The new White House policy on prioritizing deportations is an important first step, but it should not stop agitation for an end to Secure Communities. S-Comm will continue to erode trust between police and community members by tying police work to immigration enforcement. More political pressure could win direct modification of the S-Comm program itself. 

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"The Help" has stirred controversy in its portrayal of domestic workers during the civil right-era in the South. But it's also stoked interest in the California Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, which New York State passed last year.

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Officials from the Caribbean urge Caribbean immigrants who live in the U.S to lobby for causes that would spur economic and social development along the United States' so-called third border.

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Claudio Papapetrio's opinion's piece highlights how alliances and the continuing conversation between Crown Heights' Black and Jewish population have declined since the  1991 riots and how the two groups co-exist but live very separate lives.

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Columbia University professor Samuel G. Freedman's opinion piece states the most enduring lesson of the Crown Heights Riots is that the Jews did not abandon the neighborhood after the violence, arguing that Jews refused to be driven out and also had to re-evaluate how they stuck to their own communities. Freedman's other main point is that Jews developed relationships with their African-American and Afro-Caribbean to make sure riots don't happen again.

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Jason Smith talks about the growing racial disparity in mainstream media, with more minorities gravitating to minority-orientated media. Smith says, "The increasing lack of racial diversity in the U.S. media landscape is becoming a hot topic and putting pressure on policy makers to (finally) pay attention."

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Gary Rosenblatt, editor and publisher of the Jewish Week, talks about two very different events that continue to impact 'Black-Jewish' relations today. He comments on the twentieth anniversary of the riots in Crown Heights, Brooklyn as well as the rescue of Ethiopian Jews in the early '90s.

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NYC Comptroller John C. Lui commends the mayor's recent proposed tech campus, a government-sponsored, engineering and science campus. But he thinks that more can be done with this initiative to address the gap facing women, African-Americans and Latinos in science and engineering. more>

Elinor Tatum, the publisher and editor-in-chief of the Amsterdam News, opposes hydraulic fracturing or "fracking," stating that access to clean water should not be a privilege for New Yorkers but a right. Tatum addresses the health and environmental issues associated with "fracking."

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Fraidy Reiss writes about how men in the Orthodox Jewish community use religious divorce laws against their wives. Under Jewish law, only a husband can grant a divorce or get, leaving many women to become agunahs, or chained women, who cannot date or marry.

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Felicia Persaud applauds New York Senator Charles Schumer's July 18 announcement that he will focus on an economic argument for an immigration overhaul in the U.S. as he tries to revive the push for comprehensive immigration reform.

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The Jewish Daily Forward editorial board noted that those on the political right and left wrongly voiced satisfaction in the wake of the mass murder on Norway's Utoya Island.  They argue that no one should use the heinous crime as an opportunity to score political points against opposing ideological views.

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Ron Howell asserts that the New York Times inadequately covers black and Latino communities, unless young whites are somehow involved in the stories. Otherwise, the coverage, in his opinion, is typically negative.

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High school student Akeema Lottman, a 16-year old in foster care, said that constant bouncing from school to school negatively impacts children's education. Lottman suggests that teachers reach out to new students and youth be their own advocates to make sure they succeed in school.

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Mourners gather to remember the one-year anniversary of 7/11 terrorist attacks in Kampala, Uganda

(Photo: Daily Monitor Newspaper)

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