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President Barack Obama expects that an immigration reform bill will be introduced shortly after his inauguration, saying Wednesday that “we need to seize the moment” and tackle the issue. At his first news conference since winning re-election, Obama laid out the elements that he wants in a comprehensive immigration reform bill. This includes addressing border security, enforcement measures for businesses that employ undocumented immigrants, and the status of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S., including young people seeking a college degree or military service (“DREAMers”). “I am very confident we can get immigration reform done,” he said. The president voiced support for a “pathway to legal status” for undocumented immigrants not engaged in criminal activity and who are “here simply to work.” That process would involve paying back taxes, learning English, and potentially paying fines. The White House later clarified those who go through the process of earning legal status would eventually be eligible for citizenship. “To give them the avenue whereby they can resolve their legal status here in this country, I think is very important,” the president said. Momentum on immigration legislation has quickly escalated since Obama was reelected, partly because Latino voters who strongly favor reform make up a key component of his winning coalition. Obama said that lawmakers are beginning to discuss immigration and that members of his staff are beginning to get involved in the talks. http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/Politics/obama-seize-moment-pass-immigration-reform/story?id=17719555#.UKRJz8W7ByK

To all our followers, This is a formal invitation to attend the Santee Educational Complex tonight at 7:00 P.M., and listen to Silvia Aguirre discuss and present information about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program. Silvia Aguirre, The Santee Education Complex, and the Hispanic College Fund have joined up in order to inform our latino community about the opportunity Deferred Action brings to undocumented students. The presentation will include details as to how to apply for Deferred Action, who qualifies for Deferred Action, application Dos and Don’ts, and more. The Santee Educational Complex is located at: 1921 Maple Avenue  Los Angeles, CA 90011 The presentation will begin at: 7:00 P.M. at the Auditorium We hope to see you there.

Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Sunday they are working together on a plan for immigration reform that will include a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the United States — a step forward after the Republican party’s years of stonewalling such efforts as “amnesty.” “We need to be firm and fair. Self-deportation isn’t going to work,” Graham said on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” acknowledging that most voters support pathways to citizenship. Graham said the Republican party had alienated Latino voters with its policies and rhetoric on immigration, an idea borne out by virtually all polling on the issue. “This is an odd formula for a party to adopt: the fastest-growing demographic in the country and we’re losing votes every election cycle, it has to stop,” he said. “It’s one thing to shoot yourself in the foot — just don’t reload the gun.” “So I intend not to reload this gun when it comes to Hispanics,” he continued. “I intend to tear this wall down and pass an immigration reform bill that’s an American solution to an American problem. But we have nobody to blame but ourselves when it comes to losing Hispanics. And we can get them back with some effort on our part.” Graham’s decision to re-enter discussions signals potential progress on the issue. He was a leader on the Republican side in the past, along with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), but had since backed away from any type of discussion of giving legal status to undocumented immigrants already in the United States. Graham indicated that he would support a plan that allowed undocumented immigrants to eventually gain citizenship in the United States. He said it would involve securing the border and asking undocumented immigrants to come to the government, pay taxes, speak English and “get in the back of the line before they can become citizens.” On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Schumer said he and Graham are speaking to colleagues in the Senate in hopes of finding a bipartisan agreement on immigration reform. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/11/senate-immigration_n_2113658.html?1352653466&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

Speaker John Boehner said Thursday he was “confident” Republicans could agree to a comprehensive immigration bill. This issue has been around far too long,” Boehner said in the ABC interview. “A comprehensive approach is long overdue, and I’m confident that the president, myself, others can find the common ground to take care of this issue once and for all.” Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Senate Immigration, Refugees and Border Security Judiciary subcommittee, called Boehner’s comments a “breakthrough.” “Democrats in the Senate look forward to working with him to come up with a bipartisan solution,” Schumer said in a statement. The president has said that immigration reform would be a top priority if he were elected to a second term. http://apps.facebook.com/thehillsocial/content/266961

“Latino voters confirmed unequivocally that the road to the White House passes through Latino neighborhoods,” said Clarissa Martinez De Castro, a top official at NCLR, the Hispanic organization also known as the National Council of La Raza, which joined in an extensive campaign this year to register and turn out voters. Latinos’ greatest impact was in several battleground states portrayed by polls as close contests before Election Day. In Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico, Mr. Obama won the Hispanic vote by big percentages that well exceeded margins of victory, exit polls showed. In each of those states, Latinos significantly increased their share of total voters, gaining influence that could be decisive in future elections. In Florida, where Mr. Obama held a narrow lead on Wednesday in a race that had not yet been called, the president won among Latinos by 60 percent to 39 percent for Mr. Romney, among a group that now makes up 17 percent of the state’s voters. Mr. Romney’s weak showing prompted Latino leaders to warn that Republicans could no longer afford to ignore or alienate Hispanics in national races. But they also immediately laid out an ambitious agenda for Mr. Obama, saying they expected to see jobs programs tailored to Latinos and quick action on legislation to give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants. “The sleeping Latino giant is wide-awake and it’s cranky,” said Eliseo Medina, international secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union, another group that played a central role in spurring Latinos to vote. “We expect action and leadership on immigration reform in 2013. No more excuses. No more obstruction or gridlock.” http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/us/politics/with-record-turnout-latinos-solidly-back-obama-and-wield-influence.html?_r=1&

