Drum Major Institute

ICE Gets a Makeover but Immigration Policy Under Obama Remains the Same

This week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced changes to its management structure, conceived as part of a strategy to “re-brand” the agency to the public. According to the Washington Post, ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton describes it as part of an “image makeover” intended to emphasize ICE’s criminal investigations over its much-scrutinized immigration enforcement work.

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Conservatives Ride Government-Run Transit to Protest Government Spending

File this one under "Hypocritical, conservative/libertarian." First, the Heritage Foundation thinks that some estimates under-represented the actual number of protesters who showed up in DC last weekend to tell Congress just how angry they are about having to pay taxes and stuff. "Metro delivers hundreds of thousands to 9/12 rally," Heritage proclaims, citing the number of people who rode DC's subway system to the National Mall-nearly half a million people!

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Reducing How Much We Drive Should be a National Transportation Goal

Last month, Senators John D. Rockefeller and Frank Lautenberg introduced a bill that would establish performance-based goals for our surface transportation system. The bill would, according to Senator Lautenberg, “establish a national policy that improves safety, reduces congestion, creates jobs, and protects our environment.”

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Majority of Middle Class Supports Progressive Policy


Today the Drum Major Institute released its first annual Survey on the Middle Class and Public Policy. The nationwide poll, conducted by Global Strategy Group, aimed to learn how those Americans who see themselves as middle class (the vast majority of us, it turns out) think about the direction of the country, public policy ideas that could improve the nation, and their relationship with their own elected representatives. What we found were middle-class households filled with “fearful families�: Americans worried about the present, pessimistic about the future, but not nearly so divided on issues of public policy as the typical media reports of country divided by red and blue might lead us to believe. In fact, there’s broad bipartisan support for a range of progressive policies.



First, as DMI has often said, the American people aren’t stupid. We know a country headed in the wrong direction when we see it. 77% of middle-class households think things are off on the wrong track in America now. With stagnant wages and unemployment on the upswing, jobs and the economy were the top concern. And with skyrocketing costs to fill up at the pump, high gas prices ranked #2 overall. Nor do people think gas prices are coming back down anytime soon. Despite regular reports of Hollywood break-ups, middle-class respondents say it’s far more likely that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie will last long enough to celebrate their 25th anniversary (56%) than gas prices reach $3 a gallon again (19%). (18% say neither one is going to happen).

Latino Migrant Beaten to Death in Penn

Editor's note: This is about unintended consequences, or so we hope. The hard-line anti-immigration movement has made a strategic choice in demonizing immigrants, especially those from Latin America. They believe that they can make gains in the immigration debate by dehumanizing mostly Latino immigrants, by suggesting that they are foreign invaders. But hate speech leads to hate acts, and these kinds of incidents are a predictable outcome of their rhetorical choices.


The AP carried this article over the weekend about what appears to be the racially-motivated killing of a Latino migrant by a group of teenagers in rural Pennsylvania:

MICHAEL RUBINKAM --

SHENANDOAH, Pa. (AP) --

Luis Ramirez came to the U.S. from Mexico six years ago to look for work, landing in this town in Pennsylvania's coal region. Here, he found steady employment, fathered two children and, his fiancee said, occasionally endured harassment by white residents.

Now he is headed back to Mexico in a coffin.

The 25-year-old illegal immigrant was beaten over the weekend after an argument with a group of youths, including at least some players on the town's beloved high school football team, police said. Despite witness reports that the attackers yelled ethnic slurs, authorities say the beating wasn't racially motivated.

. . .

Crystal Dillman, the victim's 24-year-old fiancee, who is white and grew up here, said Ramirez was often called derogatory names, including "dirty Mexican," and told to return to his homeland.

"People in this town are very racist toward Hispanic people. They think right away if you're Mexican, you're illegal, and you're no good," said Dillman, who has two young children by Ramirez and a 3-year-old who thought of him as her father.

Does Marriage Determine Level of Assimilation?

There's been a lot said about assimilation and whether or not today's immigrants are assimilating. A recent report published by the Manhattan Institute offers an inadequate approach to analyze the assimilation of the U.S. immigrant population. To discuss this further, I recently wrote an op-ed that was published by El Diario last Thursday. Here's the published Spanish version.

