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As the 114th Congress begins and President Obama enters the final years of his presidency, the opportunity to marshal our political will to pass immigration reform should not be squandered.

Whatever the merits, the President's executive action to defer certain classes of deportations emerged from a sense of frustration over Congress' failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation. Ongoing dithering in Washington burdens the millions who live within the shadows of our society, seeking employment to pay rent and feed their families, send their children to schools and become active members of American society at large.

The previous Congress made some progress, with the U.S. Senate in 2013 passing, with strong bipartisan support, an historic bill that set the stage for a complete overhaul of America's broken immigration system. But the House did not adopt a companion bill.

Commitment among our own political leadership, essential to achieving substantive immigration reform, is only one piece of the equation.

Immigration transcends both domestic and foreign policy challenges, so it is critically important to understand why and how immigrants continue to strive to come, often at great personal risk, as well as the government policies in the countries they are fleeing. Concerned governments should take responsibility for their roles and cooperate at the highest levels.

In this regard, it was highly significant that El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras recently announced, at the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington, D.C., together with the U.S., the creation of a joint initiative, the Alliance for Prosperity in the Northern Triangle. The alliance aims to provide greater economic opportunities, enhance security and improve governance, and make public institutions more transparent and accountable in each of the three Central American countries. This initiative can potentially curtail the emigration flow, which today exceeds the number of Mexicans crossing the U.S. border. Due to high crime and poverty, almost one in 10 citizens of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras has emigrated, mostly to the U.S., according to the IADB.

"Our countries are linked by family, friendship, by trade, by simple geography," said Vice President Joe Biden at the Alliance launch.

The triangle development plan follows upon the spike over the summer in the number of undocumented minors coming into the U.S., more than 54,000, the latest manifestation of a ceaseless flow of migrants seeking to enter the U.S. through its southern border. The large numbers of minors reflects a new level of desperation. What parents would knowingly send their kids on such an unknown, risky journey? And though media and others labeled them unaccompanied, they surely were not alone, but handled by "coyotes" and other shady agents.

Diplomats, policy experts, scholars, journalists, activists and government officials have come together with the American Jewish Committee and the Baker Institute at Rice University in Houston this week to discuss not only the critical need for immigration reform but also the shared responsibility for developing and implementing effective policies.

Indecision is harmful and unproductive. Washington must not hesitate further in passing comprehensive immigration reform legislation that creates a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented, provides opportunities for them to succeed and reunite with family members left behind. At the same time, the U.S. should deepen cooperation with Latin American allies to improve their own economies and security to convince those contemplating emigration to instead stay put.

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Maybe a step closer to immigration reform - Houston Chronicle

It's been nearly 2 months since President Obama announced his executive orders on immigration reform but so far no applications have been made available. There are nearly 7,000 undocumented immigrants in Hawaii.

Click here to watch Roger Mari's report.

"I'd love to move forward. I think it's frustrating for people who have been waiting a long time and finally have the opportunity to do something even though it's temporary,"says Clare Hanusz, Immigration Attorney

For now, there is little immigration attorney Clare Hanusz can do to help her more than 30 clients to remain legally in the United States. In the meantime there are ways to prepare for when an application is made available which she says could take months.

"Get lists of the kinds of documents that they should be preparing in anticipation of filing the applications," says Hanusz.

"Some of those documents, you might have to send away for like your birth certificate for example and that could be slow," says Stanley Bain, Faith Action for Community Equity, Organizer.

It's an especially difficult time for those who have already started the process of becoming legal immigrants. They are now left to make life changing decisions.

"They have to weigh, do I go to the Philippines or do I go to Mexico and wait this out? And, leave my wife and children behind or do I stay here and just try to fly under the radar until congress passes something or until the president issues something," says Hanusz.

Those who plan to go through the application process should be aware that there could be schemers looking to defraud unsuspecting immigrants

"It's less a problem in Hawaii but it's still a problem. We know of people on the big island, we know of people operating in Chinatown claiming to know immigration law and give advice they really don't know," says Hanusz.

The rest is here:
Immigration reform bring Illegal Hawaii immigrants to the forefront

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is trying to win the messaging war on immigration.

The conservative Republican and chief critic of President Barack Obamas executive actions on immigration is sending around a detailed and lengthy memo that encourages fellow GOP lawmakers to block the unilateral moves, even arguing that Congress response to what he calls this emergency will define its legacy.

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Congress has the power to stop this action by denying funds for its implementation, Sessions writes in the memo sent to GOP congressional offices this week. Surely, Congress must not allow the president a single dime to carry out an illegal order that Congress has rejected and which supplants the laws Congress has passed.

