Immigration at the Border
Defining Roles: Federal vs. State Immigration Authority
Washington D.C. – Today, the small town of Fremont, Nebraska is in the headlines after passing an ordinance that requires among other things that renters apply for an occupancy license – which also requires a legal immigration status check – before renting an apartment or home. Although Fremont, Nebraska, and… Read More
Arizona’s Punishment Doesn’t Fit the Crime: Studies Show Decrease in Arizona Crime Rates
Updated 06/22/10 Supporters of Arizona’s harsh new immigration law claim that it is, in part, a crime-fighting measure. For instance, the bill’s author, Republican State Senator Russell Pearce of Mesa, confidently predicts that the law—which requires police to investigate the immigration status of anyone who appears to be unauthorized—will result in “less crime” and “safer neighborhoods.” However, Sen. Pearce overlooks two salient points: crime rates have already been falling in Arizona for years despite the presence of unauthorized immigrants, and a century’s worth of research has demonstrated that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes or be behind bars than the native-born. While much has been made about kidnappings in Arizona, law-enforcement officials indicate that most of these involve drug smugglers and human smugglers, as well as smuggled immigrants themselves—not the general population of the state. Combating crime related to human smuggling requires more trust between immigrants and the police, not less. Yet the undermining of trust between police and the community is precisely what Arizona’s new law accomplishes. In the final analysis, immigration policy is not an effective means of addressing crime because the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. Read More
An Anti-Immigrant Franchise Coming to a State Near You
Americans are frustrated by a lot of things these days and immigration is no exception. What specifically annoys people about immigration is different depending on their vantage point. Those who are caught up in the labyrinth of immigration processing and the complicated inner-workings of the immigration agency are frustrated. Those who can’t even get their foot in the agencies door because they have no way to legalize are stuck in limbo. Then there are those who may have no personal connection to immigration and have never dealt with the difficult process of legalization, but are concerned about the all too common stories about the havoc born from our broken immigration system. So it isn’t at all surprising that many Americans are looking high and low for solutions. Read More
Congressional Hearing Dissects the Many Failures of SBInet
At a hearing held jointly today by two subcommittees of the House Homeland Security Committee, lawmakers and witnesses took turns dissecting the many faults and failures of the Department of Homeland Security’s ill-fated Secure Border Initiative Network, or SBInet—the $1.1 billion effort led by the Boeing Corporation to create a “virtual fence” along the U.S.-Mexico border through the deployment of cameras, sensors, and monitoring systems. SBInet is the high-tech counterpart to SBI Tactical Infrastructure, which involves the construction of physical fencing along the border as well. The hearing was devoted to answering a key question about SBInet: “Does it pass the border security test?” Given that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano froze funding for SBInet in March because of the program’s failure to live up to expectations, it is not surprising that the answer to this question from virtually everyone who spoke at the hearing was a resounding “No.” Read More
Arizona’s Anti-Immigration Law is also Anti-Faith
While visiting Phoenix, AZ in late January with a group of evangelical leaders who were in the border region to learn more about immigration, I met an immigrant family struggling to survive in a difficult economy. The father was employed as a mechanic but recently lost his job and lived in constant fear of being separated from his two young children who are U.S. citizens. This man considered moving his family back to Mexico because life was so hard in Phoenix, but was concerned about his two young children who would go back to a country they never knew. They were generous in feeding a group of American visitors delicious homemade Mexican food, as their children ran around the yard, yelling at each other in a mix of Spanish and English. During the same visit, my colleague met an undocumented immigrant woman named Maria whose son was killed by a drunk driver. She cannot press charges, however, because of her undocumented status. Read More
Detention Reform Strikes Ire in the Heart of Senator Grassley
Earlier this week, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) wrote a misguided letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Assistant Secretary John Morton. The Senator complained to Secretary Morton about the possibility of ICE allowing low-risk detainees to wear recreational clothing, use the phone, and send emails. Grassley likened these to hotel amenities, complaining that they might reduce the deterrent effect that detention provides. But where was the Iowa Senator when it came to light that a detention facility guard was accused of sexually assaulting detainees? While it may be admirable that Senator Grassley is concerned about the use of taxpayer dollars, it is unconscionable that these fiscal issues worry him more than the safety and well-being of fellow humans. Read More
Deporting America’s Future: Harvard Student Pushes for DREAM Act
Harvard sophomore, Eric Balderas, knows why the DREAM Act is important to so many. Earlier this month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) picked up Balderas in Boston on his way to visit his mother in San Antonio, Texas. Balderas now faces the possibility of deportation at a hearing next month. The 19 year old biology major was valedictorian of his high school class and is on a full scholarship at Harvard. Sadly, Balderas is just one of roughly 1.5 million unauthorized immigrant children—many of whom don’t speak Spanish and consider themselves American—currently living in the U.S. who are at risk for deportation. How many of America’s talented youth must the U.S. deport before Congress musters the courage to act? Read More
Ending Birthright Citizenship Won’t Solve Our Immigration Problems
The people who brought you SB1070 in Arizona are now preparing to challenge one of the fundamental principles of the U.S. Constitution—birthright citizenship. Birthright citizenship, or the principle of jus soli, means that any person born within the territory of the U.S is a citizen, regardless of the citizenship of one’s parents. This principle was established well before the U.S. Constitution, and was enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment. It was necessary to include the citizenship clause in the Fourteenth Amendment because the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision of 1857 had denied citizenship to the children of slaves. Following the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment righted that injustice and became the foundation for civil rights law, equal protection, and due process in the United States. Read More
SB 1070 “Gets Tough” on Arizona’s Housing Market
With only six weeks until Arizona’s immigration enforcement law goes into effect, area housing analysts are already expecting the worst. According to the Arizona Republic, housing experts anticipate that SB 1070 will not only drive illegal immigrants out of the state, but legal residents and potential new homebuyers with them—“departures from a state where growth is the economic foundation.” The resulting exodus will likely spur more foreclosures and create more vacant homes and apartments, which as real-estate analysts point out, will scare off potential homebuyers who fear lower home values. With a budget deficit of $4.5 billion and an economy struggling to get back on its feet, a declining housing market is the last thing Arizonans need. Read More
CIS Claims California is ‘Least-Educated State’ Because of Immigration
The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) yesterday released a report claiming that, due to immigration, “by 2008 California had the least-educated labor force in the nation in terms of the share [of] its workers without a high school education.” The report, entitled A State Transformed: Immigration and the New California, grossly mischaracterizes the educational profile of the California labor force by focusing exclusively on a single educational category: those without a high-school diploma. However, a more thorough analysis of recent Census data by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) reveals that California’s labor force is also rich in highly educated workers, many of whom are immigrants. CIS is attempting to propagate the stereotype of immigrants as being uneducated, when – in fact – immigrants have always filled U.S. labor needs at both ends of the educational spectrum. Read More
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