Today President Obama is meeting with Senator Menendez and Representatives Gutierrez and Velazquez about immigration reform and the DREAM Act. This meeting comes a day after the California Supreme Court upheld AB 540, which grants instate tuition to undocumented students who have attended high school in California for at least three years and seek to [...]

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The only other agency of the federal government where Latinos have not become commonly employed nor have an appointed presence on the governing boards besides the intelligence community is the Federal Reserve System and its myriad components. At the national level, the Fed’s Board of Governors has only seven members appointed by the president and [...]

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There is another Latino appointment in the Obama Administration. This time Cuban born Alejandro Mayorkas has been selected to head the United States Immigration and Citizenship Services. He is currently a partner at O’Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles. He was appointed by President Clinton as the United States Attorney for the Central District of [...]

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President Obama has entered office and confirmed that the nation faces its greatest economic challenge since the 1930′s Great Depression. The menacing economic syndrome of deflation is rearing its ugly head. Prices are collapsing in many markets not just in housing. The current crisis is increasingly characterized as becoming a wide-spread debacle: the consumer confidence [...]

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I want to note that on Wednesday of this week, the House of Representatives voted to reauthorize SCHIP, which would add more children to government subsidized health insurance. This health care coverage assists children from working families whose families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. Also worth noting is that the version of this [...]

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The Richardson retreat from the Commerce Secretary nomination has left the Latinos as a whole dispirited and confused as to just how vital they may be to the new Administration after this Cabinet nomination stumble. Politico this week reported that new life has been breathed into the Latino advocacy groups to have other prominent and nationally known [...]

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The same congress that rewarded the mismanagement of the banks and the automotive industry is now targeting private philanthropy thanks to the efforts of Congressman Xavier Becerra (D-CA). Specifically, Rep. Becerra is threatening private foundations’ tax exempt status, which he calls a $32 billion earmark, in the name of providing more diversity in grant making. [...]

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Seneca’s thoughts on the DREAM Act and how it might proceed in the next Congress: Due to their immigration status, thousands (in excess of 60,000) of high school graduates across the country have not been able to take advantage of the opportunities that make a higher education a possibility. In-state tuition rates, private scholarships, state [...]

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