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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44613538

While running as a candidate for Chicago mayor  and after his election, Emanuel advocated for civil union legislation in Illinois.  To read the entire article posted by Klairmont, go to CNN.com.

Civil unions are currently allowed in New Jersey and Illinois and will be legal in Delaware and Hawaii on January 1,2012.  To read more on this new development, visit CNN.com.

Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens intends to appeal Judge Thrash’s ruling.

New York is the sixth state to approve same sex marriages. It joins the ranks of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the District of Columbia in granting licenses for same-sex marriages.

The bill also includes measures that would strengthen border security, require that an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants register with the U.S. government, pay their taxes, learn English, pay a fine, pass a background check, and complete the appropriate paperwork to apply for permanent residence.

The following Senators sponsored the introduction of the bill:

• Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
• Senator Harry Reid ( D-NV)
• Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
• Senator John Kerry ( D- MA)
• Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL)
• Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
• Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)

To view the entire bill, please visit govtrack.us.

• Allows the police to arrest anyone suspected of being an illegal immigrant if the person is stopped for another reason;
• All businesses are required to use the federal e-verify system to check the legal status of workers;
• It becomes a crime for landlords to knowingly rent to an illegal immigrant; and
• Schools must perform background checks to verify immigrant status of their students.

The CNN article also quoted Mary Bauer, the legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, as stating,”It [the new law] makes it a crime for the U.S. citizens to give people a ride if they turn out to be undocumented. It doesn’t even have an exception for churches that are providing shelter for food or rides.”

Proponents of the new Alabama law believe that it will increase the number of jobs available for U.S. citizens, pointing out that Alabama’s unemployment rate currently stands at 9.3%. However, proponents of the new law fail to recognize that the jobs most illegal immigrants hold are positions that most U.S. citizens are not so eager to take - farm work, chicken processing plants, and heavy labor.

The Alabama law will take effect on September 1st of this year. Once the new law is in effect, Alabama will join Georgia and Arizona in the latest attempt by states to crackdown on illegal immigration.

If you want to read a well-reported, cogently written story about the dangers immigrants from Central America face as they try to make it to the United States, please read the following piece by Catherine E. Shoichet of CNN posted this past Friday on May 20, 2011 11:25 a.m. EDT.  (http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/05/19/mexico.migrants/index.html?hpt=C1)

Despite the multiple dangers in their transit through Mexico, Central Americans are still immigrating through Mexico to the United States.  The practical upshot of this fact is that life where these immigrants find themselves is so tenuous, so written with poverty and so lacking in hope of any kind that they are willing to essentially take what is a near fatal gamble to find their way to the United States.

I know that these are tough economic times here in the U.S.A. but the “principle of scarcity” mentality we seem to be applying to immigration policy is neither humane nor is it the best we can do as the leading economy in the free world.   I applaud the Mexican governments efforts in decriminilize undocumented immigration and therefore cut the profit out from underneath the human traffickers.  We will see what will happen to the traffickers once the law is published and goes into effect in Mexico.

Welcome to the basics of immigration. This blog is about the immigrant experience in the United States - people from other nations who for family, unification, humanitarian, or employment reasons leave their home countries and make the journey to the United States. It is a journey that has become increasingly complicated since the tragic events of September 11, 2001.  While we continue to tout our nation as a “melting pot” or “nation of immigrants,” the reality of the current state of U.S. federal immigration laws reveal for most immigrants an agonizing path of byzantine regulations, incomprehensible forms, stringent requirements and lengthy waiting periods.

The primary goal of the immigration portion of this blog is to provide straight-forward explanations of the realities that confront “foreigners” who wish to live and work within the United States.  Some of the topics that will be covered are:

• What are the basic visa categories (immigrant and non-immigrant)?
• How do these visa categories relate to the realities of a job market and economy still in recovery?
• How do families separated by borders reunite in the United States?
• What are the grounds for humanitarian immigration to the United States?
• What does the path to U.S. citizenship look like for someone who was not born here?

Another goal to be realized by the immigration commentary will be to bring the stories of immigrants to our consciousness; to show what it means to leave a familiar world and come to a place where the rules and values of society may be vastly different from what a person has known in the hopes of increasing the quality and measure of human life.

Finally, I hope this open and candid discussion concerning immigration will become a resource for those interested in the immigrant experience, either historically or personally. With that being said, I look forward to our dialogue.