Immigration 101
How the United States Immigration System Works
- How the Immigration System Works
- June 23, 2024
U.S. immigration law is very complex, and there is much confusion as to how it works. This fact sheet provides basic information…
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Birthright Citizenship in the United States
- Birthright Citizenship
- October 16, 2024
This fact sheet explains birthright citizenship, the Fourteenth Amendment, and its interpretations. Who is…
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Asylum in the United States
- Asylum
- August 27, 2014
Asylum seekers must navigate a difficult and complex process that can involve multiple government…
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Olbermann: “Immigration Detention Centers as Bad as Gitmo”
As part of his "Still Bushed!" segment, Keith Olbermann compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities to Guantanamo Bay as part of his countdown: OLBERMANN: Number one, Gitmo Jr.-gate. Imagine the Bush government having instituted a system of near Gulags and other detention centers so vast that it can hold not a couple hundred people, but rather 400,000 foreigners and even Americans of foreign birth. They don‘t get to see lawyers. They don‘t get their detentions individually reviewed by judges. They don‘t get supposedly minimum standards of jail, cleanliness or hygiene. They don‘t get out for at least ten months. And ten months is considered lightning fast. Some new piece of nightmare reporting by Seymour Hirsch? Some fantasy of the far left? No. These are the ICE facilities courtesy of George W. Bush. Read More
Congress Flexes Muscle for Broader Immigration Reform with DREAM Act
Yesterday, the House and Senate delivered yet another signal that the political tide for immigration reform is getting stronger with their introduction of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act [Senate] and the American Dream Act [House]. The bill is a strong bipartisan effort and a sign that the muscle for comprehensive immigration reform is getting stronger on both sides of the aisle as momentum builds. The bill would would provide a path to U.S. citizenship for undocumented immigrants who entered the country more than five years ago while they were under the age of 16 and who complete two years of college or 2 years of military service. It aims at giving hard-working undocumented children who have always considered America "home" the opportunity to fix their status and contribute to our economy and their communities. According to the National Immigration Forum: Read More
Obama Tells Univision Viewers that He Will “Always Be Listening”
Tonight, President Obama appeared on "Premio Lo Nuestro," a popular Latin music awards show which aired on the Spanish-language channel, Univision. Obama thanked the mostly Latino audience for voting in November and encouraged them to stay involved and "make your voices heard": Read More
Congress Introduces DREAM Act as Momentum for Immigration Reform Escalates
Today, Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Representatives Howard Berman (D-CA) and Lincoln Díaz-Balart (R-FL), along with several other Republican and Democratic Representatives introduced in both chambers the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM) Act. These bipartisan bills would allow immigrant students who… Read More
A Comprehensive Solution to Order on the Border
As the national spotlight turns toward U.S. border activity, local border town police face a difficult challenge in balancing their role as both police officers and immigration officers within a broken immigration system. In a recent Washington Post editorial, Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris asserts that focusing his attention on real criminals rather than economic migrants has not only lowered the city’s crime rate, it has also enabled police to maintain a closer relationship with the communities they serve. For Harris, who likened border enforcement to bailing an ocean with a thimble, "the answer is not in Phoenix. The answer is in Washington." Don’t give me 50 more officers to deal with the symptoms. Rather, give me comprehensive immigration reform that controls the borders, provides for whatever seasonal immigration the nation wants, and one way or another settles the status of the 12 million who are here illegally — 55 percent of whom have been here at least eight years. For those whose profession it is, law enforcement sometimes seems like bailing an ocean with a thimble. Read More
New CIS Study: Easy Answers and Half-Baked Solutions
Photo from flickr. BY: AMBER SPARKS, UFCW A new report by the Center for Immigration Studies is a perfect illustration of the misinterpretation and manipulation of data to reach a totally biased and flawed conclusion-and clearly demonstrates a complete lack of understanding about the history of the meatpacking industry. Immigrants worldwide have been essential in strengthening the U.S. meatpacking industry, by organizing around increased wages and improved industry standards. But during the ‘80's, something happened. Consolidation, mergers, and company-induced strikes helped drive down wages for meatpackers. During the strikes, companies aggressively recruited strike breakers-not immigrants but individuals who came from the decimated farm industry-to cross the picket lines. Read More
Hispanic Caucus Gets Optimistic Forecast from President Obama
Yesterday, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus met with President Obama to discuss the prospects for advancing such a reform this year. Obama had made a commitment to reforming the broken immigration system during his campaign, and has sent many signals that he remains enthusiastic about its prospects. At yesterday's meeting, the President echoed the affirmative call for comprehensive immigration reform already made by Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Read More
CIS Inadvertently Makes the Case for Legalizing Undocumented Workers
The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) today released a report which, quite inadvertently, makes an excellent case for comprehensive immigration reform that legalizes undocumented immigrants already living and working in the United States. The report analyzes the high-profile federal immigration raids that were conducted on December 12, 2006, at six Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas, and Utah. According to the report, wages and working conditions for Swift & Co. workers improved in the aftermath of the raids as more lawfully present immigrants and U.S. citizens joined the company's labor force. The report rightly concludes from the example of Swift & Co. that wages and working conditions improve "when illegal immigrant labor is removed from the workplace." Read More
Condoleezza Rice Wants Undocumented Immigrants Out of the Shadows
Like many in the Bush administration who recently recognized that comprehensive immigration reform is not a roadblock but a vehicle to America’s economic recovery, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice highlighted the need for comprehensive reform last week as an economic and social imperative at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research summit. Now a political science professor at Stanford and senior fellow at the Hoover Institute, Rice put the Bush administration’s failure to achieve real reform of our immigration laws ahead of the Middle East conflict in terms of her “deepest regret” as secretary of state. Read More
“New American” Idols
Last fall, IPC produced a report about The New American Electorate: The Growing Political Power of Immigrants and Their Children discussing how immigrants and their native-born children, born after 1965, were closely connected to the issue of immigration and that it would prove to be an important factor in their voting decisions. Fast forward to now and it becomes clear that "New American" power extends beyond the voting booth and into the living rooms of more than 20 million viewers each week through the wildly popular reality television show, American Idol. The 8th season of America Idol is underway and two-finalists on the show are themselves New Americans: Read More
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