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Obama to Halt Deportations of DREAM-Eligible Immigrant Youth

Bravo. The Obama administration has announced that it will halt deportations of young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and who do not have a criminal record, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The move that could prove important in a presidential campaign that will turn in part on who wins over Latino voters. Effective immediately, young immigrants who arrived in the U.S. before they turned 16 will be allowed to apply for work permits as long as they have no criminal history and meet other criteria, officials said.

The change the White House announced Friday would allow illegal immigrants under the age of 30 to stay and work in the country if they don’t pose a national security or public safety risk. Those who meet the criteria will be eligible to apply for deferred action on deportation for a period of two years, and that status will be renewable, one official said. They also will be able to apply for authorization to work.

The Washington Post:

The policy change will affect as many as 800,000 immigrants who have lived in fear of deportation. It also bypasses Congress and partially achieves the goals of the so-called DREAM Act, a long-sought but never enacted plan to establish a path toward citizenship for young people who came to the United States illegally but who have attended college or served in the military.

The announcement comes on the 30th anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Plyler vs. Doe. That's when SCOTUS struck down a Texas statute denying funding for education to undocumented immigrant children.

TIME's cover story this week "We Are Americans—Just Not Legally" takes on the DREAM ACT and undocumented immigrant youth. Jose Antonio Vargas, who is gay and undocumented, wrote the cover article. Vargas tweets that he is ineligible for the new policy.

Arizona Revokes Domestic Partner Benefits for State Employees

For almost a year, Republican legislators in Arizona have criticized the equal benefits plan approved by former Governor Janet Napolitano, now Department of Homeland Security Secretary. On Friday, the newish   Republican Governor Jan Brewer signed a new budget that strips health insurance coverage for domestic partners as a "cost cutting measure," Lambda Legal reports.

"The elimination of vital benefits for a small, politically vulnerable group of public workers emerged from a protracted and bruising battle over the state budget. 'This is a cruel and cynical ploy by the far right to target and hurt the families of gay and lesbian state employees under the guise of cost-cutting,' said Tara Borelli, staff attorney for Lambda Legal. 'With families already facing pressure from job losses and a contracting economy, this couldn't happen at a worse time. The cutting of benefits pulls the rug out from underneath hardworking state employees and saves the state next to nothing.' "

The state Department of Administration says about 750 employees who signed up for the benefits would be affected. A spokesman says domestic partner coverage costs the state about $3 million a year in addition to the $625 million Arizona spends on health insurance for other employees.

Benefits were also revoked for unmarried heterosexual partners. Of course, they can always get married if they chose.

NYT Asks Homeland Security Sec. Napolitano About Lesbian Rumors

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is the subject of Deborah Soloman's latest column in The New York Times magazine. Two weeks ago Solomon published that lackluster interview with NAACP's Benjamin Jealous, this week she makes up for it with some interesting questions on the color-coded terror alert system, the right-wing extremism report Napolitano was forced to walk back ... oh and those persistent lesbian rumors. 

Men don’t know what to make of women who choose to be single. Rumors of lesbianism have dogged women in politics like you, Condoleezza Rice and Ann Richards.
Right. I think the more people get to know a person, the less that becomes an issue. It’s interesting. In Arizona when I first ran for public office, that’s when the rumors were going around, and of course I’m sure they go around now.

In 2002, during your gubernatorial campaign, you publicly denied rumors that you were a lesbian.
I just happen not to be married.

Are you seeing anybody now?
Yes, my staff.

This is the first time in memory that Secretary Janet Napolitano was publicly asked about the rumors by the mainstream news media. But quite the diplomatic response, no?

(via AMERICAblog Gay)

Pro Same-Sex Marriage Carlos Moreno on Obama's SCOTUS List?

New developments in President Barack Obama’s search for a Supreme Court justice to replace David Souter. A new name surfaces: California Supreme Court Judge Carlos Moreno. The AP confirms these six justices—several previously mentioned on Rod 2.0—are also being considered by the president: Moreno, Elena Kagan, Jennifer Granholm, Janet Napolitano, Sonia Sotomayor, and Diane Wood.

Moreno was in the majority in California's historic judicial decision that affirmed the right of same-sex couples to marry.

Moreno was nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1998 to serve as a U.S. District Court judge and the Senate unanimously confirmed him. In 2001 he raised a few eyebrows when he gave up his lifetime federal judgeship to accept Democratic Gov. Gray Davis' nomination to the state's high court.

Moreno is the only Democrat on the California Supreme Court and is widely regarded as its most liberal voice. Last year he signed on to the court's 4-3 ruling that legalized gay marriage in the state. Voters later banned gay marriage in a ballot initiative.

Obama is widely expected to choose a woman for a Supreme Court that has only one female justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The White House is also under some pressure to name the nation's first Hispanic justice. Moreno and Sotomayor are Hispanic.

Moreno's judicial and progressive credentials are excellent but at 60-years-old he doesn't appear to be a viable option. IMHO it wouldn't be surprising if his name were being floated merely as a trial balloon. Sotomayor is also an incredible candidate, very progressive and pro-gay. The right-wing would hate either candidate—which is good news to me—and is already astro-turfing opposition and smearing Sotomayor. Good. That means they're scared of Sotomayor.

Homeland Security: Right Wing Extremists "Gaining New Recruits" After Obama's Election

In May 2007, Barack Obama was placed under 24/7 Secret Service protection—the earliest ever for a presidential candidate—after receiving numerous racist death threats. The election of the nation's first black president has become a potent recruiting tool for the extreme right, according to a new assessment from the Office of Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security.

[R]ightwing extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears about several emergent issues. The economic downturn and the election of the first African American president present unique drivers for rightwing radicalization and recruitment.

If the "uncertain economy" and a "perceived rising influence of other countries" continues, "rightwing extremism is likely to grow in strength," the report adds. "[L]one wolves and small terrorist cells embracing violent rightwing extremist ideology are the most dangerous domestic terrorism threat in the United States."

The Southern Poverty Law Center adds the "number of hate groups operating in the United States continued to rise in 2008 and has grown by 54 percent since 2000—an increase fueled last year by immigration fears, a failing economy and the successful campaign of Barack Obama."

The recent shooting rampage in Pittsburgh that killed three officers was appatrently committed by a man who posted numerous racist and anti-Semitic messages on white supremacist websites.