Why Excluding People from the Health Care Exchange Is Impractical and Harmful to All of Us
(NILC webpage: Health Care)
     According to a new NILC issue brief, those who would exclude people living in the U.S. from being able to buy health insurance through the proposed “Exchange” are not thinking in terms of the country’s best interests, but rather are playing politics.  Why?  Because to make reform work for everyone, we need more, not fewer, people paying into the Exchange.  For that reason and others, screening out immigrants will harm citizens.  And anyway, health care reform cannot fix the immigration system.  Moreover, America’s families include immigrants; excluding them will harm everyone.  The issue brief develops these points in much more detail. 
     Our friends at the Immigration Policy Center also are keeping close tabs on health care reform proposals, and our Health Care webpage provides links to three resources they posted in August:  two fact sheets, “Including Legal Immigrants in Health Care Reform: Just What the Doctor Ordered” and “Sharing the Costs, Sharing the Benefits: Inclusion is the Best Medicine”;  and a blog posting, “Including Immigrants in Health Care Reform Makes Economic Sense.”

Health Care Reform Toolkit
(NILC webpage: Health Care)
     The tools in this kit are intended to help advocates mobilize to forcefully counter anti-immigrant and anti-health care reform forces who are spreading untruths about immigrants and affordable health care.  The tools are (1) “Talking Points: Key Points on Immigrant Inclusion to Share with Legislators and the Media”;  (2) “Policy Priorities for Immigrant Inclusion”;  (3) “Fact Sheet: The Truth About Immigrants in Health Care Reform”;  (4) “Fact Sheet and Talking Points: Five Years is a Lifetime for Anyone to Wait for Health Care”;  (5) “Messages on Immigrant Inclusion in Health Care Reform: Updated and Expanded”;  (6) “Defensive Talking Points: How to Respond to Verification Requirements and Immigration Attacks”;  and (7) “Including Legal Immigrants in Health Care Reform: Just What the Doctor Ordered” (Immigration Policy Center).

FAQs: Sponsored Immigrants & Benefits
(NILC webpage: Community Education Materials)
     Tanya Broder, our public benefits policy director, provides updated answers to the most common questions regarding sponsored immigrants and public benefits in this revised Q & A piece.  The questions:  What is a sponsor?  What is an affidavit of support?  Are affidavits of support enforceable?  Which immigrants must use an “enforceable” affidavit of support?  Which immigrants do not need to use an affidavit of support?  Are there income requirements for sponsors who sign the “enforceable” affidavits?  Can immigrants whose sponsor signed an “enforceable” affidavit get benefits?  Does the sponsor’s income count when the immigrant applies for public benefits?  Will the sponsor need to repay benefits used by the sponsored immigrants?  Which public benefits will a sponsor need to repay?  Do sponsors who sign “enforceable” affidavits need to repay every benefit?  Are sponsors responsible for benefits used by the immigrant’s U.S. citizen children?  When does the sponsor’s responsibility begin?  When does the sponsor’s responsibility end?  Where can I find more information on affidavits of support, deeming, and public charge?

SUMMARY OF FINAL RULE
FAR: Employment Eligibility Verification
(NILC webpage: Employment Eligibility Verification and Antidiscrimination Protections)
     We’ve again updated our summary of the federal acquisition regulation (FAR) that requires federal government contractors and subcontractors to use E-Verify, the Dept. of Homeland Security’s Internet-based pilot program for verifying new employees’ employment eligibility.  The rule took effect on Sept. 8, 2009, and applies to solicitations issued and contracts awarded after that date.  The rule also applies to future orders on indefinite delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts if the remaining period of performance extends beyond Mar. 8, 2009, and the amount of work or number of orders expected under the remaining performance period is “substantial.”

Intolerable Conditions at Los Angeles Immigration Facility Prohibited under Terms of Lawsuit Settlement
(NILC webpage: Arrest and Detention)
     Immigrants detained in  “B-18,” a facility in the basement of a federal building in downtown Los Angeles, may not be held for weeks on end in crowded cells without drinking water, changes of clothing or sanitary napkins, or be deprived of their ability to defend themselves, under the terms of a settlement reached between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the National Immigration Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, and the law firm of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker LLP.
     The settlement also prohibits the practice of shuttling detainees back and forth to overcrowded local jails in an effort to avoid rules prohibiting long-term detention at the B-18 facility.  “This agreement shows that the government can create a clean, safe and constitutionally run detention facility, and we hope that the settlement reflects a new priority of the Obama administration,” said Toliver Besson, a partner at Paul, Hastings.  “If the administration is truly committed to immigrants’ rights, this facility will be the norm, not the exception, for detention facilities around the country.”    Read more »

