Legislation
And the Beat Goes On: Immigration Reform and the Road Ahead
As Washington and the rest of the country continue to reflect on the monumental legacy of the late Senator from Massachusetts, many are contemplating the enormous leadership gap left in his passing. A tireless champion of health care, civil rights, foreign policy, education, immigration and many other worthy causes, Senator Kennedy’s first major legislative victory—eliminating the national quotas for immigration— “helped change the face of the country and shaped his own political career.” But the question remains, how do we continue Sen. Kennedy’s drumbeat on immigration reform? Read More
Leader, Visionary and Friend: Today We Remember Senator Edward M. Kennedy
The Capitol is quiet, its halls silent, its chambers shuttered. The Senate is in recess, and in the midst of that quiet, one of its greatest members has passed away. It’s fitting that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died while his beloved Senate was in recess. There were no committee hearings to chair, no deals to negotiate, no fiery speeches to give. His voice is silenced, but his words and actions will live on. For immigration advocates, Senator Kennedy was a friend, a visionary, and a supreme strategist. He was the architect of the Refuge Act of 1980, a piece of legislation that, since its passage, has fostered a new life for hundreds of thousands of refugees and asylees, sheltering them from persecution in their home countries. He will forever be remembered as the heart of comprehensive immigration reform, fighting back the worst of the changes anti-immigration forces sought to make in 1996, authoring reform bills that would restore due process to the immigration system, and most importantly, forging a plan for comprehensive immigration reform that continues to be the model for today’s legislation. Read More
Faith and Leadership Required: A Closer Look at Last Week’s White House Meeting
Last week’s White House meeting on immigration marked another chapter in the years-long effort to enact comprehensive immigration reform. Janet Napolitano’s invitation to more than one hundred representatives from business, labor, faith, law enforcement, and immigration groups was a genuine attempt to listen to concerns and solicit ideas. The format—large group meeting addressed by the Secretary, small group discussion led by various DHS and White House officials, summary and surprise remarks from the President—gave people a chance to say just a little, but the cumulative effect was more important than we may realize. Read More
The President and Secretary Napolitano Reaffirm Commitment to Immigration Reform
Yesterday, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano met with immigrant advocates, faith leaders, labor, business and law enforcement officials at the White House to discuss moving forward with a comprehensive immigration reform bill this year. President Obama appeared at the end of the meeting to reaffirm his commitment to reform and pledge that “we can get this done.” While the President commended Sens. Charles Schumer’s (D-NY) and Harry Reid’s (D-NV) efforts to move a bill forward, he also urged participants to work together in a bipartisan effort to advance a sensible and human immigration system that is consistent with our American values. Read More
South Carolina Senator in Search of Solutions
According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Chairman of the Immigration, Refugee and Border Security Subcommittee, has tapped Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to help garner GOP support for a comprehensive immigration bill this year. While not always voting in favor of common sense solutions to our broken immigration system, Senator Graham has shown himself to be at least one Republican leader who understands the importance of our nation’s changing demographic—especially in his home state of South Carolina—on future electoral races. Read More
Health Care Reform and Immigration: The Sideshow Antics of the Anti-Reform Crowd
Today, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released a new fact sheet about immigrants and the health care system. At a public event, CIS made it clear that while immigrants may not be to blame for all the problems with the U.S. health care system, they certainly are part of the problem, and the only solution is to step up immigration enforcement and reduce future immigration. Hmmm, isn’t that their solution to everything? While stating that free health care for “illegals” is a problem (even though the bills in Congress explicitly deny coverage to undocumented immigrants), CIS focused on health care benefits for legal immigrants, implying that legal immigrants should be denied affordable health care and that comprehensive immigration reform would destroy the health care system. This is simply the latest attempt to silence any constructive discussion about important issues and scare the American public by using immigrants as a handy scapegoat. Read More
Asian American Community Flexes Political Muscle in Fight for Immigration Reform
As the Obama administration continues to lay the groundwork for the introduction of a comprehensive immigration reform bill sometime this year, many in the immigrant community are growing restless—a restlessness which may well be reflected in future election cycles. Recently released Census Bureau data reveals a significant increase in the number of Asian voters over the last four years. This week, the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities are putting that political power to use as they mobilize for the first ever National Week of Action in support of comprehensive immigration reform. “For this national week of action, we tell our stories as immigrants, and as descendants of immigrants,” said Titi Liu, executive director of the Asian Law Caucus. “We are workers, neighbors and small-business owners who revitalize communities and contribute to the economy.” Read More
New Report from Cato Institute Highlights Economic Benefits of Legalizing Unauthorized Immigrants
Leading economists agree that the cornerstone of any immigration reform bill should be some form of legalization for the roughly 12 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States. Critics of legalization, namely enforcement-only cheerleaders, fail to realize that legalization would improve wages and working conditions for all workers—including the native-born—and would yield a net benefit to the recovering U.S. economy. One study estimates that an immigration reform bill which includes legalization would yield a net benefit of $180 billion over a ten-year period, while enforcement efforts alone would actually cost $80 billion over the same period. Read More
Quadrennial Homeland Security Review: Is DHS Asking the Right Questions?
If you go to the National Dialogue on the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR) website and click through to the Smart and Tough Enforcement of Immigration Laws section, you will find a bit of surprise. Despite a title that panders to the enforcement first crowd, implying that immigration policy is all about being “tough,” there is actually a remarkably thoughtful effort to capture a broader set of immigration policy goals. Take a look at the mission statement: A secure, unified, fair, adaptive, and responsive immigration system that protects the public, enriches our society, and improves our economy. Read More
President Obama Says “Yes We STILL Can” with Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Last Friday, President Obama spoke to a group of Hispanic reporters at the White House and again reaffirmed his commitment to passing a comprehensive immigration reform bill sometime in early 2010, with a draft to be ready as soon as the end of this year. “We have convened a meeting of all the relevant stakeholders,” the President said, “and Secretary Napolitano is working with the group to start creating the framework for a comprehensive immigration reform.” One of the things standing in the way of his immigration efforts, the President Obama joked, are members of the Republican Party who still believe he is an illegal immigrant. Sad, but true. Read More
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