NDN

Monday Buzz: Coalitions, Maps, and More

Lots of press this week relating to the themes of NDN's event last week, "A New Coalition and a New Map." In addition to event write-ups in the DC Examiner and Blue Commonwealth, articles in the Washington Times and the Huffington Post highlighted our arguments about immigration and the Latino vote. From the Huffington Post piece by Sam Stein:

...The leading Republican presidential candidates this cycle famously shunned an African-American themed debate, much to the chagrin of moderates like Jack Kemp, who worried that the party had become too country club. The handling of immigration reform and other related issues, meanwhile, has led students of the political process -- like NDN Simon's Rosenberg -- to seriously consider the idea that Democrats will have a generational lock on the growing minority vote.

On the economic front, Rob Shapiro is quoted in Grist on the prospects of a carbon tax, and in the San Francisco Chronicle on the Bush bailout. From the Chronicle:

Paulson has run through $350 billion veering from one strategy to another. The money may indeed have prevented a banking collapse, but it has not unglued credit markets as much as expected. His rescue of banking giant Citigroup came under fire for its lack of transparency, generous terms and taxpayer assumption of close to $300 billion in debt.

"The value of these measures thus far has been to stave off a total meltdown, which we flirted with," said Robert Shapiro, former undersecretary of commerce for economic affairs in the Clinton administration and now head of Democratic think tank and advocacy group NDN's globalization initiative. Shapiro argued, however, as do many Democrats, that Paulson has failed to tackle the underlying problem of housing foreclosures that is causing banks to rein in lending.

Finally, Simon was quoted in the Financial Times and Brand Republic about how President-elect obama will continue to use his network of supporters for advocacy:

Will US president-elect Barack Obama live up to the marketing promise of his election victory and use direct channels to make government more transparent and interactive? "There has been an expectation created," concedes one person who has been advising the Obama team on its use of the internet, the Financial Times reports. Simon Rosenberg, president of NDN, a progressive think-tank, predicts that the internet will become a central medium for Obama to communicate with voters and test policy ideas. "It allows him to speak more directly to his people than ever before," he says.

How to make use of the campaign database containing 13 million email addresses, including details of 3 million donors - is the immediate question for the Obama camp. Rosenberg says the new president is likely to use it as an "advocacy network" to further his policies: "He will call on the American people to help him pass his agenda." Financial Times, 8 December 2008

Weekly Update on Immigration: DHS Has a Really Rough Week, Oops! Bush Did it Again, New Tools in Immigration

The Minnesota race continues, but don't hold your breath - Democratic candidate Al Franken got a boost on Friday in his bid to unseat Sen. Norm Coleman.  On Friday, the state's election oversight board recommended that each of the state's 87 counties review absentee ballots initially rejected as invalid, and submit amended vote tallies that include any ballots found to be wrongly rejected.  The thing is, the board does not have the authority to require counties to conduct such a review, so it would be up to the candidates to issue legal challenges to force the issue should any county decline to re-examine the legitimacy of the disputed ballots.  The Secretary of State projects that more than 1,500 absentee ballots could be found to have been improperly turned away, and if this turns out to be the case,  Al Franken would have to win a relatively small plurality of those ballots to overcome the razor-thin lead held by Coleman following a hand recount of votes cast in the Senate race.

Judiciary Loses Its Lion - In case you missed it, Sen. Ted Kennedy stepped down from his post on the Committee on the Judiciary.  It will be interesting to see who will start to throw their hat in the ring to succeed Sen. Kennedy, and whether that person can - and will - follow Sen. Kennedy's example in the area of immigration reform. 

