gordon understands firsthand both the impact that undocumented immigration has had on his community and the impact that using the wrong policies to try to fix a very real problem have had. Drop houses, kidnapping operations, smuggling, and trafficking are all issues the Phoenix has to deal with on a daily basis, and they are direct results of the illegality wrought by the current broken immigration system. He also spoke about costs of enforcing immigration law — the financial costs, the public safety costs, and the human costs.

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Cejudo discusses win on CBS’ the Early Show

On Tuesday night, Henry Cejudo nabbed an Olympic gold medal for the U.S. and realized the dream that his mother, Nelly Rico, carried with her as she crossed the border from Mexico over twenty years ago.

Rico—an undocumented immigrant—encouraged her children to work hard and aim high. Now her son is an American hero and the youngest American wrestler to win a gold in the Olympics.

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