Immigration

Rep. Michele Bachmann is not the only person saying she won’t fill out the full U.S. Census. She’s joined in her boycott by a group she has vociferously spoken out against — undocumented immigrants.

If the anti-immigrant reactions to the outbreak of H1N1 influenza — “swine flu” — are any indication, advocates for immigration reform are going to have an uphill battle in Congress this year.

Minnesota’s most outspoken member of Congress, Republican Michele Bachmann, took to the House floor Monday evening to lambaste Democrats on everything from gay marriage and abortion to taxes, immigration and Mountain Dew. At one point she said the State Childrens Health Insurance Program, recently reauthorized by Congress, would be a “magnet” for “illegal aliens.”

Reps. Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum are cosponsoring legislation that would help bi-national same-sex couples keep their families together. Called the Uniting American Families Act, the legislation would allow non-citizen partners of gays and lesbians to gain permanent resident status in the same manner as married couples.

A coalition of progressives and evangelicals are uniting to end the culture war. Organized by the think tank Third Way and called the “Come Let Us Reason Together” coalition, the group seeks common ground on issues like abortion, gay rights, immigration and torture in hopes of ending the bitter divisiveness that has characterized the culture war.

All but lost in the shuffle by her comments Friday about “anti-American views” are Rep. Michele Bachmann’s controversial words about immigrants at last Thursday’s candidate’s debate in St. Cloud. According to the St. Cloud Times, Bachmann again blamed programs that encourage home-buying among minority and low-income people for the recent economic crisis. But Bachmann reserved her sharpest words for immigrants. She referenced an early 2008 car crash by an undocumented immigrant who hit a school bus near Cottonwood as proof of the need for stricter immigration laws.

Of immigrants unlawfully in the U.S., she added, “They’re bringing in disease and violence and every sort of difficulty. We need to protect ourselves against that.”

The New York-based political group Progressive States Network (PSN) has just released a report entitled, “The Anti-Immigration Movement That Failed,” which counters media hype around anti-immigration legislation, revealing that over the past few years, states have largely enacted various policies that embrace new immigrants.

While the anti-immigration movement may appear to hold sway at the federal government, the report makes the case that there’s still a heated debate going on at the state level, especially within swing states, said PSN executive director Joel Barkin.

Minneapolis recently entered into a “sister city” agreement with Cuernavaca, the capital of Morelos, a small Mexican state that is the homeland to nearly 30,000 immigrants who have resettled in the area. That pre-existing relationship, which is unusual for sister cities, was cemented in a signing ceremony in Minneapolis on Sept. 13.