Hearings
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
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
The Power and Potential of High Skilled Immigration
Note: This article features the oral testimony of Benjamin Johnson, Executive Director of the American Immigration Council before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Read his full written testimony here. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today… 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
Potential Presidential Candidates Fail to Offer Immigration Solutions at CPAC
Most Americans want immigration reform. President Obama’s executive actions took temporary steps to provide relief for millions of undocumented immigrants who have spent years here, but it is up to Congress to pass legislation that would comprehensively improve the immigration system. According to a February poll from Public Religion… Read More
Justice Department Files Emergency Stay in Decision Against President Obama’s Executive Actions
The Justice Department on Monday filed an emergency stay asking the federal judge in Texas to lift the temporary hold (preliminary injunction) he issued on President Obama’s executive actions. Texas-based Judge Andrew Hanen issued the injunction against two of the President’s initiatives, namely, the expansion of… Read More
Unrepresented Children Still Being Fast-Tracked Through Immigration Hearings
Since the government began “prioritizing” the deportation of unaccompanied children and mothers with children last summer, legal service providers and other court observers across the country have reported that immigration judges are giving children less time to find attorneys before moving forward in their cases. Now, children without attorneys… Read More
Senate Hearing Shows Deferred Action Programs are Beneficial to Social Security
The Senate Homeland Security committee on Wednesday held its first hearing about President Obama’s immigration executive actions. The hearing and the witnesses testifying focused on the “implications and unanswered questions” about the deportation relief offered to some undocumented immigrants included in the president’s actions. First, the… Read More
Immigrant Founders Need Policy Reform To Keep Creating Tech Jobs
President Obama took executive action last November to further ease policies around skilled tech labor. However, our laws haven’t done much to help the foreign startup founders who create quite a few tech jobs here. A 2008 Kaufman Foundation study concluded that between 1995 and 2005, more than half of all Silicon Valley tech companies were… Read More
Attorneys General from 12 States, D.C. File Brief in Support of Executive Action on Immigration
Texas is leading a lawsuit challenging President Obama’s executive action on immigration and has asked for a preliminary injunction that will be considered in a hearing on Thursday, January 15 in a federal district court in Brownsville, Texas. Texas is arguing that the president’s actions will harm states economically and… Read More
All gifts are matched dollar for dollar
No one should face the immigration system alone