Tough Week for DHS:   1) DHS Programs caught midstream in the transition - Among them, the controversial SBInet border security system, construction of it is scheduled to begin in March 2009 in Arizona.  After being known in Congress for cost overruns, malfunctions, gaps in management, and miscommunication with Congress, Alice Lipowicz reports on the challenges ahead for SBInet advocates. 
2) A perfect example of the broken immigration system:
  the cleaning service used by DHS Secretary Chertoff to clean his house had undocumented immigrants working there.  What better example of how broken our immigration system really is, and the urgent need to fix it.  At least the Secretary didn't "knowingly" hire "illegals," as did  Lorraine Henderson, an employee of Customs and Border Protection (emphasis added) - Ms. Henderson reportedly was recorded warning her cleaning lady to be "careful" to not get caught.  Who said DHS didn't care?  A former FEMA employee who was sentenced earlier this year for identity theft, with which he funded shopping sprees, has been handed five plus years in federal prison. 
3) Detention center in Rhode Island will get no more
detainees, pending an inquiry into the treatment, and subsequent death, of a Chinese engineer in that detention center. 
4) A judge's denial of DHS's request for a mid-January decision in the case involving DHS's rule pertaining to no-match letters means that President-elect Obama inherits the prolongued legal dispute over the current administration's push to pressure employers to fire undocumented workers.  It is highly unlikely that an Obama administration would pursue the current flawed DHS rule.  In his platform, Pres-elect Obama has proposed an effective verification system as a part of comprehensive reform.
5) TWIC Delays Upset Workers -
U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and their contractor, Lockheed Martin, had a great many truckers and port workers upset at them as the workers' new biometric Transportation Worker Identification Cards - which they must possess by Dec. 30 in order to be able to work - were delayed.  Some workers in Baltimore reported to TSA on several occasions to pick up their TWIC cards and were turned away due to the volume of people ahead of them.
6) A GAO report released this week
on the planning and execution improvements needed for the US-VISIT program.    

What Immigration Reform does NOT look like - This week President Bush announced regulatory changes to the H-2A agricultural guestworker program that remove important protections for workers and make it easier for employers to bring in foreign workers.  Once again, this is amnesty for unscrupulous employers, not reform.  

Utah Guest worker program to be implemented - The state legislation, SB81 has received ample criticism, and could very well face challenges in the coming weeks and months, prior to its implementation.  

Henryk Kowalczyk's Huffington Post must-read post on why the Immigration debate is about so much more than just immigration.   

Census Updated American Community Survey - The U.S. Census released its 2008 community survey this week, and reiterates the trend mentioned before: immigrants and minorities are moving away from cities and becoming a larger part of the population in suburbs, etc. 

New Tools in Immigration, too - the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) and the New York University School of Law (NYU) launched a project called "State Responses to Immigration" as a joint effort to provide a free, searchable data tool designed to generate information on all immigration-related bills at the state and local level across the nation.

Hate Crimes - Sadly, another Ecuadorian man was killed in New York by a group of men who viciously attacked him.  Jose Sucuzhanay's homicide is under investigation, and it is helping gather civil rights leaders from accross the country to address the spike in hate crimes against Latinos.  Mexicans at the U.S.-Mexico border also report an increase in hate crimes and agression based on nationality and ethnicity.  We see an important social turning point, immigrants - Hispanic ones in particular - fight back against discrimination.  In Tennessee, legal immigrants who had their documents unlawfully taken from them are filing suit.

Interesting article in the Arizona Daily Star on the border fence.  

New IPC Report - The Immigration Policy Center has compiled a major report on minority and New American voter data, as well as motivating issues in the 2008 election cycle.  The report also explores the outlook for immigration reform.

Employers need education on the effects of immigration, too - According to the latest survey released by Manpower, a private Human Resurces firm, 62% of the 4,804 employers in Mexico who were surveyed described themselves as not particularly concerned with the impact of emigration on the Mexican labor market, the remaining 38% does believe that emigration can have a harmful effect on the Mexican economy and cause a potential "brain drain," as well.  An estimated 8 million 5 hundred thousand Mexicans work outside of Mexico.

About 150,000 immigrants from Michoacan are estimated to return to this Mexican state for the Holidays, although there are no estimates as to how many might remain in Mexico.   It is estimated that immigrants going to Mexico for the Holidays will inject about $5 billion into the Mexican economy.

What World Does the Republican Party Live In? Part II - The David Frum Folly

What World Does the Republican Party Live In? (con.) - David Frum, former George W. Bush Speechwriter, was on NPR this morning discussing how the GOP lost its way in 2008 because it misread its challenge as a "moderate-conservative" one, missing the fact that it is actually a "backward-forward" one.  On that, we are agreed - the GOP agenda completely collapsed in 2004/2005 and the GOP has refused to develop a new agenda that embraces the 21st century reality of the U.S.

But Mr. Frum contradicted himself during the interview: he alleged that minorities are an important part of the advantage held by Democrats, but that Republicans can essentially give up on the Hispanic vote and still win - his contention is that the group the GOP needs to win back in order to win are college graduates and that, basically, the GOP can do just fine without Latinos because we're all poor and populist:  "As populist economically as we need to be to win over this poor group of voters...you'll blow the whole coalition to pieces...because are you going to be the universal state free at the point of consumption health care?"  In fact, winning Hispanics is an integral part of moving "forward" and embracing the facts of a 21st century America.  Mr. Frum also demonstrates his ignorance of the Hispanic community by continuing the erroneous stereotype promoted by hate groups and Lou Dobbs types that Latinos are all uneducated, poor, a burden to our society, and dependent on big government.  In reality Hispanics are the demographic that uses the least amount of government programs (even though many are in fact in the middle or lowest income brackets), with the highest rate of employment, and in many areas they account for economic and labor growth as they are often small business owners.  Also, historically Hispanics split pretty evenly between parties and they have never constituted a loyal "base" for either party.  Not to mention, "Hispanic" concerns are the same as those of the general population, with some nuances.

