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1. Bill gives rights to gay couples
2. Congressmen, Archbishop to open forum
3. States continue working locally
4. AZ sheriff demands review
5. Activists prepare campaign

1.
Bill Proposes Immigration Rights for Gay Couples
By Julia Preston
The New York Times, June 3, 2009

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Democrat from Vermont who is the powerful chairman of the Judiciary Committee, is adding another controversial ingredient to the volatile mix of an immigration debate that President Obama has said he hopes to spur in Congress before the end of the year.

Mr. Leahy has offered a bill that would allow American citizens and legal immigrants to seek residency in the United States for their same-sex partners, just as spouses now petition for foreign-born husbands and wives.

The senator has said the bill should be part of any broad immigration legislation that Congress considers. To highlight his initiative, known as the Uniting American Families Act, Mr. Leahy is holding a hearing on Wednesday to discuss it in the full Judiciary Committee, bypassing the usual subcommittee hearings.

Also this week, immigrant advocacy groups and labor organizations are opening a nationwide campaign to hold President Obama to his recent pledge to initiate a Congressional debate on immigration legislation later this year.

Small-scale rallies took place on Monday in Los Angeles and some 40 other locations, and immigration groups are converging on Washington on Wednesday for three days of strategy meetings.

The Obama administration, juggling an array of huge and pressing issues on the economy and health care reform, has encouraged the mobilization of immigration advocates, especially Latino groups, while avoiding any legislative battles for now on the prickly topic of immigration. President Obama has invited a bipartisan group of lawmakers to the White House next Monday to “launch a policy conversation” about immigration, an administration official said.

The president wants to “identify areas of agreement, and areas where we still have work to do,” said the official, who would only speak on background because the final plans for the meeting were not settled.

The most contentious part of the immigration legislation that the administration supports, which is known as comprehensive immigration reform, is a program to give legal status to more than 11 million illegal immigrants living in the country. But current proposals also include a variety of measures intended, like Senator Leahy’s, to expand or streamline the legal immigration system.

Mr. Leahy’s proposal for same-sex immigration benefits was not included in the immigration legislation that the Bush administration brought forward in 2007, which failed after a firestorm of opposition, mainly from Republican voters.

Groups backing the overhaul this year have cobbled together a wide-ranging but fragile coalition that includes Latino and black groups, Roman Catholic and evangelical Christian churches, farm workers and commercial farmers, and some employer groups. In contrast to 2007, organized labor is united this time around in supporting the overhaul.

The political fault lines opened by Senator Leahy’s same-sex bill quickly became apparent this week. In a letter sent Tuesday, Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City, the chairman of the Catholic bishops’ Committee on Migration, wrote that the Uniting American Families Act would “erode the institution of marriage and family,” by taking a position “that is contrary to the very nature of marriage which pre-dates the Church and the State.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/us/politics/03immig.html

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2.
Denver archbishop to hold immigration forum with congressmen
The Catholic News Agency, June 2, 2009

Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput has announced that he will join two U.S. Representatives in sponsoring an open forum to discuss immigration reform on June 13. “We need to get down to the practical steps of changing our immigration laws in a sane and positive way – now,” said Chaput.

The Archbishop, along with Congressmen Jared Polis (D-CO) and Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL) will engage in a discussion on immigration reform at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Northglenn, Colorado.

In a column published by the Denver Catholic Register, Chaput clearly stated the problem to be addressed: “Our immigration policies are outdated, and our immigration laws too often don’t conform to reality or our nation’s real needs.”

Archbishop Chaput described current situation faced by millions undocumented immigrants as a “legal Twilight Zone.” This situation is “morally inexcusable,” he said, noting that the vast majority of these individuals are hard working, law-abiding individuals, many of whom have families threatened by the current immigration system.

Emphasizing that the Catholic Church respects the nation’s laws, Chaput added that, “We can’t ignore people in need, and we won’t be quiet about laws that don’t work — or that, in their 'working,' create impossible contradictions and suffering.”

