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Why Is There a Disparity in DACA Application Rates Among Different Nationalities?
A year and a half in, nationals from nearly every country have applied for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), President Obama’s deportation reprieve program for certain undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children. Despite this diverse participation, nationals of some countries are dramatically underrepresented in the applicant pool. Comparing the latest USCIS DACA […]
Read More16 Representatives Stuck in Reverse on Immigration
Despite the failure of the House to act on immigration reform last year, there was no doubt that the majority of Americans—and even the majority of Members of Congress—understood that immigration reform was an important component in creating economic opportunity for all. Last Friday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor reiterated that support during an exchange […]
Read MoreHow the 2014 Midterm Elections Could be Impacted by Immigration
By Tom K. Wong, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. Despite hopes that 2013 would be the year of comprehensive immigration reform, legislation stalled in the House and the year ended without a bill. Since the House reconvened Tuesday, 427 days have passed since the November 2012 elections […]
Read MoreTargeting Immigrant Taxpayers as a Matter of Course
Unfortunately, there is a new fallback position for some members of Congress when it comes to finding ways to save money. That position is eliminating the Additional Child Tax Credit for immigrant taxpayers. This has been proposed in the past by other members of Congress; however, the latest iteration is in the form of an […]
Read MoreImmigrant Entrepreneurs are Investors in their Communities
Cedric Francois, a medical researcher from Belgium, came to Louisville, Kentucky, after hearing that researchers there were beginning work on the first hand transplant. Later, he co-founded two pharmaceutical companies. Suhas Kulkarni, an immigrant entrepreneur himself who founded Louisville-based IT firm Omnisys, understands the need for integrating and helping immigrant entrepreneurs get their start and […]
Read More2013 Highlights from the Partnership for a New American Economy
After decades of frustration, 2013 was a year filled with success for the immigration reform movement. The year brought passage of a comprehensive immigration bill in the Senate, five separate immigration bills passed out of committee in the House of Representatives, new voices from across the political spectrum added in support of reform, and groundswells […]
Read MoreTop Five Immigration Stories from 2013
From the beginning, it was clear that 2013 was going to be a big year for immigration. The results of the 2012 Presidential Election were widely interpreted as a rebuke to Mitt Romney’s enforcement-only “self-deportation” policy, and President Obama’s huge victory among minority communities was seen as a mandate for reform. It seemed, at the […]
Read MoreNew ICE Deportation Statistics Are No Cause for Celebration
There is little to cheer in the new deportation statistics released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). While the numbers document a 10 percent decline in the total number of deportations compared to last year, they also reveal the extent to which immigration enforcement resources are still devoted to apprehending, detaining, and deporting individuals […]
Read MoreThe Faulty Legal Arguments Behind Immigration Detainers
In late June 2012, the Supreme Court struck down three provisions of Arizona’s SB 1070 and left a fourth vulnerable to future legal challenge. As has been well documented, the Court’s rejection of SB 1070 tipped the balance in favor of federal enforcement and away from state and local enforcement of the immigration laws. But this essay explores a less obvious consequence of the Court’s decision: its implications for the viability of a critical federal enforcement mechanism: the immigration “detainer.”
An immigration detainer is a piece of paper that federal immigration officials send to state and local jails requesting that they continue holding an individual for up to 48 business hours after he or she would otherwise be released, so that agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can investigate the person’s status and assume custody if necessary. Also known as immigration “holds,” detainers are the key enforcement mechanism behind federal enforcement initiatives like the Criminal Alien Program and Secure Communities.
There has been considerable confusion as to whether a detainer is a mere request that ICE be notified of a suspected immigration violator’s impending release, or a command by ICE that state or local officials hold a prisoner for ICE beyond the time the prisoner would otherwise be released. Independent of that question, however, the Court’s decision in Arizona v. United States identifies a more fundamental problem: that detainers may violate the Constitution and federal statutes even when honored on a voluntary basis.
House Hearing Misses the Mark on Asylum Claims
The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing Thursday about whether or not abuse of the asylum system is “overwhelming our borders.” What the committee ended up focusing on, however, was the alleged abuse of the credible fear screening process, a preliminary step in the application process for some asylum seekers. Although credible fear is different […]
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