DREAM Act Advocates Across the Country Hold Over 100 Events in 26 States
(NILC webpage: Immigrant Student Adjustment/DREAM Act)
     On Sept. 23, United We Dream hosted coordinated events in communities across the U.S. in support of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act.  Student groups and local, state and national organizations organized over 100 rallies, public displays, and film screenings as part of the National Back to School DREAM Day of Action.  The events highlighted the unfinished dreams of thousands of our nation’s youth and the need for passage of the DREAM Act, bipartisan legislation that would create a path to legal status for undocumented students who were brought to the U.S. as children.
     Several events were held on college campuses, including UCLA, Florida State, Temple University, and the University of Texas.  Students gathered petitions, called their congressional representatives, and wore the traditional caps and gowns that have come to symbolize DREAM Act activism.  The coordinated events garnered an impressive amount of media coverage.

OTHER RESOURCES AVAILABLE ON THE WEB & ELSEWHERE 
Children of Immigrants Data Tool; Immigration Enforcement by Local Police; New Book about DREAM Students
     Whether or not you already know about it, there’s no denying the niftiness of The Urban Institute’s “Children of Immigrants Data Tool” (posted by them in August), which “enables users to generate detailed charts of the characteristics of children age[s] 0 to 17 nationwide and for individual states and [DC]” (emphasis added). 
     Although it was published in April, the Police Foundation’s “The Role of Local Police: Striking a Balance Between Immigration Enforcement and Civil Liberties” (256 pp.) deals, in depth, with a topic that will not be going away anytime soon.  It “includes research on the rights of undocumented immigrants and the legal framework for enforcement of immigration laws, demographics, immigration and criminality, evaluation of federal efforts to collaborate with local police on immigration enforcement (287(g) program), a national survey of law enforcement executives on immigration issues and local policing, the experience of undocumented youth, and a survey of law enforcement executives . . . about their views on local immigration enforcement issues.”
     “We ARE Americans: Undocumented Students Pursuing the American Dream” (200 pp.), by William Perez, a professor of education at Claremont Graduate University, was “Publishers Weekly’s” “pick of the week” for the week of Aug. 3, 2009.  Among others, the book profiles NILC’s very own employment policy attorney, Nora Preciado, who, with Perez, was interviewed by a National Public Radio reporter for an “All Things Considered” segment that aired Sat., Aug. 22.

7th National Low-Income Immigrant Rights Conference
DECEMBER 6-8, 2009 | Arlington, Virginia
(More info & to register: Conference Website)
     We are looking forward to seeing many of this newsletter’s subscribers at the 7th National Low-Income Immigrant Rights Conference, which will bring together community leaders, organizers, attorneys, and advocates from around the country to share information and experiences and to develop strategies around some of the core issues affecting low-income immigrants.  This conference is convened every two years, always to great acclaim, and often it has been a catalyst for major victories by our immigrants’ rights movement.  If you haven’t already, register now for this exciting opportunity to gather, exchange ideas, and strategize with like-minded folks.

3rd Annual Awards Dinner
NILC Celebrates 30 Years of Immigrants’ Rights Trailblazing
6 p.m., Mon., DECEMBER 7, 2009 | Arlington, Virginia
(More info & to reserve a seat: Magdalena Morales)
     Please plan to celebrate with us NILC’s thirty years of training, litigating, technically assisting, coordinating, collaborating, educating decision-makers, helping shape legislation, bringing advocates together . . . and otherwise doing whatever necessary to protect and promote the rights and opportunities of low-income immigrants and their family members.  For more information, call Magdalena Morales, our events coordinator (213-674-2816), or shoot her an email message (morales@nilc.org).

Tyler Moran Tapped to Lead NILC’s Policy Agenda
(NILC webpage: News Releases and Statements)
     The National Immigration Law Center is pleased to announce that Tyler Moran, formerly NILC’s employment policy director, has been selected to oversee all of the organization’s policy operations.  Moran brings more than 12 years of immigrant rights advocacy experience to her new role as NILC policy director, having worked tirelessly to build effective working relationships with grassroots organizations, immigrant rights coalitions, and lawmakers at all levels of government.  For more information, read our Sept. 24 news release.