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US: Labor shortage hastens push for immigration reform
Fresh Plaza July 29, 2013 Nearly a month after the US Senate passed a comprehensive immigration bill, the debate in the House drags on. Meanwhile, local farmers are eager for a solution. They’re facing an ongoing labor shortage that many feel could be solved by immigration reform. Joe Pezzini walks onto a field in Castroville […]
Read MoreThe Immigration Debate Could Use a Healthy Dose of Facts
Immigration is sure to be a hot topic when Members of Congress meet their constituents face-to-face during the upcoming summer recess. The full Senate has passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill that includes a controversial “border surge” as well as a path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants already living in the United States; the House […]
Read MorePaul Ryan: Immigrants ‘Bring Labor to Our Economy So Jobs Can Get Done’
Nancy Cook, The National Journal July 25, 2013 In the past month, Rep. Paul Ryan, normally so focused on fiscal matters, has shifted his attention to immigration. He isn’t pitching reform as a humanitarian or budget-cutting move, though other advocates say it would be both. Instead, the House Budget Committee chairman makes an economic argument. […]
Read MoreTackling the Toughest Questions on Immigration Reform
Despite significant public support for immigration reform among members of the public in both parties, many of the most basic facts about immigrants and immigration remain misunderstood.
Read MoreSteve King’s Tall Tales About Immigrants and Crime Don’t Add Up
There is no denying that Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has a vivid imagination. As he sits in Border Patrol vehicles at night, he apparently sees hundreds of DREAM Act-eligible drug mules with muscular calves hauling heavy loads of marijuana across the border. How does he know these drug mules would meet the rather stringent criteria […]
Read MoreAn Unlikely Couple: The Similar Approaches to Border Enforcement in H.R. 1417 and S. 744
The House of Representatives and the Senate have embarked upon very different paths when it comes to immigration reform. On June 27, the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill—S. 744 (the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act)—that seeks to revamp practically every dysfunctional component of the U.S. immigration system. The House leadership, on the other hand, favors a piecemeal approach in which a series of immigration bills are passed, each addressing a different aspect of the larger immigration system. To date, the most popular of these piecemeal bills has been H.R. 1417 (the Border Security Results Act), which was passed unanimously on May 15 by the House Committee on Homeland Security. H.R. 1417 is, in marked contrast to S. 744, an enforcement-only bill which does not acknowledge the existence of any other component of immigration reform.
Nevertheless, the border-enforcement provisions of S. 744 aren’t all that different from those contained within H.R. 1417. Both bills share the arbitrary and possibly unworkable goals of “operational control” (a 90 percent deterrence rate) and 100 percent “situational awareness” along the entire southwest border. The Senate bill also added insult to injury in the form of the Corker-Hoeven (“border surge”) amendment, which seeks to micromanage border-security operations and would gratuitously appropriate tens of billions of dollars in additional funding, and hire tens of thousands of additional Border Patrol agents, before the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has even determined what resource and staffing levels are needed to do the job.
Immigration Bill’s Supporters Call on Business Groups to Pressure G.O.P.
Jonathan Weisman and Ashley Parker, The New York Times July 19, 2013 WASHINGTON — With political momentum behind an immigration overhaul flagging, advocates are counting on business groups to turn up the pressure on skeptical House Republicans who are much less susceptible to that lobby than they have been in the past. The changed dynamic […]
Read MoreOpposition Builds To Limited Proposal That Would Offer Citizenship Only To DREAMers
So far, House leaders have considered providing an opportunity for citizenship only to undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children, often known as DREAMers. Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) confirmed earlier this month that they are working on a bill, called the KIDS Act, to create […]
Read MoreHow 40 Million Immigrants Create Housing Wealth and Stabilize Communities
View the interactive map of the findings. New research by Americas Society/Council of the Americas (AS/COA) and Partnership for a New American Economy (PNAE) finds that the 40 million immigrants in the United States have created $3.7 trillion in housing wealth, helping stabilize less desirable communities where home prices are declining or would otherwise have […]
Read MoreStudy: Immigration Reform Will Create Jobs, Boost GDP
Herald Online July 18, 2013 In conjunction with the American Action Forum, the American Action Network and Americans for Tax Reform, Regional Economic Models, Inc. released an exhaustive report this morning that evaluates the economic effects of key components of immigration reform and finds a net positive effect at the state and national level. The ground-breaking study analyzes the comprehensive, […]
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