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Ronald N. Langston 12:04 a.m. CST February 23, 2015

Ronald N. Langston(Photo: Special to the Register)

Everyone across the political spectrum agrees that the U.S. immigration policy is broken. The long march to the White House has begun. Beginning in Iowa, the presidential caucus provides Iowans with a historically unique opportunity to directly interact and challenge prospective presidential candidates on issues important to Iowa and the nation.

Now is the time for Iowa to focus the nations attention on immigration reform. Now is the time for American action. Now is the time for leadership. The recent introduction and location of global champions Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and others to Iowa are transforming the state into an emerging, major competitive global leader in high skilled, adaptive, and innovative service technologies.

A significant challenge for the Iowa presidential caucus process is whether Iowans will take seriously their critical role to clarify the choice on which candidate is the responsible adult in the room. Who will best demonstrate the moral responsibility to be intelligent, and who will exhibit the skill and courage to address the challenges facing Iowa, the nation, and the world?

The outcome of immigration reform will directly impact Iowas emergence as a technology state. In a recent Washington Examiner article, Republican leaders throughout the state made it clear there is no single opinion on this issue in Iowa. Our state and the nation need a leader to create a path forward, to secure the borders, and protect our economic interests.

It is unacceptable to ignore the business case reality of the impact that immigration has on the future economic growth of the nation. The talent found within the individuals coming to America is valuable and must continue to be harnessed by American businesses and entrepreneurs. Immigrants have been responsible for increasing the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by nearly $37 billion each year. Likewise, immigrant students contribute to the economy as they spend nearly $21.8 billion in tuition and living expenses annually. In fact, immigrant entrepreneurs play a large role in our nations entrepreneurial economy and we must embrace them in order to continue being a competitive global leader. We cannot afford to lose the economic benefits provided by our nations immigrant population.

Thus far, credible, actionable solutions have not been offered. Potential candidates who claim to be anti-reform, often waxing on about amnesty or merely emphasizing border security, fail to address clearly the immigration divide and, by default, they wallow in the quicksand of the pro-deportation debate and the politics of fear.

It is not just Republicans who do not get it. President Obamas recent executive order is not a viable or sustainable response, and U.S. Senate Democrats holding up critical Homeland Security legislation continue the stalemate in Congress. Ultimately, we need a comprehensive immigration plan to provide a permanent legislative solution to a national crisis. Otherwise, we risk America becoming the No. 1 exporter of both highly skilled workers and technology jobs to Canada, China, India and Europe.

Let us ask now for solutions not rhetoric. Let us take this opportunity to inspire a spirited debate on immigration reform. Let us remind those coming to this great state that the American mission should not be a dream deferred for those who are seeking freedom and security.

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Immigration reform affects Iowa businesses

By Dondi Tiples , Christian Post Contributor

February 20, 2015|10:21 am

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism in Washington, February 18, 2015.

A Texas federal judge issued a temporary court order blocking U.S. President Barack Obama's executive action on immigration Tuesday, prompting the President to vow he will fight the ruling and appeal the decision.

U.S. President Barack Obama employed his executive power to bypass Congress in his bid to pursue unilateral changes to reform country's immigration system, prompting District Judge Andrew Hanen to block the executive action -- a decision the President has vowed to oppose.

President Obama's executive action in late 2014 to safeguard an estimated five million undocumented immigrants from deportation defied a Congress ruling and prompted House Republicans to slam his actions as unconstitutional, placing the blame on Obama's move as playing a huge part of the immigration problem the country currently faces.

President Obama says he will oppose the ruling, stating that "law and history are on his side." The White House issued a statement saying the executive action was well within his presidential authority.

"The district court's decision wrongly prevents these lawful, commonsense policies from taking effect," the statement read. "The Supreme Court and Congress have made clear that the federal government can set priorities in enforcing our immigration laws which is exactly what the President did when he announced commonsense policies to help fix our broken."

The Justice Department also expressed its intent to appeal Judge Hanen's decision.

Obama said he is confident that the Texas court's injunction over his executive order will be overruled, and he is prepared to continue with the implementation of that order to delay the deportation of millions of immigrants in the U.S.

Continued here:
Immigration Reform News: Obama Vows to Fight Texas Court ...

Task Force TV Politini Interview - Carlos Padilla and Stacey Long Simmons
How are immigration policies affecting LGBTQ undocumented parents? Are transgender immigration detainees being treated fairly in detention camps? Task Force TV is talking immigration reform...

By: National LGBTQ Task Force

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Task Force TV Politini Interview - Carlos Padilla and Stacey Long Simmons - Video

For undocumented immigrants in the United States, obtaining health insurance through the government is next to impossible, with both the Affordable Care Act and a recent executive immigration order explicitly declaring them ineligible for health care coverage. That means many are forced to put off preventative care measures and eventually turn to expensive, overstressed emergency rooms once they become severely ill.