Frum's contention is yet another example of the GOP's stubborn denial of the racial reality of the country.  Only a few GOP strategists like Rove and Sen. Martinez have attempted to make their party realize that the United States will be a majority "minority" country by 2042, and that support among Hispanics is key to its survival.  If the GOP intends to exist for the next generation, they had better accept - and embrace the new electoral map.  Hispanics have consistently demonstrated their increasing political clout, particularly in this election, when they turned out in record numbers and affected elections in battleground states like Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, etc.  Additionally, Hispanics displayed the power in their numbers in non-traditionally "Latino" states because this demographic helped realign this election - i.e., Hispanics helped flip GOP "safe" or deep red states to blue, as was the case in Virginia, North Carolina, and Indiana.

Frum's theory is a tough sell - exit polls show that the election was the closest among high school graduates and college drop-outs, while the higher the degree obtained, the more supportive voters were of Obama (53% of college graduates supported Obama, and the number goes up to 58% among those with postgraduate degrees).  Frum fails to recognize that race relations and the way Obama reflects and embraces the current U.S. demography was just as important in winning over the intellectual "elite."  Millenials and the more educated are increasingly intolerant of intolerance.  Additionally, Hispanics are a part of all income and education groups.  It should also be noted that voters with higher degrees comprise a smaller percentage of the electorate (only 17% of the electorate has PhDs).  Within a few generations (max) the share of Hispanic voters will easily match the 28% of people with a college education who voted in this election.

Another flaw in Frum's argument is that the importance of college grads implies the importance of young adults: 2/3 (or 67%) of all Hispanics who voted in this election are under the age of 45 - he should think about what that means for the future.  Every month, 50,000 Latinos turn 18.  Twenty percent of millenials have at least one immigrant parent. The irrefutable fact is that Hispanics - the fastest growing demographic in the United States - will only play an increasingly pivotal role in national politics in the 21st century. 

The fact is that the GOP built an entire domestic agenda based on the exploitation of fear, racial and otherwise: whether it was Willie Horton, "welfare queens," "tax and spend liberals," and most recently the issue of illegal- immigration.  And GOP leaders are still refusing to accept this fact - as recently as two days ago Mike Huckabee spent a half hour trying to explain his intolerance of certain gay rights to Jon Stewart; mind you, the Daily Show audience is precisely Mr. Krum's "target": college educated, about 18-35 years old.  Republicans like Mr. Frum have to first recognize what has been their tactic in the past and second, think about what they want their future to look like.  If it wants to stay in business, the GOP has to build a Party and coalition suited to the demographic realities of 21st century America

A New Coalition and a New Map

Today, NDN held an event with NDN President Simon Rosenberg, Vice President of NDN Hispanic Programs Andres Ramirez, and new NDN Fellow Morley Winograd to discuss the new 21st century coalition and Electoral College map that President-elect Obama used to win, and the implications for the future of American politics. In particular, the presentations focused on the rise of Millennials and Hispanics and the impact of these ascendant demographic groups.

In his presentation (PowerPoint available in PDF format here), Morley explained why he believes we are at the start of a new cycle of American politics, with a new "civic" generation entering public life for the first time since the 1930s. He argued that young voters' overwhelming support for President-elect Obama was not a flash in the pan, but rather an indication of the generation's political and social attitudes and beliefs -- attidutes and beliefs that, among other things, make them much more likely to self-identify as Democrats than Republicans. 

Andres then gave an excellent presentation (PDF available here) on the growing clout of Latino voters. Like Millennials, Hispanics significantly increased their turnout this election cycle, and voted in huge margins for President-elect Obama. Andres showed how the Latino vote was the decisive factor in four key swing states, and argued that Latinos are also poised to make other states (even Texas!) competetive in future elections. 

Finally, Simon put this all in a larger context, explaining how these developments, culminating in this truly historic election, mark the end of the Southern Strategy as a way to win Presidential elections.   

December 11: NDN to Host Forum on The Economic Crisis and its Impact on Latin America

As the global implications of the current economic crisis become increasingly evident, NDN would like to remind you of the upcoming discussion on "The Current Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Latin America."