The op-ed's translation is following:

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Scapegoating Non-citizens Produces Few Measurable National Security Gains


Recently the Washington Post and the NY Times published stories investigating 83 immigrant deaths in detention between 2003 and 2008. Some of the deaths were easily preventable. Family members told of loved ones suffering serious medical problems that went ignored and untreated until it was too late.



Via the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), I got word last week that Senators Lieberman, Brownback, Kennedy, and Hagel had introduced legislation to ensure humane treatment for asylum seekers and other detained immigrants. The "Secure and Safe Detention and Asylum Act" (S. 3114) would mandate improved medical care in detention and require careful reporting and investigation of all deaths that occur in detention facilities. Passing this act would be a helpful first step in addressing the problems that have come to light, but would represent only a beginning, not an end point.

ICE Deports High School Valedictorian


I've written about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials' schoolyard antics before, but the recent news that ICE is planning to deport a California high school valedictorian just affirms my view that these immigration authorities need to get out of the schools. From the San Francisco Chronicle:
The valedictorian at Fresno's Bullard High School won't be attending college in the United States this fall because he's scheduled to be deported.

Seventeen-year-old Arthur Mkoyan's 4.0 grade-point average qualified him to enter one of the state's top universities. But he and his mother have been ordered back to Armenia after their last appeal for asylum failed. The family fled from what used to be part of the Soviet Union and has been seeking asylum since 1992.


But, rest assured, ICE shows its nice side once in a while (and if it's not clear, I'm being sarcastic here). As a sort of consolation prize, ICE decided to let Arthur stick around for graduation. According to the article, "A spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement says they were given an extension until June 20 so Mkoyan could attend his graduation ceremony."



This past October, the Senate tried to help out students like Arthur, but to no avail. Legislation called the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act -- better know as the DREAM Act -- was introduced in the Senate, but failed a procedural vote. The legislation would have allowed Arthur and approximately 65,000 other undocumented students a path to citizenship and the opportunity for a college education. But unfortunately for Arthur, the legislation failed.



Arthur's story and that of the DREAM Act are just two examples of what amounts to an utterly inconsistent immigration policy. Whether ICE wants to admit it or not, undocumented immigrants are here to stay, and an enforcement-only policy that consists of random deportations just isn't going to cut it. According to a recently-released report by the Public Policy Institute of California, Immigrant Pathways to Legal Permanent Residence: Now and Under a Merit-Based System, more than half of the immigrants in California who have legal permanent resident status were at some point undocumented. This number is 42% for the U.S. as a whole. These immigrants -- both documented and undocumented -- are a vital part of the nation's economy and the fabric of our nation. Deporting smart students like Arthur -- especially considering that such a huge percentage of immigrants eventually receive legal status -- is not only bad for the immigrant community, but for the nation as a whole.



For a slightly happier immigration story, check out this video of DMI scholar and Mexican immigrant Samantha Contreras. Samantha was undocumented when she graduated from high school, and soon realized the hardships associated with being undocumented.. "I learned the reality of my immigration status," she said. "I couldn't work, I couldn't go to college, I couldn't drive, I couldn't even get a Blockbuster membership card." Unlike Arthur's story, Samantha's has a happy ending -- an immigrant rights group helped her to enroll in college, and now she strives for a career in public policy.



Exploiting Borrowers Amidst the Foreclosure Crisis

On Tuesday, May 6th, a Senate Judiciary subcommittee held a hearing on abusive practices perpetuated by mortgage lenders in the bankruptcy court system. Businesses and consumers often turn to bankruptcy courts as they liquidate their assets in an effort to workout reasonable payment plans with their creditors. For families on the brink of losing their homes, bankruptcy courts play a key role in allowing at-risk homeowners one last chance to keep their homes.

In recent months, however, some mortgage services such as Calabasas, California based Countrywide Financial Corporation have come under intense scrutiny for foreclosing homes prematurely only to pile on unnecessary and costly fees on borrowers during bankruptcy proceedings.

Steve Bailey, the Chief Executive for Loan Administration at Countrywide, however, disputed those allegations. In a prepared statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts, he said, "Countrywide is committed to helping our borrowers avoid foreclosure whenever they have a reasonable source of income and a desire to remain in the property."

He also claimed, "Recent media reports alleging that mortgage servicers are systematically charging excessive fees and using the bankruptcy process to push borrowers into foreclosure or abusing the process more generally are inaccurate." Bailey attributed any perceived abuses to no more than run of the mill "individual employee errors."

