In college, there were few Latino political scientists whose work I read. Like much of academia, Latino-Americans aren’t very well represented in the discipline. One Latino political scientist who I did read was F. Chris Garcia who went on to serve as the President of the University of New Mexico. He edited a popular book [...]

[Read more →]

Illinois is quickly becoming a state that advances more progressive immigration solutions. This Memorial Day the Illinois House passed the state’s version of the DREAM Act in a 60-54 vote and is headed to the Governor’s desk, where Governor Quinn is expected to sign the bill this week. Earlier this month Governor Quinn notified the [...]

[Read more →]

By Matt Stieglitz A few weeks ago, the Obama administration outlined its “steps” for improving Latino education, including: $4 billion school improvement grants; a request for additional Head Start and Early Head Start funding; and a program to train more Latino teachers. Most importantly, “mechanisms” are being put in place to significantly boost the college [...]

[Read more →]

Today the DREAM Act was reintroduced in the House and the Senate, but this immigration legislation faces a steeper climb in the current congress. Harry Reid and Dick Durbin introduced it in the Senate, and in the House, Reps. Berman, Roybal-Allard, and Ros-Lehtinen introduced the lower chamber’s version. Notably absent from co-sponsoring in the Senate [...]

[Read more →]

By Matt Stieglitz For those who have avoided a computer for the past few weeks, President Obama’s social media team is gearing up for his 2012 run with his ‘Are You In?’ campaign on Facebook. Essentially, one clicks that they’re “in”, gets bombarded with options to help with the campaign, and it’s off to the [...]

[Read more →]

Yesterday I mentioned that Maryland’s version of the DREAM Act passed both chambers of the state legislature. Well this afternoon the bill was sent back to a conference committee, and it looked like it wasn’t going to make it to the governor’s desk. But at around 9pm Eastern, the Maryland in-state tuition bill finally passed [...]

[Read more →]

With the forceful lobbying and community organizing, some states have pro-migrant policy victories. Last week in Maryland, the state’s version of the DREAM Act was passed. The bill allows undocumented youth in Maryland, who have attended public high school in the state for three consecutive years, to pay in state tuition at public institutions of [...]

[Read more →]

Earlier today, I was on a press call with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, and she and her chief economist discussed some new statistics on Latinos in the workforce. She was also joined by Cecilia Muñoz, the director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House. Here are some key stats that were shared: In 2010, [...]

[Read more →]