Immigration Reform
The last time Congress updated our legal immigration system was November 1990, one month before the World Wide Web went online. We are long overdue for comprehensive immigration reform.
Through immigration reform, we can provide noncitizens with a system of justice that provides due process of law and a meaningful opportunity to be heard. Because it can be a contentious and wide-ranging issue, we aim to provide advocates with facts and work to move bipartisan solutions forward. Read more about topics like legalization for undocumented immigrants and border security below.
Immigrant Business Owners Continue to Contribute to Communities Across America
During the August recess, Members of Congress have been meeting with constituents in their home states and districts. During this time, many have likely dined at an immigrant-owned restaurant or used the services of an immigrant-owned business within their home state. The fact is, immigrant businesses are important in many communities across America. Immigrant entrepreneurs bring in additional revenue, create new jobs, and boost local and state economies. Indeed, immigrant entrepreneurs and innovators continue to make contributions throughout the U.S. Read More
Lessons from the Civil Rights Era for Immigration Reformers
On the 50th Anniversary of the historic “March on Washington” which led to some of the most significant legislative victories in the civil rights movement, it’s hard to not reflect on the influence that activists and legislators in the 1960’s have had and should have on the immigrant rights movement today. There are, in fact at least two very important takeaways for immigration reformers. First, the activists in the 60’s showed that the power was indeed in the hands of the people and flexing political muscle would pay off. Second, final passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act demonstrated how strong political leaders can negotiate controversial bills and get them across the finish line. Read More
Fight for Fairness and Justice in its Many Forms Far From Over
Wednesday marks 50 years since more than 250,000 people joined the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and pushed the government to extend civil and economic rights to African Americans. A massive rally where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. made his historic “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, it has been credited with spurring passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Read More
ICE Policy on Parental Rights Addresses Long Overdue Problem in Immigration System
For years, leading family and children’s advocates have argued that the bond between parent and child is often a casualty of our broken immigration system. Consequently, they have argued that ensuring parental rights in the context of immigration proceedings is critical—whether the issue is about determining who should have custody of an unaccompanied minor, exercising discretion to release a sole caregiver from detention, or ensuring that a person in immigration proceedings doesn’t automatically lose parental rights. On Friday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) finally released a memorandum that offers clear guidelines on these questions. Unfortunately, some people, like House Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, immediately tried to turn this into a political issue about immigration reform, instead of what it is—guidance for making sure the rights of parents and children are protected. Read More
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: The RNC on Immigration Reform
The Republican National Committee took two steps forward last week when they passed a resolution calling on Congress to get immigration reform done by year’s end, but took one step back by suggesting Congress offer legal status, but no path to citizenship for the currently undocumented population. This was followed by statements from Rep. Bob Goodlatte, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee this week, who declared that he does not support a path to citizenship for DREAMers, and no immediate status for their parents. This illustrates just how much further the party has to go before it is in sync with a growing number of its own members—several of whom have just begun to declare their support for a path to citizenship —and the vast majority of the public, who support immigration reform and full citizenship for the undocumented. Read More
Our Immigration System Must Encourage Foreign Entrepreneurs to Invest in the U.S.
Immigrants started 33 percent of U.S. venture-backed companies between 2006 and 2012 that went public, according to a new report from the National Venture Capital Association. The report, however, also noted that there is no reliable immigration program for foreign entrepreneurs, who must surmount enormous legal difficulties in order to come here to create businesses and drive innovation and job growth. Read More
Immigrant Entrepreneurs Help Build U.S. Economy One Company at a Time
Google, Intel, eBay, Yahoo!, Facebook, LinkedIn, SanDisk, Altera, Zoosk, Etsy, Tesla Motors. What characteristic does each of these well-known companies share? They each were either founded by an immigrant or have at least one immigrant founder. Now, a new report from the National Venture Capital Association highlights the profound impacts that immigrant entrepreneurs—like the immigrants who helped to found major U.S. corporations—have on our economy. Immigrant entrepreneurs start companies throughout America in many different industries, creating value and new jobs in the United States, and advancing U.S. innovation. Read More
Newark Police Department Latest to Push Back on ICE Detainer Requests
The Newark Police Department is the most recent local law enforcement agency to announce that it will refuse requests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain people who have been picked up for minor criminal offenses. Newark is the first city in New Jersey to stop honoring detainer requests from ICE, and the announcement follows news that New Orleans has also adopted a similar policy. Newark Police Director Samuel DeMaio signed the policy change on July 24: Read More
New Study Shows How Native-Born Workers Benefit from Immigration
One of the fears recurrently raised by those who oppose immigration is that inflows of immigrants negatively affect the native-born labor force in general, and less-educated working class individuals in particular. The idea upon which this assertion relies is that when less-educated workers immigrate into the host country, they systematically bring down the wages of similarly educated native-born workers. This notion is oftentimes overstated and is to a large extent fueled by prejudice rather than being backed by hard evidence. Read More
Immigration Reform Will Help Address Critical Lack of Medical Doctors
The U.S. faces a severe shortage of physicians, particularly in primary care and in rural areas, and as baby boomers retire, the U.S. workforce will need many more health professionals to fill their spots in the health care field. But many hurdles prevent foreign doctors, who are just as qualified as their U.S. counterparts, from working in the United States and filling this urgent need. These obstacles include redundant licensing requirements, which require another residency in the U.S. even if one was already completed abroad, and an exceptionally expensive and complex immigration process. “It took me double the time I thought, since I was still having to work while I was studying to pay for the visa, which was very expensive,” said Alisson Sombredero, an H.I.V. specialist who came to the U.S. from Colombia in 2005, in The New York Times. Read More
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