ThinkProgress

By Scott Keyes

Republicans are continuing their minority outreach efforts this month by introducing a bill outlawing Spanish and other non-English languages from being used in federal documents.

Rep. Steve King (R-IA), most recently in the headlines after attacking President Obama’s young daughters for going on vacation, introduced the English Language Unity Act in the House earlier this month, along with Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) in the Senate. As King notes on his website, the bill would require “all official functions of the United States to be conducted in English.” Federal and state governments print thousands of documents every year, many of which are translated into other languages besides English.

One major impact King’s bill could have is to stop the decades-long practice of printing non-English ballots in areas where there’s a significant non-English language group. Indeed, Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 currently requires local jurisdictions with a substantial number of non-English speakers to allow them to vote in other languages.  READ More....

Testimony on February 13, 2013.

The Washington Post Blogs

by Sarah Kliff

Congress and the White House have just begun exploring policies that would revamp the country’s immigration laws. A bipartisan group of senators have proposed a new pathway to citizenship Monday and, later Tuesday, President Obama is expected to unveil his own reform plan.

Those are all ideas for the future – but what does our immigration system look like right now? A few years ago, Immigration Road put together this flowchart on how to gain a green card (which might be a bit easier on your eyes if you view as a PDF here). [The process can take 28 years to complete.]

READ More....

Today in Nevada, President Obama laid out his plan for comprehensive immigration reform, and right now, he needs to know who's ready to help get this done.

Add your name in support of the President's plan for immigration reform today.

Ask pretty much anyone, and they'll agree: Our nation's immigration system is broken. But working together, we can fix it so everyone plays by the same rules.

To that end, the President has proposed the following steps:

- Continue to strengthen and secure our borders;
- Crack down on companies that hire undocumented workers;
- Establish a legal path to earned citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants who are already here -- including children who were brought here through no fault of their own;
- And streamline legal immigration for those who are already playing by the rules.

Solving this problem is not only essential to a strong economy and a thriving middle class, it's also the right thing to do.

The time to act is now.

The vast majority of Americans back a plan for comprehensive immigration reform. And just this week, a bipartisan group of senators offered their own plan for reform, which is consistent with the plan the President campaigned on -- an encouraging sign for working together in the months ahead.

As Congress begins to get to work on this issue, there are sure to be disagreements and bumps in the road. It won't be easy, and our success is in no way guaranteed.

But if we stick together, and keep at it, we can accomplish something truly historic.

President Obama is ready to fight for it.

Join him, and add your name in support of comprehensive immigration reform today.