Immigration Law
Day Two of Senate Immigration Mark-Up Continues With Temporary Employment Visas
On the second day of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s mark-up of S. 744, the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act,” the senators tackled most of the amendments to Title IV after finishing debate on a few border security amendments. The fourth section addresses the majority of non-immigrant temporary visas including those for high and less- skilled immigrant workers, entrepreneurship and innovation programs, as well as a range of miscellaneous visitor visas. Read More
What Do You Think About Immigration Reform?
As the Senate continues to shepherd a comprehensive immigration reform bill through the legislative process (day two of mark-up in the Senate Judiciary Committee begins tomorrow), it becomes clear how many issues are at stake in reform and how interconnected they are. It’s also overwhelming at times. That’s why the American Immigration Council is attempting to divide the issues into smaller discussions on our wiki, ThinkImmigration.org. Read More
Terrified Nativists Unleash Everything They’ve Got Against Senate Immigration Bill
Nativists are terrified by the Senate immigration bill. Legal status for most unauthorized immigrants; a pathway to citizenship for those who are legalized; more flexible limits on future immigration—all of these are anathema to the nativist vision of what the United States should become. So it’s not surprising that the nativists are letting loose with every empirically unsupported argument and scrap of misinformation in their intellectual arsenal. In particular, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) has been relentless in its attacks against the Senate bill: S.744, “The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act.” Just in the month of April, for instance, CIS has made the following, sometimes outlandish claims: Read More
Can We Afford Not to Include 11 Million People in Health Care Reform?
By Sonal Ambegaokar, Health Policy Attorney at the National Immigration Law Center. To date, policy discussions regarding immigrants and health care and other benefits primarily focus on negative stereotypes and myths. As a result, the default policy solution to any issue involving immigrants and benefits is to simply deny the benefits, even when the immigrants are in the U.S. lawfully. Yet this solution is counter-productive for three main reasons: first, it is not cost-effective; second, it fails to actually address the systemic failures in our national health care and immigration policies; and third, it legally sanctions the exclusion and ostracizing of immigrants as the “other.” Read More
Napolitano Hearing Points the Way Forward on Immigration Reform
At an April 23rd hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano delivered two messages on behalf of the Obama administration. First, the administration strongly supports the Senate immigration reform bill—S.744, “The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act.” Secondly, the administration has, contrary to the claims of its critics, significantly ramped up border security in particular and immigration enforcement in general. In other words, the administration has proven that it can be tough on enforcement even as it advocates the formulation of new immigration laws that are more effective and just than those currently on the books. Read More
Senate Hearing Reinforces Why Congress Needs To Pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform
For more than seven hours on Monday, the Senate Judiciary Committee listened to testimony from almost two dozen people about the immigration reform bill a bipartisan group of senators introduced last week. From visas for farm workers and other foreign workers to the mandatory E-Verify system included in the bill, senators debated and questioned the witnesses about all aspects of immigration reform. Read More
Nativists Trot Out Same Old Arguments at Hearing on Senate Immigration Reform Bill
With an immigration reform bill beginning to move through the Senate, one would expect a little originality from the nativists trying to stop it. After all, if “enforcement first” and “self-deportation” haven’t worked yet, perhaps it’s time to try something new. And yet the same dusty old arguments were on display among the nativists who testified at the Senate Judiciary Committee’s April 22 hearing on the Senate immigration reform bill: S.744, “The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act.” It was as if they had put their fingers in their collective ears and refused to listen to what was going on around them. Read More
Former Bush Administration Official Explains Why Immigration Bill Is Good For The Economy
Following the introduction of the Senate immigration reform bill earlier this week, the Senate Judiciary Committee held its first hearing about the measure today. It gave the senators a chance to air their various complaints about the bill – that it does not protect LGBT couples or that the bill micro-manages the hiring process for foreign workers – but largely, committee members asked about the ways immigration reform will impact the U.S. economy, from the agriculture industry to high-skilled industries. Read More
Immigration Bill Praise Further Marginalizes Opponents
Now that the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” has officially introduced its immigration bill, the public, analysts, and newspaper editorial boards are all having a chance to weigh in about the sweeping overhaul of the nation’s broken immigration system. The reaction from many has been positive because, while it is not a perfect measure, the legislation makes huge strides toward creating a more workable immigration system, including a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. The bill also allocates more funding to enhance border security and significantly rewrites the current visa system, carving out new opportunities, even as it may close some traditional immigration doors. Read More
Early Concerns With Senate Immigration Bill
The “Gang of Eight” officially introduced their comprehensive immigration reform bill—the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act—in the Senate today, capping off months of negotiations to craft a bipartisan solution. As many have said, it is not a perfect bill, but it is a good compromise that will go far in an attempt to fix our broken immigration system. Read More
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No one should face the immigration system alone
