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Mother Jones Exposes Inner Workings of the Self-Deportation Movement
In its March/April issue, Mother Jones Magazine goes “inside the self-deportation movement,” exploring “164 state anti-immigration bills and the forces behind them.” The concept of “self deportation,” popularized by GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney, is central to the philosophy of “attrition through enforcement.” The basic idea is that, if you make life hard enough for […]
Read MorePew Analysis Highlights Immigrant Integration and Economic Contributions
Immigrants integrate into U.S. society over time and they contribute to the U.S. economy. These crucial yet often-overlooked facts are illustrated well by the Pew Hispanic Center’s latest statistical profile of the foreign-born population. According to Pew’s analysis of Census data, most immigrants have been here for more than a decade, and the longer they have been here, the more likely they are to have become homeowners and learned English. Moreover, growing numbers of immigrants are becoming U.S. citizens, which translates into growing political clout. The Pew data also show the degree to which immigrants fuel labor-force growth and fill valuable roles in the economy as workers in both high-skilled and less-skilled occupations. In short, immigrants are integral to the nation’s social and economic fabric.
Read MoreCourt Strikes Down Provision of Fremont’s Immigration Ordinance, Impact on Community Continues
BY DARCY TROMANHAUSER, PROGRAM DIRECTOR AT NEBRASKA APPLESEED. A federal court’s recent decision to strike down the core of Fremont’s immigration enforcement ordinance (Ordinance No. 5165)—which requires businesses to verify employees’ immigration status and renters to apply for an occupancy license—is no surprise. Across the country, every immigration ordinance with a rental component has been […]
Read MoreNumber of Potential Immigrant Voters on the Rise in Key Super Tuesday States
Three of the twelve states holding Republican primaries or caucuses on Super Tuesday—Georgia, Massachusetts and Virginia—show especially strong trends in the numbers of foreign-born residents who have become U.S. citizens. This trend is significant given that these new Americans are able to register and vote. Immigrant communities in each of these states are large, exceeding […]
Read MoreNumber of Potential Immigrant Voters on the Rise in Key Super Tuesday States
Three of the twelve states holding Republican primaries or caucuses on Super Tuesday—Georgia, Massachusetts and Virginia—show especially strong trends in the numbers of foreign-born residents who have become U.S. citizens. This trend is significant given that these new Americans are able to register and vote. Immigrant communities in each of these states are large, exceeding […]
Read MoreNumber of Potential Immigrant Voters on the Rise in Key Super Tuesday States
Three of the twelve states holding Republican primaries or caucuses on Super Tuesday—Georgia, Massachusetts and Virginia—show especially strong trends in the numbers of foreign-born residents who have become U.S. citizens. This trend is significant given that these new Americans are able to register and vote. Immigrant communities in each of these states are large, exceeding […]
Read MoreAlways in Demand: The Economic Contributions of Immigrant Scientists and Engineers
With the U.S. economy in the midst of a prolonged slump, it’s hard to believe that any industry would actually benefit from having more workers. But that is precisely the case when it comes to those industries which depend upon highly skilled scientists and engineers. The United States has long faced a dilemma in this respect: the U.S. economy is capable of absorbing more high-tech professionals than the U.S. educational system produces. That is one reason so many U.S. scientists and engineers are immigrants. In “STEM” occupations (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), the foreign-born account for 26.1 percent of workers with PhDs and 17.7 percent of those with master’s degrees. Even more U.S. scientists and engineers would be immigrants if not for the arbitrary limits imposed by the U.S. immigration system, particularly the inadequate supply of green cards and H-1B visas. Given that STEM professionals tend to create jobs through their innovative work, such limits are economically self-defeating.
Immigrant scientists and engineers create new jobs.
Despite Alabama’s Cautionary Tale, Mississippi Moves Forward with Extreme “Papers, Please” Immigration Legislation
So much for Southern hospitality. Despite damning reports, bad press and mea culpas from politicians out of Alabama following passage of their extreme immigration law, HB 56, Mississippi lawmakers continued down the same destructive path this week. Mississippi’s “papers please” immigration bill, HB 488—which contains nearly all the same provisions as Alabama’s extreme immigration law, […]
Read MoreGovernment Agencies and E-Verify: Erroneous Results and Misuse Cost Workers Their Jobs
Making E-Verify mandatory—even for government agencies and contractors—could threaten the jobs of U.S. citizens because there are errors in the system and because employers misuse it.
E-Verify is inaccurate.
According to an evaluation by Westat commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security, approximately 0.8 percent of work-authorized U.S. citizens and legal immigrants received an erroneous “tentative nonconfirmation” from E-Verify. Approximately 0.3 percent of those workers were able to successfully contest their findings and keep their jobs. The remaining 0.5 percent were not able to correct their records and received an erroneous “final nonconfirmation.”
Read MoreICE Distorts Facts in Debate over Immigration Detainers
February was an important month in the debate over immigration “detainers,” the controversial tool used to strong-arm local jails into holding immigrants on the federal government’s behalf. In Connecticut, a class-action lawsuit was filed attacking detainers’ many legal vulnerabilities, and the Governor announced that state jails will not honor them in all cases. In Illinois, […]
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