This discussion with some of the most recognized economic minds in Latin America is an important addition to NDN's Latin America Policy Forums. It is also an important occasion as we welcome back to D.C. our good friend and collaborator,Joe Garcia, who recently concluded a spirited campaign in Southern Florida. Joe, formerly NDN Vice President for Hispanic Programs, will moderate a panel that includes the Honorable Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter-American Development Bank and former Ambassador of Colombia to the United States, as well as regional policy experts.

Speakers:
Hon. Luis Alberto Moreno - Prior to joining the IDB, Ambassador Moreno served as Colombia's Ambassador to the United States for seven years. Previous to his post as Ambassador, Moreno served a distinguished career in both the public and private sectors in Colombia. He has held a range of leadership positions, such as representative of the Andean Region of WestSphere Capital, Senior Advisor to the Luis Sarmiento Organization, President of Colombia's Industrial Finance Corporation, and Minister of Economic Development.

Dr. Nora Lustig - Dr. Lustig is a native of Argentina who currently resides in Mexico and works with the Colegio de Mexico. She is currently a J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Visiting Professor at the George Washington Elliot School for International Affairs. Prior to this, she served as President of the Universidad de las Américas Puebla (UDLAP)in Mexico. Before her post as President of the UDLAP Dr. Lustig was Chief of the Poverty and Inequality Unit at the Inter-American Development Bank. Dr. Lustig has also been a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and Professor of Economics at El Colegio de México.

Mr. Paulo Sotero- Mr. Sotero is currently the Director of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Brazil Institute. For the last 17 years, Mr. Sotero was the Washington Correspondent for Estado de S. Paulo, a leading Brazilian daily newspaper. He has also been a regular commentator and analyst for the BBC radio Portuguese language service, Radio France Internationale, and Radio Eldorado, in Brazil. Since 2003 he has been an adjunct lecturer at Georgetown University both in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and in the Center for Latin American Studies of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.

Mr. Carlos de Abreu - Mr. de Abreu is currently the Brazilian Embassy's Deputy Chief of Mission and Minister Counselor for Economic Affairs. A Brazilian career diplomat, Minister Counselor de Abreu has also served as Head to the Market Access Division at the Ministry of Foreign Relations, as an advisor to the Minister of Finance, and as an advisor to the Under Secretary for Policy Planning at the Ministry of Foreign Relations. His diplomatic postings also include the Brazilian Embassy in Bolivia, Argentina, and the Consulate General in San Francisco.

This briefing will take place on Thursday, December 11, at 3 p.m.  Please click here for the full event details.  Please RSVP as soon as possible, the event is open, but space is limited.  Refreshments will be served.

To learn more about NDN or to view past  events with the Ambassadors of Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, and the Vice President of Panama, please visit our website at www.ndn.org.

Gov. Bill Richardson Goes to Mexico

Gov. Bill Richardson made a quick personal trip to Mexico this weekend.  The Commerce Secretary nominee attended a regular meeting at the Universidad de las Américas, Puebla (UDLA)- my alma mater - in his capacity as a member of UDLA's Corporate Advisory BoardThe Governor met with the current President of the UDLA, former Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luis Ernesto Derbez, as well as a group of prominent executives who serve as advisors to the UDLA.  During the meeting, Gov. Richardson would not answer specific questions with respect to President-elect Obama's plans for NAFTA or any other area of trade or foreign policy, other than to say that the President-elect is very conscious of the importance of the U.S. relationship with Mexico and with Hispanics in general.  Gov. Richardson has not only been a prominent advocate for a more engaged relationship with Latin America, he's been a grassroots activist as well: his history with the UDLA began when he studied abroad there, becoming an alum.  Years later, as a U.S. Congressman, he worked to expand exchanges between students in the U.S. and the UDLA to create a network that would "build better bridges of understanding" between the future generations of the two countries.  More recently, Gov. Richardson was the commencement speaker for the 2003 graduating class, at which time he received an Honoris Causa Doctorate degree from the UDLA.  Gov. Richardson also has a long history working with NDN, speaking about the kind of new partnership that should be forged with Latin America.

Gov. Richardson and former Secretary Derbez

Obama's Emerging Economic Strategy

In his Saturday address this morning, Barack Obama started filling in details of his emerging economic strategy.  Major elements of this speech - massive investment in our infrastructure, putting computers in our schools and making universal connectivity to the internet a national priority, health IT and making our government buildings more energy efficient (for both see here) - should be familiar to NDN readers, as they are ideas NDN has been championing for some time.  

