| Senate Last Stop for DREAM Act  After a week of rapid activity and political maneuvering, the Senate is now poised to take up the House-passed version of the DREAM Act. Wednesday night, the House passed its version of the bill (H.R.5281), less than 24 hours after it was introduced, by a vote of 216-198. Thursday morning, the Senate was scheduled to vote on whether to proceed with debate on its own bill (S.3992). However, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) successfully moved to table his own bill, saying there would be “no point” to taking up legislation that would not go anywhere because the House had already acted. Reid then promised action on H.R.5281 this week and said he hopes to send it directly to the President’s desk.
Read the full article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Supreme Court Reviews Arizona’s E-Verify Law  Last week the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Chamber of Commerce of the U.S. v. Whiting, a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in an attempt to strike down Arizona’s mandatory E-Verify law. The statute (H.B. 2779) was signed into law by the former Governor of Arizona and current Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, in 2007. H.B. 2779 requires that all state employers (public and private) confirm that employees are work-authorized through the federal E-Verify system. The law authorizes the state to suspend or revoke the business licenses of employers determined to have “knowingly” or “intentionally” hired illegal aliens. Mirroring federal law, H.B. 2779 also contains a rebuttable presumption that employers who utilize E-Verify have not intentionally hired illegal aliens.
Read the full article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . House Strips Funding for Secure Driver’s License Program  Last Wednesday the House passed a continuing resolution on government funding which effectively cut off money to implement secure and legitimate identification cards. (Full Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011, Dec. 8, 2010) The resolution provided that funds are not to be used for the system known as the “Real ID hub.” By including this provision in the resolution, the House is obstructing the ability of states to verify documents individuals present for identification cards.
Read the full article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Washington Post: Homeland Security Padded FY 2010 Deportation Numbers  A front-page article published in the Washington Post last week accused the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of padding its FY 2010 deportation numbers. In October, DHS announced it had “removed more illegal aliens than in any other period in the history of our nation” during the 2010 fiscal year. However, interviews and internal communications cited in the Washington Post article indicate the Department’s record number of 392,862 deportations (also called “removals”) was padded.
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