Sunday, June 17, 2012
President Obama's immigration policy will allow young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally to seek work permits.
The Obama administration announced that it will no longer deport younger immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally when they were children and will begin issuing work permits to them, The Huffington Post reported. The permits only would be available to individuals who had led law-abiding lives, the website reported. As many as 800,000 people could be affected by the policy change. "Today, I am announcing that effective immediately, young people brought to U.S. by no fault of their own and meet several criteria no longer are removed from country or entered into removal proceedings,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said to Fox News. Fox News reported that immigrants will have had to live in the U.S. for …
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Illinois will offer scholarship assistance to undocumented college students.
Gov. Pat Quinn signed the Illinois DREAM Act into law Monday, BusinessWeek reports. The DREAM Act, which stands for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, will allow undocumented college students to attain scholarships and financial aid for school. Those funds will come from private donors instead of taxpayer dollars, according to BusinessWeek. (Earlier: Wilmette-Kenilworth Patch spoke with a Loyola Academy guidance counselor about the DREAM Act.) Meanwhile a nine-person commission will be appointed to fundraise for the scholarships. To qualify, undocumented students must have attended high school in Illinois for three years and a parent who has immigrated to the United States. Read the full story on BusinessWeek's website. …
Thursday, July 21, 2011
With signing of bill, state's imprint in the debate over undocumented immigrants will be felt.
Thrusting the state into the middle of the heated immigration debate, Gov. Pat Quinn is expected to sign in the coming weeks the Illinois DREAM Act that offers as many as 95,000 undocumented youths better access to higher education. A source told Patch that Quinn would sign the legislation on Aug. 1, making Illinois the first state in the country to create a privately funded scholarship program for undocumented high school graduates who want to attend college. For Loyola Academy guidance counselor, Sarah Kennedy, the bill's passage would be a message of hope. "I think sometimes undocumented students feel they don't have a voice," Kennedy said. "They have a lot of fear that keeps them from being fully who they are." Kennedy has been …
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Congressman visits with residents in Glenview and Lake Forest to hear their ideas about what the local economy needs.
Combining his experience as a small business owner and as a member of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Robert Dold (R-Kenilworth) introduced his jobs task force Jan. 31, explaining to people in the Tenth Congressional District his ideas to improve the economy. With events in Glenview, Lake Forest and Libertyville, Dold took the time to listen to business owners and workers alike while introducing the co chairs of his task force -- Jack Heyden of Highland Park and Marvin Bembry of Lake Villa, a director of government affairs at Abbot Laboratories. “Everyone on both sides of the aisle wants to talk about jobs and the economy," Dold told a town hall gathering of approximately 150 workers and management at Colbert Packaging in …
Monday, December 13, 2010
A review of the debates prior to last week's vote on the DREAM Act
The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act of 2010 passed in the U.S. House of Representatives last Wednesday on a narrow margin of 216-198. For those of us who were glued to our televisions, computers or mobile devices watching the live debate on C-SPAN, the passionate pleas from those supporting the bill and the equally passionate doomsday warnings by those opposed to it were very compelling. How exciting it was to watch democracy in action! Now that video and official congressional transcripts from that day have been made available to the general public, however, it seems that the actions and words by our members of Congress that day were less about democracy and more about political trickery, outright lies and…
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Critics say bill provides amnesty for illegal immigrants; supporters back path to citizenship for people brought to the country illegally as minors.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act of 2010 -- a piece of legislation that has had multiple versions--late Wednesday night by a vote of 216-198. But the bill's last hurdle remains; consideration was tabled in the Senate on Thursday, 59-40. If passed, the law would allow undocumented immigrants who were under the age of 16 when they were brought to the U.S. to be eligible for a green card if they have had at least two years of higher education or have been in the military, are of good moral character and have no criminal record that would make them inadmissable or deportable. Some critics of the bill call it amnesty and say it rewards illegal immigrants. They also …
Steinar Andersen
5:12 pm on Monday, June 25, 2012
Arizona gets to determine immigration status after a person has committed a crime. Win/win. more ›