Needless to say we are pleased with the direction the President-Elect is taking, and are anxious to work with him to turn these powerful words into reality next year.  

Here is the full text of this important speech: 

Good morning.

Yesterday, we received another painful reminder of the serious economic challenge our country is facing when we learned that 533,000 jobs were lost in November alone, the single worst month of job loss in over three decades. That puts the total number of jobs lost in this recession at nearly 2 million.

But this isn't about numbers. It's about each of the families those numbers represent. It's about the rising unease and frustration that so many of you are feeling during this holiday season. Will you be able to put your kids through college? Will you be able to afford health care? Will you be able to retire with dignity and security? Will your job or your husband's job or your daughter's job be the next one cut?

These are the questions that keep so many Americans awake at night. But it is not the first time these questions have been asked. We have faced difficult times before, times when our economic destiny seemed to be slipping out of our hands. And at each moment, we have risen to meet the challenge, as one people united by a sense of common purpose. And I know that Americans can rise to the moment once again.

But we need action - and action now. That is why I have asked my economic team to develop an economic recovery plan for both Wall Street and Main Street that will help save or create at least two and a half million jobs, while rebuilding our infrastructure, improving our schools, reducing our dependence on oil, and saving billions of dollars.

We won't do it the old Washington way. We won't just throw money at the problem. We'll measure progress by the reforms we make and the results we achieve - by the jobs we create, by the energy we save, by whether America is more competitive in the world.

Today, I am announcing a few key parts of my plan. First, we will launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy-efficient. Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world. We need to change that. We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs. That won't just save you, the American taxpayer, billions of dollars each year. It will put people back to work.

Second, we will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s. We'll invest your precious tax dollars in new and smarter ways, and we'll set a simple rule - use it or lose it. If a state doesn't act quickly to invest in roads and bridges in their communities, they'll lose the money.

Third, my economic recovery plan will launch the most sweeping effort to modernize and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen. We will repair broken schools, make them energy-efficient, and put new computers in our classrooms. Because to help our children compete in a 21st century economy, we need to send them to 21st century schools.

As we renew our schools and highways, we'll also renew our information superhighway. It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption. Here, in the country that invented the internet, every child should have the chance to get online, and they'll get that chance when I'm President - because that's how we'll strengthen America's competitiveness in the world.

In addition to connecting our libraries and schools to the internet, we must also ensure that our hospitals are connected to each other through the internet. That is why the economic recovery plan I'm proposing will help modernize our health care system - and that won't just save jobs, it will save lives. We will make sure that every doctor's office and hospital in this country is using cutting edge technology and electronic medical records so that we can cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help save billions of dollars each year.

These are a few parts of the economic recovery plan that I will be rolling out in the coming weeks. When Congress reconvenes in January, I look forward to working with them to pass a plan immediately. We need to act with the urgency this moment demands to save or create at least two and a half million jobs so that the nearly two million Americans who've lost them know that they have a future. And that's exactly what I intend to do as President of the United States.

Thanks for listening.

More Background: Note this passage from an essay Rob Shapiro and I released in early November, A Stimulus for the Long Run

This change should be directed toward creating a 21st century, low-carbon, innovation-driven economy, as the development, spread and efficient use of economic innovations will continue to be the most important factors driving all our future progress in growth, productivity, and incomes. For example, productivity gains are increasingly tied to an employee's capacity to operate effectively in workplaces dense with information and telecommunications technologies. Within a decade, workers who cannot perform in such work environments will be marginalized economically. Therefore, the stimulus should help businesses and workers prepare for the ideas-based economy, through grants to community colleges to keep their computer labs open and staffed in the evenings and on weekends for any adult to walk in and receive free computer training, a plan Obama endorsed as Senator. The stimulus also could include an innovative program to provide inexpensive laptops to every sixth-grader in America and spread broadband installation to schools, local libraries, and human services offices that currently lack it.

There is already a broad consensus on the need to include infrastructure investment in the stimulus, but instead of addressing only roads and bridges, America can also take this opportunity to invest in a new generation of clean infrastructure. The federal government can lead the way, through greening its buildings and vehicle fleets and putting 1,000 megawatts of solar power on its roofs. It also can provide funding to help modernize the electrical grid and build a new generation of light rail systems for urban areas, as well as greater support for research and deployment in renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies, and tax credits and other incentives for greening America's homes and private buildings.

