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For your consideration... Several controversial amendments to immigration reform were defeated today: An attempt to discard the path to citizenship included in the CIR Sharing immigration application information with law enforcement agencies, and perhaps some governments Amendment that passed: Assistance to victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants We will have to keep a close eye on ® senators Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Mike Lee of Utah, and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, which are among the strongest foes of comprehensive immigration reform. However, the bill is gaining positive momentum and increased support from additional Republicans, which could ultimately benefit the performance of the bill once it reaches the senate floor in June... http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2013/05/cruzs-attempt-to-strip-citizenship-provision-from-immigration-reform-fails-in-a-big-way/

(Sigh) Ok - as many of you are probably aware, the authorities identified the two suspects (one of them deceased) which are from Chechen origin. For those of you wondering where is Chechnya, it is a 'republic' of Russia - by Republic, it should be interpreted as an autonomous region where the majority of the population is of an ethnic minority. In addition, Russia allows them to have another language aside from Russian, and the region is also part of the Commonwealth of Independent States (former soviet republics). Here is a map: Chechnya is the #3 republic according to the map Chechnya has been infamous due to a separatist, radical Islamist group that want to establish the Caucasus Emirate (which would be comprised of the colored area described in the little picture above - not Georgia) and have strived to do it through violent means. The separatist group (read: Chechen Rebels) have been responsible for attacks in Central Asia and Russia due to tensions that have existed in the region for a long time between Chechens and Russians (since ~18th century). Why is this important, you ask? Well, the bombers were immigrants from Chechnya who came to the US and were naturalized. Now you catch the drift. During the time of significant, comprehensive immigration reform, the authors of the bombing were immigrants. They were not hispanic, latinos, asian, african, etc, but they were immigrants nonetheless. I just want to see your thoughts on how this might have a negative impact in the debate for immigration reform... Perhaps it won't stop the reform on its tracks, but it could spark a heated debate, in addition to amendments and changes to the bill. Thoughts? Comments? Concerns?

In case you would like to see it! What did you think about what was said? Share your opinions...

Here is an interesting article I found in the Huffington Post regarding how Immigration Reform could have a positive impact in the Social Security Trust Fund... It also describes briefly costs and long-term benefits of undocumented immigrants, and how CIR could significantly contribute to the Economy... Source:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/18/immigration-reform-social-security_n_3103500.html

Great news for all us, M. Zuckerberg, as well as many other leaders in Silicon Valley and other industries, have joined us in our fight towards an overhaul of the severely flawed immigration system. Here is his Op-Ed in the Washington Post: http://www.washingto...90a4_story.html

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and The AFL-CIO have reached a deal on a new low-skilled worker program. If you guys remember the 2007 Comprehensive Immigration Reform fight, one of the main problem why that bill failed was because of disagreement between big business and organize labor over the temporary worker program. So this is a BIG deal, this pretty much bring us closer to a comprehensive immigration reform by the summer time. Of course we still have a tough fight ahead of us , but nonetheless this was a tough hurdle to overcome and they finally did. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/30/immigration-reform_n_2985521.html

One of the reason why the Dream Act failed in 2007 is because it was included in the 2007 Comprehensive Immigration Reform which wasn't popular at the time. The Dream Act on the other hand still maintained its popularity through-out the years even though it failed few other times thereafter in Congress. My question to you all is this; Should the Dream Act be included with the Comprehensive Immigration Reform again or should the Dream Act be a stand-alone bill? I ask this question because, if the Dream Act would be allowed to be introduced as a stand alone bill for a Senate and a House vote, it will most definitely pass with little opposition. This is not just my opinion but the opinion of many politicians and reporters, because many republican politicians who were opposed to the Dream Act are now in supportive of it. I'm just afraid that Comprehensive Immigration Reform might end-up killing the Dream Act again.