I’m thrilled to announce the launch of my new weekly column with The Chicago Bureau, a youth issues watchdog. Last summer I wrote a feature for the Bureau examining some of the more troubling elements of the Youth PROMISE Act, which was embraced by leading advocacy organizations as a step toward ending the school-to-prison pipeline. The Bureau does fantastic work on a range of issues, from juvenile justice to education policy to racial and economic inequality, so it’s great to be back.
My first Bureau column, “Immigration Reform Is Dead — And That’s a Good Thing,” takes aim at the immigration reform bill recently killed by House Republicans. The bill has been advertised as a path to citizenship for the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States, and its demise has outraged immigrant justice advocates.
Yet passage of the current bill would be only a symbolic victory for the immigrant justice movement. As I write in the column: “The reform’s brutal border security provisions and classist path to citizenship would seriously harm immigrant communities while undermining the solidarity needed to resist the onslaught.” You can read the rest here.
I’m happy to report that the piece has also been picked up by CommonDreams.org.