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John Oliver kicked off tonights episode with a reminder that Prince Philip, the British royal who died last week, is married to his own cousin.

Its true. Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth are cousins who later got married also known as a Giuliani meet-cute, joked Oliver.

The host continued to crop-dust on Florida congressman Matt Gaetz and the federal investigation into his alleged sex trafficking. The latest development involves The Daily Beasts discovery of Gaetzs Venmo transaction history detailing a $900 payment through a liaison to three women under notes like Tuition and School. Oliver offered some sage advice to the now-embarrassed politician: Venmo is for one thing and one thing only: passing judgments on friends spending habits while obsessing over wild financial mysteries.

Oliver then turned his lens onto the American refugee admission program. After eviscerating Trump over his discriminatory eligibility caps, Oliver likened Bidens inaction to his incoherent speech and played clips of White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki avoiding journalists questions regarding Bidens pledge to increase the refugee admission caps.

Rest assured were committed to getting you to Orlando eventually, we just cant tell where your plane is, why its taking so long or what year you might arrive, said Oliver as he mimed what Psaki would sound like as a Spirit Airlines gate agent.

Oliver goes on to explain the dire limbo many refugees exist in due to the presidents passivity. More than 35,000 already [are] approved for resettlement here, but until Biden signs that determination, they are beholden to Trumps low admissions ceiling and bullshit racist rules. Per Oliver, the refugees resettlement approval exists for a certain amount of time. If they unfortunately expire, refugees must start the paperwork all over again. And, even with approval, refugees cant seem to currently board planes to their approved resettlement city. After Oliver describes all of this, he explains the simple solution is the swift stroke of the presidents pen.

Its past time for him to look deep into his own, pick up a f*cking pen and do the right thing, emphasized Oliver.

Needing some comedic relief after a diatribe about a serious international crisis, a montage of the greatest questions asked on Yahoo! Answers plays onscreen. The silliness of each question is shown against a background of luscious shots of nature with the tune of Cello Suite No. 1 by Bach playing.

Oliver then spends the majority of his program dissecting the lack of federal oversight on nursing homes and assisted living facilities. The highlight of this segment includes a news clip in which a wife and daughter explain how they learned to perform in-home medical care through trial and error.

There are certain things that you can expect to learn by trial-and-error: solving a puzzle, learning to pronounce the name of Tambourine Saturday, or choosing a haircut. But providing medical care should not be one of those things, Oliver said.

Oliver notes that people who dont send their loved one to a facility perform services on their own, typically unpaid. Oliver offers a staggering statistic: the total amount of lost wages of family caregivers totals $67 billion annually a workforce, that if paid, would be comparable to the GDP of Bulgaria.

The people who either cant afford retirement homes or dont have loved ones to take care of them usually end up in a long-term care facility. He divides his segment to focus on the two types of long-term care units nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

Oliver notes how nursing homes are plagued by a lack of staffing, training and funding. Situations can be so extreme that, in a clip, employees came out to discuss how they, the facilitators, are embarrassed by their work.

Im not even embarrassed by my work and just three minutes ago I joked about f*cking a plate. That wasnt even a joke, ridiculed Oliver.

Oliver explains the complex system in which nursing homes discriminate against patients with Medicare and those with Medicaid. Each program reimburses nursing homes differently, and over-billing happens frequently, leading to a litany of lawsuits.

When he shifts the focus to the federal oversight of these nursing homes, Oliver immediately reveals how ill-equipped the government is to regulate this industry. Though there exists a public list of facilities that regularly breaks regulations, it must be capped at 88 since there isnt any money to include more. On top of that, the other criteria on the lists like staff number and quality measures are self-reported, exposing a massive loophole on how this industry operates.

Garbage in and garbage out. That is pathetic. Something that is as important as our nursing homes rating system should not follow the same rule as every recipe on Velveetas website. There is just no way any of those are any good, judged Oliver.

