Legislation
Terrified Nativists Unleash Everything They’ve Got Against Senate Immigration Bill
Nativists are terrified by the Senate immigration bill. Legal status for most unauthorized immigrants; a pathway to citizenship for those who are legalized; more flexible limits on future immigration—all of these are anathema to the nativist vision of what the United States should become. So it’s not surprising that the nativists are letting loose with every empirically unsupported argument and scrap of misinformation in their intellectual arsenal. In particular, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) has been relentless in its attacks against the Senate bill: S.744, “The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act.” Just in the month of April, for instance, CIS has made the following, sometimes outlandish claims: Read More
Can We Afford Not to Include 11 Million People in Health Care Reform?
By Sonal Ambegaokar, Health Policy Attorney at the National Immigration Law Center. To date, policy discussions regarding immigrants and health care and other benefits primarily focus on negative stereotypes and myths. As a result, the default policy solution to any issue involving immigrants and benefits is to simply deny the benefits, even when the immigrants are in the U.S. lawfully. Yet this solution is counter-productive for three main reasons: first, it is not cost-effective; second, it fails to actually address the systemic failures in our national health care and immigration policies; and third, it legally sanctions the exclusion and ostracizing of immigrants as the “other.” Read More
High-Skilled Immigration and Entrepreneurship in the Senate’s Immigration Bill
On the road to reform, the Senate’s Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act contains several changes and new provisions for skilled immigration and entrepreneurship. Specifically, the bill provides balanced reforms to the H-1B nonimmigrant visa for high-skilled individuals, various provisions for highly skilled individuals through permanent employment-based immigration, and a new INVEST visa for entrepreneurs. Read More
Napolitano Hearing Points the Way Forward on Immigration Reform
At an April 23rd hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano delivered two messages on behalf of the Obama administration. First, the administration strongly supports the Senate immigration reform bill—S.744, “The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act.” Secondly, the administration has, contrary to the claims of its critics, significantly ramped up border security in particular and immigration enforcement in general. In other words, the administration has proven that it can be tough on enforcement even as it advocates the formulation of new immigration laws that are more effective and just than those currently on the books. Read More
Senate Hearing Reinforces Why Congress Needs To Pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform
For more than seven hours on Monday, the Senate Judiciary Committee listened to testimony from almost two dozen people about the immigration reform bill a bipartisan group of senators introduced last week. From visas for farm workers and other foreign workers to the mandatory E-Verify system included in the bill, senators debated and questioned the witnesses about all aspects of immigration reform. Read More
Letting Tragedy Guide, Not Derail Policy-Making
Last week, the U.S. Senate introduced a long-awaited immigration reform bill, which many are predicting is our best chance in 20 years to fix the broken immigration system. While awaiting the Senate’s formal introduction however, devastating events unfolded in Boston. The nation stood transfixed on developments in Massachusetts, as did the Senators and those involved in immigration reform efforts. Read More
Former Bush Administration Official Explains Why Immigration Bill Is Good For The Economy
Following the introduction of the Senate immigration reform bill earlier this week, the Senate Judiciary Committee held its first hearing about the measure today. It gave the senators a chance to air their various complaints about the bill – that it does not protect LGBT couples or that the bill micro-manages the hiring process for foreign workers – but largely, committee members asked about the ways immigration reform will impact the U.S. economy, from the agriculture industry to high-skilled industries. Read More
Immigration Bill Praise Further Marginalizes Opponents
Now that the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” has officially introduced its immigration bill, the public, analysts, and newspaper editorial boards are all having a chance to weigh in about the sweeping overhaul of the nation’s broken immigration system. The reaction from many has been positive because, while it is not a perfect measure, the legislation makes huge strides toward creating a more workable immigration system, including a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. The bill also allocates more funding to enhance border security and significantly rewrites the current visa system, carving out new opportunities, even as it may close some traditional immigration doors. Read More
Early Concerns With Senate Immigration Bill
The “Gang of Eight” officially introduced their comprehensive immigration reform bill—the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act—in the Senate today, capping off months of negotiations to craft a bipartisan solution. As many have said, it is not a perfect bill, but it is a good compromise that will go far in an attempt to fix our broken immigration system. Read More
Senate Immigration Bill Has Arrived!
The Senate’s “Gang of Eight” has introduced the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act” in the 113th Congress. The bill is 844 pages long and will no doubt invite weeks of debate on many of its provisions. The bill is the culmination of months of work… Read More
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