Thanks to a 70% Latino vote for President Barack Obama, talks of immigration reform begin. WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats are planning to quickly revisit immigration reform after President Barack Obama’s inauguration, according to several Democratic sources. What type of legislation they will end up pushing has yet to be discussed in detail. But the party feels emboldened by Tuesday’s election results, in which Republicans suffered a blistering defeat among Latinos. And there is a sense that the political landscape couldn’t be more ripe for a legislative topic that’s proved dicey in the past. “I am optimistic,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said of immigration reform at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast on Thursday morning. Schumer chairs the immigration subcommittee. “It is a little bit of a mirror image like the fiscal cliff. I think there are a large number of Republicans who understand that the anti-immigrant position, no immigration, we couldn’t even pass a [worker visa] STEM bill through the House because the Republican caucus said you can’t have a net increase in any immigrants.” A Democratic Senate source who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Huffington Post that the full push for reform won’t happen immediately, but will begin soon after Obama starts his second term. The Dream Act, which would give legal status to undocumented young people who came to the U.S. as children, will be included in the efforts, according to the source. “This isn’t going to happen during lame duck,” the source said. The Obama administration has been a bit coy on what it views as its list of second-term priorities, with much of the early focus being spent on fiscal and tax policies that will take effect at the end of the year. But one close Obama advisor, not authorized to speak on the issue, said it made eminent political sense to try immigration reform at the top of the second term. And the president himself seemed to preview his intentions of doing just that during an interview with Univision late in his campaign, saying it was among his biggest failures. “I can promise that I will try to do it in the first year of my second term. I want to try this year,” Obama said in another Univision interview earlier in the campaign. The election provided a referendum of sorts on the Republican party’s immigration platform, and the results were close to pitiful. More than 70 percent of Latinos supported Obama over GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Polling found that a majority of Latinos were put off by Romney’s rhetoric and legislative positions on immigration, particularly his opposition to the Dream Act and a deferred action policy by Obama that would impact the same undocumented young people. That dynamic extends to congressional Republicans, who — with the help of five Democrats — killed the Dream Act in the Senate in 2010 and have blocked other immigration measures as well. The hope among reform advocates is that Tuesday’s results have dramatically changed the landscape. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Wednesday that immigration reform is “very high” on his list of post-election priorities, and that Republicans could block it at their own “peril.” Schumer said Senate Democrats “basically have the outlines” for immigration reform, which includes pressuring Republican members who previously showed support for visa measures to come back to the cause. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will be targeted in particular, Reid and Schumer said. “I think [Republicans] are going to want to do it now,” Schumer said. “[It] is at the top of the list because the nation demands it and needs it. And, again, I think in the exit polls, two-thirds of Americans basically agreed with the concept of real immigration reform.” He’s right: Americans in general, even Republicans, support immigration reform more than the congressional GOP would suggest. Sixty-five percent of voters support giving undocumented immigrants working in the U.S. a path to legal status, including 37 percent of Republicans,according to exit polls. Other polling indicates that a majority of non-Latinos also support the Dream Act and its allowance for young undocumented immigrants to eventually earn citizenship. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) planned earlier this year to introduce a Dream Act-lite that would allow some undocumented young people to gain legal status, but not citizenship. He dropped those plans after Obama’s deferred action directive, but some have called for him to take up the effort again, and he will likely be a leader among the Republicans on immigration reform. Alex Conant, his spokesman, declined to comment on Rubio’s plans on the issue. Some have also called for Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) to rejoin the effort for legislation to help undocumented youth. Hatch was an original co-sponsor of the Dream Act with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) in 2001, but voted against it in its most recent iteration. Hatch spokeswoman Antonia Ferrier said “he’d be happy to listen to his colleagues” on immigration reform, but will keep his focus on economic issues as the lead Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. McCain’s office did not respond to a request for comment on how, or if, he will be involved. Another Democratic Senate source, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss planning, said they hope to have Republicans put forward their own plan so there can be a debate over whether immigration reform should include pathways to citizenship, for example. The source added that the Democratic plan would likely be similar to the broad bill put forward this session. “The thinking has been done about what are the different elements that are going to be included in a bill, and now it’s just a question of what Republicans are going to agree to,” the source said. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/08/immigration-reform-senate_n_2093178.html

Los Angeles City Council members Wednesday gave enthusiastic backing to the creation of a controversial city identification card that could be used by illegal immigrants to open bank accounts. The photo ID would be available to any resident of the city, regardless of immigration status. Holders could use the card not only as identification but to check out library books, pay bills, make reservations and use city job centers. The cards would also carry a separate debit card feature that users could pre-load with cash. Oakland, Richmond and San Francisco already have similar cards. Councilman Ed Reyes called it a way for the city’s poorest workers to “come out into the light.” While the federal government has failed to pass immigration reform, the city of Los Angeles is able to manage its own affairs, said Councilman Richard Alarcon, who along with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is a chief sponsor of the card plan. An ID card that would allow as many as 400,000 residents who now live in a cash economy to access banking services and learn the intricacies of finance is beneficial to everyone, Alarcon said, not just undocumented immigrants, who are expected to be the main benefactors. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-city-id-card-20121108,0,3937808.story