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Transcript: Mayor Bloomberg at the Council on Foreign Relations
The following are Mayor Bloomberg’s remarks as prepared for delivery today at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC. Please check against delivery. “Thank you, Julia, and good afternoon. It’s always nice to come to a city with a baseball team that is below the Mets in the standings. “But it really is a […]
Read MoreReport: The “New American” Fortune 500
The “New American” Fortune 500 report (PDF) explores the impact that immigrants have on our national economic development. The report includes the latest research on the business contributions immigrants have made throughout all sectors of the economy. Some of the key findings in the report include: More than 40% of the 2010 Fortune 500 companies […]
Read MoreAlabama Governor Signs Bill That Makes State’s Immigration Law Even Worse
Last week, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley publically criticized a bill intended to revise key sections of the state’s controversial immigration law (HB 56). He even announced a special legislative session to address his issues with the bill—namely, a provision that requires school officials to check the immigration status of enrolling students and that of their […]
Read MoreH-1B Demand Surges Back
The government’s H-1B filing season for the 2013 fiscal year (FY2013) began on April 2, 2012, with a renewed surge in U.S. employer demand for professional workers. With an annual limitation of 65,000 H-1B petitions (plus another 20,000 for workers holding U.S. advanced degrees), the H-1B classification is a complex but useful tool for American […]
Read MoreMichigan Pushes Plan to Welcome Immigrants and their Revitalizing Power to State
While some states pushed for punitive immigration measures over the last year—measures designed to drive immigrants away —others, like those in Michigan, were busy putting together a plan that welcomes immigrants and their revitalizing power to the state. This month, leaders in Michigan—including state Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) and U.S. Rep. Hansen Clarke (D-Detroit)—helped launch […]
Read MoreAlabama Governor Rejects Changes to State’s Extreme Immigration Law, Starts Special Legislative Session
Today, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley announced his disapproval of a bill intended to change parts of the state’s extreme immigration law (HB 56) and initiated a special legislative session to address the problems. Yesterday, on the last day of the state’s regular legislative session, the Alabama Senate passed a version of a tweak bill that, […]
Read MoreAdministration Takes Step Toward More Entrepreneur-Friendly Immigration Policy
BY TEJAS SHAH*. While the U.S. economy continues to recover at a sluggish pace, the administration continues to emphasize immigration reform’s critical role in promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in the U.S. This week, Cecilia Munoz, the Domestic Policy Council Director at the White House, spoke at a forum hosted by The Hamilton Project of the […]
Read MoreNew Border Patrol Strategy Changes Rhetoric More than Substance
The U.S. Border Patrol’s newly released strategic plan is a decidedly mixed bag when it comes to border security—just like the Border Patrol’s last strategic plan, released in 2004. On the plus side, both documents advocate an intelligence-driven, risk-based approach to border security which focuses on the greatest security threats. Both plans also call for […]
Read MoreImmigrants without Legal Representation Not Benefitting from Prosecutorial Discretion
After ICE Director John Morton issued a memo last June outlining how and when ICE officials should exercise prosecutorial discretion in immigration cases, many were optimistic that the memo’s implementation would relieve backlogs and help the agency focus on higher priority immigration cases. Months later, however, folks are finding that one large group of people […]
Read MoreFalling through the Cracks
How Gaps in ICE’s Prosecutorial Discretion Policy Affect Immigrants Without Legal Representation
While the Obama administration’s has expanded use of prosecutorial discretion in immigration cases, the subject of immigrants without legal representation and their ability to access this discretion remains unresolved. In 2011, nearly half of all immigrants in removal proceedings appeared “pro se,” or without legal representation. While immigration attorneys can explain the effect of these policies to their clients, pro se immigrants may be unaware that new policies are even in effect. Immigrant advocates have thus been rightly concerned about whether pro se immigrants in removal proceedings will benefit from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) prosecutorial discretion policies.
This paper lays out what immigration authorities can do to ensure that pro se immigrants understand what prosecutorial discretion is, how they can seek it, and what they should do after receiving (or not receiving) an offer of it.
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