Aside from energy, the other rapidly rising business cost squeezing wages and jobs is health care. To help hold down these costs for the long haul, the stimulus can provide support for hospitals, clinics and physicians to purchase and install the hardware and software for standardized electronic medical records systems. This will serve as a first down payment for 21st century health care reform, and will ultimately reduce costs and promote best-practices at the nation's hospitals.

These are all investments we know we have to make if we intend to make the U.S. economy more efficient, innovative and sustainable. They also are all investments that will ultimate pay for themselves several times over. Congress and President-elect Obama can use this opportunity not only to create more jobs, but to do so in ways that will help drive the development of a real, 21st century workforce and genuine 21st century economic infrastructure. And taking this course by passing a stimulus for change could be an early and important opportunity for him to practice both his new politics and a new form of economic leadership.

Thursday New Tools Feature: Change.gov *(Remix!)*

Today,  the Washington Post ran an excellent piece by Ceci Connolly about how President-elect Obama's incoming administration has "begun to draw on the high-tech organizational tools that helped get him elected to lay the groundwork for an attempt to restructure the U.S. health-care system." From the article: 

The Obama team, which recruited about 13 million online supporters during the presidential campaign and announced its vice presidential selection via text message, is now moving to apply those tools to the earliest stages of governing.

"This is the beginning of the reinvention of what the presidency in the 21st century could be," said Simon Rosenberg, president of the center-left think tank NDN. "This will reinvent the relationship of the president to the American people in a way we probably haven't seen since FDR's use of radio in the 1930s."

This is something that NDN has been talking about for some time: indeed, healthcare was the specific example used at our October 28, 2008 forum with Simon and Joe Trippi (for the C-SPAN footage, click here). It is good to see that the Obama administration is working to live up to its promise of a more open, bottom-up government. As the Washington Post article reports,

The Obama team chose to begin its high-tech grass-roots experiment on the issue of health care because "every American is feeling the pressure of high health costs and lack of quality care, and we feel it's important to engage them in the process of reform," said spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter.

It started with a simple 63-second video posted on Change.gov, in which health advisers Dora Hughes and Lauren Aronson posed the question "What worries you most about the health-care system in our country?"

That triggered 3,700 responses, from personal tales of medical hardship to complaints about "socialized medicine." The cyber-conversation was interactive, allowing individuals to reply to one another and rate responses with a thumbs up or down. The top-scoring comment, a pitch for a "paradigm shift" toward prevention, had 82 thumbs up.

This is not the only good sign for open-source government coming from the Obama camp. This week, the transition site Change.gov eliminated its old, traditional copyright policy and implemented "an Attribution 3.0 Unported License which allows anyone to use and even 'remix' whatever's found on the site, just as long as they tip their hat to the transition project as the original source of the material," according to TechPresident.

This approach of letting anyone use the content in creative ways has already paid dividends; separate versions of Change.gov have been created for the iPhone and for other mobile devices, as well as an embeddable Change.gov widget (below).

For more on how Obama will reinvent the Presidency as we know it, please see:

NDN Expansion Team in South Africa

Over the summer while working in Cape Town, a group of my friends and I had the fantastic opportunity to be trained as refugee camp monitors by the South African Human Rights Commission. At the height of the xenophobic attacks that occurred, many people were displaced and lives were severely disrupted. In touring the camp, the extreme conditions were eye opening. Some of the most critical problems were those which affected children's access to health, education, and the aiding of their development into young adults. Finding solutions to these problems are obviously difficult, but NDN's contribution along with the great work of Melanie Martin from Connect-123 were a tremendous help. In coordinating a shipment of soccer balls from its path-breaking Mas Que un Partido campaign, NDN helped to provide children in these camps with access to a much beloved pastime. A small step in a great direction. Take a look at the pictures we just received last night of the children putting the soccer balls to good use:

Weekly Update on Immigration

"Prison" for immigrants? - A note in Dubois, Pennsylvania's Courier Express discusses expansion plans for a privately run "federal prison for illegal immigrants." According to the story, the prison is under contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. My first question is: why are any immigrants going to prisons as opposed to detention centers? Or is this a case of criminals who are serving sentences and are found to be in the country illegally? I feel like important details were left out of the story, but if non-criminal aliens are somehow being held in prisons then we have a major issue.

