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The Immigration Debate Could Use a Healthy Dose of Facts
Immigration is sure to be a hot topic when Members of Congress meet their constituents face-to-face during the upcoming summer recess. The full Senate has passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill that includes a controversial “border surge” as well as a path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants already living in the United States; the House […]
Read MoreTackling the Toughest Questions on Immigration Reform
Despite significant public support for immigration reform among members of the public in both parties, many of the most basic facts about immigrants and immigration remain misunderstood.
Read MoreSteve King’s Tall Tales About Immigrants and Crime Don’t Add Up
There is no denying that Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has a vivid imagination. As he sits in Border Patrol vehicles at night, he apparently sees hundreds of DREAM Act-eligible drug mules with muscular calves hauling heavy loads of marijuana across the border. How does he know these drug mules would meet the rather stringent criteria […]
Read MoreImmigrant bill could allow Canadians longer stays, boost Arizona economy
Beth Duckett, The Republic July 22, 2013 Every fall, Canadian snowbirds Lyle Pederson and his wife make the trek to Arizona, trading the bitter cold for sunny skies. This year, they stayed a little longer, returning north in May. And while they plan to come back this fall, the 180-day limit for Canadian snowbirds to […]
Read MoreAn 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.
Opposition Builds To Limited Proposal That Would Offer Citizenship Only To DREAMers
So far, House leaders have considered providing an opportunity for citizenship only to undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children, often known as DREAMers. Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) confirmed earlier this month that they are working on a bill, called the KIDS Act, to create […]
Read MoreImmigrants Are Driving the Housing Recovery
Nearly five years after the housing bubble burst, American homeowners are beginning to see signs of relief as housing markets are finally showing signs of recovery. An untold story of this recovery, however, is the extent to which it is fueled by immigration. A new analysis of U.S. Census data by Americas Society/Council of the Americas and […]
Read MoreFormer Attorney General Gets it Wrong on DOMA and Same Sex Immigration Benefits
Former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales is advocating in the New York Times that the Supreme Court decision in U.S. v. Windsor, which invalidated Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), should not allow the Obama administration to afford immigration benefits to married, same-sex bi-national couples. Rather, he argues, the administration is bound […]
Read MoreMore than Half Back Citizenship and Border Security Plans Alike
Gary Langer, ABC News July 18, 2013 More than half of Americans support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and stricter border control alike – but with views on border enforcement significantly tempered by the multibillion-dollar price tag. When the cost isn’t mentioned, 64 percent in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll support adding […]
Read MoreStudy: Immigration Reform Will Create Jobs, Boost GDP
Herald Online July 18, 2013 In conjunction with the American Action Forum, the American Action Network and Americans for Tax Reform, Regional Economic Models, Inc. released an exhaustive report this morning that evaluates the economic effects of key components of immigration reform and finds a net positive effect at the state and national level. The ground-breaking study analyzes the comprehensive, […]
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