NATIONAL
May 7, 2013 | By Lisa Mascaro, Washington Bureau
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - Wearing a 2010 vintage Marco Rubio campaign T-shirt and matching button, Cheryl Griffin spewed frustration that the man she helped win a long-shot conservative bid for Senate is now leading an immigration overhaul. An evening downpour was falling on this coastal town, less a city than a hodgepodge of new and old subdivisions. But the weather did not deter Griffin, a small, skeptical woman, or her husband, Mark, a friendly man twice her size with rain dripping from his straw cowboy hat. The Griffins, who came down from neighboring Fort Pierce, were protesting Rubio's appearance at the annual Republican Party dinner.
NATIONAL
May 13, 2013 | By Melanie Mason, Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - First came the letter-writing campaigns, then the protests at town hall meetings and now the television ads. The last several weeks in New Hampshire have had the feel of a heated electoral season - but the target of this siege, first-term Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte, isn't on the ballot until 2016. Welcome to Round 2 in the battle over gun control. The first round ended last month, when a proposal to expand the background check system to cover most commercial gun sales fizzled in the Senate.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
May 8, 2013 | By Cindy Chang, Los Angeles Times
In some parts of Koreatown and South Los Angeles, one in three adult residents is in the country illegally, according to a study released Tuesday by researchers at USC. Countywide, about one in 10 adults is an immigrant who crossed the border illegally or overstayed a visa, the study found. Many of those immigrants have put down roots here: Half have been in the country for more than a decade, and 12% are homeowners. Many are also the parents of American citizens. In Los Angeles County, one in five children has a parent living in the country illegally, according to the study.
NEWS
January 31, 2013 | By Kathleen Hennessey
WASHINGTON - President Obama said that the bipartisan group of senators working on immigration legislation was following a “reasonable timeline” and suggested he would push to get a bill passed in the first half of the year. In a pair of interviews the day after kicking off his public campaign for immigration reform, Obama told the Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo that he would put the weight of his office - and his bully pulpit - behind the effort. “I can guarantee that I will put everything I've got behind it,” Obama told Telemundo anchor Jose Diaz-Balart.
NEWS
November 14, 2012 | By Brian Bennett
WASHINGTON - President Obama expects to see a comprehensive immigration reform bill introduced in Congress “very soon” after his inauguration in late January, he said during a news conference Wednesday. “I am very confident we can get immigration reform done,” Obama said. Obama said that White House staff has already begun conversations with members of the Senate and the House on how to line up the votes to get an immigration bill to his desk for signing. “We need to seize the moment,” said Obama, adding that he is “already seeing signs” that some Republicans are willing to discuss the immigration issue.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
February 20, 2013 | George Skelton, Capitol Journal
SACRAMENTO - Except for illegal immigrants, no group has more at stake in the national fight over immigration reform than California farmers. "It doesn't pay to plant a product if you can't harvest it," notes Mark Teixeira of Santa Maria, who says he had to let 22 acres of vegetables rot last year because he couldn't find enough field hands to gather the crop. "That hurts. " As security has tightened along the California-Mexican border, the flow of illegal immigrant labor into the nation's most productive agriculture state has slowed significantly, farm interests say. "It's very difficult to find crews compared to three or four years ago," reports Greg Wegis, a fifth-generation Kern County farmer who grows cherries, almonds, pistachios and tomatoes, among other crops.