Countrywide's track record of overcharging borrowers facing foreclosure and during bankruptcy proceedings, however, suggests otherwise. One New Jersey couple who owned their home for the last 10 years were served with foreclosure papers by Countrywide and were inexplicably charged expensive flood insurance that they could not afford and did not need. It took months to resolve the error. Meanwhile, they fell behind on her mortgage payments.

In several other instances, the mortgage company has also been accused by attornerys representing borrowers and U.S. Trustees in bankruptcy courts of inflating overdue mortgage payments and fabricating documents to bolster their claims and collect more money in bankruptcy court.

Ledbetter is Fair Warning for Liberals

Last week, Republicans blocked a fair pay bill that would effectively overturn a flawed ruling by the Supreme Court in a wage discrimination case, Lilly Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. The measure was designed to bring the law in line with Congressional intent of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Court's own precedents, and restore fairness to the workplace.

For nearly 20 years, Lilly Ledbetter was paid less than men with less seniority than her as a supervisor at a Goodyear plant in Alabama for doing the same job. But as soon as she received an anonymous note that made her aware of the discrimination, Ms. Ledbetter filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. A federal court agreed Ms. Ledbetter was being discriminated against and a jury awarded her more than $3 million in damages and back pay before the judge reduced the amount to $360,000 due to a damages cap prescribed by the law. But the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision ruled that Lilly Ledbetter filed her claim too late and was not entitled to compensation.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of race, sex, creed, disability, age, but also requires that a plaintiff file a complaint within the 180 days “after the alleged unlawful employment practice occurred.� For decades, the Supreme Court and other courts understood this provision to mean that employees could sue within 180 of receiving from their last - not just their first - discriminatory paycheck, since each check represented a related yet distinct instance of discrimination.

Justice Samuel Alito, however, disagreed with that interpretation.

Members of Congress Graded on Middle Class Accountability


If the middle class could give your Congressmember a grade, what would it be? Today, DMI releases grades for every senator and representative, evaluating their votes on key legislation that affects the current and aspiring middle class.



2007 began as a year of great promise. Congress was flooded with dozens of new members, many elected with a pledge to address the middle-class squeeze and help more working people attain a middle-class standard of living. Important legislation--from expanding children's health coverage to bringing down the cost of college loans--was introduced and brought to a vote. But, faced with Senate filibusters and a recalcitrant President, many bills died or were passed in watered-down form. Still, the bills that did become law represent concrete gains for current and aspiring middle-class Americans, including a higher minimum wage, expanded Pell Grants, a freeze on middle class tax hikes and lower costs to fuel cars.



TheMiddleClass.org 2007 Congressional Scorecard takes a closer look at the decisions made by Congress, from the one-year freeze to prevent the Alternative Minimum Tax from hitting middle-class families to the filibuster that originally torpedoed a minimum wage increase (later passed) and the trade bill that put the interests of multinational corporations and large investors before the concerns of middle-class Americans.



After examining 13 bills in detail, the 2007 Congressional Scorecard assigns a grade to each Member of Congress based on his or her support for the middle class. On the whole, Congress squeaked by with a passing grade in 2007, but there is considerable room for improvement. Just 62% of Representatives and 56% of Senators received a C or better. While this middle-class record is far better than the first term of the 109th Congress, the millions of Americans striving to attain--or hold onto--a middle-class standard of living deserve more from their elected representatives.

How Do You Atone for 27 Years of Injust Inprisonment?

On Thursday, after spending 27 years in prison for a crime that he did not commit, Charles Chatman walked free. The world -- or the world outside of jail, that is -- was a different place than that he had left nearly three decades ago. After only using spoons in prison, he had to relearn how to use a knife to cut his steak. The judge for his case even had to teach him how to use a cell phone -- a newfangled technology, for 47-year-old Chatman -- so he could call his family. Chatman is the 15th wrongfully convicted prisoner in Dallas County who has been exonerated by DNA evidence since 2001.

