Undocumented Immigration
Alabama Lawmakers Propose Extensive Changes to State’s Immigration Law, HB 56
Yesterday evening, lawmakers in Alabama introduced a bill proposing extensive changes to HB 56, the state’s notorious immigration enforcement law. The proposed bill follows extensive criticism from civil and immigrants’ rights leaders about HB 56, as well as numerous lawsuits that prevented more than a dozen of the law’s provisions from taking effect. While passage of the proposed bill—dubbed HB 658—may not reduce the anti-immigrant climate in Alabama, many of the amendments would modify what are widely seen as the most pernicious aspects of the law. Read More
Human Rights Abuses Along U.S.-Mexico Border Underscore Need for Reform
U.S. immigration and border-enforcement policies have precipitated a litany of human-rights abuses along the U.S.-Mexico border, from the needless deaths of border-crossers to inhumane conditions in immigration detention to the racial profiling of entire Latino and indigenous communities. That was the principal finding of the human rights groups which presented testimony at a recent hearing of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). It was also the main conclusion of a recent report by Amnesty International. Both the hearing and the report underscore the urgent need for the U.S. government to abide by the human rights treaties to which it is a signatory. Read More
USCIS One Step Closer to Adopting Improvement to Immigration Waiver Process
A provision of the immigration law commonly known as the “3 and 10 year bars” has proven to be one of the most heart-breaking of the many draconian changes made to the immigration law at the time. Since its enactment in 1996, the provision—which imposes re-entry bars of 3 to 10 years on immigrants who are present in the U.S. illegally, leave the U.S., and want to re-enter lawfully—often separates family members, even if they are otherwise entitled to legal status in the U.S. Now, however, USCIS has published a proposed rule that will reduce, although not eliminate, the hardships created by this provision of law. The announcement has been received favorably, although with some skepticism, within the immigration community. Read More
Mississippi Lawmaker Kills State’s Extreme Immigration Bill, Although Immigration Provisions May Loom
Today, Mississippi’s extreme immigration bill, HB 488, died after a state senate committee chairman decided not to bring the bill up for a vote. The Mississippi Senate had until today to consider HB 488, a bill that would have, among other things, allowed police officers to determine the immigration status of individuals they “reasonably suspect” are in the country without documents. While HB 488 is dead, however, state House members may still be looking to keep these immigration enforcement measures alive by inserting them in other bills. Read More
ICE Deported More Than 46,000 Immigrants with U.S. Citizen Children Last Year, Report Finds
Immigration enforcement and deportation have a particularly devastating impact on mixed status families, that is, families who have one or more direct members who are undocumented. When parents are deported, families face impossible decisions about whether their family will be separated or whether U.S. citizen kids will be de facto deported along with their parents. New numbers released in a report by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) show the extent of the issue. The new report finds that, between January and June 2011, ICE deported over 46,000 immigrants who claimed to have at least one U.S. citizen child. Read More
DHS Review of Immigration Cases Expands to Half Dozen New Cities
The Washington Post and Huffington Post are reporting that ICE’s ongoing review of existing deportation cases will expand to six new cities in the coming months. Initially launched in Baltimore and Denver in 2011, the initiative will soon expand to Seattle, Detroit, New Orleans and Orlando, followed by Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City. The idea behind the initiative is to clear historic backlogs in the immigration courts by administratively closing cases that ICE considers to be low priority. Read More
New Legislation to Boost Tourism Would Bring Jobs, Revenue to U.S. Economy
When it comes to the global tourism market, the U.S. is missing out in a big way. So much so, in fact, that the Obama administration has issued two executive orders to address the drop in international tourism revenue. Over the last ten years, America’s share of the travel market fell from 17% in 2000 to 12% in 2010—a drop that translates into 467,000 lost jobs, $606 billion in lost spending by visitors, and $37 billion in lost tax revenue. Experts blame the dip on unnecessary visa processing delays and restrictions. But a new bipartisan tourism bill introduced this week seeks to remedy the U.S. tourism slump by reforming some visa processes, making it easier foreign nationals to visit and spend money in the U.S. Read More
New Legislation to Boost Tourism Would Bring Jobs, Revenue to U.S. Economy
When it comes to the global tourism market, the U.S. is missing out in a big way. So much so, in fact, that the Obama administration has issued two executive orders to address the drop in international tourism revenue. Over the last ten years, America’s share of the travel market fell from 17% in 2000 to 12% in 2010—a drop that translates into 467,000 lost jobs, $606 billion in lost spending by visitors, and $37 billion in lost tax revenue. Experts blame the dip on unnecessary visa processing delays and restrictions. But a new bipartisan tourism bill introduced this week seeks to remedy the U.S. tourism slump by reforming some visa processes, making it easier foreign nationals to visit and spend money in the U.S. Read More
Supreme Court Flooded with Briefs Opposing Arizona SB 1070
Proponents of Arizona SB 1070 often insist that the infamous immigration law enjoys considerable public support. Yet even if such claims are correct, one would hardly know it from the flood of briefs filed at the Supreme Court this week opposing the measure. Unlike the monolithic set of briefs filed last month in support of SB 1070, the briefs opposing the law were submitted by a strikingly broad range of parties—from commissioners of the former INS, to more than 40 cities and counties, to a group of law enforcement officials that includes an Arizona sheriff whose county shares a border with Mexico. Read More
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