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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

AZ Reps: Tougher Immigration Enforcement Tearing Families Apart

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Tuesday, March 10, 2009   

Phoenix, AZ – Since Congress rejected a major immigration reform package two years ago, immigration enforcement has been stepped up. Arizona Democratic congressmen Raúl Grijalva and Ed Pastor believe one result has been an alarming increase in the number of families whose members are separated by deportations. The urgency of the situation has increased the possibility that Congress will act this year, says Grijalva.

"The leadership has made public commitments; President Obama has made public commitments. With the enforcement part and other things, it’s become an issue in which more and more people want Congress to react. And I think we need to, and as a consequence of that, I think we have a much better chance this year than we've had the last four or five."

Some immigration reform opponents reject any path to citizenship for people who entered the country illegally; others think reform must wait until the nation's borders have been secured. In the meantime, says Representative Pastor, destroying families in the name of immigration enforcement is not an Hispanic issue, but a moral and human rights issue.

"Families are being separated; kids are separated from their mothers; husbands are having to leave their families, and as Americans, we believe in family values. We believe that the family should stay intact."

Pastor's view is shared by Carol Stambaugh of the National Association of Social Workers' Arizona Chapter, who says families are already under extreme stress because of the dire economic times.

"This isn't the time to break up a family. Children need to be with their family - whether that means siblings, parents, fathers - it's just unconscionable to see families broken up at a time like this."

The two Arizona congressmen joined Illinois Representative Luis Gutierrez at an immigration reform rally Sunday night at a North Phoenix church.




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