NCLR Applauds House Passage of the CHAMP Act

“Today, the National Council of La Raza NCLR, the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S., praised the members of the U.S. House of Representatives who voted to pass the “Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act” CHAMP Act, H.R. 3162. The bill contains numerous provisions that would expand Latino children’s access to the Children’s Health Insurance Program CHIP, including a long overdue restoration of health coverage access to legal immigrant children and pregnant women.

“We are grateful that the bill maximizes coverage for children, including legal immigrants. Though an anti-immigrant amendment attempted to mischaracterize the immigrant issue in the debate, we are glad to see that fairness prevailed,” said Janet Murguí, NCLR President and CEO. “We have every expectation that final legislation, when reconciled with the Senate bill, will include these important provisions.”

The legal immigrant provisions, which have long had bipartisan support, survived an attack on immigrants which is part of a recent backlash against Latino priorities, including those affecting legal immigrants and U.S. citizens.

“We thank the many members of Congress, including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, particularly Representatives Hilda Solis D-CA and Xavier Becerra D-CA, for recognizing the unfairness of leaving legal immigrant children and pregnant women behind,” praised Murguí. “With the passage of the CHAMP Act, they demonstrated their commitment to ensure equal health access opportunities for all of America’s children.””

• In Mexico, fears of a ‘lost generation’ – Violence among young soars as drug cartels recruit more minors
• Statement of US Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis on this week’s immigration enforcement and workers’ rights report
• Immigrant kids under cloud – Report says many suffer financially and from continuing ill will – Utah
• Half of American kids will live in households receiving food stamps before age 20, according to a study reported Monday in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
• Child welfare workers too quick to remove Latino children from their families
• U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and former Chilean President Ricardo Lagos arrived in Tegucigalpa on Tuesday to join a commission set to verify compliance with the accord reached last week by deposed Honduran President Mel Zelaya and the de facto regime installed by the June 28 coup.
• The rise of Ascendant Commercial Insurance, an insurer funded by the Cejas family – Pablo Cejas, chairman and CEO of PLC Investments
• Hispanics Tune in and Help Raise More Than $633,000 for Kids With Cancer During 2nd
• Health Insurance Status Among US Latinos Affects Perception of Quality of Health Care – Researchers Link Socioeconomic and Other Factors to Health Insurance Coverage
• An Entire Generation at Stake – By 2030, Latino children will make up half of the U.S. child population living in poverty.
• Immigrant Children Lost in Education Reform – interview with Ruby Takanishi, president and chief executive officer of Foundation for Child Development
• Passage of Hate Crimes Bill Signals a New Day for Justice, Says NCLR
• National Council of La Raza: Groundbreaking Forum on Latino Children Offers Solutions to the Challenges Faced by this Growing Community
• Mario Lopez Makes a Mean Mud Taco! – (yep he wrote a book, a children’s book)
• Needed: (Hispanic) Foster Parents to Care for Children in Kentucky
• Detained immigrant children face legal maze in U.S. – 7,211 children entered the U.S. illegally in 2008 by themselves – As many as 50% of those kids went before judges with no lawyer
• Latinos lag in skills as toddlers, studies show – Poor, immigrant Latinas have healthy babies but by age 2 or 3, their toddlers begin to lag behind white middle-class children in vocabulary, listening and problem-solving skills, according to two new studies.
• A UC Berkeley researcher says children born to immigrant Latina mothers tend to have poorer cognitive skills as toddlers than middle-class white children.
• Millions of children in the US suffer from suboptimal levels of vitamin D – 80% of Hispanic children tested!!!
• Crafting a final version of health insurance legislation to attract moderate Republican support would be a “waste of time,” according to the leader of the House Progressive Caucus. – Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.)