The Impact of the 2008 Elections on Immigration, continued: 1. "Firewall" wins -Saxby Chambliss (R) won the runoff election in Georgia against Jim Martin (D) for the Senate. The runoff was widely covered by Time and Chambliss was even on Halperin's "Five Most Important People in American Politics Right Now Who Aren't Barack Obama." In addition to the political considerations, a win by Jim Martin would have meant a key vote in the Senate for immigration reform. Now Chambliss and the Republican party are touting this "big win."  This seat would have meant a huge win for Democrats, but it's important that Democrats put up such a fight in Georgia.  Vehemently anti-immigrant and anti-reform Saxby Chambliss and Jim Martin couldn't have more different views on immigration and in their approach to governing - Chambliss has been politicking, selling himself as a "firewall to prevent Democratic excess," while Jim Martin had presented himself as the man who would provide a "bridge" to the change promised by President-elect Barack Obama, and that change includes immigration reform.

2. Reality sets in, in VA - Per a piece by Anita Kumar in the Washington Post, the Virginia Panel on Immigration is changing its ways, from the hard-line stance to more productive and realistic proposals. After seeing the hard-line anti-immigrant Republican candidates lose congressional elections all over the state, the members of this commission have apparently realized that the anti-immigrant positions they formerly took to score what they considered to be political points just don't work. The panel has shifted its focus from fighting illegal immigration to working with the ever-growing population of immigrants. Delegate Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah), who served on the commission and is staunchly anti-illegal immigration, noted "I can't totally disagree that some people are leery of the issue, because maybe it wasn't the wedge issue that some thought it would be," Gilbert said. The new recommendations provided by the panel to Gov. Tim Kaine include shortening the Medicaid residency requirements for certain qualified immigrants, offering in-state tuition to immigrants who meet specific criteria and creating an immigration assistance office. The commission also proposed increasing the number of English classes and creating a plan to address the needs of foreign-born residents and urged the federal government to compile more complete immigration statistics, increase the number of visas for foreign workers and pass comprehensive immigration legislation.

A Post op-ed also discusses the significance of this change in tone in Virginia in more detail: "....reform is as needed as ever. Only the federal government can get the job done, and the political climate may be more favorable than last time around." Of the 12 million illegal immigrants estimated to be in the United States, 250,000 to 300,000 live in Virginia, according to the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington. The U.S. Census Bureau says an additional 440,000 people in Virginia are not U.S. citizens but are in the state legally.

3. More Immigration Losers - The Wall Street Journal remarks: the GOP hardliners have to face the reality that immigration reform is not unpopular. This Opinion piece notes Virgil Goode's loss to Tom Perreillo - which became official this week. For the second straight election, incumbent Republicans who attempted to turn illegal immigration into a wedge issue lost their election. Anti-immigration hardliners Randy Graf, John Hostettler and J.D. Hayworth were among the Republicans who lost in 2006. In addition to Goode, joining them this year were GOP Representatives Thelma Drake (Virginia), Tom Feeney (Florida), Ric Keller (Florida)and Robin Hayes (North Carolina) - all Members of a House anti-immigration caucus that focuses on demonizing the undocumented and advocating for things like mass deportation and denying citizenship to U.S. born children of undocumented persons.

4. GOP Immigration Strategy Goes Down in Flames - El Paso newspaper citing the most recent poll conducted by America's Voice and Lake Research.

5. Jeb Bush Readies to Woo Hispanics- In an interview, most importantly, Bush said his party must embrace the nation's changing demographics:

"We can't ignore large segments of our population and expect to win," Bush said. "We can't be the ‘old white-guy' party. It's just not going to work, the demographics go against us in that regard...". "Among Hispanic voters, I think we need to change the tone of the conversation as it relates to immigration. In Florida, we've not participated much in the chest pounding and the yelling and the screaming. I mean, it just drives me nuts when there are substantive policy differences that we can show mutual respect on, but the tone needs to change. And I think we need to recruit more candidates who share our values in the Hispanic community. In Florida we've done that."

This provides a window into the strategy Jeb will use if he runs for Senate.

Intelligence Report: Anti-immigration Leader at Heart of White Nationalist Scene for Decades - This report just released by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) details more precisely what SPLC has been reporting for some time: John Tanton, the architect of the modern anti-immigration movement and founder of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) has been at the heart of the white nationalist scene for decades, working with racist intellectuals, Klan lawyers and even Holocaust deniers.  Speaking of which, the "think tank" of the hate network funded by Mr. Tanton, Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) appears in this article on alleged "Green Card Marriage Fraud." While there is little data to substantiate the alleged incidence of fraud in marriages between one U.S. citizen and one non-citizen, even one case of fraud is unfortunate. In this regard, we thank CIS for furthering our argument for CIR - so long as the immigration system is broken and so long as there are insufficient legal channels for those currently living in the United States, or those wanting to come here, people will continue to find ways outside of the system to come here. So let's get a law passed that provides for a realistic number of visas, a speedier green-card process through employment and family, and additional realistic legal channels for permanent residence.

