Border Wall
The Government Is Seeking Feedback on Plans to Build a 30 Foot Concrete Wall on Border
This week the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is expected to issue a formal solicitation notice seeking ideas on how to design and build various types of wall structures along the Southwest border with Mexico. Currently, DHS has not publicly announced an estimate for how much a wall along… Read More
Supreme Court Hears Case on Shooting of Sergio Hernandez by U.S. Border Patrol Agent
Officers with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)—the federal agency which includes the Border Patrol—are rarely held accountable for their actions. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the case of Sergio Hernandez, a 15-year-old boy shot dead in 2010 in Mexico by a Border Patrol agent who fired… Read More
Supreme Court Nominee Neil Gorsuch on Immigration
President Donald Trump announced his choice Tuesday to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia nearly one year ago. In nominating Tenth Circuit Judge Neil Gorsuch, a Harvard Law School graduate who was confirmed to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in… Read More
Will Congress Fund President Trump’s Executive Order on Border Enforcement?
President Donald Trump’s Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements executive order is an attempt to fulfill his campaign pledge to build a wall at the southern border, to provide additional resources to Border Patrol agents, to curtail due process at the border, and to increase detention along the southern… Read More
Understanding the Dangerous Implications of President Trump’s Immigration Executive Order
On January 25, President Trump signed a pair of immigration-related executive orders, one dealing with border security and the other with immigration enforcement in the interior of the country. The order on border security has received the most public attention—particularly the “great wall” that Trump is so anxious to build. Read More
Who Will Pay for Donald Trump’s Border Wall?
President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to build a wall along the U.S-Mexico border took a step forward last week as Congressional Republicans discussed ways to get funding for the structure through the budget process. Republican leadership believes that current law already allows them to construct additional barriers along the… Read More
What the Immigration Restrictionists’ Agenda Will Look Like for the Next Four Years
One does not have to look hard to find what the restrictionists’ immigration agenda will look like for the next four years. The groups and individuals leading the charge are not shy about sharing what they think the new administration should do when it comes to immigration. This week, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) released its transition ideas for the new administration and there are no surprises in the document. As usual the group paints a bleak portrait of immigrants and immigration. Their prescriptions are harsh but not new: build a wall, detain more immigrants, deport more immigrants, prosecute immigration violators, use state and local police to round up immigrants, end birthright citizenship, cut back on legal immigration, and so on. Read More
Thanksgiving Dinner Conversations Could Be Tough, But Are More Important Than Ever This Year
Let’s be honest. This is not the Thanksgiving blog we thought I’d be writing this year. But here we are. Read More
History Shows That Border Walls Don’t Work
A border wall is a powerful symbol of exclusion: “We” are going to keep “them” out. And, by doing so, “we” are going to protect our people, our way of life, our society and economy from the threat that “they” represent. It’s a concept that is elegant in its simplicity. Read More
Eliminating the Black Market for Labor Between the U.S. and Mexico
Despite its 3,000 mile border and long shared history, the U.S. and Mexico do not currently have a bilateral agreement to regulate the flow of “lower-skilled” labor. Yet, as has long been the case, a significant share of laborers working in the U.S. are unauthorized immigrants from Mexico. In the… Read More
All gifts are matched dollar for dollar
No one should face the immigration system alone
