A round up of stories today about opportunity in America, pulled from a variety of nonprofits, race and immigration blogs, and mainstream media outlets. Cross posted at State of Opportunity, a blog about human rights and the American Dream.
- The Huffington Post has linked to an article noting that President Bush has used the seventh veto of his administration in order to reject the revised version of a bill seeking to expand health insurance coverage for children.
- Meanwhile, the New York state assembly is considering a plan to extend health care to all New Yorkers. The DMI Blog summarizes the proposed legislation:
In New York State, Child Health Plus and Family Health Plus are pretty good programs. They allow participants to choose from a variety of managed care plans that contract with the state to provide coverage. Families making up to 150 percent of the poverty line pay no premiums and there are no deductibles and few co-payments. Despite the fact that people enrolled in these programs tend to be less healthy than those enrolled in commercial plans, the premiums the state pays are much lower and have remained virtually flat even as the cost of private insurance has skyrocketed.
So why don’t we open these successful state program to every New Yorker, regardless of income?
That simple idea is the basis of New York Health Plus, a new universal health care proposal from Dick Gottfried, Chair of the NYS Assembly Health Committee.
Under Gottfried’s plan, any New Yorker could get free health coverage from the state, and have their pick of the plans contracting with the state. Everyone would also be free to opt out and keep paying for their own private health care coverage. Businesses would no longer have the burden of employee health care costs. The more than 2 million uninsured New Yorkers would face no barriers to coverage. Gottfried also argues that plans under New York Health Plus would have incentives to offer higher quality care more preventive services, providing a better choice for New Yorkers who already have insurance too.
- The ImmigrationProf Blog has posted a piece entitled 'Another Slavery Report: Yawn?' which begins: "We have reported so much on slavery lately (here and here) that we may have to give up on such reports as newsworthy." However, the Naples Daily News has just reported that a Florida family has been charged with forcibly holding 15 undocumented workers on their property and charging them for basic needs such as food and showers. That these cases are increasingly reported on is further indication of the need for comprehensive immigration reform. Our broken immigration system is fostering abusive work situations that contradict the values of mobility, equality and security for which our nation stands.
- The 'Just News' blog has posted another article on the University of Texas Law School Immigration Clinic. Advocates from the clinic have just filed complaints with the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the Department of Homeland Security as well as the Texas Department of Protective Services in the case of an eight-year-old girl held at nearby Hutto detention center who was separated from her pregnant mother for four days. While keeping immigrant children in detention centers is a human rights violation in and of itself, removing the child from her mother went against ICE guildelines, according to the Houston Chronicle:
"ICE officials have previously said detaining families at the facility is meant to help "children remain with parents, their best caregivers" while they are processed for deportation. They also told the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services that parents would be at the facility with their children and would be responsible for their care, so state regulation wasn't needed."