Texas, District 36

Firsthand Accounts of Medical Negligence in Customs and Border Protection Facilities
The administrative complaint filed with government oversight agencies highlights a systematic failure to provide adequate medical care to children in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody. This violates CBP’s own internal guidance and extensive medical guidelines. Read More

Houston Public Media: How Does Immigration Impact Houston’s Economy?
As lawmakers in Washington, D.C. debate how to move forward with immigration policies, we take a look at how our economy is affected by immigrants. New American Economy is a coalition of mayors and business leaders from all over the country. They just released data on Greater Houston… Read More

The State Immigration Laws You Should Know About
In the course of the first year under the Trump administration, states and localities have increasingly pursued immigration policies that serve the best interests of their own communities. While there were extreme differences in these state-level approaches to immigration, overall more states enacted policies designed to protect, support, and welcome… Read More

As DHS Ends TPS for Haiti, a Pattern Emerges. What Comes Next?
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced last week that it would be ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti. 50,000 Haitians, along with hundreds of thousands of nationals from other countries, now face an uncertain future which could result in deportation to a country struggling to recover from… Read More

Dreamers Play Vital Role in Texas Economy
Sergio Ramos was born in Texas and has lived in southeast Texas for more than 60 years. The only sign he is an immigrant is his lingering Spanish accent. As soon as he started studying English in the border town of Harlingen at age 13 — his father went back… Read More

After Spending $1.5 Million on a Hog Farm, Dutchman Learns He ‘Has Not Invested Enough’ to Stay
As the owner of one of Ohio’s largest hog farms, Meindert Van den Hengel contributes significantly to the economy. By the time he finishes building his third barn this year, he will be one of the state’s largest permitted hog farmers. He will have 7,500 hogs across three barns, for… Read More

The Contributions of New Americans in Nevada
After decades when states such as California, Florida, and New York attracted the majority of immigrants to the country, Nevada has emerged in recent years as a major destination for new Americans. In 1990, Nevada’s immigrant community made up just 8.7 percent of the state’s total population. By 2010, that… Read More

Local Officials Improve Immigration Enforcement Policies as Congress Fails to Act
The county council in King County, Washington, decided this week that local law enforcement officials will stop honoring federal immigration agents’ requests to detain immigrants who are arrested for low-level crimes. They voted 5-4 for the new policy on Monday, and supporters hope the change “will build trust between local police and immigrants who don’t report crimes for fear they or a family member will be deported,” according to the Seattle Times. Read More

Courts Continue to Reject Arizona Style Laws, Even as House Embraces SAFE Act
Last year, in Arizona v. United States, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that the federal government, rather than the states, has both the responsibility and the authority to enforce immigration law. Leaving immigration enforcement to the whims of individual state legislatures and law enforcement officers was, according to the Court, likely to undermine the federal framework and interfere with U.S. foreign relations. Despite this resounding rejection of state immigration enforcement, or perhaps because of it, the House Immigration Subcommittee passed the Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement (SAFE) Act (H.R. 2278), which attempts to make an end run around the Supreme Court’s decision by empowering states and localities to enforce immigration law as they see fit. At the very time the country is pushing for a comprehensive federal overhaul of the immigration system, the presence of the SAFE Act threatens to cripple the success of those efforts. Read More

Colorado Digs Itself Into a Fiscal Hole in the Name of Immigration Enforcement
At a time when state budget deficits are growing larger, you might think that state governments would avoid imposing costly, unfunded mandates on themselves. Yet that is exactly what states are doing when they pass laws that transform their police officers into proxy immigration agents. As officers spend more of their scarce resources and time rounding up people whom they suspect of being unauthorized immigrants, costs mount not only for the police force, but for jails and courts as well. More often than not, these costs are being needlessly incurred in order to lock up people who are in no way a threat to public safety. Read More
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