Deportations creating a generation scarred by parental loss | Al Jazeera America

Some nights, Alejandra Muñoz wakes with the distinct feeling that she’s not an adult in Long Beach, Calif. She’s a teen in Oakland, listening to her brother bang around the kitchen. It usually takes her a minute to remember that Donovan is not around anymore. He hasn’t died. He has been deported. “Sometimes it’s worse than a death; I’ve had family…

Obama Prods House Republicans on Immigration Reform — Fusion.

“I know that there’s some folks in this town who are primed to think, well, if Obama’s for it, then I’m against it,” the president said. “I’m not running for office again; I just believe this is the right thing to do.” But the pressure isn’t only on Republicans. Obama has come under fire from some immigrant-rights groups who want him to relax his a…

Obama Prods House Republicans on Immigration Reform — Fusion.

“I know that there’s some folks in this town who are primed to think, well, if Obama’s for it, then I’m against it,” the president said. “I’m not running for office again; I just believe this is the right thing to do.” But the pressure isn’t only on Republicans. Obama has come under fire from some immigrant-rights groups who want him to relax his a…

Obama Prods House Republicans on Immigration Reform — Fusion.

“I know that there’s some folks in this town who are primed to think, well, if Obama’s for it, then I’m against it,” the president said. “I’m not running for office again; I just believe this is the right thing to do.” But the pressure isn’t only on Republicans. Obama has come under fire from some immigrant-rights groups who want him to relax his a…

Stopping Deportations Should Be ‘Plan A’ for Immigration – POLITICO

As immigration reform re-emerges at the center of political debate, President Barack Obama can do more than urge on a gridlocked and dysfunctional Congress: There’s much he can do — right now — to provide overdue relief to America’s immigrant families. The first step: Admit that his previous strategy of appeasing nativists through Arizona-style pol…

While feds stall, California advances immigration reform | Al Jazeera America

A row of seven pay-phone booths lines the corner of Bauchet and Vignes streets downtown here, just outside the walls of the L.A. County Men’s Central Jail. From that corner, newly released inmates and visiting families can nearly make out the top of the federal building just a mile south, across the 101 Freeway, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers determine the fate of thousands who pass through the county jail gates. In 2009, Los Angeles County became one of the first in the nation to partner with ICE in a program called Se Communities, which allows federal agents to access the fingerprints of anyone who has been arrested to see if he or she is subject to deportation. This partnership led to the transfer of nearly 20,000 inmates from jails in L.A. County to ICE custody in 2011. Those transferred, mostly Hispanic males who had committed nonviolent crimes