The most apparent and shocking example of the lack of federal oversight on long-term care facilities, specifically assisted living, came when Oliver showed an assisted living facility in Florida that had one of its patients unwittingly fall into an alligator pond. Their fate seems rather obvious.

I honestly dont know where to begin there. But I guess Id start with, why would anyone put an assisted living facility next to a f*cking alligator pond. That seems like the sort of detail that has to be included at the end of one of Brookdales heartwarming ads, said an exasperated Oliver.

He continued the narrative of horrifying assisted living facility stories with patients committing suicide, freezing to death and self-immolating.

Olivers call to action this week was to pass reform at the national level starting with the HCBS Access Act of 2021, which would make home and community-based care an entitlement under Medicaid.

He says this issue is of utmost importance because our collective treatment of those people unearth our largest national ghosts.

It all starts with showing that we give a sh*t what happens to the elders and people with disabilities in this country. Right now, evidence points to the fact we absolutely dont and all the other problems are stemming from that. The longer we continue to ignore, the worse its going to get. This is an industry where people are literally getting eaten alive, ended Oliver.

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Last Week Tonight: John Oliver Takes Biden To Task Over Immigration Reform, Uncovers Wild West Of Nursing Homes - Deadline

With a significant influx of migrants at U.S. southern border and new priorities under the Biden-Harris administration, immigration policy is at the forefront of the national conversation. After four years of hardline policies from the Trump administration, President Biden and congressional Democrats have committed to passing inclusive immigration reform. The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, which was unveiled by congressional Democrats in February, would eventually provide most undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship but is unlikely to earn bipartisan support. With so much urgent debate surrounding a long-contested issue, many people are wondering what realistic, comprehensive immigration policy reform may look like in the United States.

On April 29, as part of the twelfth annual A. Alfred Taubman Forum on Public Policy, Governance Studies at Brookings will host a webinar to explore the future of immigration policy in the United States. Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), lead sponsor of the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 in the House of Representatives, will give keynote remarks. A panel of immigration policy experts will follow to discuss legislation needed for immigration reform, obstacles to reform, and ways to move forward as a nation.

Viewers can submit questions for speakers by emailingevents@brookings.eduor via Twitter at@BrookingsGovby using #Taubman Forum.

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The future of immigration policy in the United States - Brookings Institution

Our politics have become painfully and pointlessly polarized. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Republican Partys hardline stance on immigration. Even as our southern border faces the biggest migrant surge intwo decades, Republicans wont budge on immigration. To score points against the Biden presidency and the Democratic majority in Congress, too many Republicans are willing to throw bipartisanship to the wind and hold the line against any sort of Democrat-led immigration reform.

But while playing hardball may put points on the board in the short term, the GOPs broadly anti-immigration platform is a losing strategy in the long term. To win hearts and minds for generations to come and expand its voter base, the GOP must change its tune and join the fight for immigration reform before it's too late.

Its easy to see why Republicans are reluctant to side with Democrats on immigration. The GOP remains spellbound by the extremist rhetoric that defined the Trump presidency. Republican elected officials think their best chance at reelection is tied to the Trump legacy of an anti-immigration hard line that rejects citizenship for undocumented immigrants and focuses on restricting, rather than streamlining, our immigration process.

The obvious problem with that approach is that Trump is not the future of the Republican Party.

According to conventional wisdom, immigrants are a Democratic constituency. But if its the case that more immigrants have historicallyvoted bluethan red, thats not because immigrants inherently align with the Democratic Party; its largely because Democrats have simply done more to support immigrants than their colleagues across the aisle.

Theres ample data to refute the conventional wisdom behind the Republican Party line. Fifty-eightpercentof Cuban Americans, who have a clear pathway to permanent legal status under the wet foot, dry foot policy, identify as Republicans. In fact, despite former President Trumps divisive rhetorical screeds against immigrants, significant voicesacross different immigrant groupsstill found much to like in Republican politics during the Trump era.