Now, state officials are trying to find ways around the federal government's prohibition and provide various kinds of coverage to immigrants who don't qualify for Obamacare. Using state funds, California and New York are pioneering ways to offer comprehensive coverage for undocumented immigrants and others with temporary work visas. A handful of other states offer limited insurance coverage tosubsetsof immigrant populations. But experts warn such programs remain in the minority, and that the overall lack of health care coverage for immigrants in the United States could result in much higher medical bills in the future.

By 2016, 5.1 million undocumented immigrants in the United States will be uninsured, a group of UCLA researchers hasestimated. In 2012, there were anestimated11.2 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. Under the 1986 policy EMTALA, hospitals cannot turn away a person in need of care, regardless of immigration status or ability to pay. Emergency treatment costs to Medicaid amounts to about $2 billion a year, mostly for illegal immigrants, according to a 2013reportby Kaiser Health News. In 2009,researchby the Center for Immigration Studies estimated the cost of treating uninsured and undocumented immigrants at $4.3 billion per year at safety-net facilities like emergency rooms and community health clinics.

Advocates for immigrant health coverage say these sums might be less exorbitant if undocumented immigrants had regular primary care, which would be more accessible if they had insurance. Those bills couldve been drastically reduced, Frank Rodriguez, president of the Latino Health Care Forum, which offers health care outreach and enrollment assistance to the uninsured and underinsured in Texas, said. There are no preventative health measures, so they [undocumented, uninsured immigrants] end up having to use emergency care.

Critics, however,arguethat providing health care to illegal immigrants will encourage more illegal immigration and that taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for social services for those in the country without legal status."County hospitals are overwhelmed with uninsured people, and they've been forced to come up with more money to accommodate these people largely because they've encouraged them to come in," Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, hastoldthe Los Angeles Times.

Unauthorized immigrants could theoretically buy private health insurance, but that option is usually prohibitively expensive.Unauthorized immigrants are not eligible for almost any of the federal, state and local health care programs, and they tend to work in jobs that dont carry employer coverage, Randy Capps, director of research for U.S. programs at the Migration Policy Institute, said.

The other health care option for undocumented immigrants is federally qualified health centers, which are reimbursed by and receive other funding from the government and do not ask questions about immigration status. But federally qualified health centers dont do much primary health care because theyre not reimbursed [for it], Rodriguez said. If a person sought primary medical services at such centers, they would likely have to pay out of pocket, albeit on a sliding fee scale. The undocumented immigrants wont go, he said.

Alvaro Huerta, a staff attorney at the National Immigration Law Center, called it "shortsighted" not to give undocumented and deferred action immigrants access to primary care, given how cost-effective such care be. Every principle of health reform, [for the] documented or undocumented, says, put your money into preventative care, because youre going to be spending 100 times the investment in preventative care when people wind up sick in emergency rooms or hospitals," he said.

On Jun. 15, 2012, the Obama administration issued an executive order granting certain undocumented immigrants immunity from deportation and making them eligible for work permits. A few months later, the administration explicitly restricted its policy so that these immigrants were not eligible for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

California has long been the vanguard for ensuring that immigrants have access to health care and insurance. It allows deferred action grantees under Obama's policies to enroll in Medi-Cal or a parallel public health insurance program, andlawmakers have also proposed legislation to grant all undocumented immigrants eligibility for the same two programs. Most recently, in December 2014, State Senator Ricardo Lara of California introduced SB 4,a bill that tries to make all undocumented immigrants eligible for Medi-Cal.

More:
Immigration, Health Care Reform 2015: States Move To Help ...

But the potential presidential contender laughed it off, joking that he's the rare elected official to be heckled "by both sides of the immigration debate."

"I just hope you bought the book," Rubio said to the protesters as they were removed from the room by security, according to the Washington Post.

Rubio later joked: "If what they wanted was a discount of the book we could have worked it out."

The senator was speaking at Miami Dade College as part of a multi-state tour to promote his book, "American Dreams," as he works to build a national profile in preparation for a potential presidential bid.

POLL: Huckabee, Clinton lead the pack

But the hecklers highlighted the fact that what's perhaps one of his greatest advantages is also part of what's standing in his way to the White House: His leadership in passing a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the Senate in 2013 that was dead on arrival in the House, countered by heavy conservative opposition.

Rubio's role in that legislative fight was initially seen as a possible crowning achievement for the rising GOP star, but ultimately crippled him with conservatives who saw him as too willing to compromise with Democrats for a bad bill.

The Florida Republican has indeed been heckled before by members of the other party, over his efforts with that bill. During a 2013 Tea Party summit in Florida, Rubio was met with cries of "No amnesty!" from the conservative crowd.

Friday night, he encountered the opposite.

"What about my parents?" one protester cried, per the Post, prompting others to join in. Another swore, for which Rubio apologized to the crowd.

Link:
Rubio heckled by protesters