Chatman's story is one of those tug-on-your-heartstrings tales of a man whose life spun out of his control. When he was 20, he was convicted of raping a young women who lived five houses down the street. The women, who was in her 20s, picked Chatman from a police lineup. Serology tests further validated her claim, showing that Chatman's blood type matched that found at the crime scene, despite the fact that the blood type also matched that of 40% of black males. Chatman was convicted of aggravated sexual assault and sentenced to 99 years in prison based on a police lineup, unreliable blood evidence, and a jury that had only one black member. "I was convicted because a black man committed a crime against a white woman," Chatman said, as quoted in the Associated Press. "And I was available." Chatman had been working at the time of the crime -- a claim supported by his sister, who was his then-employer -- but the alibi didn't seem to matter.

During those 27 long years in prison, Chatman did have three chances at parole. The parole board always pressed him to confess, and when Chatman refused fabricate a story of his crime, the board refused to let him out. "Every time I'd go to parole, they'd want a description of the crime or my version of the crime," said Chatman. "I don't have a version of the crime. I never committed the crime. I never will admit to doing this crime that I know I didn't do."

Last year, when Chatman applied for DNA testing, he was told it would be risky. There was only one DNA sample available from the crime -- a small amount of DNA on a vaginal swab from the victim. Despite the fact that the single test would use all available DNA evidence and rule out the possibility of further tests, said his lawyer, Dallas County public defender Michelle Moore, Chatman decided to go ahead with the procedure. The DNA test showed that the rape had been committed by another man, and Chatman joyfully left the cell that had been his home for nearly three decades.

Chatman's exoneration, and the exoneration of other wrongfully convicted Dallas County prisoners, are largely the results of the the work of Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins and the Innocence Project. Since Watkins' election as the first African-American DA in Texas, he has worked to both reform the criminal justice system's methods of convicting criminals, and has utilized saved DNA in the Southwest Institute of Forensic Sciences, a Dallas County laboratory, to overturn cases of wrongful convictions. The Times reports that Watkins' office, working with the Innocence Project, has reviewed 80 claims of wrongful conviction.

New Jersey Becomes First State to Abolish Death Penalty In Thirty Years

Even as a native New Yorker, today I'm proud to say my father is a Jersey boy (sorry, Dad, for blowing your cover).

After 1,099 executions in America over the past 31 years (the second highest number in the world), and 741 in just the past decade; after 126 people on death row have been exonerated (including 15 by DNA testing); as some state governments continue trying --- in shame and in vain --- to find a "humane" way to kill people (having moved from hanging to shooting to electrocuting to poisoning); and after the United States, China, Iran, Sudan, Pakistan, and Iraq (not exactly the torch-bearing sextet for human rights) were responsible for 91% of the world's executions last year, yesterday New Jersey became only the first state to abolish the death penalty since it was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976.

Governor Corzine, who commuted the sentences of the eight men on New Jersey's death row to sentences of life without the parole the night before, ended executions in the Garden (of Eden, at least for now) State by signing the abolition bill (which last week passed the New Jersey Assembly by a vote of 44-36 and the Senate by a vote 21-16). The last states to legislatively end capital punishment were Iowa and West Virginia, 42 years ago.

New Jersey realized what many states stubbornly deny about the death penalty. It does not deter. It does not lower the crime rate. It does not bring back victims. It is violent. It is cruel. It is as irreversible for the innocent as it is for the guilty. It is expensive. It is not the only means of incapacitating someone (that is why we have prison and lifelong jail sentences). It is morally offensive to a majority of the world's countries, 133 of which are abolitionist in either law or practice. It is applied inconsistently and in a racially discriminatory manner.

A recent Connecticut study led by Yale law professor John J. Donohue III showed that minorities are disproportionately sentenced to die for their crimes, and decisions to seek the death penalty are often arbitrary. Included in the studies' findings are that (1) black defendants receive death sentences at three times the rate of white defendants in cases where the victims were white; (2) accused killers of white victims are charged and prosecuted more severely than people accused of killing minorities; and (3) minorities who kill whites receive death sentences at higher rates than minorities who kill minorities. A recent study by Ohio State University examining death row cases in 16 states also found that blacks convicted of killing whites are more likely than others convicted of murder to be sentenced to death and more likely to be executed.

Immigration Policy that Benefits the American Middle Class

This post, written by Amy Traub, originally appeared on DMI Blog

Immigration policy is among the most divisive issues facing the U.S. today, and progressives often don't know how to talk or think about it. On the one hand, we are faced with racist demagogues who appeal to Americans' very real economic anxiety to promote harsh and unworkable policies that will benefit no one. On the other hand, immigration advocates make a vital point about the human rights of immigrants, but so far have not successfully addressed mainstream concerns. As progressives, we know that scapegoating undocumented immigrants is wrong, but that doesn't provide a positive agenda or a way to distinguish which immigration policy proposals will truly move us forward as a nation.