Many immigrants are hard-working, conscientious contributors to the American experiment in liberty and democracy. They fill crucial gaps in our labor force, start small businesses and help build out the social fabric of families, church communities and local economies that sustain the free and prosperous America Republican policies are supposed to support. In more ways than one, immigrants are the future of America. With the right policies and an attitude of acceptance and welcome, Republicans can position themselves to be part of that future.

Whenever I debate immigration with my conservative friends, I always think about my meeting in 2019 with a largely Republican farmers group in Southside, Virginia. Their primary issues centered on streamlining immigration for H-2A workers and the costs associated with navigating the bureaucratic morass in the Department of Labor. One staunch GOP farmer relayed a story about his longest-serving employee, a naturalized citizen from Mexico. This employee had been on his payroll for 40 years and would vote Republican regardless of the candidate. His quote, and I remember it almost exactly, was, You should bring back amnesty. Every immigrant Mexican worker I know voted Republican because of Reagan. That would sure help all of us now. He was their hero.

Quite frankly, the GOP is delusional if it doesnt see that immigration is a blessing, not a curse, for conservative America.

Now, it is true that conservatives and Republicans can and should have a different vision of immigration than liberals and Democrats. But the conservative vision needs to be more than negative; it needs to take stock of the positive role played by immigrants and provide immigrants with what they need to fully realize their unique contribution to American society.

Theres no reason why Republicans cant be leaders on immigration. Why cant we be the principal architects of transformative, bipartisan immigration bills? To give just one example, creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants is proven toboost GDPand hasno lasting negative effectson employment for native-born Americans. Why then aren't we fighting to make legalization and immigration reform an integral part of our conservative policy on economics?

And we can, with the right amount of work, easily balance border security and national security with pro-immigrant policy. Creating a clear, responsible pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and children already living in the United States is perfectly compatible with tightening our southern border. And what better way to reduce illegal immigration than to make legal immigration easier and more efficient?

In our current immigration system, undocumented immigrants lack a way to attain permanent legal status and are forced to avoid detection, work clandestinely and live on the margins of society. This situation exposes undocumented immigrants to all sorts of criminality, from human traffickers and drug cartels to ordinary robbery and gang violence. If we can create a system that encourages undocumented immigrants to come forward and make themselves visible to state and local governments, we can better target our deportations against career criminals and bad actors among the immigrant population.

Real immigration reform must happen. But if the GOP drags its feet for any longer, it will simply get left behind. Generations of immigrants to come will only have Democrats to thank for the lives they can build in America; what theyll remember of the GOP is nothing but insults and ignorance. The GOP needs to start getting smart on immigration for the sake of the party, and the country.

DenverRigglemanis the former U.S. congressman of Virginias 5th District, CEO and subject matter expert on data analytics forRigglemanInformation and Intelligence Group (RIIG) and author of Bigfoot Its Complicated. He served as a United States Air Force intelligence officer and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) supporting the global war on terror.

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The GOP is stuck in a losing battle against immigration | TheHill - The Hill

Sen. Joe ManchinJoe ManchinBiden risks first major fight with progressives Biden sets off Capitol Hill scramble on spending, taxes White House moves to reshape role of US capitalism MORE (D-W.Va.) said on Thursday after visiting the U.S.-Mexico border that it is "past time" for Congress to address immigration reform, including a path to citizenship,and called the border surge a "crisis."

"It is beyond time, past time, to do immigration reform. Immigration reform should be a pathway to citizenship. People that have been here, they might have come here the wrong way but they came here for the right reason," Manchin said during a press conference.

"We have children that came here that have no other home but America.There should be a pathway for that, for our dreamers," he added.

Manchin and Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) toured the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday, including taking a helicopter and boat tour with Customs and Border Protection. They also visited a Laredo, Texas, port of entry and met with migrant families.

