Filter
Report Provides Solutions to Broken Asylum Employment Authorization Clock
Asylum applicants and their attorneys have long struggled to better understand how the employment authorization asylum clock (“EAD asylum clock”) functions. The clock, which measures the number of days after an applicant files an asylum application before the applicant is eligible for work authorization, affects potentially more than 50,000 asylum applicants each year. While the […]
Read MoreStriking While the Iron is Hot: Drop in Unauthorized Immigrant Population a Good Time for Immigration Reform
The number of unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. dropped by roughly 1 million last year, according to a new report released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) yesterday. As of January 2009, the number of unauthorized immigrants currently residing in the U.S. totaled 10.8 million, down from 11.6 million in January 2008, marking […]
Read MoreHow Remittances Can Help Haiti Recover and Strengthen the U.S. Economy
Each year, millions of immigrants in the U.S. send billions of dollars in remittances to friends and family members in their home countries. It is easy to mistakenly assume that this represents a huge loss for the U.S. and in this economy, why are we allowing billions of dollars to be sent abroad? Like all […]
Read MoreNew ABA Study Documents Serious System-Wide Problems in the Removal Process
For over a year, the American Bar Association’s Commission on Immigration and the law firm of Arnold & Porter LLP engaged in a comprehensive review of the current removal process. The law firm poured over hundreds of articles, reports, legislative materials, and other documents, and interviewed scores of participants in the system, including lawyers, judges, […]
Read MoreNew Study Confirms Positive Impact of Immigration on Wages of Native-Born Workers
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) yesterday released a new study, Immigration and Wages, which confirms what many other economists have found: “that immigration has a small but positive impact on the wages of native-born workers overall.” The report, by economist Heidi Shierholz, finds that the “effect of immigration from 1994 to 2007 was to raise […]
Read MoreBye-bye Butterstick
DC’s adorable panda Tai Shan returns to China today. Because of a current lack of native-born pandas, the U.S. turned to China for pandas to fill our zoos’ panda needs. Tai Shan’s parents, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, have been in the U.S. on a cultural exchange of sorts, entertaining zoo patrons and attempting to […]
Read MoreNew Data on Federal Court Prosecutions Reveal Non-Violent Immigration Prosecutions Up
The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) reports that federal immigration prosecutions rose to record levels during fiscal year (FY) 2009. In the past, federal court resources were appropriately allocated to pursue immigration-related prosecutions against individuals with criminal backgrounds. Recently, however, priorities have shifted, and large numbers of federal immigration prosecutions have focused on non-violent border crossers, creating the appearance that immigrants are committing more crimes. However, the fact is — the federal government’s shift in resources has meant spending billions of dollars prosecuting non-violent immigration violators while more serious criminals involved in drugs, weapons, and organized crime face a lower probability of prosecution.
Read MoreShining a Light on ICE Misconduct
The New York Times reported yesterday on a lawsuit filed against federal contractor Signal Construction, which includes allegations that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) colluded with Signal to illegally deport workers as a scare tactic and for retaliation purposes against 500 Indian guest workers who are currently in a legal battle against Signal.
Read MoreNapolitano Unveils Enforcement-Heavy Immigration Budget for DHS
The Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 budget request for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano unveiled yesterday, exemplifies the enforcement mentality which pervades the federal government’s approach to immigration. The two immigration-enforcement components of DHS—Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—consume 30% of the department’s total […]
Read MoreAn Opening for Republicans on Immigration Reform
Immigration and Latino advocates continue to take stock after last week’s State of the Union Address, which some interpreted as the final nail in immigration reform’s coffin for 2010. Predictably, Democratic leadership reasserted their ongoing commitment to immigration reform legislation the day after. Less predictably, however, Senator Schumer’s main Republican partner in the Senate, Lindsay […]
Read MoreMake a contribution
Make a direct impact on the lives of immigrants.