Any debate over immigration policy must be connected to the larger conversation about America's squeezed middle class and the working people striving to attain a middle-class standard of living. Thorough review of the economic, sociological, and demographic evidence leads us to the following conclusion:

An immigration policy that serves the fundamental interests of middle-class Americans must take two realities into account: immigrants' economic contributions make them indispensable to our nation's middle class, and, at the same time, a lack of effective rights in the workplace for undocumented immigrants undermines the ability of all working people in America to secure and maintain jobs that provide a middle-class standard of living.

The Drum Major Institute for Public Policy has turned this insight in to a two-part middle-class test.

1) Immigration policy should bolster--not undermine--the critical contribution that immigrants make to our economy as workers, entrepreneurs, taxpayers and consumers, because:

Memo to the Netroots on Immigration

Memo
TO: The Netroots
FROM: Elana Levin, The Drum Major Institute for Public Policy
DATE: December 4, 2007
RE: Immigration and the blogosphere

The problem: America's current immigration policy is clearly unacceptable to the general public, immigrant rights activists, immigration opponents and organized labor. Even corporations are dissatisfied with the status quo, even if for their own profit-driven reasons. There is a consensus that reform is needed but there is no consensus on what that reform should look like. At the same time, the status quo of maximum noise with minimum action is a political strategy for a certain segment of the organized right wing. The netroots can play a critical role on this issue by facilitating a conversation that will lead to increased political will for a progressive immigration policy that will benefit America's squeezed middle class and all those struggling to become middle class.

Many progressive and centrist politicians and political influencers have, until recently, chosen to either remain silent on the need for comprehensive immigration reform or confine their speech to statements supporting an increase in border control only. Local elections across the nation have shown that anti-immigrant demagogy does not win elections despite the public's concerns about the issue. Yet political leaders continue to advise progressives running for office to regard immigration policy as a "third rail" that should not be touched.

The current state of the debate on immigration policy is entirely unproductive and the relative silence of progressive movement voices has, and will continue, to contribute greatly to the lack of vision and unity on this issue. Treating immigration as a cause to support or attack for the sake of political expediency will not lead to an immigration policy that will strengthen and expand the middle class.

What is progressive immigration policy:

Responding to a vacuum in the immigration debate in 2005, the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy issued our report: Principals for an Immigration Policy to Strengthen and Expand America's Middle Class. In our report, we offer a framework for looking at immigration policy based on a shared economic interest in a progressive solution:

1) Immigrants make critical contributions to our economy as workers, entrepreneurs, taxpayers and consumers. Progressive immigration policy should bolster, not undermine, those contributions.

2) When immigrants lack rights in the workplace, labor standards can be driven down for everyone. Thus, progressive immigration policy must strengthen the workplace rights of immigrants and Americans.

Read the report's Executive Summary for arguments and citations supporting both parts of the litmus test. DMI has also issued talking points to translate the framework into conversation.

We have long argued that this debate cannot be resolved legislatively. It is a question of shaping hearts and minds. To do this, we need effective messengers, messengers who are powerful voices but who also have a real analysis of the immigration issue. For that reason, we urge the netroots to view our work and that of other experts in this field (see resources).

The Netroots on immigration so far:

Blue America, a PAC lead by FireDogLake, Down With Tyranny, Crooks and Liars and Digby, have launched an exciting campaign to hold Congressman Rahm Emanuel accountable for instructing DCCC candidates to regard immigration policy as a political "third-rail". Their work in concert with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights could turn into a model of the kind of collaboration needed moving forward. By focusing on pro-migrant policy rather than the political ramifications of Rep. Emanuel's anti-migrant strategy, the netroots showed a potential to shape this policy debate if done properly.

The burgeoning Latino/a blogosphere, front-lined by the likes of Latino Pundit and Latina Lista and which includes immigration policy blogs like Immigration Orange and Migra Matters, continue to expose anti-immigrant myths, call attention to under-reported stories, promote immigrant voices and drive on-the-ground pro-migrant activism. Diarists on community blogs like "Colorado Luis" and Migra Matters editor "Duke1676"'s crossposts to DailyKos have kept blog readers outside of the immigrant rights community informed of ICE raids and deportations. There must be greater attention for their efforts outside of immigrant rights circles.