Outlook on Napolitano- A New York Times Editorial on the role Gov. Napolitano could play in achieving Comprehensive Immigration Reform as DHS Secretary. This op-ed makes many of the arguments NDN has posited on the inadequacy of "enforcement-only", and makes a compelling argument for the urgency of CIR:

How badly have [enforcement-only] efforts failed? Since Congress passed the Secure Fence Act of 2006, instead of comprehensive reform, 32 tunnels have been discovered under Arizona's border with Mexico, according to research by The Arizona Republic's Sean Holstege. That's more than all tunnels previously found in Arizona. Drug cartels finance tunnels, but transporting people into the country illegally has become so lucrative that drug smugglers increasingly are mixing their cargo. If the U.S. had a process to legally bring in needed foreign workers and legalize the current undocumented population, the reduction in the Border Patrol's workload would allow border law enforcement to focus on drug smuggling. There's reason to hope the new Congress will act on that simple reality.

The Immigration Crystal Ball - NPR is doing a great job focusing on border and immigration issues, Jennifer Ludden explores how enforcement priorities may change under President Obama and why "Immigration Experts Expect Fewer Workplace Raids." There's also a great deal of debate over whether immigration reform will happen, and when: 1) an interesting blog by Roberto Lovato, 2) A Dallas Morning News post by William McKenzie posits "Why Immigration May Go Forward," while a John Riley article in Dallas Morning News argues that immigration reform "Takes backseat to the economy."

No one really knows, all we can do is educate and advocate. The bottom line is that President-Elect Obama has demonstrated a commitment to immigration reform - he has spoken about this issue as a priority, and here's how he'll go about it.

The Economy and Immigration - And why should immigration and the economy be considered separate priorities, exclusive of each other? At NDN we've discussed why there is opportunity for immigration reform to form part of a new plan for the economy. In a post this week, Jeff Cornwall of Belmont University also posits that immigration may be part of the answer to give the economy an entrepreneurial boost:

Most studies find that immigrants are more likely to be entrepreneurs or self-employed than the population as a whole. The Philadelphia Business Journal reports on yet another study that adds more support....Current policy makes it difficult for entrepreneurs to enter the U.S. legally.

In a different post, Jaya Ramji-Nogales writes about one of the effects of the economic downturn on immigrants:

The "Lou Dobbs" effect; as xenophobic vitriol and resulting anti-immigrant sentiment has increased, so has violence against immigrants or those who appear to be immigrants. Add that to an economy in free-fall, and the result may be highly combustible.

Number of Undocumented Immigrants Continues to Fall - According the Center for International Trade of University of Texas at San Antonio, 1.3 million, or 11% of undocumented immigrants have returned to their home country this year. A right wing website similarly reports a dramatic decline, the difference is in the causes to which the decline is attributed. The UT study correctly attributes the decline to the economic crisis and a decrease in the supply of jobs, combined with increased raids and workplace enforcement. The nativist website draws a very incorrect and very dangerous conclusion: that "illegal immigrants" started heading home "immediately" after the failed attempt at CIR in the Senate in Summer of 2007, which is completely false. The first evidence of undocumenteds leaving began earlier this year, during late summer and Fall of 2008, in response to the economic crisis, as opposed to a bill in Congress. As we move forward, and as President Obama works with Congress to pass immigration reform, we have to be very careful to fight back against that 10% of people in the U.S. who will be spreading misinformation such as this.

Immigration Changing Course, A Story that Needs Telling - The Miami Herald has begun a series on the course of immigration, "It's an important story for a country built on immigration and yet often ambivalent about its impacts. Over a generation, new arrivals from Mexico, the Caribbean and throughout Latin America have reshaped this country. Nowhere is that more the case than in South Florida, where millions of legal immigrants and nearly one tenth of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States have settled."

Hate Crimes Changing Political Climate - On Tuesday, activists called for investigation of Suffolk hate crime statistics. This is the beginning of what we hope to be an ongoing PR campaign to encourage victims to report hate crimes, and to encourage law enforcement to crack down on such criminal activity.

El Universal reports an increase in remittances to Mexico over the last month, with immigrants taking advantage of the recent devaluation of the peso. Remittances rose 13% compared to October of 2007, coming to a total of about $2.4 billion. This is the first rise in remittances after 14 months of a consecutive decline. Even though they rose from last October, remittances are still less than they were in January of this year. And the AP reports on Philadephia's growing immigrant community.

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