This past week, ImmigrationImpact highlighted aspects of a recent Immigration Policy Center (IPC) report, Breaking Down the Problems, What’s Wrong With our Immigration System?. The report highlights the problems faced by American families, businesses, and workers, all caught in a broken immigration system. But the report also addresses the long-term effect of our broken immigration laws on government. Put simply, broken laws equal broken government.
Read the rest of this entry »

By TYLER MORAN*

While most employers are law-abiding, some unscrupulous employers have a secret weapon for keeping down wages and working conditions—our broken immigration system. Bad apple employers hire undocumented immigrants, subject them to unsafe working conditions, pay them less than the market wage, or don’t pay them at all. If undocumented workers file a labor complaint or try to form a union, the employer will threaten them with deportation or even call DHS to have the workers deported. Then the workers are whisked into detention or out of the country before they can seek remedies for the labor violations. Most employers don’t get punished for their misconduct, which puts unscrupulous employers at a competitive advantage over law-abiding employers.
Read the rest of this entry »

BY CHARLES H. KUCK*

Does Congress’s continued failure to fix our broken employment-based immigration system jeopardize our economy, now and in the future? Yes, it does. If we don’t have enough employment-based immigrant visas, the best and brightest from around the world will start going somewhere else. We are not only a nation of immigrants; we are a nation of successful immigrants. We attract those who are willing to work hard, better themselves, and strive for success. However, our legal immigration system has made the process of immigration to the United States so difficult, so full of uncertainty, and so lengthy, that folks are now choosing not to come.
Read the rest of this entry »

BY MEREDITH S.H. HIGASHI* & RONALD H. LEE**

The U.S. immigration system has always promoted family unity by awarding the majority of visas to the families of current U.S. residents, which ensures that close family members are not kept apart. The principle of family unity has long been a central tenet of our immigration laws and has contributed to the economic and social prosperity of our country and immigrant populations.
Read the rest of this entry »

The Pelican State is slowly stepping out as one of the most dynamic immigrant states in the nation. With a New American governor, an immigrant congressman and growing numbers of immigrants calling Louisiana home, the state is emerging as a model for what immigration can do for a state.

One of Louisiana’s most famous faces is the state’s Governor Piyush “Bobby” Jindal who was born in Baton Rouge after his parents immigrated to the U.S. for graduate school and distinguished careers. He is the first American governor of Indian descent to serve in the U.S.
Read the rest of this entry »

This week, law enforcement officials from around the country (Iowa, Virginia and California) came forward to denounce enforcing federal immigration laws, noting that immigrants’ fear of deportation is hindering efforts to solve crimes. In the same vein, top candidates for the Mayor’s office in Morristown, New Jersey, all said in a forum this week that they would abandon the previous mayor’s 287(g) agreement. Officials are clearly waking up to the idea that immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility and dwindling local budgets do not allow for state and local agencies to carry this additional burden at the cost of their communities.
Read the rest of this entry »

Following a series of roundtable meetings that brought together persons with very diverse opinions on immigration policy, Brookings Institute and the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University recently released Breaking the Immigration Stalemate: From Deep Disagreements to Constructive Proposals. After witnessing the national immigration debates of the past few years, the lead authors—William Galston of Brookings, Noah Pickus of Duke, and Peter Skerry of Boston College—explained that they wanted to “address the problem rather than exploit the politics of the problem” and bring together academics and other experts with divergent perspectives to work through the differences in the room and reach a consensus. Furthermore, the group aimed to start its policy discussion in a different place than Congress has started, and hone in on the problems of past proposals as well as fill in the gaps and make linkages between policy issues. The results are mixed.
Read the rest of this entry »

Much has been made of CNN’s seemingly conflicted programming on immigration—on one hand is CNN host Lou Dobbs, unofficial Director of Demagoguery who broadcasts misinformed anti-immigrant rhetoric on a nightly basis; and on the other hand is CNN’s latest documentary, Latinos in America, a two-part series hosted by Soledad O’Brien which takes a closer look at “how Latinos are changing America and how America is changing Latinos.” While many immigration advocates argue CNN “can’t have it both ways,” senior executive producer and vice president of CNN’s documentary unit, Mark Nelson, is angry. He argues that his documentary, Latinos in America, is about Latinos, not Dobbs:
Read the rest of this entry »

By now, we’ve grown accustomed to Senators attempting to score political points at home through anti-immigration amendments, regardless of the topic of the underlying bill. Still, Senator David Vitter’s amendment to the Commerce, Justice and State appropriations legislation, which would cut off financing for the 2010 Census unless the survey includes questions about immigration status, is pretty convoluted—especially for a politician from a state still struggling to recover from the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina.
Read the rest of this entry »

With CNN due to premiere its Latinos in America special on October 21st and 22nd, and National Hispanic Heritage Month having just drawn to a close, it is well worth considering the extent to which the immigrant experience is part of daily life in the United States for both Latinos and non-Latinos. As the IPC details in a new Fact Check, American Roots in the Immigrant Experience, data released recently by the U.S. Census Bureau illustrates both the breadth and depth of America’s immigrant roots.
Read the rest of this entry »