Citizenship

Now is the time to be engaged as citizens. First, there is today's meeting at the White House on immigration reform. A majority of Americans support some form of path to citizenship despite the cries from the ultra right. It's up to us to put pressure on our legislators to move forward on this issue. But immediately, President Obama can change how immigration raids, arrests, detentions, and court proceedings are held. He can do that by executive order and by having Attorney General Eric Holder order a more dignified, constitutional, and humane way to treat the men, women, and children who come here for refuge.

Second, it's time to press for confirmation of both Dawn Johnsen and Sonia Sotomayor for their respective positions: Dawn Johnsen as head of the Office of Legal Counsel, demeaned by the Bush administration into rationalizing torture and Sonia Sotomayor as associate justice on the US Supreme Court.

Get out your pens and paper, my friends. It works better than an email.