Undocumented Immigration
Even Evangelicals Agree: Congress Needs to Take Action on Immigration
DREAM Act students, immigration advocates and community leaders have turned up the heat on Congress and the Obama administrative in recent weeks to do something, anything, about our nation’s immigration problems. Yesterday, Evangelical leaders—including the National Association of Evangelicals, and Focus on the Family—joined that effort, denouncing recent “self-deportation policies” and calling on leaders to break the gridlock on immigration. 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
Advocates Call on Obama Administration to Protect Immigrant Families, Not Deport Them
Nearly a year ago, ICE Director John Morton issued a memo on prosecutorial discretion which led to the review of 300,000 immigration cases currently in removal proceedings. Advocates initially applauded this announcement, hoping that the administration would move quickly to close low-level, non-criminal immigration cases. But today, disappointed by the program’s low closure rate, advocates and community leaders called on the Obama administration to make good on its promise of using of prosecutorial discretion to protect DREAMers and immigrant families from deportation. Read More
Startup Act 2.0: Could It Be An Immigration Breakthrough?
The Christian Science Monitor June 7, 2012 Forget the border fence or allusions to the American dream – if you want reforms of the nation’s immigration policy, talk about jobs. Talk, in other words, about the Startup 2.0 Act. If a gridlocked Congress is to make headway on modernizing… Read More
Updated Figures Highlight Shortfalls of Prosecutorial Discretion Program
As reported in today’s New York Times, the Department of Homeland Security has reviewed nearly 300,000 pending deportation cases over the past seven months in search of low-priority immigrants deserving prosecutorial discretion. While immigrant advocates cheered the policy when it was announced, figures released yesterday suggest that the program is not only falling short of initial expectations, but that the numbers are heading in the wrong direction. Read More
Filling Quotas or Setting Priorities? ICE Announcement to Increase Deportations Raises Concerns
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently announced that it would pull 150 agents from desk jobs and add them to Fugitive Operations Teams—teams created to locate and detain “fugitive immigrants” who pose a threat to the nation or the community or who have a violent criminal history—in order to find and deport additional “criminal aliens.” According to the LA Times, ICE reported it was "experiencing a shortfall in criminal removals for the fiscal year" and need to increase the numbers. While it’s a good idea for ICE to use limited resources pursuing serious criminals, the reality is that ICE’s definition of “criminal alien” is very broad and the Fugitive Ops Team end up deporting unauthorized immigrants who pose no threat to the community. Read More
DC Passes Act Limiting District’s Response to ICE’s Immigration Detainers
Today, ICE activated the Secure Communities program in Washington, DC, sparking fear in immigrant communities that the program will result in racial profiling and the deportation of non-priority immigrants as it has in other jurisdictions. With Secure Communities active, the fingerprints of all persons booked into DC jails will be sent to the FBI and will then be forwarded to DHS to be checked against federal immigration databases. If ICE decides to take action against an immigrant identified through the program, they place a detainer on the individual—a request asking DC police to hold the person for up to 48 hours so ICE can take custody. However, in a move praised by immigration advocates, the DC Council passed an emergency act today limiting the District’s response to detainer requests. Read More
U.S. Losing High-Skilled Workers to Australia, Canada, and China, Report Says
By Shelby Pasell. “As our competitors press ahead with strategic policies suited to a global century, how much longer can America afford to drift with an immigration regime built in 1965?” This is the question addressed in recent report by the Partnership for a New American Economy and The Partnership for New York City. According to the report, as other countries simplify and expand their immigration programs to attract entrepreneurs and high-skilled workers, the U.S. maintains an old system that makes it difficult for much needed workers to secure a visa. By 2018, the U.S. will face a projected shortfall of 223,800 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) workers, but even for graduates of these programs, visas are limited and there is no secure path towards permanent residency. Read More
STARS Act Highlights Potential Pitfalls of Rubio DREAM Proposal
When news broke yesterday that a Florida congressman introduced an alternative version of the DREAM Act, many assumed it was Sen. Marco Rubio, who has been promising for months to introduce such legislation. In fact, the bill in question—dubbed the STARS Act—was introduced by Rep. David Rivera, a member of the House who introduced similar legislation (the ARMS Act) last January. Although Rivera’s proposals would benefit fewer people than the original DREAM Act, they would put qualified applicants on a path that would ultimately lead to permanent residency. From that perspective, they differ significantly from the proposal Senator Rubio has been discussing, which reportedly does not include a dedicated path to permanent residency. Read More
Law Professors Push White House to Grant Administrative Relief to DREAMers
In the absence of Congressional action on the DREAM Act, advocates and DREAMers have increasingly turned to the White House to help them secure temporary protection from removal. This week, DREAMERS got a huge boost from 96 law professors who sent a letter to President Obama outlining the extensive authority under law that his administration holds to halt deportations of DREAMers. Read More
All gifts are matched dollar for dollar
No one should face the immigration system alone
