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States Apply Brakes on Immigration Legislation in 2012
The National Conference on State Legislatures (NCSL) released its annual review of immigration legislation moving in statehouses around the country. NCSL found a significant, 40% decrease in the introduction of immigration legislation and a 20% decrease in states enacting immigration-related laws when compared to 2011. This decline is the first in years, and is reportedly […]
Read MoreWhat the Show Me State Shows Us About Immigration
According to data released by the Immigration Policy Center, there are approximately 6,500 young people in Missouri who may benefit from President Obama’s plan to grant deferred action to DREAM eligible youth. This isn’t a huge amount in the grand scheme of things, as Missouri ranks 31st in the country with respect to the number […]
Read MoreNativist Group’s Report on Immigration Enforcement is Pure Fantasy
With its latest report on President Obama’s immigration-enforcement record, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) has finally fallen down the rabbit hole and into immigration wonderland. Although FAIR has always played fast and loose with the facts, its new report rises to a new level of distortion. The report claims that President Obama has […]
Read MoreAdministration Releases Details on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
The Department of Homeland Security today released details on its plan to grant “deferred action” to immigrant youths who were brought to the country as children. The announcement, which was accompanied by an updated FAQ and other materials on how to apply, comes eight weeks after DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano revealed the initiative, which could […]
Read MoreUsing SAVE to Verify Voter Eligibility Comes with Unexplored Risks
The lack of evidence of immigrant voter fraud hasn’t stopped some states from pushing efforts to require photo ID at the polls, purge voter rolls of ineligible voters, and other measures that may result in voter suppression and the disenfranchisement of racial and ethnic minorities or other social groups. Some states have asked the federal […]
Read MoreUsing the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) Program for Voter Eligibility Verification
The evidence of non-citizens voting is sparse and appears subject to much exaggeration. Despite this, many states are asking the federal government for access to immigration data in order to determine whether non-citizens are on the voter registration rolls. For instance, in July 2012, the Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)—a division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—advised the Florida Secretary of State that states, under limited circumstances, may use the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program for verification of the citizenship status of registered voters. This issue, however, goes beyond Florida. Other states have expressed an interest in using SAVE in a similar fashion. This new development has heightened misconceptions about the SAVE program and its purpose.
The Immigration Policy Center’s previously issued fact sheet about the SAVE program focuses on whether SAVE can actually verify whether an individual is in the country lawfully or not. This fact sheet focuses on whether the SAVE program can be used to accurately verify voter eligibility. It explains why SAVE is not a database of all non-citizens, why using SAVE to verify the status of individuals who have registered to vote is a misuse of the program, and how using SAVE for this purpose could lead to denying U.S. citizens the right to vote.
What is the SAVE program?
Restrictionists Misrepresent Data on Immigration Enforcement
Some members of Congress are intent on portraying the Obama administration as “weak” on immigration enforcement, and they aren’t going to let facts get in their way. Yesterday, for example, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) released new data on individuals who had been identified through Secure Communities (S-Comm) but against whom ICE had not taken […]
Read MoreWhere and Who Are The Young People Eligible for the President’s “Deferred Action” Initiative
The Obama Administration’s “deferred action” initiative for unauthorized youth who were brought to this country as children has raised a number of crucial questions. How many people will be eligible? Who are they? And where do they live? A new analysis by the Immigration Policy Center (IPC), together with Rob Paral & Associates, provides some […]
Read MoreICE Numbers on Prosecutorial Discretion Keep Sliding Downward
Since June 15, the immigration world has largely focused on the impending “deferred action” initiative for individuals who could have qualified for relief under the DREAM Act. Meanwhile, comparatively little attention has been paid to the still ongoing review of more than 300,000 pending removal cases for individuals meriting a favorable exercise of prosecutorial discretion. […]
Read MoreOpinion: Why New York Still Welcomes Immigrants
The Wall Street Journal July 27, 2012 Many states across the U.S. have passed restrictive immigration measures in recent years. But New York under Gov. Andrew Cuomo is bucking the trend. “We are a state of immigrants,” he declared in his 2012 State of the State address. “While other states build walls to keep people […]
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