What will be the price in dollars, lives, and opportunities lost if Congress fails to act on immigration reform?
See the full report at http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/just-facts/cost-doing-nothing
"The Cost of Doing Nothing" -- A Report by the Immigration Policy Center
What will be the price in dollars, lives, and opportunities lost if Congress fails to act on immigration reform?
See the full report at http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/just-facts/cost-doing-nothing
Immigration advocates announce plans for demonstrations across country
By David Nakamura, Published: September 26 at 1:31 pm
Immigration advocates announced plans Thursday for rallies in dozens of cities Oct. 5 to pressure Congress to approve legislation to overhaul the nation's border control laws and demand an end to mass deportations of the undocumented.
The National Day for Dignity and Respect will be a prelude to a rally and concert on the Mall on Oct. 8, during which thousands are expected to demonstrate in support of comprehensive immigration reform, the organizers said. The goal is to keep a spotlight on the issue even as Congress and the White House are engaged in fierce battles over the budget and debt ceiling, which are threatening to push immigration off the agenda.
The advocates said their focus would be primarily on House Republicans, who have declined to support a Senate-approved immigration bill that features a path to citizenship for most of the nation's 11 million undocumented workers and students.
"The House may try to delay and deny our efforts," said Richard Morales, detention prevention coordinator for the Campaign for Citizenship of PICO National Network. "That translates into a situation of crisis for hundreds of thousands of immigrant families across the county each and every day."
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), a leading voice on immigration, said that within the next 40 days, a total of 2 million unauthorized immigrants would have been deported since President Obama took office in 2009. The administration is deporting more than 1,000 people a day, and advocates have increasingly called on the president to use his executive authority to defer the deportations. Obama has said he cannot do so because it would violate federal law.
Gutierrez acknowledged that immigration has fallen further down the agenda amid the fiscal fights, calling it a "very tough, dark tunnel" to get a comprehensive bill approved this year. But he added that Congress "should understand we're not going away. The deportations are continuing and continue to have a devastating effect."
See the entire article at
AILA Quicktake #51: The Cost of Doing Nothing
Watch this short video from the American Immigration Lawyers Association on the Cost of Doing Nothing with Immigration Reform.
Daily Immigration News Clips – September 25, 2013
Houston Chronicle: Nancy Pelosi floats new strategy to pressure GOP on immigration
By Carolyn Lochead
By Carolyn Lochead
ADDITIONAL HOUSE BILL REACTIONS
International Business Times: Advocates, Opponents Not Taking Pelosi's Proposed Plan Seriously
By Laura Matthews
New York Times: House Democrats Crafting Immigration Proposal
By Ashley Parker
Houston Chronicle: Filemon Vela, border politicians resurrecting immigration reform
By Rachel Jackson
STATE DEVELOPMENTS
San Diego Union Tribune (California): Catholic colleges push for immigration reform
By Elizabeth Aguilera
San Diego Union Tribune (California): Lawmakers out of step on immigration?
By Elizabeth Aguilera
KCBS (California): San Francisco Considers Limiting Police Cooperation With Immigration Officials
Aspen Daily News (Colorado): Aspen chamber endorses immigration bill
By Nelsen Harvey
Associated Press (Texas): Applicants wrongly denied US citizenship: court
By Christopher Sherman
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
Washington Post: ACLU, immigrant groups to keep an eye on U.S. Border Patrol after profiling-case win
By Manuel Valdes
Fox News Latino: Dream9 Reloaded: Now 30 Will Attempt To Reenter The U.S. Without Documents
OPINIONS
Wall Street Journal (Opinion): Immigration Compromise?
By Jason Riley
Washington Post (Blog): Immigration reform is on life support, but it isn't dead yet
By Greg Sargent
By Steve Benen
Bloomberg (Opinion): Who's That Knocking Again at the Door?
By Megan McArdle
Houston Chronicle: Nancy Pelosi floats new strategy to pressure GOP on immigration
By Carolyn Lochead
House Democrats Crafting Immigration Proposal
September
24, 2013
By ASHLEY
PARKER
House Democratic leaders are working on a
broad immigration proposal that they hope will reinvigorate the debate on
Capitol Hill and pressure their Republican counterparts to pass legislation
that includes a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented
immigrants already in the country.
With an
immigration overhaul languishing in the Republican-controlled House, taking a
back seat to the fiscal fights that promise to occupy most of the fall,
Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, began working
with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, as well as with Representative Xavier
Becerra of California, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, to put forth
an alternative bill that she said she believes could garner bipartisan support.
Though no
final decisions have been made, aides familiar with the strategy said,
Democratic leadership hopes to introduce the bill in the next few weeks. Ms.
Pelosi met repeatedly — in person and over the phone — with the Congressional
Hispanic Caucus over the past two weeks, working closely with Representative
Ruben Hinojosa of Texas, the group’s chairman. .
The
proposal would combine the broad immigration bill that passed through the
Senate Judiciary Committee in May with bipartisan support, as well as a border
security bill that also passed the House Homeland Security Committee in May
with overwhelming bipartisan support.
The
border-security component, drafted by Representative Michael McCaul of Texas,
chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, requires the Department of
Homeland Security to draft a plan to gain operation control — defined as a 90
percent apprehension rate of those who have crossed illegally — of the Southwest
border within five years.
Ms.
Pelosi’s proposal, however, does not include the border security amendment
tacked on at the end of the Senate process in June, and spearheaded by two
Republican senators, Bob Corker of Tennessee and John Hoeven of North Dakota.