The Netroots' role

An independent voice is needed now as a check against the Democratic Party's inclination to defer on this issue, corporations' interest in maintaining a class of easily exploited workers and television pundits' desire for ratings inspired by anti-immigrant demagoguery. Bloggers are perfectly suited for this role as a truly populist voice demanding the interests of the current and aspiring middle class be front and center in the immigration debate.

The netroots' political independence, understanding of the importance of framing and ability to act as a megaphone to the voices and concerns of people outside the beltway could be a godsend to the cause of progressive immigration reform. The netroots has already proven its ability to change the conventional wisdom about politics and create new media narratives. This political skill and power can be used in the fight for progressive immigration reform in the following ways:

1.Make it a priority to discuss this issue.

With the 08 elections around the corner, it will be easy for critical policy issues like immigration to either get sidelined or only be discussed in terms of the political relevance of Hispanic population growth. That approach will not get the progressive movement united on a sound policy message and will not create the political will sufficient to compel the federal government to pass a constructive immigration policy.

However, it is also possible that immigration will be a central issue in the campaign because of Republican efforts to excite their base. The discussion of immigration coming from candidates who have traditionally supported immigrant rights has been reactive, a defensive crouch in response to the Lou Dobbs tirades rather than a serious engagement in the issue. Even candidates who have pro-immigrant platforms are making the mistake of not explaining their stances through the lens of the middle-class squeeze, and because they fear their pro-immigrant views will make them a target, they refrain from being specific about policy or saying very much at all. Bloggers are great at holding Democrats accountable for their positions. Bloggers can use their power to drive candidates to take pro-middle class, pro-immigrant stances and spell out constructive immigration policy.


2. Educate your readers about the substance, not just the politics of this issue

Currently, the blogosphere is facing an immigration policy information gap between the work being issued by policy institutions and the information relayed to blog readers. The disturbingly high frequency of anti-immigrant comments from progressive blog readers about wage suppression -- left in response to blog posts that support comprehensive immigration reform-- demonstrate that the arguments being made in these posts are not addressing progressive blog readers' core economic concerns. Excellent policy reports and studies have been released that prove the value of immigrants to America's future, but even pro-immigrant blogs are not arming their readers with that policy information.

By referencing studies and policy reports such as The Pew Study of English usage among immigrants, the University of Illinois study on how immigrant enforcement threatens workers rights , and the Fiscal Policy Institute's study of immigrants' economic contributions to New York's economy, bloggers can better educate their readers about immigration policy and specifically address their own readers' legitimate concerns about the presence of undocumented workers in the labor market and worker exploitation. Bloggers need to make a policy-based argument that enforcement-only immigration legislation would actually increase the likelihood of wage suppression and harm the current and aspiring middle class. Absent this conversation progressive blog readers will continue to believe that nativist immigration arguments are populist.

Blogs can also consider having immigration policy experts and organizers guest blog on their sites as FireDogLake recently has and as DMI has done for some blogs such as Alternet's.

3. Keep an eye on local politicians

With the federal government abdicating its responsibility to pass immigration reform, state and municipal governments have enacted their own immigration policies. Some of these policies -- such as New Haven Connecticut's issuing of municipal identification cards -- are models of smart immigration policy that should be replicated. Others, such as Riverside New Jersey's law to penalize landlords and business owners for renting apartments to or employing undocumented workers, are patently destructive to local economies. The town's economy was so devastated by the anti-immigrant law that the Town Council voted 3 to 1 to rescind it.

Bloggers can be watchdogs to their local politicians about immigration legislation, telegraphing policies that work and policies that do not. Bloggers can encourage their local leaders to consider replicating positive policies implemented in other parts of the country as well. Much like former Senator George Allen's "macaca moment" bloggers can take the lead in exposing anti-immigrant rhetoric used at below the radar local political events.

4. Keep an eye on the press

Much of the toxicity in the current immigration debate stems not just from rhetoric used by pundits such as Lou Dobbs or Bill O'Reilly but by biased language used to report news stories in the legitimate press outlets. The default language politicians and the media use to discuss comprehensive immigration reform is inaccurate.

