Republicans
Immigrant Detention and the Private Prison Industry
The latest data on immigration enforcement show that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained a record high of 429,247 noncitizens in the 2011 fiscal year, an increase of 18 percent over 2010. Immigration detention has been steadily increasing over the last two decades. A new report by Justice Strategies suggests this increase is largely due to the efforts of private prison companies. Read More
Congress Pits One Form of Legal Immigration Against Another
We recently noted that the only point of agreement in the Republican and Democratic platforms on immigration was on the need for an infusion of green cards for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) graduates with advanced degrees from American colleges and universities. A recent poll conducted for the Partnership for a New American Economy and Compete America shows that 76 percent of Americans support the idea as well. If only Congress could draft legislation that simply sought to put that idea into practice. Read More
The Economic Advantages of U.S. Citizenship
Becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen has many benefits – citizens can vote and run for public office, bring family members to the U.S., hold certain jobs reserved for citizens, and they are protected from deportation. There are also a range of economic benefits to citizenship, highlighted by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) in their new report, The Economic Value of Citizenship for Immigrants in the United States. Read More
Clearing Up the Controversy over the Number of ICE “Removals”
It is by now well-known that more immigrants have been deported on an annual basis since President Obama took office than at any time in U.S. history. Late last month, however, Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) issued a statement seeking to cast doubt on this widely accepted fact by alleging that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) inflated its record-breaking deportation figures for 2011. Although the accusations are somewhat complicated, the truth is straightforward: despite overstating its total number of “removals,” ICE deported the highest number of immigrants last year in the agency’s history. Read More
A Look Backward and Forward at Immigration Platforms
Eight years ago, the similarities between the Republican and Democratic platforms on the issue of immigration reform were striking. The 2012 immigration planks for both parties are equally striking, but for the opposite reason. Where 2004 demonstrated a unified vision of a broken system requiring reform, 2012 represents a virtual breakdown in agreement at least in official party documents, on how to go forward on immigration. Comparing the evolution of the platforms from 2004 to 2008 to 2012 offers some insight into what has gone wrong in the immigration policy debate, and demonstrates why both sides need to come up with new, creative solutions to the continuing immigration policy crisis. Read More
Immigrant Entrepreneurs are Jet Fuel to the U.S. Economy
The mountain of evidence on the economic importance of immigrant entrepreneurs just keeps growing. Last year, the Partnership for a New American Economy released a report which tallied the number of Fortune 500 companies founded by immigrants (and the children of immigrants). Last month, the Fiscal Policy Institute issued a report which quantified the economic value of immigrant small businesses. And now, the Partnership for a New American Economy has put out another report demonstrating the scale of the economic contributions made by immigrant business owners. As the report points out, “in addition to creating jobs, the businesses that immigrants start also create revenue to boost our GDP, exports to alleviate our trade imbalance, taxes to fund our deficit, and new consumption that fuels our economy.” Read More
With H-1B Visa Cap Reached, U.S. Still Hungry for Skilled Workers
The Examiner July 7, 2012 By mid-June, less than halfway through 2012, federal officials announced that the United States had reached the cap set by Congress for H-1B visas issued to foreign born workers. The H-1B visa program is a crucial tool used by employers in this country to attract… Read More
In Speech, Romney Provides Few Details on Immigration Policy
On Thursday, Mitt Romney gave a much-anticipated speech in which he was expected to address whether—as President—he would reverse the new Obama administration policy toward immigrant youths who would qualify for the DREAM Act. The answer? It’s still unclear. Despite adopting a noticeably softer tone toward undocumented immigrants, Romney again failed to say whether he would overturn the policy and provided few other details as to how he would tackle the most intractable problem of the immigration debate. Read More
House Votes on Immigration Demonstrate Need for Bolder Executive Action
Last week, the House of Representatives passed an appropriations bill that demonstrates how out of step they are with the public on immigration. House Members passed a series of amendments designed to stop the Obama administration from pursuing humane immigration policies, voting to block funds for any prosecutorial discretion activities, including the new 3 and 10 year bar rule that would allow many applicants to remain in the United States while their applications were being processed. Other amendments would prohibit the administration from cutting 287(g) agreements, funding any alternatives to detention or the ICE Public Advocate’s Office, and even providing translation services for people with limited English proficiency. Read More
Anti-Immigrant Agenda Goes Mainstream as Nativist-Extremist Movement Declines, Report Finds
The “nativist extremist” movement in the United States is in the midst of a fundamental transformation. On the one hand, the number of these virulently anti-immigrant groups plummeted between 2010 and 2011. On the other hand, many of the people and ideas from these groups have found new homes in the conspiracy-obsessed “Patriot” movement, the Tea Party movement, and some factions of the Republican Party. In other words, the hateful agenda of the waning nativist-extremist movement is being mainstreamed. Read More
America's story is an immigrant story.
