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Luis Gutierrez
Quick Hit
by Ashlee Rezin
7:11pm
Thu May 16

Pressure Against Joliet's Proposed For-Profit Immigrant Detention Center Escalates (VIDEO)

Pressure is mounting against a proposal to open a for-profit immigrant detention center in Joliet. Activists submitted 4,000 petitions against the facility to the Joliet City Council Thursday, just one day after four Illinois congressional delegates sent a letter asking the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Janet Napolitano, to reject the prison’s proposal.

U.S. Reps. Mike Quigley (D, IL-5), Tammy Duckworth (D, IL-8), Brad Schneider (D, IL-10) and Bill Foster (D, IL-11) were behind the letter sent to Napolitano on Wednesday.

“Bringing an immigrant detention center to Joliet would mean overwhelming fear for this city’s immigrant community,” said Jesse Hoyt, an organizer with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR). “The pressure that’s on the city and the county to do something to stop this is getting much more intense.”

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PI Original
by Ashlee Rezin
1:03pm
Fri Apr 26

CISPA Could Be The End Of Online Privacy, Internet Activists Say

Congress

Privacy advocates condemning the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) as the end of online confidentiality experienced a triumph this week as the legislation will likely be shelved by the U.S. Senate.

Quick Hit
by Ashlee Rezin
6:28pm
Fri Mar 8

Labor Union Leaders Join Fight For Immigration Reform (VIDEO)

Labor union leaders gathered yesterday to demand comprehensive immigration reform, joining in the fight for America’s more than 11 million undocumented immigrants.

With a list of recommendations for legislators to incorporate into a comprehensive immigration reform package, leaders from two of the nation’s largest labor unions came together for an approximately 100-person rally with community members, undocumented immigrants and the Chicago Federation of Labor at the Instituto del Progreso Latino (IDPL) yesterday.

Joseph Hansen, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), and Richard Trumka, president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), called for a “clear path to citizenship” for undocumented workers. Read more »

Quick Hit
by Ashlee Rezin
5:08pm
Tue Feb 19

Chicago Immigration Reform Advocates Trek To D.C. To Call For Moratorium On Deportations

More than 250 advocates and immigrant workers, including approximately 60 members from the Latino Union of Chicago, met in Washington D.C. last week to make their voices heard by legislators and push for a moratorium on deportations while a deal on immigration reform is being hashed out.

On February 13, immigrant groups from across then nation, organized by the United Workers Congress, attended the first Senate hearing on immigration, met with U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D, IL-4), rallied on the Hill and met with legislators from their respective states.

Members of the Latino Union of Chicago met with U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), a member of the bipartisan group of senators dubbed the Gang of Eight, to ask about features of their recently released proposal “Bipartisan Framework for Comprehensive Immigration Reform.”

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PI Original
by Ashlee Rezin
8:24pm
Tue Feb 5

Illinois Congressmen Work Together In Bipartisan Effort To Update Visa Program

Immigration

Illinois lawmakers reintroduced the Visa Waiver Program Enhanced Security and Reform Act yesterday, legislation that would waive visas for visitors to the U.S. from countries. We take a look at what updating the law would do for residents in countries like Poland.