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President Obama’s Very Legal Move on Immigration
DHS’s recent announcement on enforcement priorities suggests that the agency, along with the Department of Justice, is serious about trying to target those persons who pose a threat to public safety. Unfortunately, there has been little official communication from either agency about the initiatives underway to review current immigration court cases or to issue broader […]
Read MorePresident Obama’s Very Legal Move on Immigration
DHS’s recent announcement on enforcement priorities suggests that the agency, along with the Department of Justice, is serious about trying to target those persons who pose a threat to public safety. Unfortunately, there has been little official communication from either agency about the initiatives underway to review current immigration court cases or to issue broader […]
Read MoreCalifornia Passes Other Half of DREAM Act Package
While many applauded Governor Jerry Brown’s recent efforts to make college more affordable for all of California’s students, others insisted the state didn’t go far enough. Back in July, Gov. Brown signed AB 130—a bill that allows undocumented students enrolled in California’s public colleges and universities to receive privately-funded university scholarships from non-state funds. At […]
Read MoreLike Previous Administrations, Obama is Using Existing Laws to Improve our Immigration System
The attacks on the Obama Administration from some immigration restrictionists are likely to escalate when Congress returns from its August recess, given the recent announcement that DHS intends to put muscle behind its prosecutorial discretion guidelines. The plan to review 300,000 immigration cases to assess whether they fall within the Administration’s enforcement priorities has already […]
Read MoreWhat the New Budget Law Could Mean for Immigrant and Refugee Programs
BY ERIC SIGMON, LUTHERAN IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEE SERVICE* On August 2, after a number of press conferences and late-night negotiation sessions, President Obama signed into law the Budget Control of Act of 2011, legislation that prevented the U.S. government from defaulting on its debt and requires deep cuts into future federal spending. While deficit cutting […]
Read MoreDHS Announces Expansion of Prosecutorial Discretion Guidelines
Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced an agency-wide expansion of prosecutorial discretion guidelines that will hopefully allow immigration officials to focus their enforcement efforts on targeting dangerous criminals. DHS also announced the creation of a joint committee with the Department of Justice (DOJ) that will review nearly 300,000 immigration cases currently in removal […]
Read MoreImmigration Restrictionists Take SB 1070 to Supreme Court
More than a year after SB 1070 was initially enjoined in federal court, the immigration restrictionists behind Arizona’s misguided immigration law have brought their case to the Supreme Court. Proponents of SB 1070 are likely to hail the state’s petition, filed yesterday, as not only the first step toward reversing the injunction against the law’s […]
Read MoreWashington Farmers Fear Economic Impact of National E-Verify Bill
Much like farmers in Georgia who are experiencing labor shortages due to HB 87—the state’s new immigration law which mandates use of E-Verify—growers in Washington state fear that a similar, national E-Verify bill will have a devastating economic impact on the state’s agricultural workforce. This week, the Washington Growers League said that a national E-Verify […]
Read MoreDepartment of Justice Seeks Injunction Against Alabama’s Anti-Immigrant Law
Yesterday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed yet another lawsuit against extreme state-level immigration laws—this time against Alabama’s HB 56. Already the subject of a class action lawsuit filed by the ACLU and other immigrants’ rights groups, Alabama’s HB 56 would require local law enforcement to verify the immigration status of those stopped for traffic […]
Read MoreImmigration Case Backlog Reaches All-Time High, Report Shows
As the U.S. continues to pour money into immigration enforcement and detention, the resources necessary for the immigration court system to keep up with enforcement have not been appropriated. In fact, a record number of immigration cases—275,316 as of May 2011—are in the Immigration Court backlog according to a recent report by the Transactional Records […]
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