WASHINGTON (AP) — Religious leaders said on May 8 that adding a gay rights proposal to immigration legislation could risk their support for the bill, setting up a potential Senate showdown.

“We’re extremely hopeful that this bill will remain an immigration bill and not get tangled up with the issue of gay rights,” said Richard Land, a leader of the Southern Baptist Convention. “But if it did, if it did, the Southern Baptist Convention would not be able to support the bill.”

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services building in Phoenix is shown. Associated Press photo by Matt York.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has prepared amendments that would allow gay Americans or U.S. residents to sponsor their partners for U.S. residence like other married Americans can.

Leahy, D-Vt., has not committed to offering either during his committee’s voting session Thursday, but is under pressure from gay rights groups.

Religious leaders who joined Land on a conference call with reporters echoed Land’s warnings.

Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, labeled the gay rights provision “a divisive distraction that must not derail immigration reform.”

Added Jim Wallis, head of the Christian social justice group Sojourners: “This is the wrong place at the wrong time” to deal with the issue of gay marriage.

The four Republicans among the eight senators who wrote the immigration bill have said that such a provision could cost their support and kill the bill.

“If that issue is injected into this bill, this bill will fail. It will not have the support. It will not have my support,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said in a recent interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.

If Leahy were to offer a gay marriage amendment, attention would turn to Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., to see whether they would support it. Schumer and Durbin are the two Democratic members of the bill-writing group who are on Leahy’s committee.

The eight senators have committed to sticking together to defeat amendments from either side that could derail the bill. Schumer and Durbin have expressed support for Leahy’s goals, but have not said how they would vote.

Gay rights and social justice groups are lobbying aggressively for the gay marriage language to be included, or lending their support to the issue, and they dispute suggestions that it would jeopardize the bill.

“It’s pretty dated to consider LGBT equality as a controversial, hot-button issue like these senators are portraying it to be,” the Human Rights Campaign said in a statement. “In fact, a strong and diverse majority of Americans support equality. These senators are towing a tired line that no longer represents mainstream opinion, and they’re throwing same-sex couples under the bus in the process.”

In Tennessee, one immigrant and refugee rights group believes that immigration reform should include anyone who makes up a family.

“Strong families are the foundation of  our society and reforms to our broken immigration system should provide a way for all families to stay together,” Eben Cathey, spokesman for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said in a statement.

“Our immigration policies should always lift up our sacred American values of inclusion and keep all families, including LGBT families, together.”

Rich Stolz, executive director of Seattle-based OneAmerica, echoed the importance of keeping loved ones together in a family.

“We support inclusive comprehensive immigration reform that keeps all families together, and that includes LGBT families,” he said in a statement. “This issue has special resonance in Washington state and other states that have passed laws in support of marriage equality, and I’m proud of our work on that measure here in Washington.”

President Barack Obama included a provision recognizing gay partnerships in his own immigration bill, but has made it clear in recent comments that the Senate measure meets his criteria for an immigration overhaul, even without the provision.

The legislation aims to strengthen border security, create new programs to allow tens of thousands of workers into the U.S. legally while requiring all employers to verify their workers’ legal status, and give eventual citizenship to the 11 million immigrants now here without documents.

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PHOENIX, Ariz. — Amber Zenzak, an office manager at a small carpet-cleaning company, took a moment recently to consider what life would be like each week without state support for child care for her children ages 3, 4, and 9.

“My day care costs would be $100 more than what I gross a week. My family would be out on the street,” she said, choking back tears and referring to the stability it provides.

“Those three young children would have nowhere to go, no food to eat. That’s not a situation that children should be in.”

Calls for the security and stability of children throughout the country, especially in Arizona and California, are continuing to surface, as families strive to earn a living in an economy that is still feeling the pinch of the Great Recession.

Requests for lawmakers to protect child care and other social services are occurring as many state budgets remain constrained and spending priorities are weighed and scrutinized.

