California, District 39
Polish Immigrant Gives Back to Community that Welcomed Her
By the time she moved to Fort Wayne in 1998, Polish native Ewelina Connolly had already visited the city several times with the dance troupe in which she performed. On one of these trips, she fell in love with an American. But when they decided to marry, Connolly faced a… Read More
‘Border Kid’ Combines Cultures — and Creates Jobs — Through Cupcakes
When Karina Jiménez was laid off from an office job in 2011, she decided to jump into entrepreneurship with a niche dessert business called Viva Los Cupcakes. She had already been selling cupcakes as a side business at bars, parties, concerts, and art openings in Los Angeles, a 30-minute driver… Read More
‘Look Beyond the Surface,’ Says Columbian-American Surgeon
When the patients of Colombian native Dr. Julio Clavijo-Alvarez have a question about their treatment, they don’t have to worry about getting past a wall of staffers. They have his personal cell phone number, so they can just call or text. As his overwhelmingly positive online reviews… Read More
Quoting George W. Bush, Political Economist Says America Must ‘Match Willing Workers with Willing Employers’
Jim Hollifield is an international scholar and policy analyst who has spent 35 years studying the impact of migration on communities around the globe. “Immigration is hardwired into our political and economic DNA,” says Hollifield, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University and director of SMU’s John Goodwin Tower… Read More
The Contributions of New Americans in Maryland
With its close proximity to our nation’s capital, it is of little surprise that Maryland has emerged in recent years as a popular destination for the country’s immigrants. In 1990, immigrants made up 6.6 percent of the state’s total population. By 2010, that number had more than doubled, reaching 13.9… Read More
Deep Faith Motivates Nancy Long’s Support for Immigration Reform
In 2015, Nancy Long treated a young bipolar man who came to the crisis center where she worked as a licensed clinical professional counselor. The young man wasn’t medicated properly, and his family feared for their safety and his own. “They were kind of afraid of him when he was… Read More
Removal Without Recourse: The Growth of Summary Deportations from the United States
The deportation process has been transformed drastically over the last two decades. Today, two-thirds of individuals deported are subject to what are known as “summary removal procedures,” which deprive them of both the right to appear before a judge and the right to apply for status in the United States. In 1996, as part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), Congress established streamlined deportation procedures that allow the government to deport (or “remove”) certain noncitizens from the United States without a hearing before an immigration judge. Two of these procedures, “expedited removal” and “reinstatement of removal,” allow immigration officers to serve as both prosecutor and judge—often investigating, charging, and making a decision all within the course of one day. These rapid deportation decisions often fail to take into account many critical factors, including whether the individual is eligible to apply for lawful status in the United States, whether he or she has long-standing ties here, or whether he or she has U.S.-citizen family members. In recent years, summary procedures have eclipsed traditional immigration court proceedings, accounting for the dramatic increase in removals overall. As the chart below demonstrates, since 1996, the number of deportations executed under summary removal procedures—including expedited removal, reinstatement of removal, and stipulated removal (all described below)—has dramatically increased. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2013, more than 70 percent of all people Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported were subject to summary removal procedures. Expedited Removal (INA § 235(b)) Read More
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