Hearings
Immigration Court Backlog Likely to Get Worse Before It Gets Better
Our nation’s immigration courts are backlogged. Historically backlogged. At the end of last year, more than 260,000 cases remained pending before immigration judges. Across the country, the average wait was nearly sixteen months. In California, thousands of cases have been pending for more than two years. While justice is not always swift, our immigration courts are getting increasingly further from the finish line. Read More
House Subcommittee Battles Diversity in U.S. Immigration System
Opponents of immigration reform are often quick to differentiate their disdain for unauthorized immigration and their alleged support of legal immigration. But finding evidence of their support for legal immigration has always been difficult. Over the past several months, the House Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement has conducted several hearings where some members have questioned the value of most forms of immigration, including legal avenues. This week, the Subcommittee tackled diversity visas, a program which provides 50,000 green cards annually by lottery to persons from countries that do not currently send many immigrants to the United States. And per usual, restrictionist Subcommittee members used the hearing as yet another opportunity to perpetuate the myth that all immigrants, including legal immigrants, are stealing jobs from native-born workers. Read More
House Subcommittee Tries to Propagate Myth that Immigrants Steal Jobs
Today’s House Subcommittee hearing on Immigration Policy and Enforcement, clumsily entitled “New Jobs in Recession and Recovery: Who Are Getting Them and Who Are Not,” was clearly intended to sow fear. In his opening statement, Subcommittee Chairman Elton Gallegly (R-24th/CA) wasted no time in sounding the alarm that unemployed native-born workers are being left to twist in the wind as immigrants gobble up the few new jobs which have become available since the end of the Great Recession. Yet the preponderance of the evidence presented during the hearing failed to support that conclusion. Read More
The Wrong Side of History: Why the Anti-Immigrant Movement Will Always Lose
The anti-immigrant movement’s current motto could be “Desperate times call for desperate measures.” As evidence mounts that the demographic makeup of the country is changing, the current crop of immigration restrictionists know that they are gradually losing their committed base. Thus, they are pulling out every trick in the book to motivate that base to scream even louder. Most recently, House leaders of the movement tried to pit minorities, including Latinos, against immigrants by claiming that they are stealing all the low wage jobs. They are also trying to sell the point that America’s health care, public education and even environmental problems would all go away if we just deported 12 million people—desperate arguments, from a desperate group. Read More
Isn’t It About Time We Thought Realistically About Border Security?
Old thinking on border security was on grand display today during a House Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee hearing titled “Securing our Borders – Operational Control and the Path Forward.” Congress’ seemingly insatiable appetite for border enforcement does not seem to be assuaged by the reality at the border. Despite the record number of resources added to border enforcement over the past decade, the number of undocumented immigrants has risen to record levels. It has also created an unintended but real boon for the criminal cartels that now have a steady flow of migrants to smuggle into the U.S. But there are substantive and realistic efforts Congress can make to help secure the border. Read More
Mandatory E-Verify is Not All It’s Cracked Up to Be
Today, the House Immigration Subcommittee held a hearing on the E-Verify system, a tool to help employers electronically verify that their employees have permission to work in the United States. Although E-Verify remains largely voluntary—except for federal contractors, employers in certain states that have made it mandatory, and a few other exceptions—some members of Congress and immigration restrictionists have decided that expanding E-Verify and making it mandatory will flush unauthorized workers out of the workforce, create jobs for unemployed U.S. citizens, and resolve our immigration problems. While everyone agrees that high unemployment levels must be addressed, simplistic measures like mandating E-Verify are not going to open up jobs for millions of unemployed workers. Read More
Will “Stepping on the Gas” of Immigration Enforcement Drive Us Into A Brick Wall?
Today, the newly re-named Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement held its first hearing on worksite enforcement, which, as expected, did not delve into important policy questions surrounding worksite enforcement. The Republican members of the subcommittee called on the usual suspects to minimize the Obama administration’s enforcement efforts, even though Deputy Director of ICE, Kumar Kibble, stated quite clearly that ICE has achieved record numbers of investigations, audits, fines, and deportations. One can't help but wonder if subcommittee hardliners would be satisfied had the Administration's enforcement numbers been doubled or even tripled. For that matter, after listening to the majority members, one wonders whether any amount of enforcement would be sufficient to meet their expectations. Read More
Inch by Inch, Hearing by Hearing: A Look Ahead at the GOP’s Immigration Agenda
Shortly after Republicans gained a majority in the House after midterm elections, many attempted to predict the Republican game plan on immigration—which, as you can imagine, was no herculean task considering the GOP’s three-ring enforcement spectacular these last few years. Recall also the recent Republican opposition to the DREAM Act, opposition they rationalized using the “border first” mantra. But as the 112th Congress convenes this week, we get an actual look at upcoming congressional committee hearings and what they might reveal about Republican leaderships’ plans for immigration—namely, a statewide approach to ramped-up enforcement measures, more border security and an attack on the 14th amendment. Read More
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No one should face the immigration system alone
