Forcing Our Blues Into Gray Areas: Local Police and Federal Immigration Enforcement
May 2008
Asking state and local law enforcement to don a second hat as federal immigration officers is poor public policy, according to a recently-revised Appleseed report. “Forcing Our Blues Into Gray Areas: Local Police and Federal Immigration Enforcement” contains legal and practical guidelines to combat local anti-immigrant ordinances. It also describes troubling legal and political efforts to involve local police in federal immigration matters.
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It Takes A North Carolina Parent: Transforming Education Under the No Child Left Behind Act
May 2008
A new Appleseed report identifies a variety of barriers preventing North Carolina parents from being fully involved in their children’s education – a critical component to higher student achievement under the No Child Left Behind Act. Appleseed found that neither parents nor public school systems have fully invested in parent involvement as a top priority and key strategy for helping students do better in class.
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Banking in a Global Market
January 2008
Appleseed released a first-of-its kind guide to assist banks and other financial institutions in better serving the growing remittance market. Immigrants living in the U.S. sent $45 billion to Mexico and Latin America in 2006, according to recent estimates from the Inter-American Development Bank. In addition to providing a detailed market overview, “Banking in a Global Market” offers a comprehensive hands-on approach to setting up transparent and efficient remittance services, drawing on the experiences of large and small financial institutions throughout the United States.
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The Fair Exchange: Improving the Market for International Remittances
April 2007
In April 2006, Appleseed convened a group of industry, regulatory, and consumer representatives, the Fair Exchange Committee, to explore options for a voluntary market-based approach to improve pre-transaction disclosures for international remittance transactions. This report includes three main sections describing the results of the work of the committee and presenting options for creating a branding program similar to the Fair Trade concept.
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It Takes a Parent: Transforming Education in the Wake of the No Child Left Behind Act
September 2006
This report documents an effort to combine practical, on-the-ground perspectives, based upon interviews, and on federal, state, and district policy research, with current social science research on key parental involvement issues and effective practices. Mostly, it reflects an effort to assemble and analyze what we know as a matter of practice and as a matter of research in framing an action agenda promoting more effective parental involvement practices by schools, districts, and states.
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It Takes a Parent: Additional Resources
September 2006
In addition to those contained in our report, we have compiled some resources that may prove useful to those who wish to learn more about the importance of parental involvement.
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A Continuing Storm: The On-Going Needs of Hurricane Katrina Evacuees
August 2006
The first comprehensive report on the status of the more than one million Katrina evacuees reveals that local non-profit and government agencies responded more quickly to assist evacuees than federal and national organizations. The study also identifies continuing areas of dire need for evacuees, including long-term housing and mental health care.
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Keeping Afloat: Eligibility, Employer Attitudes, and Barriers to Public Benefits for Small Business Employees
August 2006
This report, prepared by the Appleseed regional offices in Alabama, Nebraska, South Carolina and Washington, examines the supportive services available to low-income workers in those states and provides an overview of the eligibility requirements, benefits and application processes for each program.
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Helping Small Business Employees Access Affordable Health Care: Recommendations for a State-Level Response
July 2006
This report offers a number of solutions that could be implemented on the state level to increase health insurance coverage, especially among small businesses. About 46 million Americans are not covered by health insurance of any kind. More than 60 percent of those uninsured are either small business employees or dependents of small business workers.
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Expanding Immigrant Access to Mainstream Financial Services
June 2006
These two papers aim to stimulate a discussion on how best to overcome challenges and build on successes to realize the important social and economic benefits of bringing immigrant communities into the financial mainstream. They outline positive market practices targeting Latin American immigrants and the needs, opportunities, and next steps for expanding and improving financial services for low- and moderate-income immigrant communities.
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Banking Immigrant Communities: A Toolkit for Banks and Credit Unions
February 2006
Banking Immigrant Communities: A Toolkit for Banks and Credit Unions
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Forcing Our Blues into Gray Areas: Local Police and Federal Immigration Enforcement
January 2006
The discussion about whether local law enforcement should be enforcing federal immigration law remains a heated public policy debate. And unfortunately, there is no clear legal answer. Appleseed's report outlines the legal history behind local enforcement of federal immigration laws, and outlines why an increase in this activity is a bad public policy decision.
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Appendices for "Forcing Our Blues into Gray Areas: Local Police and Federal Immigration Enforcement"
January 2006
Appendices associated with Appleseed report:"Forcing Our Blues into Gray Areas: Local Police and Federal Immigration Enforcement"
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Creating a Fair Playing Field for Consumers: The Need for Transparency in the U.S.-Mexico Remittance Market
December 2005
The money flowing from the United States to Mexico currently represents the largest remittance market in the world. To provide a more complete picture of the impact of the exchange rate spread on pricing, Appleseed Centers collected and analyzed exchange rate data for wiring money from the United States to Mexico. Our study revealed that unpredictable and undisclosed rates make it extremely difficult for consumers to make informed decisions about remitting money to Mexico, and keep the market from operating efficiently for three primary reasons: lack of marketplace transparency, lack of consistent access to correct pricing information, and lack of standardized pricing disclosure practices. Our report offers three recommendations on how to best handle the problem, any one of which would build greater transparency and consumer protection into the remittance market.
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Appleseed-Brennan HAVA Users Manual
November 2005
The Database Dilemma is an advocates guide to the issues involved in implementing HAVA's statewide voter database and recommended "best practices." This project is a joint release of Appleseed, the Brennan Center, and Latham & Watkins.
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New York City Teacher Recruitment Ads
June 2005
Appleseed has worked to increase access to quality education in the largest public school system in the country. By partnering with agencies, Appleseed worked to have a major impact on education at a time of historic focus and reform. By bringing in private sector professionals with specific skills in the areas of recruiting, marketing, and advertising to assist the DOE in the annual recruitment of new teachers, DOE met its recruitment goals for 6,500 new teachers with the highest quality candidates ever.
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Financial Access Brochures
January 2005
In the United States today, more than half of all Latino immigrants do not have bank accounts. The fact that so many Latinos do not use mainstream financial services is a safety issue with cash-carrying immigrants at great risk for crime; it is a credit issue with the unbanked not able to establish credit histories or scores; and it is a wealth-building issue with the unbanked having to resort to predatory pay day lenders and predatory money transferors when sending money back home. With education key to reversing the problem, Appleseed has released first-step materials to help integrate immigrants into the mainstream banking population.
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A Guide for Non-profit Organizations Seeking to Connect Immigrant Communities with Mainstream Financial Institutions
May 2004
Non-profit organizations and other service providers that have a history of working with and advocating on behalf of immigrant communities have a vital role to play in this process. It is important to have concerted leadership grounded in the needs of immigrant and minority customers and a focus on making sure these efforts are actually reaching the relevant communities. Without such leadership, scattered initiatives may mean that many immigrants continue to have poor access or no access at all to mainstream financial institutions.
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School Facility Partnerships Study
May 2004
The nation's public school system is short on funding as all areas of government deal with fiscal cut backs. As a result, school funding has been reduced dramatically and schools are forced to make tough choices in deciding where to allocate funds. Public school buildings have been a concern for years but repairing and updating facilities may be left aside as too expensive during a time of financial constraints. Appleseed initiated the Public School Facilities Project to review the use (or under use) of private-public partnerships (PPPs) in rebuilding and renovating public school buildings. Appleseed spoke with various experts on the utilities and benefits, as well as the draw backs, of the usage of these PPPs for public school construction. Although there is no generic prescription to remedy the nationwide school facility crisis, PPPs can be widely successful as long as the information and basic framework are accessible to all schools and available in one place.
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