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Getting to a Citizenship Consensus
Immigration reform is enjoying a resurgence of support in both parties, with groups from a variety of backgrounds coming out in favor of a range of changes to our current system. The most striking change may be the melting of opposition to a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. […]
Read MoreA Clash of Conservatives in Kansas
Anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist came to Topeka this week to serve as a counterweight to Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach in the national debate over immigration reform. Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, is best known for persuading congressional Republicans to sign his anti-tax pledge. However, he is also an opponent of […]
Read MoreRemovals Remain the Starkest Measure of Immigration Enforcement
For more than a decade, the general thrust of U.S. immigration policy has been aimed at expanding the grounds of removal and the tools for facilitating deportations from the country. Not surprisingly, this has come at an enormous cost. Although the figure has been disputed by restrictionists, a report from the Migration Policy Institute recently […]
Read MoreThe 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 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 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 MoreColorado Digs Itself Into a Fiscal Hole in the Name of Immigration Enforcement
At a time when state budget deficits are growing larger, you might think that state governments would avoid imposing costly, unfunded mandates on themselves. Yet that is exactly what states are doing when they pass laws that transform their police officers into proxy immigration agents. As officers spend more of their scarce resources and time […]
Read MoreThe AIC Welcomes Customs and Border Protection’s New Guidance on Interpretation
The American Immigration Council (AIC) welcomes U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) decision, announced yesterday, to stop providing interpretation assistance to other law enforcement agencies. This decision, which is set forth in new agency guidance that has not been publicly released, reportedly directs CBP personnel to refer requests for language translation to a list of […]
Read MoreLawsuit Uncovers USCIS’ Double Standards in H-1B Program
For the past several years, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) H-1B visa review and processing procedures have caused confusion and concern among U.S. businesses that turn to highly-skilled temporary foreign workers in specialty occupations to operate successfully. In newly-uncovered documents, it appears that instead of supporting small businesses that attempt to hire highly-skilled foreign […]
Read MoreFalling Through the Cracks
The Impact of Immigration Enforcement on Children Caught Up in the Child Welfare System
One of the many consequences of an aggressive immigration enforcement system is the separation of children, often U.S. citizens, from their unauthorized immigrant parents. Take the case of Felipe Montes, a father who has spent the past two years fighting to reunite with his three young children, who were placed in foster care in North Carolina following Montes’ deportation to Mexico in late 2010. Such cases only scratch at the surface of a growing problem. Our immigration policies often fail to address the needs of millions of children whom they directly impact.
According to the Pew Hispanic Center, approximately 5.5 million children in the United States, including 4.5 million U.S.-born citizens, live in mixed-legal status families with at least one parent who is an unauthorized immigrant. These children are at risk of being separated from a parent at any time. Parents facing removal must frequently make the decision whether to take their children with them or leave their children in the U.S. in the care of another parent, relative, or friend. In many cases, a parent may determine that it is in their child’s best interest to remain in the U.S. However, in some cases, a parent’s ability to make such decisions is compromised when their child enters the child welfare system, which can prompt a series of events leading to the termination of parental rights. The lack of consistent protocols across the different public systems that encounter separated families further exacerbates the problem.
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