Thursday Immigration Blog Roundup

by: The Opportunity Agenda

Thu Nov 12, 2009 at 13:47

This week's Immigration Blog Roundup will cover health care, immigration reform, and more.

A major topic in immigration this past week has been health care reform with the passing of the "Affordable Health Care for America Act" (HR3962) by the House of Representatives last Saturday. 

Here is a summary of Immigrant-related provisions:

• All people in the United States, both documented and undocumented will be mandated to purchase health insurance.  However, only documented, legal immigrants will have access to affordability credits or subsidies.
• Verification for affordability credits will employ the same procedures that have been used for Medicaid through the SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) system.
• Legal immigrants will still have to go through the five year waiting period in order to enroll in Medicare and Medicaid.

Last month in a crackdown of American Building Maintenance Co. in Minnesota more than 12,000 people lost their jobs after immigration agents conducted an audit of the company.  However, marking a new employer-targeted approach to enforcing immigration laws, the workers were allowed to return to their homes instead of being taken into custody.

Last week the Supreme Court asked the Justice Department to weigh in on a bill originally signed by Janet Napolitano as Governor of Arizona that requires employers to verify the immigration status of potential employees. 



In an event hosted by the Illinois Coaltion for Immigrant and Refugee Rights several groups representing a variety of causes rallied together to call for more inclusive immigration reform.  Several LGBT groups were present to bring attention to the need for more LGBT-inclusive immigration reform policy such as the Reuniting Families Act.

The Department of Homeland Security is finalizing a proposal to track foreigners as they leave the country using biometric indicators such as eye scans and fingerprints. 



Lastly, in what is seen as a victory to many immigration advocate groups, Lou Dobbs, CNN anchor and ardent supporter of anti-immigration policy has resigned from CNN after 20 years.