Legislation
Congress Pursuing Anti-Immigrant Agenda in 2015
Americans—77 percent, according to a recent Public Religion Research Institute poll—want Congress to take action on immigration reform. In the last Congress, comprehensive reform passed the Senate by two to one, and received 192 supporters in the House. Yet the new Congress in 2015 has turned the… Read More
After Earthquake in Nepal, Bill Introduced to Grant Temporary Protected Status to Nepalese Nationals
One form of humanitarian assistance the United States can offer to Nepal, a country now recovering from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that flattened buildings and killed more than 7,000 people, is temporary protected status (TPS) for Nepalese nationals who currently are in the United States. Last week, several members… Read More
Senate Hearing on Border Security Targets Transnational Crime
At a hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, which was titled “Securing the Border: Assessing the Impact of Transnational Crime,” lawmakers from both sides of the aisle were largely in agreement as to what the biggest security problem is along the northern and southern… Read More
House Judiciary Committee Signs Off on Comprehensive Mass Deportation Plan
Although comprehensive immigration reform was not brought to a vote by House of Representatives, the public still overwhelmingly and consistently supports reform. Yet yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would take the opposite approach—not only repealing President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, but imposing the most… Read More
House Judiciary Considers Same Costly, Enforcement-Only ‘Reform’
The House Judiciary Committee devoted two days this week to the markup of three enforcement-only immigration bills. The legislation would strip much-needed protections from an already vulnerable population–including children and asylum seekers–impact the agriculture industry, place burdensome requirements on small business owners, and cost the American taxpayer a lot of… Read More
House Funds Homeland Security Through September
The House voted to approve a measure Tuesday to fund the Department of Homeland Security through September, the rest of the fiscal year. The bill, which originally passed the Senate on Friday, is a “clean” funding bill without any amendments attempting to defund President Obama’s executive actions. The House vote… Read More
Pope Should Remind Congress That Values Matter in Immigration Debate
House Speaker John Boehner recently announced that Pope Francis has accepted an invitation to address a joint session of Congress during his first visit to the U.S. later this year. While we do not know if the Pope will share his views on U.S. immigration policy, if he does,… Read More
Senate Shoots Down House’s Bad Homeland Security Funding Bill
The House-passed bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security—and the anti-executive action amendments that were added—failed to advance in the Senate on a procedural vote. Senators voted 48 to 51, with Republican Dean Heller (NV) joining with the Democrats to vote against the measure. Because it… Read More
Six Reasons Why Sen. Jeff Sessions’ ‘Immigration Handbook’ is a Work of Fiction
The chairman of the Senate Immigration Subcommittee, Jeff Sessions (R-AL), wasted no time in advertising his antipathy towards immigrants. Shortly after assuming his post, Sessions released an “Immigration Handbook for the New Republican Majority” that, in only 23 pages, managed to distill just about every fact-free sound bite ever conceived… Read More
House Bill to Seal the Border is Unrealistic, Congressional Budget Office Finds
Last week, the House Homeland Security Committee sent to the House floor H.R. 399, the “Secure our Borders First” Act. The measure would mandate 100 percent “operational control”—defined as “the prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States”—of high traffic areas within two years, and… Read More
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