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Secretary Napolitano Urges Latinos to Vote in Midterms if Congress is to Reform Immigration
Yesterday, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano visited the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) with one clear message: the Latino community must turn out in force in November in order set the table for passing comprehensive immigration reform next year, telling the group that “your voice is your vote, man.” Secretary Napolitano also confronted […]
Read MoreBalancing Family Immigration with Our Economic Needs
In his most recent book, Brain Gain: Rethinking U.S. Immigration Policy, author Darrell M. West argues that “U.S. immigration policy went seriously off course after Congress passed legislation in 1965 making family unification the overarching principle in immigration policy… We need to reconceptualize immigration as a brain gain and competitiveness enhancer for the United States.” […]
Read MoreYet Another City Gives Local Immigration Enforcement Proposals a Thumbs Down
This week, city leaders in the Houston suburb of Tomball, Texas, joined a host of other local leaders when they voted not to pursue harsh immigration enforcement measures at a city council meeting. Council members cited costly lawsuits while city residents expressed fear of being branded unwelcoming and “racist.” The ordinances under consideration would have […]
Read MoreExplaining the Recent Decline in Unauthorized Migration
Immigration Enforcement in a Time of Recession
Recent estimates from the Pew Hispanic Center indicate that the number of unauthorized immigrants in the United States has declined by roughly one million since 2007—bringing the total size of the unauthorized population to approximately 11.1 million. Coming after the release of similar estimates by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in January, these figures have provoked considerable speculation as to how much of the decline is attributable to the current recession, and how much is the result of heightened immigration enforcement. DHS, for instance, was quick to take credit for the drop, citing the money and manpower that have been poured into immigration enforcement by the Obama administration. However, immigration researchers were just as quick to point out that unauthorized immigration has always responded to the state of the U.S. economy, and that the downward trend captured by both Pew and DHS matches up closely with the beginning of the recession in December 2007.
DOJ Sues Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio for Failure to Cooperate in Federal Investigation
Today, the Department of Justice filed suit against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for his refusal to hand over documents in an ongoing federal investigation into allegations of discriminatory practices based on a person’s national origin (racial profiling) and unconstitutional searches and seizures. According to the Arizona Republic, “the lawsuit comes after weeks of back-and-forth […]
Read MoreBack to the Border: A Historical Comparison of U.S. Border Politics
By Katherine Benton-Cohen and Geraldo Cadava
During the spring and summer of 2010, America’s broken immigration system erupted into national news headlines as a result of the passage in Arizona of a sweeping anti-immigrant law (SB 1070), growing concerns over drug-related violence along the U.S.-Mexico border, and calls in some quarters for a repeal of the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship. While these events might seem new, the issues involved—unauthorized migration, labor disputes, violence, federalism, and constitutional rights—have played out over and over again, particularly along the border. Back to the Border provides analyses by two historians who situate today’s controversies within the context of the broader history of the border region. Understanding that history not only allows us to make sense of the complex issues behind the current rhetoric, but also demonstrates why it is necessary to go beyond the rhetoric and search for lasting solutions.
The following “Perspectives” by historians Katherine Benton-Cohen and Geraldo Cadava compare and contrast conditions and incidents along the Arizona border in 1917, 1976, and 2010. The similarities between the three eras are startling.
Restrictionist Group Blames Immigrants for Unemployment Among Less-Educated Workers, Again
In a new and fatally flawed report, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) attempts to blame immigrants for virtually any unemployment among less-educated native-born workers anywhere in the United States, in both good economic times and bad. The report, entitled From Bad to Worse, deluges the reader with data from 2007 and 2010 on employment […]
Read MoreThe Immigration Balancing Act: ICE Memo and High Removal Statistics Reveal a Stacked Immigration System
Last week, two separate branches of DHS released important evidence supporting the argument that our immigration laws are fundamentally broken. The Office of Immigration Statistics released its annual report on removal and return statistics, noting that removals in 2009 totaled 393,289—marking the seventh straight year of increase. Meanwhile, ICE released a memo directing legal counsel […]
Read MoreAnti-Immigrant Hysteria in Arizona Won’t End With the Primaries
The Republican Party primaries in Arizona may be over, but the anti-immigrant demagoguery upon which the winning candidates built their campaigns is unlikely to fade away anytime soon. Governor Jan Brewer and Senator John McCain both managed to reverse their declining political fortunes in large part by raising the phantom specter of immigrant violence—a cynical […]
Read MoreThe Politics of Immigration: Primaries Reveal Little About What’s to Come
It’s hard to pinpoint how exactly the issue of immigration impacted a range of primary races on Tuesday. In some cases, exploiting our broken immigration system may have helped candidates win elections—as in the case of Governor Jan Brewer. In other cases, talking tough about immigration may have cost politicians their race—like Florida’s Attorney General […]
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