The inaccurate wording used by newspapers' online polls is one example. In a recent online poll issued by the respected Long Island paper Newsday, there was an online poll asking " What kind of immigration reform should Congress pass?" The only response options were various levels of enforcement-only legislation, guest worker programs or "amnesty". After the DMIBlog wrote about the skewed poll, Newsday realized its error and took down the poll saying they would be more careful about their word choice in the future. Similar tactics could be employed to respond to other media run polls, like CNN's constantly toxic viewer polls. Bloggers can push the media to refrain from using conservative language like "illegals" when reporting on immigration and should keep an eye out to make sure they do not use that language in their own posts. Media watchdogs such as Media Matters for America have done an excellent job issuing action alerts when pundits and journalists misstate facts about immigration. Bloggers can monitor their local and national media for false information or misleading framing. Often the media ascribes to the American public a far more anti-immigrant opinion than they actually hold. It is taken as a given that the public is opposed to a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants when this is simply not true.

5. Humanize this debate by telling stories

Groups like Dreams Across America focus on telling the personal stories of immigrants. They create excellent YouTube videos that humanize immigrants and show the diversity of the roles immigrants play in communities around the country. A great strength of bloggers is the ability to personalize political issues. That approach can be applied to the immigration debate as bloggers tell their own stories of immigration and migrants in their community, be they Polish or Ecuadorian. LongIslandWins.com does this on a local level .

6. Link people to action

The next step after building consensus for progressive immigration reform is for blogs to funnel their readers into organizations that are doing offline mobilization on the issue. Blogs have reported on the offline activism that immigrant rights groups have conducted but they have not been particularly involved in organizing it. Young immigrant rights activists have already successfully used Facebook to drive up attendance at protests but the larger progressive community was not really part of that movement. A diverse constituency needs to be built for progressive immigration reform so getting activists from beyond the immigrant rights movement to come out and support the cause is key.

Local blogs can take the lead in directing readers towards actions in their own communities and can build relationships with local immigrant rights groups as well. Blogs can help organize their readers to videotape protests or political forums occurring in their own communities. Part of that effort would be a continuation of watchdog work but this would also ensure that important protests are broadcast to the wider world. The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights has a great clearinghouse that bloggers can use to prompt their readers to action in their state. Progressives can learn a lot from the success of the online/offline organization Numbers USA. Numbers USA has already played a major role in developing effective anti-immigrant messaging and organizing tactics, which The New York Times reports contributed to Congress' sidelining of any legislation that involved a path towards citizenship.



Resources for further reading:

You can download an immigration policy widget from DMI's TheMiddleClass.org. It will keep your readers updated on the latest immigration policy content through the perspective of its impact on the current and aspiring middle class. Go to http://themiddleclass.org/widgets to set one up.

Talking points on immigration policy to strengthen and expand the American middle class

http://www.drummajorinstitute.org/library/36.html

For discussions on the DREAM Act: http://www.ailf.org/ipc/infocus/ipc_infocus_07dream.shtml

On why guest worker programs are problematic: http://www.splcenter.org/legal/guestreport/index.jsp

Undocumented immigrants mythbuster http://www.urban.org/publications/900898.html

Role of immigrants in the U.S. labor market: http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/68xx/doc6853/11-10-Immigration.pdf http://www.urban.org/publications/411426.html

Employers' use of immigration status to exploit workers http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/issr/csup/uploaded_files/DC_Day_Labor_Study.pdf

Demographic statistics on immigrants http://www.migrationinformation.org/USfocus/display.cfm?id=649

http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/61.pdf

Effectiveness and cost of border enforcement: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/ITFIAF/Insight-7-Meyers.pdf http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/report/R_702BRR.pdf

Conclusion:

It is our hope that this memo sparks a larger discussion of ways that the blogosphere can engage as a force for better policy, not just electoral politics. The Drum Major Institute regards itself as a netroots think tank. We have a Netroots Advisory Council that advises DMI in making sure our materials are useful to bloggers and we continue to offer ourselves as a resource to you and your work. Please feel free to contact us at elevin (shift-2) drummajorinstitute.org if there is more we can be doing to facilitate your engagement on the issue of immigration. Thank you.

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Majority of Middle Class Supports Progressive Policy

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Does Marriage Determine Level of Assimilation?

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