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Why the Administration Should Avoid a Fight Over Anti-Detainer Laws
Yesterday’s TIME Magazine carried a story on what it billed as the Obama administration’s “next immigration battle”—the spread of state and local laws around the country preventing jails from holding immigrant detainees on behalf of the federal government. California and Chicago appear poised to join the list, and federal officials have floated the possibility of […]
Read MoreSheriff Joe Arpaio to Stand Trial on Racial Profiling Charges
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio may finally face the music this week in a federal trial in Phoenix. The renowned anti-immigrant media glutton and self-proclaimed “America’s Toughest Sheriff” stands accused of discrimination and harassment charges in a class action lawsuit involving the ACLU and MALDEF. Arpaio has a long history of abuse and discrimination in […]
Read MoreVoter ID Laws Tackle Non-Existent Problem of Immigrant Vote Fraud
It is election season and voter-fraud hysteria is in the air. A raft of restrictive voter ID legislation from coast to coast is aimed primarily at one imaginary problem: fraudulent voting by immigrants who are not U.S. citizens. Supporters of these laws like to pretend that hordes of non-citizens are stampeding into voting booths and […]
Read MoreChicken Little in the Voting Booth: The Non-Existent Problem of Non-Citizen Voter Fraud
A wave of restrictive voting laws is sweeping the nation. The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law counts “at least 180 restrictive bills introduced since the beginning of 2011 in 41 states.” Bills requiring voters “to show photo identification in order to vote” were signed into law in Alabama, Kansas, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Adding insult to injury, Alabama, Kansas, and Tennessee went a step further and required voters to present proof of U.S. citizenship in order to vote. In addition, Florida, Colorado, and New Mexico embarked upon ultimately fruitless “purges” of their voter rolls for the ostensible purpose of sweeping away anyone who might be a non-U.S. citizen.
All of these actions have been undertaken in the name of preventing voter fraud, particularly illegal voting by non-citizens. Proponents of harsh voter laws often assert, without a shred of hard evidence, that hordes of immigrants are swaying election results by wheedling their way into the voting booth. However, repeated investigations over the years have found no indication that systematic vote fraud by non-citizens is anything other than the product of overactive imaginations.
Fighting Phantoms: No Evidence of Widespread or Systematic Vote Fraud by Non-Citizens
Mayor Emanuel Introduces Ordinance to Make Chicago an Immigrant-Friendly City
The Examiner July 11, 2012 Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced his intention to introduce a Welcoming City Ordinance that builds on efforts to make Chicago the most immigrant-friendly city in the country by incorporating basic protections for undocumented Chicagoans who have not been convicted of a serious crime and are not wanted on a criminal warrant. […]
Read MoreHow Overburdened Immigration Courts Can Be Improved
By Naike Savain. Immigration courts are notorious for significant backlogs and lacking sufficient resources to timely and justly adjudicate the hundreds of thousands of removal cases pending before them. And, despite recent announcements that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is exercising prosecutorial discretion in some removal cases, immigration courts throughout the country struggle to […]
Read MoreBig Step Forward on High-Skilled Immigration Bill
National Journal July 11, 2012 Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Republican Chuck Grassley on Wednesday removed a huge barrier to legislation that could speed the doddering visa system for highly skilled immigration. He removed his “hold” on legislation that would ease the immense backlogs for applicants from India and China, home to many superskilled immigrants. President […]
Read MoreThe Entrepreneurs We Can’t Afford to Lose
Washington Post July 11, 2012 Immigrant entrepreneurs have not only helped build the U.S. economy and, by extension, the country, they hold the key to our future success. We already know from the pioneering research of Singularity University vice president and Washington Post columnist Vivek Wadhwa and Berkeley’s School of Information Sciences dean Annalee Saxenian […]
Read MoreIssue Media Update: The City as a Startup
The Line July 11, 2012 In answer to a question about the most important thing cities can do as business generators, Case said, “Recruit for talent and find ways to connect people. “It’s the role of the government to set the stage for innovation to flourish,” he said, and one way to do that is […]
Read MoreFor Immigrants, Alternatives to Detention Not All They’re Cracked Up to Be
On any given day, approximately 300,000 immigrants in the United States have pending removal proceedings to determine whether they will be deported from the country. Of those, about 10% are kept in detention centers while proceedings are pending, with the rest are subject to alternatives ranging from the posting of bail to the use of […]
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