Sen. Al Franken is the sponsor of legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate late last week that would give binational same-sex couples the same rights as married couples for immigration purposes. The Uniting American Families Act is authored by Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont and is sponsored by 18 other More…
As the Obama Administration tentatively feels its way through the political crisis in Egypt, some key lawmakers on Capitol Hill are sending a strong message to embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, who chairs the subcommittee that approves foreign aid and who has voiced strong opinions More…
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials will issue new documents for naturalized citizens beginning today to help prevent fraud. The agency has attempted to increase the security of its documents, unveiling new green cards this summer meant to be more difficult to counterfeit. The new citizenship More…
Change.org links to a good summary of the 874-page comprehensive immigration reform bill Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) introduced Wednesday. The bill includes paths to legalization for non-criminal illegal immigrants in the country, provided they pay a fine and application fees. But first it focuses More…
Comprehensive immigration reform already stands on shaky ground, but what would happen if a reform bill included a provision that granted gays and lesbians the right to petition for their partners to gain legal status?
Although some proponents of reform argue it is an issue of equality, others More…
Stan Delp, a 67-year-old retired teacher living in Lansdale, Penn., was sitting in church in June, 2008, when he noticed four unfamiliar black-haired men by him. He found they were new to the United States, having spent 11 years in refugee camp in Thailand. Delp’s church is not big — More…
In the first week of July, Andie Davis’ husband, who worked in manufacturing, lost his job, as hundreds of thousands of Michiganders have since the onset of the recession. Soon after, he started collecting unemployment insurance benefits that might last the family of four as long as 99 weeks. Davis More…
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) just agreed to postpone committee votes on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan and Deputy Attorney General nominee James Michael Cole by one week, rescheduling them for July 20.
Ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) had asked for the delay on behalf of committee Republicans, More…
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) today defended Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s restriction of military recruiters’ access at Harvard Law School after a veteran testified that the restrictions were akin to segregation.
Retired Army Capt. Flagg Youngblood, military outreach director for Young America’s Foundation, testified that “‘separate but equal’ More…
The Washington Post has an interview with Attorney General Eric Holder in which Holder, for the first time, appears to give himself breathing room to abandon federal criminal trials for the 9/11 conspirators:
“At the end of the day, wherever this case is tried, in whatever forum, what we
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