Jul 18
The saga surrounding ICE’s Secure Communities program continues this month as Boston Mayor Thomas Menino threatened to withdrawal Boston from the federal program unless the agency agreed to target serious criminals only. Not surprisingly, Boston is just the latest in a series of cities and states—including New York, Illinois, Colorado, DC, and parts of California—that …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2011/07/18/boston-mayor-threatens-to-withdraw-from-ice%e2%80%99s-secure-communities-program/
Jul 15
Over the last six months, Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX), along with other members of the House Judiciary Committee, have engaged in an all-out effort to turn back the clock on our immigration laws through a series of bills that may tackle one issue at a time, but equal a comprehensive overhaul. This week, the restrictionists’ …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2011/07/15/dear-mr-smith-our-broken-immigration-system-requires-solutions-that-embrace-discretion-not-eliminate-it/
Jul 14
In the absence of a federal immigration overhaul, state lawmakers have attempted—many in vain—to address immigration at the state-level. Equally misguided, however, are recent efforts by immigration restrictionist to move anti-immigrant legislation on the federal level. Today, the House Judiciary Committee marked up and passed through committee a bill (and will take up another tomorrow …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2011/07/14/house-committee-takes-up-bills-that-would-indefinitely-detain-immigrants-and-eliminate-diversity-visas/
Jul 13
In a new report issued this week, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services’s (USCIS) Ombudsman’s office called on USCIS to create a standardized procedure for accepting and tracking requests for deferred action made to the agency. The timing of this report, following ICE’s memos on prosecutorial discretion last month, further reinforces the importance of …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2011/07/13/internal-agency-urges-uscis-to-streamline-%e2%80%9cdeferred-action%e2%80%9d-process/
Jul 12
While the authors and proponents of state level anti-immigrant legislation received some measure of notoriety initially, one could also predict that there would be a corresponding price to pay for pursuing such costly and divisive immigration measures. Aside from the immediate lawsuits filed in nearly every state that passed Arizona copycats, there are now additional …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2011/07/12/the-cost-of-doing-anti-immigrant-business-russell-pearce-to-face-recall-election/
Jul 11
More than just stars fell on Alabama last week when civil rights groups filed a class action lawsuit against the state’s restrictive immigration law, HB 56, charging that the law unconstitutionally interferes with federal law and will lead to racial profiling. Filed on Friday, the lawsuit makes Alabama the fifth state (joining Arizona, Utah, Indiana …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2011/07/11/civil-rights-groups-file-suit-against-alabama%e2%80%99s-immigration-law/
Jul 08
In what could be an historic event, the number of unauthorized immigrants coming from Mexico to the United States has fallen drastically in recent years—dropping from 525,000 annually in 2000-2004 to fewer than 100,000 in 2010. In fact, unauthorized immigration from Mexico has dropped to a net rate of zero—meaning that the number of new …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2011/07/08/what-does-record-low-migration-from-mexico-mean-for-immigration-reform/
Jul 07
This week, business and agricultural communities across the U.S. continued the fight against mandatory E-verify, an electronic verification system requiring employers to use a federal database to verify the immigration status of employees. Over the weekend, thousands of protestors marched on Georgia’s state capitol to protest HB 87—a bill which contains mandatory E-Verify—adding their voice …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2011/07/07/oregon-business-community-latest-to-join-fight-against-national-e-verify-bill/
Jul 06
Just days after part of Georgia’s immigration law, HB 87, went into effect, farmers in the Peach State are panicking over how they will find enough workers to harvest their crops—some of which are already starting to spoil. Although a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction enjoining two key provisions of HB 87 last month, …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2011/07/06/restrictive-immigration-law-continues-to-threaten-georgia%e2%80%99s-farming-industry/
Jul 05
Last month, Rep. Lamar Smith introduced the “Legal Workforce Act of 2011” (H.R. 2164), a bill which would make the E-Verify system mandatory for all employers within three years. While the Smith bill version of mandatory E-Verify has been criticized for snagging U.S. citizens and legal workers, burdening employers with additional costs and not actually …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2011/07/05/the-difference-between-e-verify-in-a-comprehensive-immigration-reform-bill-and-e-verify-alone/
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Immigration Impact is a project of the American Immigration Council.
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