Topics: Immigration - 1489 results

The U.S. Supreme Court today heard arguments about whether states can require documents to register voters for federal elections above and beyond what the federal government itself deems necessary. In Arizona v. The Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, the court will decide whether Arizona can enforce a law that compels would-be voters to show proof that they are U.S. citizens. Under the federal National Voter Registration Act, people who register to vote swear under penalty of perjury that they are …

Yet another part of Arizona’s controversial 2010 immigration law has been blocked from enactment – this time by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which on Mar. 4 said SB 1070’s targeting of “traffic obstructions” by day laborers violates their First Amendment right to commercial speech. A lower federal court in February 2012 issued an injunction blocking two of the law’s sections that make it illegal both to try, from a car, to hire day laborers and to be …

As the debate over comprehensive immigration reform rages on, states are deciding how they will treat immigrants who are allowed to stay and work in the country but still live in a murky limbo when it comes to legal status. North Carolina has come up with one solution: pink driver’s licenses. As of the end of January, the federal government had accepted nearly 400,000 applications and approved over 150,000 in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The memorandum issued …

The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 20 held that one of its 2010 rulings – that under the Sixth Amendment, criminal defense attorneys must warn their clients that guilty pleas can result in deportation – does not apply retroactively. In Chaidez v. United States, the Court said Padilla v. Kentucky, the 2010 case, was not retroactive because it created a new rule about warning defendants, as opposed to simply applying existing rules.   Sorry, Says Court: Play It Forward Roselva …

The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 did not include basic labor protections for household workers like nannies, caregivers and cleaners. Almost 80 years later, almost all domestic workers are still unprotected. Domestic workers are not covered by federal minimum wage laws or the minimum wage laws of most states. Generally, these workers are not eligible for unemployment insurance or protected by antidiscrimination or workers’ compensation laws. A 2012 survey found that 23 percent of domestic workers made less than …