Manchin, during the press conference,floated a 90-day moratorium on immigration, saying that he was "just throwing out different ideas."

"We've got a human crisis that I'm seeing here ... so if that means shutting everything down for 90 days of how we have people come into our country, sending that message that we're not going to be taking people into this country until we get our ability to make sure we're able to do it and do it right, is that going to put the pressure?" Manchin asked.

"Something has to be done and it has to be expedited. ... This problem is not going away. This problem will not cure itself, I can assure you, and they're coming in droves," he said.

Manchin also backed beefed up border security, more immigration judges and allowing for immigrants to apply for asylum back in their home countries rather than making an often dangerous journey to the United States.

"It would be safer. It would be much more humane. ... It's something that we should be doing," he said.

Manchin, part of a shrinking group of centrist senators, is at the center of the 50-50 Senate, where he has an outsized influence on nearly every policy debate. Cuellar noted near the start of the press conference that Manchin "plays a very important role."

The border trip comes as Biden has come under criticism from Republicans, and Democrats have shown signs of concern about asurge of unaccompanied children arriving along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The U.S. was in custody of at least 15,000 migrant children as of late last week, and the federal government has struggled to secure enough housing for all of them, particularly during the pandemic.

Manchin said that his characterization of the surge as a "crisis," wasn't criticism of Biden.

"When I call this a crisis, I'm not blaming the crisis on the present administration of President BidenJoe BidenThe Hill's Morning Report - GOP pounces on Biden's infrastructure plan Biden administration unveils network of community leaders to urge COVID-19 vaccinations Pompeo 'regrets' not making more progress with North Korea MORE, the former administration of PresidentTrump," he said. "This has been a human crisis for a long, long time."

Manchin added that he planned to return to Washington, D.C., and discuss his trip with both Biden and his colleagues.

Biden has proposed a sweeping, comprehensive immigration reform bill, though it's unlikely that could pass in the Senate where 10 GOP votes would be needed. A bipartisan group is also holding talks about a smaller bill that would address immigrants brought into the country illegally as children.

"This can happen," Manchin added about immigration legislation. "Common sense can prevail and that's what we're hopeful for."

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Manchin after border visit: 'Past time to do immigration reform' | TheHill - The Hill

Rep. Veronica Escobar (D.-Tex.) during a press conference in Washington, D.C., in November 2019.

Last week, President Biden tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to take charge of the influx of immigrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico borderan issue that has long been a political lightning rod but has become especially contentious over the last several weeks.

At its core, immigration reform is a humanitarian issue. But its also a subject that has myriad consequences on American business and the entrepreneurial ecosystem: Immigrants make up roughly 15% of workers in the U.S., yet they are 80% more likely than U.S.-born workers to become entrepreneurs,according to a recent Wharton/National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) paper. Separate research shows that these immigrant-founded businesses drive more than $1 trillion in sales and employ some 8 million people in the U.S.

Even the Business Roundtablea collection of Americas top CEOshas advocated for the need for better immigration policies. A 2018 study by the BRT found that scaling back a program that encourages the employment of highly skilled immigrants would result in the loss of 443,000 jobs over the next decade, a number that includes some 25o,000 jobs held by American-born workers.

The voices of these CEOs are important, but some of the most effective advocates on behalf of a better approach to immigration, however, happen to be womenwomen who are over the age of 50. And so, as part of our regular segment on Morning Joe highlighting women over the age of 50 who are changing the world, Forbes and Know Your Value want to shine a light on the women who have raised their voices in support of immigration reform. They are:

Veronica Escobar, 51: A third-generation El Pasoan, Escobar was sworn in as her citys first female member of Congressand the first of two Latinas from Texas to serve in Congressin January 2019.

Shes moved quickly over her last two years in office, becoming the co-chair of Congress Womens Working Group on Immigration Reform and cofounding the Congressional Moms Task Force on Family Separation. Its an issue thats close to home: In 2017, the Trump Administration quietly used El Paso as a testing ground for the shameful family separation policy, which ripped thousands of children from their parents arms at our southern border, Escobar says.