The 25-page document is meant to frame the GOPs thinking on immigration in advance of the partys joint retreat in Hershey, Pennsylvania, during a week when House Republicans are set to pass a plan that would fund the Department of Homeland Security while killing Obamas executive actions on immigration. His aides spent much of Monday hand-delivering the memo to all GOP offices on the Hill.

The text on so-called executive amnesty makes up a fraction of the memo from Sessions, who distributed a similar document before last years House Republican as leadership unveiled their long-awaited list of principles on immigration reform. Those principles ultimately went nowhere.

The document also touches on what Sessions called the enforcement collapse of immigration laws under the Obama administration, as well as immigrations impact on the economy and welfare, and what Sessions termed the Silicon Valley STEM hoax the argument that the nation faces a shortage of high-skilled American workers to fill tech jobs. It also includes polling on immigration policies and suggestions for messaging.

But Sessions views on immigration, particularly on limiting the number of legal immigrants into the United States, runs counter to many in his own party who advocate for reforms to the current system to allow more immigrant workers into the United States, both high-skilled and lower-skilled.

Simply put, we have more jobseekers than jobs, Sessions writes. It is astonishing, therefore, that prominent members[of] Congress wish to see record immigration levels increased yet further.

Still, its the GOP response to Obamas executive actions that will be at the forefront of Congress agenda this week.

Read the rest here:
Sessions: Not 'a single dime' for Obama's immigration moves

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama wont sign legislation currently being mulled in the House that would fund the Department of Homeland Security but undo nearly everything he has done while in office to address immigration reform. The legislation, being pushed by conservatives, stands little of chance of making it to Obama because it wont be able to garner enough votes in the Senate.

The president's immigration accountability executive actions strengthen our border security, ensure undocumented immigrants who are parents of U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents pass background checks to obtain temporary relief from removal, and require everyone to play by the same rules, the Office of Management and Budget said in the official veto threat.

If a deal cant be reached by Feb. 27, the agency tasked with protecting the nations borders and preventing a terrorist attack could be forced to shut down-- or at least partially shut down since much of its services are considered essential and immune to a lack of funding.

Its part of a Republican strategy to undo Obamas executive actions signed last year that will provide legal status to an estimated 5 million undocumented immigrants. The GOP decided to fund DHS only until Feb. 27 to give it leverage to pressure Obama to reverse his executive actions.

But instead of trying to chip away at just the one piece signed by Obama last year, House Republicans have decided to go after all of the presidents changes to immigration policy. It also would undo changes Obama made for so-called dreamers, illegal immigrant children who were brought to the country by their parents.

The effort by House Republicans is likely to fail in the Senate.Sixty votes will be needed to pass the bill, meaning it would also need Democrats. That is very unlikely to happen.

But the lack of support in the Senate and the veto threat will likely do little to change votes in the House. It seems House GOP leadership has decided this wont be its fight. The newly crowned Senate Republican majority can figure it out.

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White House Threatens Immigration, DHS Funding Veto

Grover Norquist, a national conservative leader with a big streak of renegade in him, is coming to Lincoln to promote immigration reform, which he supports primarily on economic grounds.

Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform, an advocacy group he founded in 1985 at President Ronald Reagans request. ATR works to limit the size and cost of government and opposes higher taxes at the federal, state and local levels.

His conservative credentials include his membership on the boards of the National Rifle Association of America and the American Conservative Union.

His most famous quote is: "My goal is to cut government in half in 25 years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

Newt Gingrich called Norquist the person who I regard as the most innovative, creative, courageous and entrepreneurial leader of the anti-tax efforts and of conservative grassroots activism in America. ... He has truly made a difference and truly changed American history.

But Norquist parts ways with many conservatives on the issue of immigration.

In an essay he wrote in 2013 for The Guardian, Norquist wrote, "People are an asset, not a liability. The United States is the most immigrant-friendly nation in the world and the richest country in the world. This is not a coincidence. Those voices that would make us less immigrant-friendly would make us less successful, less prosperous and certainly less American."

He endorsed immigration reform legislation that would allow 11 million undocumented immigrants to earn legal status by submitting to a background check to weed out those with felony convictions, and paying taxes and a fine.

"This legislation would greatly strengthen the American economy," he wrote in The Guardian.

Norquist was invited to speak at an invitation-only reception and dinner Feb. 2 at Lincoln Station by a coalition of businesses, people, lawyers and interest groups: the Nebraska Restaurant Association, the Nebraska Retail Federation, Nebraska Cattlemen Association, League of Women Voters of Lancaster County, Prairie Fire -- The Progressive Voice of the Great Plains, Brown Immigration Law LLC of Lincoln and Justice for Our Neighbors of Nebraska, a nonprofit in Omaha.

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Norquist coming to Lincoln to promote immigration reform