Filter
An Unlikely Couple: The Similar Approaches to Border Enforcement in H.R. 1417 and S. 744
The House of Representatives and the Senate have embarked upon very different paths when it comes to immigration reform. On June 27, the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill—S. 744 (the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act)—that seeks to revamp practically every dysfunctional component of the U.S. immigration system. The House leadership, on the other hand, favors a piecemeal approach in which a series of immigration bills are passed, each addressing a different aspect of the larger immigration system. To date, the most popular of these piecemeal bills has been H.R. 1417 (the Border Security Results Act), which was passed unanimously on May 15 by the House Committee on Homeland Security. H.R. 1417 is, in marked contrast to S. 744, an enforcement-only bill which does not acknowledge the existence of any other component of immigration reform.
Nevertheless, the border-enforcement provisions of S. 744 aren’t all that different from those contained within H.R. 1417. Both bills share the arbitrary and possibly unworkable goals of “operational control” (a 90 percent deterrence rate) and 100 percent “situational awareness” along the entire southwest border. The Senate bill also added insult to injury in the form of the Corker-Hoeven (“border surge”) amendment, which seeks to micromanage border-security operations and would gratuitously appropriate tens of billions of dollars in additional funding, and hire tens of thousands of additional Border Patrol agents, before the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has even determined what resource and staffing levels are needed to do the job.
Congress Approves Even More Funding for Detention, Deportation
Congress is spending tax dollars on ICE and family separation instead of what would actually fix our broken system: our overloaded courts and lack of legal pathways to residency.
Read MoreBreaking Down Trump’s Attempt to End Birthright Citizenship
By Laila Khan and Raul Pinto On his first day in office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship for babies of undocumented immigrants and for people with temporary status in the U.S. Executive Order 14156: Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship departs from over 125 years of […]
Read MoreBirthright Citizenship in the United States
This fact sheet explains birthright citizenship, the Fourteenth Amendment, and its interpretations. Who is eligible for birthright citizenship? Can birthright citizenship be taken away?
Read MoreNew American Fortune 500 in 2024
Immigrant entrepreneurs have long played a crucial role in building America’s success. Many of the country’s most well-known and influential companies were started by immigrants or their children. For this report, we refer to these businesses as “New American” companies. This group includes widely recognized brands like Amazon and Apple, as well as rising stars […]
Read MoreGovernment’s Move to Terminate Flores Agreement Could Leave Immigrant Children Unprotected
The Department of Justice asked a court to partially terminate the decades-old agreement that protects the rights of immigrant children earlier this month. The government argues that the Flores Settlement Agreement is no longer needed because a new Department of Health and Human Services regulation finalized on April 30 will provide sufficient protections to immigrant […]
Read MoreSupreme Court Rules in Favor of Judicial Review of Mixed Questions, Even Those That Are Fact Intensive
The Supreme Court issued an important victory for noncitizens seeking cancellation of removal and the principle of judicial review of agency action on March 19. And despite the current court’s tenuous regard for stare decisis – the idea that “today’s Court should stand by yesterday’s decisions” – in Wilkinson v. Garland, the Supreme Court reaffirmed […]
Read MoreMake a contribution
Make a direct impact on the lives of immigrants.
