Oscar-nominated writer-director Chris Weitz is known for making popular fare like American Pie, About a Boy and Twilight: New Moon. But last year he made the independent feature A Better Life, which chronicles an undocumented gardener in East LA, as he tries to create better opportunities and a better life for his son. Star Demián [...]

I’m not going to get into the drama of Barack Obama’s run-in with Arizona Governor Jan Brewer at the airport. It’s just cable news fodder, so let them handle it. What does interest me is the fact that the biggest sub-group of Arizonans fascinated with the exchange are the Latino community, an indicator of why [...]

Here’s my hands-down favorite story of the day. During the debate last night, Mitt Romney offered up the idea of “self-deportation”, which sounds like something you shouldn’t do because you’ll go blind, but which actually just describes the idea of making life completely miserable for immigrants so they’ll give up on America and go home. [...]

Today, the White House announced that Cecilia Munoz, currently the director of intergovernmental affairs, will become the director of the Domestic Policy Council, replacing Melody Barnes, who departed at the end of December. The Wall Street Journal article linked above positions Munoz as an “advocate for Hispanics,” and intimates that this is a calculated move. [...]

In potentially good news on the immigration front, the Obama Administration will change the rules for immigrants who apply for legal status. They will allow children and spouses of US citizens applying for legal status to go through the process while staying in the country, rather than the current rule, where the applicant has to [...]

If you want to understand why the Obama Administration should have some concern about Latino voter turnout in 2012, look no further than this story. (Lorene) Turner has been searching for (her granddaughter) Jakadrien since the fall of 2010, when she ran away from home. She was 14 years old and distraught over the loss [...]

People talk about the whiteness of Iowa. However, with the rise of Latino labor, particularly in food processing plants, the minority population has been rising around some factory clusters. In fact, Univision found a town called West Liberty with a majority-Latino population. So how are they viewing the caucuses tonight, and more broadly the Presidential [...]

Before embarking on this list of the major issues to expect next year, in the interest of assessing my punditry let’s take a look at my list from last year looking ahead to 2011. I didn’t know what “Occupy Wall Street” or the Arab spring was at that time, nor did I predict the Wisconsin [...]

We know about Arizona’s immigration law, about to reach the Supreme Court. We know about Alabama’s law, which is damaging their economy and reputation to such an extent that they’re talking about changing it. But other states who ushered in a new Tea Party majority in 2010 passed immigration laws of their own, including South [...]

After posting 1,200 National Guard troops at the US-Mexico border to stop crossings of undocumented immigrants, the Department of Homeland Security will draw down those forces by 75% and shift the mission considerably: The drawdown, which the department characterized as a “transition,” will begin in January and should be completed by March. Several lawmakers told [...]

In a stinging report, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division released their findings of a two-year investigation into Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, showing that he unfairly targeted Latinos and discriminated against them at the expense of other crimes in his jurisdiction, including sexual assault crimes. After an investigation that lasted more than two years, [...]