Latino Rebels DC

Capitol Police expect to log 9,000 death threats against members of Congress this year, many of them aimed at members of the ‘the Squad,’ a group of six young Democrats of color who have become icons for progressives and many communities of color.

“There are certain advocacy groups, national organizations, that may have a footprint here in Washington but do not have a presence in immigrant communities,” Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with Latino Rebels on Monday evening at the Capitol.

Santos Núñez laments the fact that there are not more Afro-Latinas and LGTBQ Hill staffers like her. “I’ve only met four other Afro-Latinas in all of Congress,” said Santos Núñez, who is the programming director for the Congressional Hispanic Staff Association and a member of the Congressional Black Associates.

Donald Trump over-performed with Latino and Latina voters during the 2020 election. Latino Rebels asked both Latinos in the Senate GOP caucus, Marco Rubio (FL) and Ted Cruz (TX), to explain the rightward shift in Latino voters during last year’s presidential election.

After weeks of negotiations, the long-promised pathway to citizenship has been removed from the House spending bill, replaced by immigrant parole. Washington correspondent Pablo Manríquez walks us through how it happened.

Democrats in Congress are divided over whether Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough can render an impartial judgment on immigrant relief proposals after Latino Rebels published a report Monday showing that MacDonough likely worked as an immigration prosecutor in the late nineties.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) told Latino Rebels on Wednesday afternoon that Green Card reform provisions in the House version of the Build Back Better Act might be submitted for Parliamentarian review.

Last week the Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair spoke at length with reporters of her “four priorities in the care bucket” for the Build Back Better Act, leaving off the fifth priority listed by her caucus back in April: a pathway to citizenship.

“As someone who has worked to deport people, [MacDonough] cannot be trusted to rule objectively on immigration issues,” the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) said last Thursday in a statement.

New Immigrant Community Empowerment is planning an 11-day protest in Times Square calling on Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) to include a pathway to citizenship in the Build Back Better Act, President Joe Biden’s social spending bill.

Latino Rebels Radio: October 28, 2021

“The framework includes a separate $100 billion investment in immigration reform that is consistent with the Senate’s reconciliation rules,” a White House fact sheet on the bill published Thursday morning said.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) is leading a third proposal to the Senate Parliamentarian for including immigrant relief in the Build Back Better Act (BBB), Joe Biden’s signature social spending bill. The third proposal (“Plan C”) will most likely be delivered to the Parliamentarian on Friday but could come as late as next week.

In July, Latino Rebels began asking members of Congress to explain the rightward shift in Latino voters during last year’s presidential election. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) was the first Congressional Hispanic Caucus member asked.

A small group of immigrant rights activists has been camped outside Vice President Kamala Harris’s house in Washington, D.C. since last Thursday, calling on Harris to overrule the Senate Parliamentarian and include immigrant relief in the budget bill being negotiated in Congress.

Futuro Media Group, the Harlem-based publisher of Latino Rebels, received a White House press pass Thursday afternoon for Washington correspondent Pablo Manríquez. The White House press pass gives Futuro what’s known in the Beltway as “double credential” to cover the federal government with full Washington press access.

Five members of the House Hispanic Caucus, all Democrats, held a press conference on Wednesday to advocate for permanent immigrant relief provisions in the Democrats’ sprawling budget bill currently being negotiated on Capitol Hill.

The two-term congresswoman representing parts of the Bronx and Queens has relied largely on small-dollar donors to raise money online, gaining an impressive $1,679,781 in the third quarter of this year, according to FEC fundraising disclosures.

Latino Rebels asked a half-dozen members of the upper chamber on Monday and Tuesday if undocumented immigrants will be eligible for mainstream tenants of the Build Back Better Bill, like child tax credit checks, paid family leave, and subsidized community college education.

On Monday, the Senate voted to confirm the nomination of Judge Gustavo Gelpí to the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit based in Boston, making him the second Puerto Rican judge to be a member of that court.

Congressional Black Caucus members continue to unite around immigrant relief, especially following the recent harsh treatment of Haitian migrants by ICE and Border Patrol agents.