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The U.S. Has Been Implementing an “Enforcement-First” Immigration Policy for More Than a Decade
Anti-immigrant activists often say that we must first enforce current U.S. immigration laws before even considering any reforms that might grant legal status to unauthorized immigrants already living in the country. However, as the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) documents in a comprehensive new report (and a more condensed Report in Brief), that is what we […]
Read MoreImmigration Expert Exposes Legal Flaws in Anti-DACA Lawsuit
Shortly after the administration began accepting applications under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, Kris Kobach—the author of Arizona SB 1070 and other notorious state immigration laws—filed a lawsuit on behalf of ten disgruntled immigration agents seeking to halt the program in its tracks. The lawsuit has largely been viewed as a politically […]
Read MoreReasons for Cautious Optimism on Immigration Reform
There is considerable debate at the moment over the prospects for immigration reform this year. On the one hand, an electorally chastened Republican Party seems to be reevaluating its long-standing support for deportation-only immigration policies. On the other hand, it looks as though the White House and Congress are embarking upon lengthy debates over gun […]
Read MoreNew ICE Detainer Guidance Too Little, Too Late
On the Friday before Christmas, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released new guidance on immigration “detainers,” the lynchpin of agency enforcement programs involving cooperation with local police. In the new guidance, ICE Director John Morton instructed agency employees to only file detainers against immigrants who represent agency “priorities.” Unfortunately, as with prior agency memos […]
Read MoreDHS Publishes New Provisional Waiver to Help Some Families Stay Together
Some families facing long separations from their loved ones because of U.S. immigration laws will have an easier time of it in 2013. Thanks to a new regulation from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), immediate relatives of U.S. citizens will be able to complete part of the processing of their immigration cases without leaving […]
Read MoreHappy Holidays From Immigration Impact!
All of us at Immigration Impact would like to wish all of our readers a very happy holidays! We’ll be back on January 2nd, 2013. We look forward to continuing the immigration conversation with you next year!
Read MoreCountdown of the Top Five Immigration Stories of 2012
In the beginning of 2012, the landscape of the immigration world looked much different. Pro-immigrant groups were coming off of a rough few years that saw the failure of the DREAM Act, a spike in deportations under President Obama, and the passage of several state-level restrictionist bills like Arizona’s infamous SB 1070 and Alabama’s HB […]
Read MoreAmerica’s Aging Crisis Will Only Grow Worse With Declining Immigration
As a recent story in The Economist notes, the conventional wisdom has long been that “because Americans have so many babies and welcome so many immigrants, they had more room to deal with the coming burden of pensions and health care for the elderly.” But that is no longer the case. The story goes on […]
Read MoreFederal Judges Remind Government to Consider Prosecutorial Discretion
Prosecutorial discretion is the authority of a law enforcement agency or officer to decide whether and to what degree to enforce the law in particular cases. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative continues to be a successful example of prosecutorial discretion in the immigration context. However the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) often […]
Read MoreBoston Globe Series Exposes Pitfalls of Immigration Detention
Last week, the Boston Globe ran an important series of articles on a topic that receives far too little attention: the vast network of civil detention centers that last year held more than 400,000 immigrants in the United States. The product of a year-long investigation, the series shines a spotlight on a system in which […]
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