The march for commonsense immigration reform took another step forward today. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the federal agency that provides economic data to Congress, has released its cost estimate of the immigration reform bill's impact on the deficit, the economy, and American workers.

The nonpartisan CBO found that S. 744, the immigration reform bill in the Senate, will:

• decrease the federal budget deficit, and lead to a net savings of $175 billion over the first ten years after enactment;
• increase real Gross Domestic Product, relative to current law, by 3.3% in 2023, and 5.4% in 2033; and
• have no major impact on wages in the first ten years after enactment, expand the labor force, and enhance demand for goods and services.

Momentum for commonsense immigration reform is growing every day. Opponents of reform can refuse to accept the math, but the fact remains that a sensible immigration solution with a roadmap to citizenship is the gift that keeps on giving, now and in the long term.

Last week, two Head Start teachers, members of Florida Public Services Union (FPSU), traveled to Washington, DC to lobby to protect Head Start and other early learning programs from devastating sequester cuts.

Across the nation we've heard stories about children who will no longer have a place in Head Start classrooms because of these automatic across-the-board cuts. Nationally, the sequester's 5 percent cut from Head Start's $8.1 billion budget means 70,000 slots for children must be eliminated in order to achieve the necessary savings, according to initial estimates from the White House.

FPSU members Robin Kirkpatrick and Cheryl Lewis-Hamilton have seen firsthand the positive impact that Head Start and Early Learning programs have had on children and families in their communities.

After seeing the benefits her seven children gained from attending Head Start, Cheryl Lewis-Hamilton worked to obtain her GED in 1993 and went on to gain employment through the Parent Involvement component of the Head Start program. Since then she has gone on to become a Head Start teacher and has worked tirelessly to improve the learning environment of the children she serves.

"I can't tell you how many times I've been giving a tour to head start children, showing them their future school and teachers will come up to me and thank me for how well my old head start students are doing," said Lewis-Hamilton. "Old students, parents...I get stories all the time about my babies getting on the A, AB honor roll, and going to college... it's because head start works."

When the U.S. government deports 1,100 people every day, *clearly* our immigration system is not working.

This Father's Day, let's help families stay together. Call your Senator and ask for immigration reform that keeps families together.

Click on the image below to share it on Facebook to show your solidarity for immigration reform that keeps families together:

You can follow the conversation online with the hashtag #DontDeportMyDad.

The resident physicians at Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, CA have ratified a new two-year contract that provides a 15 percent, across-the-board salary increase, a one-time travel reimbursement of up to $1,500 for an education conference, and quarterly labor-management meetings.

The contract was settled days after the residents held a letter-writing campaign and rally urging Kern County officials to come to the bargaining table and negotiate a fair agreement.

"Bakersfield deserves well-rounded physicians," said Dr. Sarah Assem, an internal medicine resident and CIR delegate. "They deserve for the competitive residents to come to KMC and then to stay here and open up their own primary care practices, because in the end, that's the goal of having a residency."

Twenty-four thousand.

That's the number of calls SEIU activists have made to Senate offices in support of immigration reform since we emailed you one week ago. Pretty impressive, right?

Then I received word from our Legislative team that our opponents have mobilized calls of their own, and they are far exceeding us in the volume of calls to the Senate.

We cannot let this happen. This is OUR moment, and it is too important to let the reactionary right out-organize us.

Call your Senator in support of commonsense immigration reform with a roadmap to citizenship: 888-694-4107.

The Koch brothers want to purchase nine daily newspapers -- including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun -- to promote their radical right-wing agenda. Millions of readers won't be able to trust their daily newspapers and will instead be fed a steady diet of far-right propaganda.

Here are the top 10 things we could expect to read about in a Koch-owned daily newspaper:

1. Attacking immigrants. Through their funding of ALEC, the Kochs were responsible for anti-immigrant state legislation such as Arizona's SB 1070.

(More after the jump)

Continue reading on next page →

As the Senate prepares to kick off debate on immigration reform, President Obama said the "moment is now" for Congress to fix our broken immigration system that's separating families and holding back our economy.

Flocked by a diverse group of pro-immigration leaders including SEIU's Mary Kay Henry, President Obama combined a call to action with his remarks on immigration in the East Room of the White House, urging Americans to "call, email and tweet" their senators and tell them to pass commonsense reform.

Well, Mr. President....we hear you loud and clear!

Obama says #TimeIsNow "to make your voice heard. You need to email or tweet your Senator." Amen! Call your Senator for #cir13: 888-979-7604

— SEIU (@SEIU) June 11, 2013

Call your Senator and tell him or her you support commonsense immigration reform: 888-979-7604

Then check out our new national ad buy and see why veterans, small business owners, DREAMers, law enforcement & Republican voters are getting behind reform.

SEIU today launched a seven-figure national advertising campaign that will run five different commercials in rotation on national cable networks.

"We're seeing a growing consensus across the country that we need to get immigration reform done and get it done now," said Mary Kay Henry, SEIU International President. "These ads show the breadth of support for commonsense immigration reform and highlight the diverse voices that are integral to moving this debate forward."

The ad buy begins today and will run through the end of June, a key time in the Senate debate on the bipartisan immigration bill. The five different television ads feature law enforcement officials, small business owners, veterans, DREAMers, and Republican voters who explain why they support commonsense immigration reform and call on the Senate to act.

Imagine the hurdles you might face, moving to a new country as an adult and trying to integrate yourself into a culture and workforce where you don't speak the language. This is the issue SEIU-USWW tackled 13 years ago, when they struck a bargaining agreement with companies to help our workforce learn everything from health education, to new parenting classes, to English instruction.

"When anyone hears about it, when foundations hear about it, the government, it's held up as a win-win partnership. It's labor, it's the community, it's the biggest corporations in the world partnering for the janitors," said Alison Ascher Webber, Associate Director for Building Skills Partnership.

Recent news reports reveal that Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) will introduce a $6 billion border security amendment that would drastically alter the heart of the bipartisan immigration bill currently moving through the Senate by imposing overly burdensome triggers--threatening to delay the path to citizenship for millions of aspiring Americans.

A small minority of Congressmen in the House are adding to the pile of attempts to thwart the progress made to achieve commonsense immigration reform. Today, House Republicans voted 224-201 to approve an amendment sponsored by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) that would eliminate Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)--defunding President Obama's orders to focus deportation efforts on undocumented immigrants with criminal convictions.

The vote was met with resounding boos from the House gallery.