Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Inspector General Finds Serious Problems with US-VISIT Program
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently released results of their investigation into the US-VISIT program. US-VISIT was created after 9/11 to track noncitizens’ entries into and exits from the U.S. to identify national security threats, individuals entering with fraudulent identities, and visa overstays. Through US-VISIT, fingerprints and digital photographs are taken of all noncitizens entering the U.S. and matched to biographical information. The exit portion of US-VISIT has never been fully implemented. Read More
Doing the Math: Immigration Detention Costs a Pretty Penny
By Dan Gordon, Communications Associate, National Immigration Forum. Congress will return to Washington after Labor Day amid talk of a “fiscal cliff,” yet loath to address the steep price American taxpayers shoulder to detain immigrants. Read More
Immigrants Twice as Likely to Start Small Businesses as Native-Born
AllGov August 28, 2012 The U.S. should be welcoming, and not demonizing, immigrants if it seeks job and economic growth, based on a new study about entrepreneurialism. A report from the Partnership for a New American Economy says immigrants are more than twice as likely as native-born Americans to… Read More
DHS Says Safety Before Enforcement in the Face of Hurricane Isaac
Today, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a joint letter stating that immigration enforcement actions would not take place if Hurricane Isaac puts people’s lives in danger. Read More
Busting Myths About Deferred Action
Beginning today, undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children may officially submit requests for deferred action, a form of prosecutorial discretion that protects recipients from deportation and allows them to work legally in the United States for up to two years. As might be expected, numerous inaccuracies have surfaced in media coverage and other commentary about the initiative, known formally as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Below, we address common falsehoods about deferred action in general and the Obama administration’s initiative in particular. Read More
Demand Soars for Foreign Tech Workers
The Tennessean August 3, 2012 Pietro Valdastri visited Nashville for the first time almost a year ago, not as a tourist but as a new hire. Valdastri joined Vanderbilt University as an assistant professor of mechanical engineering in September. In doing so, he left the university where he taught… Read More
ICE Numbers on Prosecutorial Discretion Keep Sliding Downward
Since June 15, the immigration world has largely focused on the impending “deferred action” initiative for individuals who could have qualified for relief under the DREAM Act. Meanwhile, comparatively little attention has been paid to the still ongoing review of more than 300,000 pending removal cases for individuals meriting a favorable exercise of prosecutorial discretion. Although Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has not released official statistics from the review for nearly two months, figures derived from a recent media account indicate that the agency is now offering to close cases at less than half the rate as when the initiative began. Read More
Opinion: Why New York Still Welcomes Immigrants
The Wall Street Journal July 27, 2012 Many states across the U.S. have passed restrictive immigration measures in recent years. But New York under Gov. Andrew Cuomo is bucking the trend. “We are a state of immigrants,” he declared in his 2012 State of the State address. “While other… Read More
It’s Foreign Affairs, Stupid
The National Interest July 16, 2012 The economy trumps national security as the country’s top political issue this election cycle. With the unemployment rate at 8.2 percent, this is not surprising. From a long-term strategic perspective, however, the two issues are closely connected. The current economic crisis threatens Americans’… Read More
Some States Attempt to Move Forward on Immigration Laws Following Supreme Court Decision
Prior to the Supreme Court’s recent decision on Arizona SB 1070, other states that passed immigration laws were also embroiled in complicated legal battles. Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Utah all passed restrictive immigration laws, parts of which were challenged in court and subsequently enjoined pending the Supreme Court’s ruling on Arizona. Now that the Supreme Court has ruled, however, each state is now attempting to interpret that ruling in an effort to implement its immigration law. Read More
America's story is an immigrant story.
