The House Judiciary Committee sent the wrong kind of Mother’s Day message to women this week, proposing to roll back protections for victims of violence that have been in place even before the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was first passed in 1994. While the proposed amendments were discouraging in their own right, the fact …
Category Archive: Congress
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2012/05/11/house-judiciary-committee-sends-wrong-mothers-day-message-with-amendments-to-vawa/
May
04
Rubio Proposal Overlooks Obstacles Ahead For DREAMers
Though it has yet to be introduced in Congress, Senator Marco Rubio’s alternative to the DREAM Act received an appraisal from the Washington Post this week, which noted that it represents an effort to shake the hard-line anti-immigrant sentiment voiced by many leading conservative politicians. The editorial also noted, however, that the outlines of his …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2012/05/04/rubio-proposal-overlooks-obstacles-ahead-for-dreamers/
May
03
House VAWA Bill Threatens Protections for Immigrant Women and Children
This year, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is up for reauthorization. Last week, the Senate passed a reauthorization (S. 1925)—which provides protection to people who are the victims of domestic violence, rape, trafficking, sexual assault, stalking, and similar crimes—by a vote of 68-31. The House will takes up its own version next week, but …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2012/05/03/house-vawa-bill-threatens-protections-for-immigrant-women-and-children/
Apr
18
FAIR’s Economic Analysis of HB56 Ignores Reality in Alabama
While the original sponsors of Alabama’s extreme anti-immigrant bill HB56 have acknowledged that the law is deeply flawed, as evidenced by a new bill to modify some of the harsher provisions, the restrictionist stalwarts at the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) want Alabamians to remember what it has supposedly done for the state. In …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2012/04/18/fairs-economic-analysis-of-hb56-ignores-reality-in-alabama/
Mar
30
New Legislation to Boost Tourism Would Bring Jobs, Revenue to U.S. Economy
When it comes to the global tourism market, the U.S. is missing out in a big way. So much so, in fact, that the Obama administration has issued two executive orders to address the drop in international tourism revenue. Over the last ten years, America’s share of the travel market fell from 17% in 2000 …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2012/03/30/new-legislation-to-boost-tourism-would-bring-jobs-revenue-to-u-s-economy/
Mar
26
Congressional Budget Cuts Threaten Vital USCIS Integration Grant Program
This month, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced $5 million in government grant opportunities available to service providers who help immigrants integrate and prepare for the naturalization exam. The money for these grants, awarded through the Citizenship and Integration Grant program, however, was not appropriated through Congress. Congress actually voted not to fund …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2012/03/26/congressional-budget-cuts-threaten-vital-uscis-integration-grant-program/
Mar
14
Crunching—and Clarifying—the Numbers on Prosecutorial Discretion
Late last year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) instructed its attorneys to review matters pending before immigration courts in search of low-priority cases warranting prosecutorial discretion. But of the approximately 300,000 immigrants now in deportation proceedings, how many stand to potentially benefit from the initiative? In recent days, immigrant advocates have fretted the figure could …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2012/03/14/crunching-and-clarifying-the-numbers-on-prosecutorial-discretion/
Mar
08
Why the Scott Gardner Act is Unconstitutional…and a Bad Idea
Immigration hardliners never hesitate to claim the mantle of “states’ rights” when defending laws like Arizona SB 1070. But those wanting local cops to double as federal immigration agents were conspicuously silent at a congressional hearing on Wednesday on the Scott Gardner Act, a bill that (among other things) would require police to run extra …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2012/03/08/why-the-scott-gardner-act-is-unconstitutionaland-a-bad-idea/
Feb
09
How Congress Can Better Protect Immigrant Victims of Crime
BY ANDREA RAMOS, SOUTHWESTERN LAW SCHOOL This week the Washington Post reported on two laws that protect victims of domestic abuse who are also immigrants. The story profiles women who were literally saved from abusive relationships by law enforcement who then guided them to programs that offer a special form of immigration relief for victims.
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2012/02/09/how-congress-can-better-protect-immigrant-victims-of-crime/
Jan
27
Following State of the Union, President Obama Needs to Follow Through on Immigration Reforms
The President’s State of the Union address this week re-iterated some of his key themes on immigration—support for comprehensive reform, dismay that DREAM Act students and foreign students educated in this country have no way to legalize their status, and a belief that he’s done enough to the secure the border. More importantly, he framed …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2012/01/27/following-state-of-the-union-address-president-obama-needs-to-follow-through-on-immigration-reforms/
