The only way any deal is going to happen is if Obama gets Boehner and all the other leadership in a room to hammer something out -- with gloves on -- that will have nobody's clear fingerprints on when it emerges.
It should now be clear that immigration reform cannot demand that the applicant go home and stand in line; there is no line for them to stand in, unless Congress creates a new visa category for them.
Marco Rubio and the Republican Party are wrong to support the H2-B guest worker program because it allows employers to hire expendable and easily exploitable workers without following the same guidelines that they do with U.S. workers.
Some 12 million women, men and children across these United States await with baited breath to see what political deals will be made to construct either a pathway to citizenship or pave a road to deportation hell.
We should ensure that we use our political power to protect our entire community. Any plan for immigration reform that is not inclusive of LGBT couples and families threatens to weaken, undermine and divide us. We should reject proposals that do not encompass all our families.
There is still much work to be done to open the eyes of all Christians to the love of God for the outsider. The movement to reach out to the strangers in our midst, though, has begun.
Long before immigration reform was the hot topic it is today, Judy Rickard and her wife, Karin Bogliolo, were in the trenches spreading the word about the harsh reality for same-sex binational couples trying to remain together in the U.S.
Fundamentally, the President understands that a higher minimum wage - not tax breaks for the rich - is what's needed to drive economic growth for those who most need it in America: workers. And for low wage workers everywhere, this increase is long overdue.
I do believe it is vital that America has a unifying national identity and that immigrants feel a sense of community with their fellow Americans -- and vice versa. And by no means is everyone who expresses concerns about how well we're doing on those fronts is a bigot or a demagogue.
A recently released report on the U.S. unauthorized population comes at a politically charged moment, as Congress begins in earnest to consider immigration reform and a possible path to citizenship for the nation's unauthorized residents.
Emily Klion, director of the Marsh Youth Theater in San Francisco, wanted to tell the stories of the "dreamers," children caught in the battle over immigration. To help her tackle this thorny topic, she approached award-winning poet Gary Soto, who signed on to write In and Out of Shadows.
Now that we are moving ahead with immigration reform, we should embrace citizenship as a positive value that strengthens the nation rather than putting unnecessary obstacles and long delays in the way of immigrants becoming citizens.
These students and young researchers not only do amazing things while they're here but their ideas and their drive enhances the quality of education for all of our students and the quality of life for all of our citizens.
We need sound policies regarding who should enter, live and work in the United States, and on how to carry out these policies. And those policies should reflect the opportunity, equality and other core American values that embody our country's great motto: "E pluribus unum" -- out of many, one.
In 2013, the president can solidify his legacy with Latinos by delivering on not only immigration reform, but also an enforcement policy that is intelligent, reasonable and accountable.
There is a tradition in the black church named "call and response." It's simply the experience of the preacher "calling" and the congregation "responding." Obama is ready to issue "calls" to the American people, over the heads of the Washington politicians and pundits. It's time for our response.