Though the Corker-Hoeven amendment helped garner the support of roughly a dozen
Republicans for the overall bill, promising $40 billion over the next decade to
secure the southern border — including doubling the number of border agents to
40,000 and completing 700 miles of fencing — many were wary of the border
security plan, which they said was a waste of money and would “militarize” the
border.
House
Democrats said their proposal will, in the words of one aide, “shake up the
environment” and offer an option that can win bipartisan support.
“Any
member of the House — Democrat or Republican, who wants comprehensive
immigration reform — can support this bill,” the aide said. “This is something
that can get the support of House Republicans who have said they’re for a bill,
and obviously we believe there are more that would vote for this at the end of
the day.
“There are
certainly enough votes in the House to get this bill across the line.”
Though the
bill would most likely pass with the help of Democratic votes, Speaker John A.
Boehner of Ohio would still have to agree to put the proposal on the floor for
a vote, something he has been hesitant to do. The goal, Democratic aides said,
is to create a situation where House Republicans are pressured to either vote
on this plan — or to offer an alternative of their own, which very likely
includes at least some form of legalization, and could proceed to negotiations
between the House and the Senate.
“Leader
Pelosi is proposing something closer to her ideal bill, and her intention is to
keep the House moving forward, which is a good thing,” said Senator Charles E.
Schumer, a Democrat from New York and a member of the bipartisan group in the
Senate that drafted its immigration overhaul.
Though Democratic leaders had
already begun talking about this new immigration strategy in recent weeks, the
plan became particular urgent after two Texas Republican congressmen, John
Carter and Sam Johnson, last week dropped out of a bipartisan group in the
House that was hoping to introduce its own broad immigration plan.
Obama on Track to Deport a Record 2 Million People by 2014
If this rate continues, this administration will deport as many people as were from 1892 to 1997 combined.
February 1, 2013
At current rates, deportations enforced under the Obama presidency are set to hit 2 million by 2014 according to a new report from the University of California-Merced. Findings highlight that, if current deportation rates continue, nearly as many people will have been deported under this administration than during the entirety of years between 1892 and 1997. These are striking statistics to consider while Congress debates the president’s commitment to immigration enforcement.
The report notes that under Obama, the deportation of convicted criminals has been a focus and a point of pride for the administration. However, as immigrant justice advocates have often stressed, the report points out that “many of these criminal deportees are deported after a minor criminal conviction”:
In 2011, 188,382 people were deported on criminal grounds. Nearly a quarter were deported after a drug conviction, another 23% for traffic crimes, and one in five for immigration crimes. The DHS does not get very specific about these convictions, but we do know that drug crimes include marijuana possession; traffic crimes include speeding; and immigration crimes include illegal entry and re-entry.
It is likely that large numbers of people apprehended through the Criminal Alien Program are minor drug offenders and immigration offenders. Additionally, it is likely that the Criminal Alien Program is tearing apart families. One study found that, on average, people deported after being convicted of a crime had lived 14 years in the United States.
The report also notes that nearly one-quarter of deportees since mid-2010 are parents of children in the U.S. — a fact connected to the increased focus on criminal deportations. “The focus on criminal deportations has led to enhanced interior enforcement, and that this in turn is the reason so many parents of U.S. citizens are being deported,” the report claims. Its author Tanya Golash-Boza, an associate professor of sociology who is writing a book about immigration enforcement told HuffPo, “On the one hand Obama gets to say, ‘I’ve deported all of these criminals… On the other hand, not only are the people minor criminals, but they’re also much more likely to be people that are living, working, have children in the United States than even just a few years ago.”
Although unmentioned in Tanya Golash-Boza’s study, a recent report from the Migration Policy Institute noted that the U.S. spends more on immigration enforcement than on all other federal law enforcement combined. And, as Human Rights Watch noted in their World Report this week, “illegal re-entry into the U.S. has become the most prosecuted federal crime. In 2011, prosecutions for illegal entry and re-entry into the U.S. surpassed 34,000 and 37,000 respectively. Many of those prosecuted for these crimes have minor or no criminal history and have substantial ties to the US.”
Supporters of immigration reform believe these figures serve as a riposte to lawmakers, predominantly Republicans, who say federal authorities must do much more to strengthen enforcement before Congress can consider any legalization for the U.S.’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.
Supporters of immigration reform believe these figures serve as a riposte to lawmakers, predominantly Republicans, who say federal authorities must do much more to strengthen enforcement before Congress can consider any legalization for the U.S.’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.
Feds' immigration-hold policy misguided
George Gascón
September 11, 2013
In my 30
years in law enforcement, I have often witnessed the unintended consequences of
well-meaning but poorly developed public safety policies. Few have had as
profound an impact on our constitutional rights as the widespread use of
immigration holds issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. What the
federal government touts as a sound public safety practice is having a chilling
effect on local law enforcement's effectiveness.
In 2010, Norma, an
undocumented immigrant living in San Francisco, was held on an immigration hold
in our local jail for days without due process. Norma, repeatedly abused by her
partner, had been too fearful to call police. When she finally did, she was arrested
along with her abuser, even though no charges were filed against her. While her
deportation was eventually canceled, Norma recalls being "so scared not
knowing what would happen to my 3-year-old child while I was in jail. I later
discovered that I had an immigration hold, even though no one told me what was
happening."
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