The President and Congress need to “act quickly and justly to solve this problem,” he stated.
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http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=16180

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3.
As Congress talks about immigration reform, states attempt to address the issue
The Chattanooga Times Free Press (TN), June 3, 2009

As Congress talks about possible immigration reform, states continue to struggle with handling the issue on their own.

“Clearly what the situation cries out for is action at the national level,” said Ken Ellinger, associate professor of political science at Dalton State College.

State legislators recognize that a comprehensive immigration solution can’t come from the state level, he said, but they are passing laws as a result of their frustration with the federal government. Lack of consensus among members of Congress has stalled efforts to pass federal legislation.

In the first quarter of 2009, state legislatures in all 50 states introduced 1,040 bills and resolutions relating to immigrants and immigration, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

From January through March, Tennessee has introduced 64 immigration-related bills and resolutions and Georgia brought forth 24, according to the group.

Stephen Fotopulos, executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said the organization is tracking 35 to 40 immigration-related bills.

A bill that recently passed both the House and Senate in Tennessee creates a Class A misdemeanor offense for a person to knowingly provide, transfer or submit false identification to any other person for the purposes of employment. Another bill that also passed both chambers established the “We Want To Learn English Initiative,” which requires the Department of Labor and Workforce Development and the Department of Education to establish and administer a grant program to provide resources for immigrants and refugees in Tennessee to learn English.

And today, the Senate will consider a bill — SB 1141 — that requires jailers across Tennessee to determine the legal status of every person arrested and contact the Department of Homeland Security if they believe the person is in the country illegally.
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http://timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jun/03/congress-talks-about-immigrat...

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4.
Ariz. sheriff under scrutiny wants tables turned
By Jacques Billeaud
The Associated Press, June 3, 2009

Phoenix (AP) -- A lawyer for an Arizona sheriff who has aggressively cracked down on illegal immigration has asked for a probe of federal officials who are investigating the sheriff's office for alleged discrimination and unconstitutional searches.

Robert Driscoll, a lawyer for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, said in a letter that Department of Justice investigators conducting the civil rights probe improperly shared documents with the Department of Homeland Security, which is auditing Arpaio's use of federal immigration powers.

"They are not playing fair," Arpaio said Tuesday. "There is a political motive behind all of this — and ethical violations. Right now, I'm fighting back."

Arpaio said both examinations are focused on his immigration enforcement efforts, which include arresting more than 1,000 illegal immigrants under a state smuggling law and setting up a hot line to report immigration violations. Arpaio also has led crime and immigration sweeps in some heavily Latino areas in metropolitan Phoenix.
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j-XHraSOkn9Jn0iIUyyWtA...

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5.
Oregonians at D.C. immigration summit
Reform supporters this week are urging Congress to act
By Peter Wong
The Oregon Statesman Journal (Salem), June 3, 2009

Nine Oregonians will be among the 750 people at a national summit this week to mobilize support for changes in federal immigration laws backing immigrants.

The summit is sponsored by the Campaign to Reform Immigration for America, a coalition whose meeting precedes a gathering that President Obama and congressional leaders are planning next week at the White House.

"I'm going to Washington, D.C., not only to work with other immigrant-rights organizations, but also to figure out how we can pass comprehensive immigration reform in Congress," said Andrea Miller, an organizer for the Oregon immigrant-rights organization CAUSA.

Miller grew up in Salem and is a recent graduate of Whitman College; her great-grandparents came from the Philippines to work in the sugar-cane fields of Hawaii.

Participants, some of whom spoke at a Capitol news conference Monday, will meet with Oregon's congressional delegation and develop a common agenda. A town-hall meeting Thursday will feature members of Congress; Obama's assistant for intergovernmental relations, Cecilia Munoz, also will speak at the summit.

A similar attempt at change two years ago failed in the U.S. Senate. But supporters say this time, business groups and labor unions are involved.
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http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20090603/LEGISLATURE/906030431/1...