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As Chicago Passes Anti-Detainer Ordinance, TRUST Act Awaits Signature in California
Lost amongst media coverage of the ongoing teachers’ strike was the passage in Chicago last week of a historic measure that largely prohibits local police from detaining individuals on behalf of federal immigration authorities. Dubbed the “Welcoming City Ordinance,” the measure makes Chicago the latest jurisdiction to push back against immigration “detainers,” the lynchpin of […]
Read MoreNo Paid Sick Days for Immigrant Caregivers Risky to Workers, U.S. Economy
By Elisa Batista, Women Immigrants Fellow, New America Media. In 91-year-old Elda Frank’s apartment is a scenario that plays out every moment of every day. An immigrant caregiver with no paid sick days scrambles for backup when she becomes ill on the job. In caregiver Paula Osorio’s case, she called Frank’s son, Bruce, and offered […]
Read MoreCitizenship Day 2012: Realizing the Potential of the Immigrant Vote
For many aspiring immigrants, achieving citizenship means full participation in civic life—and that means the right to vote. Every year, thousands of immigrants become naturalized U.S. citizens and exercise their new right. In the 2010 national elections, naturalized citizens comprised 6.4% of all voters. The voter registration rate among immigrants as a whole has risen since 2000. Just as importantly, a growing number of U.S.-born children of immigrants are now coming of age and becoming voters.
However, the full potential of the immigrant vote has not been reached. There are more than eight million legal immigrants in the United States who are eligible to naturalize but have not yet done so. The latent electoral power of these voters-in-waiting is enormous. In many parts of the country their votes could potentially swing elections. As described in a series of Immigration Impact blog posts by Rob Paral, there are numerous counties across the country where the number of Legal Permanent Residents (LPRs) who have arrived since 1985 exceeds the margin of victory in the Obama-McCain election. Moreover, the voter rolls of many counties would grow dramatically if LPRs who are eligible to naturalize actually did so and registered to vote. Although this could not happen in time for the 2012 election cycle, it could make a difference in future elections. In many U.S. counties, the number of Legal Permanent Residents (LPRs) who have arrived since 1985 exceeds the Obama-McCain margin of victory.
Immigrant Integration is a Two-Way Street
The process by which immigrants integrate into the economic and social fabric of the United States is very much a two-way street. Naturally, immigrants must harbor the desire to climb the socioeconomic ladder of success. But there must be a ladder for them to climb. If the community within which immigrants live and work makes […]
Read MorePress Release: More Than 150 University Presidents and Chancellors From All 50 States Sign Letter to the President and Congress Supporting Visa Reform
University presidents and chancellors with a combined student body of over 4 million students and a total endowment of over $240 billion support visa reform Today, 165 chancellors and presidents of American universities sent a letter to President Barack Obama and to all members of Congress urging members of both parties to find a bipartisan […]
Read MoreLocal Entrepreneurs Make The Economic Case For Immigration Reform
The Seattle Times September 11, 2012 Russian businessman Denis Kiselev was the subject of an Aug. 30 story in The Times for a milestone in Seattle business: Under a new federal policy, he was sponsored for an H-1B visa by a company he started himself. For the company, SnapSwap Inc., to ask that its creator […]
Read MoreThe Economic Advantages of U.S. Citizenship
Becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen has many benefits – citizens can vote and run for public office, bring family members to the U.S., hold certain jobs reserved for citizens, and they are protected from deportation. There are also a range of economic benefits to citizenship, highlighted by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) in their new […]
Read MoreEconomic Decline in U.S. Seen Without More Immigration
Bloomberg August 31, 2012 The U.S.’s best 250 years are behind it, Northwestern University professor Robert Gordon writes in a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, saying economic growth may gradually “sputter out.” Gordon outlines how there was virtually no expansion before 1750 — before the American Revolution led to the creation […]
Read MoreBusting Myths About the California TRUST Act
As we reported last week, the TRUST Act—a bill that would prevent local law enforcement agencies from honoring all requests to detain immigrants on the federal government’s behalf—has cleared the California state legislature and is awaiting the signature of state Governor Jerry Brown. Meanwhile, restrictionists and other proponents of Arizona-style immigration laws have begun mounting […]
Read MoreEntrepreneurial Spirit Knows No Borders
The Seattle Times August 30, 2012 In the 1920s, architects designed the 23-story art deco Exchange Building in downtown Seattle to house a stock exchange. But those plans ended when the U.S. stock market crashed in 1929. More than 80 years later, this Second Avenue building will finally host an exchange company — an online […]
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