Department of Homeland Security
Why Immigration Enforcement Effectiveness Should Be Measured
For decades, the United States has been pursuing an “enforcement-first” approach to immigration control, spending more on immigration enforcement than all other law enforcement combined, but failing to address our dysfunctional immigration system. A new report by the Bipartisan Policy Center’s (BPC’s) Immigration Task Force, called “… Read More
Effectiveness of DHS’ “Consequences Delivery System” Questioned
Despite billions of tax-payer dollars spent by the government on border security and immigration enforcement each year, the effectiveness of such an onerous expense has been long questioned. In an effort to shed light on the impact of current immigration enforcement policies, a new study by researchers from… Read More
Senate Hearing Examines Proposals to Increase Guest Workers
This week, the Senate Homeland Security committee examined various immigrant guest worker proposals. This was the Committee’s third “Securing the Border” hearing this week, after Tuesday’s hearing on transnational crime, and Wednesday’s hearing on root causes of Central American migration. The witnesses all agreed that increasing… Read More
How Immigrant Women Contribute to the U.S. Economy
On the occasion of International Women’s Day, it is worthwhile to keep in mind the depth and breadth of the contributions that immigrant women workers make to the U.S. economy. More and more, immigrant women are coming to the United States not as the dependent relatives of immigrant men,… Read More
DHS Funding Controversy Over, But Enforcement-First Approach Remains
Over five months into fiscal year 2015, the President on Wednesday finally signed the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’) appropriations bill, after Congress twice narrowly averted shutting down the agency. Congressional members called it a “clean” bill, without House Republicans’ efforts to repeal President Obama’s recent executive actions (well within the President’s authority). But the debate over executive action has prevented a meaningful debate over the funding bill’s provisions, which support and expand DHS’ failed “enforcement first” approach to immigration policy. 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
Immigration Action Provides Certain H-4 Spouses Work Authorization
As part of the package of executive actions announced in November 2014, the secretary of Homeland Security directed the immigration agencies to implement new policies and regulations intended to support U.S. high-skilled businesses and workers. Last week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued the first of these… Read More
New Immigration Enforcement Policy Remains In Effect Despite Texas Lawsuit
The political lawsuit challenging the legality of parts of President Obama’s Executive Action should fail for a variety of reasons. But the lawsuit has already succeeded in two respects. First, it won a dubious preliminary injunction from a lower court judge temporarily halting the program while… Read More
Court Orders DHS to Stop Detaining Mothers and Children to Deter Future Immigration Flow
In June 2014, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began implementing a border security policy of detaining nearly all mothers and children fleeing violence and persecution in Central America. DHS vastly increased its detention capacity for families to “send the message unequivocally that if you come here you… Read More
Texas Judge Places Preliminary Hold on President’s Deferred Action Initiatives, Government Likely to Counter
A Texas Judge has placed a preliminary hold on the two initiatives announced by President Obama last November that would expand the two-year-old Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of U.S. Citizens and Legal Permanent Residents (DAPA). These two programs would provide temporary relief from… Read More
All gifts are matched dollar for dollar
No one should face the immigration system alone