Those in social services in this Southwest state say that cases referred to Child Protective Services and other social agencies continued to grow as economic hard times deepened.

That problem, in turn, was compounded by the Arizona state Legislature carving millions from the state budget, including social services.

So, when Gov. Jan Brewer proposed keeping funding steady for 2014, children’s advocates began getting out the word to pressure lawmakers not to touch the $77.6 million in funding.

A number of advocacy agencies have begun creating form letters to shower on local representatives. The Children’s Action Alliance, a non-profit group, held a press conference on April 30 at the state Capitol alongside other groups to get the word out.

“That’s the minimum needed for child safety,” said Dana Wolfe Naimark, president of Children’s Action Alliance. “Every single component of that budget is vitally necessary.”

About a week later, on May 8, an estimated 700 parents from throughout California met at the state Capitol in Sacramento for a rally to support kids and to lobby to “rebuild the child care infrastructure which is hanging on by a thread,” according to Parent Voices, a parent-led grassroots group that attended.

The parents asked state lawmakers to restore $200 million to the budget, following five years of a total of $1 billion in cuts to child care programs that caused 110,000 fewer kids from being served, the group said. In addition, there are about 200,000 kids who qualify for child care services but remain on waiting lists, said Mary Ignatius, statewide organizer for Parent Voices.

“Our call was restoring hope,” she said. “That is what a child care subsidy provides. It provides you stability and peace of mind so you can go to work and be a stable employee.”

“We believe that reinvesting in child care is critical to ensure more families can work, remain contributing taxpayers and participate in California’s economic recovery,” Latifa Lewis, a mother of two daughters from Oakland, Calif., said in a statement.

Parents in California also are asking that child care income eligibility guidelines be set at 75 percent of the state’s median income and that “Stage 3″ funding – which is typically for working families who qualify for child care services but earn low wages — receive full support.

Proposition 30, a temporary increase on sales and income taxes, is helping the state’s financial picture, as compared to past cycles which saw dramatic budget cuts, Ignatius said. With the improving budget estimates, though, are calls to pay down debt and put money away in the state emergency fund.

In Arizona, the overall proposed budget is higher in 2014 for the state Department of Economic Security, the umbrella agency for such services as foster care, child care services and Child Protective Services.

State officials stressed that the proposed budget will not increase services, but will only fund estimated demand for services that grows with each passing day.

According to Department of Economic Security officials, the agency has seen an “unprecedented increase” in cases of abuse and neglect reported to Child Protective Services. That’s on top of increases in previous years. For budget year 2012, for example, case numbers jumped 16 percent over the prior year.

Jessica Wood, a Santa Rosa, Calif. mother of two boys, speaks at a rally in support of child care in Sacramento on May 8. She works two jobs and takes college classes. She hopes to be a probation officer in the future. Photo courtesy of Parent Voices

“We are leaving people in dangerous situations,” Wolfe Naimark said. “It’s unacceptable, and it’s something we can change with leadership and funding from our state lawmakers.”

Other people agree.

“CPS is exploding, and that’s at the current level of funding,” Alyssa Brooks-Dowty said.

She is a resident of Gilbert, a Phoenix suburb, and has been a foster mother for two years. Even in that relatively short time, she said, she’s seen changes: “It’s sort of a negative spiral. With the economy, there are more people going into (foster) care.”

Five years ago, Brooks-Dowty said, Arizona didn’t have to have shelters for children who were unable to get foster homes—they didn’t need them because the number of cases was much lower.

“Now, they just keep cutting, and there are investigations that are incomplete,” she said.

Even state officials admit Child Protective Services caseworkers are burdened. On average they’re handling 20 to 40 percent more cases than they should, said Nicole Moon, a spokeswoman for the Department of Economic Services.

That makes Brewer’s proposal “crucial to providing adequate services for children and families in the state,” Moon said.

As budget season draws near, watchful eyes will be on the money.

