Photo by ThinkProgess.

At a c-o-n-f-e-r-e-n-c-e hosted by Pat Buchanan and the American Cause this weekend, America’s best and brightest conservative strategists discussed how Republicans could regain a majority in America. Peter Brimelow, owner of the anti-immigrant website VDare.com, suggested an English-only initiative with the aim of “winning over working class white Democrats.” The only problem with this idea is that the word “conference” on the banner hanging over their heads is misspelled: “conferenece.”

For the full story, check out ThinkProgress’s blog post.

This morning, President Barack Obama reaffirmed his dedication to comprehensive immigration reform at the Esperanza USA National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC. “This promise means upholding America’s tradition as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants,” he said. The President also gave a general outline of his immigration plan—ensuring employers don’t exploit low-income workers, requiring immigrants pay taxes, learn English and get in line to naturalize.

Today’s re-affirmation was a step forward after the President pushed back his initial White House meeting on June 17th. This morning’s speech was greeted with great expectations and anticipation that the President will uphold his June 25th meeting with lawmakers to devise plans for comprehensive immigration reform even at a time when “there’s no shortage of challenges to occupy our time.”

Photo by Paul Goyette.

While some fear that demographic shifts threaten American identity, yet another piece of research has come out showing that today’s immigrants want to and are integrating into American society just like generations of immigrants before them.

After more than two years of collaboration and initiatives among 20 federal agencies and a variety of stakeholders, the Task Force on New Americans delivered a report this past Monday.  The Task Force was assembled in 2006 with a call to “strengthen the efforts of the Department of Homeland Security and federal, state, and local agencies to help legal immigrants embrace the common core of American civic culture, learn our common language, and fully become Americans.”  The Task Force’s recommendations are based in the belief that immigrants can and do integrate into U.S. society and that integration is also a federal responsibility.
Read the rest of this entry »

Latino Voting Power: What do Latino voters think of Republican immigration policies?

Echoing remarks made from both Republicans and Democrats, Congressman Xavier Becerra speaks about how Latinos view the immigration policies of republicans and its implications for the future of the Republican party.

Photo by fallsroad.

As expected, the Republican platform contains lots of tough immigration-enforcement language as well as an outright rejection of “amnesty.” Yet one of the more paradoxical sections is on immigrant integration and the English language. According to the platform:

One sign of our unity is our English language. For newcomers, it has always been the fastest route to prosperity in America. English empowers. We support English as the official language in our nation, while welcoming the ethnic diversity in the United States and the territories, including language. Immigrants should be encouraged to learn English. English is the accepted language of business, commerce, and legal proceedings, and it is essential as a unifying cultural force. It is also important, as part of cultural integration, that our schools provide better education in U.S. history and civics for all children, thereby fostering a commitment to our national motto, E Pluribus Unum.

Maybe immigrants should be encouraged to learn Latin so they can keep up with all of our American ideals. Did the Republican drafters really fail to catch the irony there?

Ninety-nine percent of the GOP’s paragraph is indisputable. English is an empowering, unifying force. But making English the official language of the U.S. is not going to force anyone to learn English any faster. By including this point in their platform, the GOP stokes Americans’ misguided suspicions that immigrants don’t want to learn English. Shame on the GOP for playing into fears and stereotypes.

Read the rest of this entry »

Over five hundred immigrants gathered on July 4, 2007 to take the oath of citizenship. Photo by BrittneyBush

Last week the US Census Bureau projected that minorities will grow to become a majority by the year 2042. A recent New York Times article pointed out that the main reason for the accelerating change is significantly higher birthrates among immigrants.

While some fear that demographic shifts threaten American identity, research and experience has shown that today’s immigrants integrate into American society just as generations of immigrants before them. Immigrants are learning English, buying property, intermarrying, becoming U.S. citizens, and otherwise weaving themselves into the fabric of this nation.
Read the rest of this entry »