Filter
Immigration Reform Critical to Local Agricultural Production
William Woody, The Watch July 25, 2013 Olathe Farmer Cautiously Watching, Hoping Lawmakers Can Work Together WESTERN SLOPE – As over 100 migrant workers pick and package sweet corn from fields west of Olathe, nearly 2,000 miles away, in Washington D.C., members of Congress continue to pick at each other over immigration reform. These migrant or […]
Read MoreUS: Labor shortage hastens push for immigration reform
Fresh Plaza July 29, 2013 Nearly a month after the US Senate passed a comprehensive immigration bill, the debate in the House drags on. Meanwhile, local farmers are eager for a solution. They’re facing an ongoing labor shortage that many feel could be solved by immigration reform. Joe Pezzini walks onto a field in Castroville […]
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 MoreHow States And Local Economies Benefit From Immigrants
Detroit usurped Jefferson County, Alabama’s place last week as the largest municipality in the United States ever to file for bankruptcy. And as signs increasingly pointed toward the city’s financial issues, local leaders in Southeast Michigan have been exploring ways in which to stabilize or strengthen Detroit’s economy. One way to do that is to […]
Read MoreLabor Shortage Hastens Push for Immigration Reform
Krista Almanzan, Local NPR for Monterey Bay Area July 25, 2013 Nearly a month after the U.S. Senate passed a comprehensive immigration bill, the debate in the House drags on. Meanwhile, local farmers are eager for a solution. They’re facing an ongoing labor shortage that many feel could be solved by immigration reform. Joe Pezzini walks […]
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 MoreHearing Highlights Similarities Between Senate Immigration Bill and House Border Bill
Ostensibly, the July 23rd hearing of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security was about the many differences between the Senate’s immigration-reform bill and the House’s border-enforcement bill. The hearing was even titled “A Study in Contrasts: House and Senate Approaches to Border Security.” However, while highlighting very real differences between the […]
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.
Immigration Reform an Imperative for Cities and Metropolitan Areas
Metropolitan leaders from around the country made the case for immigration reform at an event hosted by the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program today. Over 80 percent of the U.S. population, including 95 percent of immigrants, now live in metropolitan areas; cities and towns across the country therefore have a huge stake in passing immigration […]
Read MoreMake a contribution
Make a direct impact on the lives of immigrants.