In 2020, Escobar delivered the Spanish-language Democratic response to President Trumps State of the Union address and used part of her time to focus on immigration. More recently, shes concentrating on how she can use her positionas the representative of a border communityto reshape a system that has focused on border militarization. As she wrote in the New York Times last week: Im not asking for open borders. Im simply asking for open minds.

Cecilia Munoz, 58: The daughter of Bolivian immigrants, Munoz has dedicated her career to advocating on behalf of people like her parents. While an undergraduate at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Munoz tutored Hispanic inmates at the state prison near her school. When she was just 24 years old, she took a job with Catholic Charities in Chicagoand eventually asked her boss so many questions about how the organization was going to help immigrants get legal status under the 1986 immigration reform law that she was put in charge of the organizations legal program.

In 2000, Munoz was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship Genius Grant for her work around immigration and civil rights, and in 2009 joined the Obama Administration as the head of Intergovernmental Affairs. In 2012, she became the first Hispanic person to serve as the director of the White House Domestic Policy Counciland as such, received criticism for supporting Obamas deportation policy but was ultimately a crucial figure in helping DACA come to be.

Daca is not a permanent solution to our nations immigration problems. Far from it. We still need Congress to do its job and fix our immigration system, she wrote in 2018. Its a position she maintains to this day and one of the reasons Biden tapped her to serve on his transition team. The fundamental questions of American immigrationwho should be admitted legally, and who deserves protection when fleeing dangerare matters for Congress to answer, she wrote in The Atlantic this week.

Penny Pritzker, 61: Pritzker bridges the private and public sectors as a billionaire heir of the Pritzker familyand the founder and chairman of PSP Partners, a private investment firmand the former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, a position she held from 2013 until 2017. She is also the descendant of two immigrants who fled political oppression in czarist Russia in search of a better life in the United States, and so she sees immigration reform as a part of her familys history.

Her private sector experience means she both understands the business case for immigration reform and has a powerful voice in the matter. When she speaks, she grounds her advocacy in sound economic arguments.

Paradoxically, creating an environment in the name of security that makes foreigners less welcome and less likely to visit will make our country less prosperous and, eventually, less secure, she has said. We need to fix the legal visa process more broadly, use technology to further secure our borders and establish a pathway for the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the shadows. We should make smart changes to the H1B visa process to ensure that we still welcome highly talented people who create jobs here in America, while simultaneously protecting against anyone trying to game the system on the margins to undercut our domestic workforce.

Shifra Rubin, 71: Judge Shifra Rubin doesnt have a national profile like the other women on this list, and as such is the unsung herobut she represents what it means to be over 50, breaking boundaries and using her voice to speak for the voiceless.

Rubin was born in Israel and grew up on three different continents, acquiring fluency in six different languages along the way. She was a promising student but left college early, marrying and starting a family. By her mid-40s, Rubin was a single mother supporting her kids in a series of dead-end jobs, and she realized she wanted more for herself. At the age of 48, after pulling all-nighters to pass the LSAT, she enrolled in Rutgers Law School. Rubin attended school at night while working full time and caring for her family during the day.

After graduating in her early 50s, Rubin dedicated the next 14 years defending immigrant rights, representing asylum seekers and others facing deportation. In 2016, then Attorney General Loretta Lynchelected Rubin to serve as a judge on the Newark Immigration Court.

She is an anomaly in many ways, Rubins daughter, Noa Yachot, told Forbes. An immigrant herself, who became a federal judge, a judge whose background is in human rights, a late-career attorney who managed to reach the top of her field, anddespite a life of financial hardshipchose a career in public service.

Originally posted here:
The Women Over 50 Proving That Immigration Reform Is Needed For Business And Society - Forbes