“In the end, I don’t think the dollars will be more, I think it will be less,” Wolfe Naimark said. “We’re hearing universal recognition that CPS needs help, but we’re not hearing a full commitment to the governor’s proposal.”

Regardless, she and other child advocates have resolved to keep the pressure on until the budget gets inked.

“Their lives are literally in our hands,” Brooks-Dowty said of the thousands of foster children in Arizona. “There is nothing we can do about the trauma they have suffered, but we can prevent them from suffering further trauma.”

In California, Ignatius pointed to possible scenarios should child care service money not be restored, at least in part, to the state budget.

“You’ll have families who are going to quit their jobs,” she said. “They can’t afford child care. It could be $1,200 per month.”

Children need stability, especially in their earliest years, Ignatius said. If that is lacking, they might start the school years with a learning gap. “More resources will have to be spent on the K-12 years,” she said.

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Michael Mello is a freelance writer based in Tucson, Ariz. He is a former staff reporter for the Orange County Register. Brad Wong is assistant news editor for Equal Voice News.

2013 © Equal Voice for America’s Families Newspaper

WASHINGTON (AP) — An analysis by the Social Security Administration says a bipartisan immigration bill pending in the Senate would boost the retirement program’s trust fund by adding millions of taxpayers to the economy. 

The finding comes in a letter to Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who requested the analysis, from Stephen C. Gross, chief actuary for the agency.

It could provide a boost for the immigration bill, which has been attacked by some groups as overly costly and as the Senate Judiciary Committee considers the measure.

The analysis says the bill would add more than $300 billion in net additional revenues to Social Security and Medicare over the coming decade.

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This story was written on May 8 by Erica Werner of The Associated Press.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

Asian American and Pacific Islander community groups are encouraging registered voters in Los Angeles to use their electoral voice on May 21 and cast ballots in the races for mayor, city attorney, city controller and members of the City Council. 

To help keep voters informed in the nation’s second most populous city, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center has posted answers from candidates on its website. Candidates who did not answer a questionnaire from the legal services and civil rights group are noted as “failed to respond.”

“This is the first time the Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities have developed candidate questionnaires for the city elections,” Karin Wang, APALC vice president of programs and communication, said in a statement.

“We hope this will be a useful tool that voters can use to inform themselves about where the candidates stand on the issues that are important to our communities.”

Key issues for residents in Los Angeles, especially among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, include education, affordable housing, community redevelopment and access to job development programs, APALC said in a statement. Community redevelopment and affordable housing are of particular concern in Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Historic Filipinotown and Thai Town.

“More and more of our community members need affordable housing, but the wait lists are long for people to get a unit,” said Chancee Martorell, Thai Community Development executive director, in a statement from APALC.

“We want our city elected officials to understand that any developments that happen within the city should provide for good jobs and affordable housing for the communities that have historically lived in those neighborhoods.”

APALC is working with many Asian American and Pacific Islander organizations to encourage voting, the discussion of policy issues and ensure that barriers to casting a ballot do not surface.

APALC held a forum on May 8 and two City Council candidates and about 100 community members attended. The candidates’ answers were translated into several Asian languages, including Korean. “This is important in a city and council district as diverse as Los Angeles,” Lawrence Joe of the California Participation Project, said in a statement.

Increasing voting and lifting barriers to participating are important goals, APALC said, because the city’s Asian American population has soared 19 percent from 2000 to 2010. During the 2012 election, Asian Americans made up 8 percent – or about 135,000 registered voters – of the electorate.

In 2008, about one third of all Asian American voters in Los Angeles County were limited-English proficient, APALC reported.

Under the federal Voting Rights Act, voters can ask for language assistance in Armenian, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Spanish, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai and Tagalog. Voters in Los Angeles also are allowed to bring other people – except for a union representative or employer — into the voting booth for assistance.

The Asian Pacific American Legal Center started in 1983. The group advocates for civil rights and provides legal services, education, leadership development and policy analysis. The organization is also offering an online citizenship tool in Chinese and Vietnamese.