Halted effort to track undocumented aliens using drivers licenses cost $177,000

This July, Governor Susana Martinez, a descendant of illegal immigrants, implemented what she called a residency certification program — an effort to review the authenticity of foreign nationals’ drivers licenses. The state currently has about 85,000 licenses issued to foreign nationals.

State district judge Sarah Singleton issued a preliminary injunction More…

N.M. Gov. Martinez acknowledges her grandparents were undocumented

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez acknowledged that her grandparents came to the U.S. without documents in an interview with Univision Albuquerque affiliate KLUZ-TV.

“I know they arrived without documents, especially my father’s father,” she said. (Here’s the full TV report, in Spanish.) The Santa Fe New Mexican More…

New Mexico local hero who saved girl from kidnapper says he’s undocumented

Antonio Diaz Chacon, 23, who gained national headlines for chasing down a kidnapper to save a six-year old girl in Albuquerque last week, told the media that he is an illegal immigrant.

“He thinks this happened for a reason,” said his wife, Martha. She is a U.S. citizen, but Diaz More…

N.M. Bishops back law allowing foreign nationals with residency to obtain driver’s license

The Roman Catholic Bishops of New Mexico support the current driver’s license law allowing foreign nationals to obtain a driver’s license with New Mexico residency, and oppose Gov. Susana Martinez’ push to change the law.

From their op-ed:

We support extending driver’s license privileges only to residents of the

More…

Dems to reintroduce DREAM Act in House, Senate

Democrats in both houses of Congress plan to reintroduce the DREAM Act, legislation that would provide a path to citizenship for immigrants brought to the United States illegally by their parents.

At a Wednesday press conference, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised that the bill would get a More…

Obama administration continues quiet crackdown on undocumented workers

Scenes of massive immigration raids in the Iowa communities of Postville and Marshalltown have faded from the public’s collective memory, and current federal officials appear to want to keep it that way.

Many states look to Arizona’s SB 1070 as a model for new immigration legislation

The Saturday after the November elections that brought 680 Republican state legislators into office throughout the country, Texas Rep. Debbie Riddle started camping outside the Texas Capitol in Austin to be the first to file voter ID legislation and an Arizona-style immigration bill for Texas. A passer-by told her that More…

Study finds high costs, questionable return for Virginia county’s immigration policy

A new study on the impact of anti-illegal immigration policies in Prince William County, Va., found that the Latino population decreased substantially after the policy was implemented in 2007, with a 7,700-person drop in the non-citizen Latino population between 2006 and 2008. (That number accounts for legal and More…

Patrick promises immigrant-friendly reforms in Massachusetts

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D), who won re-election earlier this month, announced yesterday that he hopes to use his next four years in office to pass a number of immigration reform measures, including driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants and in-state tuition for undocumented students who attended high school More…

What happens to children when their parents are detained or deported?

The Daily Beast has a good story today on Encarnación Romero, a Guatemalan woman who was jailed on immigration charges for two years and ended up losing parental rights to her infant son. Romero faked documents to secure a job at a Missouri poultry plant, which was raided More…