Thousands Take to Streets to Call for a Stop to Blocking DAPA – More than 4 million immigrants awaited May 19th with the hope that the presidential program of temporary protection against deportation for undocumented parents, known as DAPA, would go into effect. But the presidential action was blocked by a Texas judge, which allowed for a lawsuit by 26 Republican governors. So the program was suspended indefinitely. The date was remembered with mass protests in more than 30 cities, among calls for Republican leaders to stop the lawsuit. Our correspondent in Washington, D.C., José López Zamorano, prepared this report.
Advocates Call for California to use Surplus to Combat Poverty – California has billions of surplus dollars this year. In his revision of the budget, Governor Jerry Brown is proposing to put a large part of this money toward paying off part of the debt and saving for an emergency fund. In addition, Brown hopes to invest like never before in K-12 education and to create a new earned income tax credit for the lowest-income tax payers. Even so, groups representing the poor say Governor Brown should use this opportunity to reinstate millions cut during the recession from important health insurance and human service programs that covered undocumented immigrants and the poorest of the poor. The final budget will be decided after negotiations this summer between the legislature and the governor. Our correspondent in Los Angeles, Rubén Tapia, spoke with some of those affected by cuts.
New Rules Could Offer More Protections for Guest Workers – In response to constant reports of labor abuse by employers and contractors against guest workers, the U.S. government published new rules for the H-2B visa program, which give these transnational workers many guarantees for the first time ever. About 66,000 workers with H-2B visas come to the U.S. ever year to work temporarily in low-paid jobs, including in the gardening and seafood industries, and in carnival operations. Marco Vinicio González prepared this report.
