Family-Based Immigration
Through family-based immigration, U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents can sponsor relatives for immigration. We aim to be a leading force in transforming family-based immigration policy in order to maintain family unity, foster cohesive communities, and strengthen America’s economic growth. Read more about our approach below.
House VAWA Bill Threatens Protections for Immigrant Women and Children
This year, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is up for reauthorization. Last week, the Senate passed a reauthorization (S. 1925)—which provides protection to people who are the victims of domestic violence, rape, trafficking, sexual assault, stalking, and similar crimes—by a vote of 68-31. The House will takes up its own version next week, but in contrast to the Senate bill, which strengthened protections for immigrants, the House bill threatens to rollback protections for immigrant women and children who are victims of abuse. Read More
Nebraska Upholds Bill that Provides Prenatal Care to Undocumented Women
In a move that brought together an unusual group of allies, Nebraska’s Republican-controlled legislature recently upheld a bill that allows undocumented pregnant women to access state-funded prenatal care, overriding a veto by Republican Governor Dave Heineman. Nebraska Right to Life, Nebraska Catholic Conference, Planned Parenthood, and Nebraska Appleseed actually came together to support LB599, a bill the governor worked hard to kill. Why would Gov. Heineman, a man who describes himself as the one of the most pro life governors in America, oppose a bill that helps protect unborn children? Because, as the New York Times put it, he believes “government-financed health care for poor women is an acceptable thing, unless the women were in violation of immigration laws, in which case it was a terrible waste of taxpayer dollars.” Read More
Report Brings Border Patrol Abuses to Light in Washington State
The borderlands of the southwestern United States are not the only place where immigration enforcement tramples upon the most basic of civil and human rights. Many communities along the northern border are also subject to such abuses, as detailed in a recent report from OneAmerica and the University of Washington Center for Human Rights. The report, entitled The Growing Human Rights Crisis Along Washington’s Northern Border, is based on a year’s worth of interviews and observations in border communities in Washington State. This investigation found that Border Patrol agents, often acting in collaboration with local police, repeatedly harass and abuse immigrants, as well as native-born U.S. citizens perceived to look or sound like immigrants. Read More
Appellate Court Hears Arguments in Case Challenging DOMA, Bi-National Married Couples File New Suit
Same sex couples face often insurmountable hurdles when it comes to immigration status. Under the Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”), lesbian and gay U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents are barred from obtaining immigrant visas for their spouses. When Congress enacted DOMA in 1996, no state celebrated marriages between gay and lesbian couples. But, the landscape has changed. Today, lesbian and gay couples in six states plus the District of Columbia have the freedom to marry under state law. This welcome progress, however, does not help the estimated 36,000 lesbian and gay bi-national couples living in the United States. Because DOMA prohibits immigration authorities from recognizing same sex marriages that are legal under state law, bi-national married couples continue to face potential separation. However, last week brought us closer to immigration equality for lesbian and gay couples. Read More
USCIS One Step Closer to Adopting Improvement to Immigration Waiver Process
A provision of the immigration law commonly known as the “3 and 10 year bars” has proven to be one of the most heart-breaking of the many draconian changes made to the immigration law at the time. Since its enactment in 1996, the provision—which imposes re-entry bars of 3 to 10 years on immigrants who are present in the U.S. illegally, leave the U.S., and want to re-enter lawfully—often separates family members, even if they are otherwise entitled to legal status in the U.S. Now, however, USCIS has published a proposed rule that will reduce, although not eliminate, the hardships created by this provision of law. The announcement has been received favorably, although with some skepticism, within the immigration community. Read More
ICE Deported More Than 46,000 Immigrants with U.S. Citizen Children Last Year, Report Finds
Immigration enforcement and deportation have a particularly devastating impact on mixed status families, that is, families who have one or more direct members who are undocumented. When parents are deported, families face impossible decisions about whether their family will be separated or whether U.S. citizen kids will be de facto deported along with their parents. New numbers released in a report by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) show the extent of the issue. The new report finds that, between January and June 2011, ICE deported over 46,000 immigrants who claimed to have at least one U.S. citizen child. Read More
How Congress Can Better Protect Immigrant Victims of Crime
BY ANDREA RAMOS, SOUTHWESTERN LAW SCHOOL This week the Washington Post reported on two laws that protect victims of domestic abuse who are also immigrants. The story profiles women who were literally saved from abusive relationships by law enforcement who then guided them to programs that offer a special form of immigration relief for victims. Read More
Following State of the Union, President Obama Needs to Follow Through on Immigration Reforms
The President’s State of the Union address this week re-iterated some of his key themes on immigration—support for comprehensive reform, dismay that DREAM Act students and foreign students educated in this country have no way to legalize their status, and a belief that he’s done enough to the secure the border. More importantly, he framed these themes in context to America’s economic recovery, innovation and growth. However, while any mention of immigration in the State of the Union is welcome, it’s what the President didn’t say that may have more of an impact on how his administration is remembered this year on immigration—and how his vision is measured by voters in the coming election. Read More
Anti-Immigrant Crowd Cries Wolf in Response to Administration’s Family Unity Policy
The Obama administration’s recent announcement that it intends to change regulations allowing the children and spouses of American citizens to stay together while processing applications for legal permanent resident status has the immigration restrictionists crying wolf—or more accurately “amnesty”—once again. They are characterizing the administration’s rule change, as they do any and all actions that are not enforcement related, as a “backdoor amnesty.” Some are also characterizing the change as a strategy to bypass Congress. Read More
New Reports Track Devastating Impact of Alabama’s Extreme Immigration Law on Residents
Despite recent court decisions and interpretations from the state’s Attorney General that limit implementation of Alabama’s draconian immigration law, HB 56, much of damage has already been done. Two recent reports by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the AFL-CIO further illustrate the ways in which HB 56 is complicating many aspects of daily life. Both organizations sent delegations to Alabama to interview a wide variety of Alabama residents and found that the fallout goes well beyond the official implementation of the law’s provisions and extends to personal relationships. Both found that the law is just one part of an agenda to deny people fundamental rights. Read More
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