Fixing Our Broken Immigration System

Hispanics Reviving Faded Towns on the Plains: As the anglo population of many midwest cities have begun to dwindle Hispanic's have begun to move in. "That demographic shift, seen in the findings of the 2010 census, has not been uniformly welcomed in places where steadiness and tradition are seen as central charms of rural life. Some longtime residents of Ulysses, where the population of 6,161 is now about half Hispanic, grumble over the cultural differences and say they feel like strangers in their hometown. But the alternative, community leaders warn, is unacceptable. “We’re either going to change or we’re going to die,” said Thadd Kistler, a lifelong resident who recently stepped down as mayor. “This is Ulysses now, this is the United States now, this immigration is happening and the communities that are extending a hand are going to survive.”

Editorial: On the Rise in Alabama:  A state passed immigration law in Alabama raises the spectre of the distant civil rights struggle. "But if there is any place where bigotry does not go unrecognized, it is Alabama.  “It is a fear of folks who are not like us,” said Judge U. W. Clemon, a former state senator and Alabama’s first black federal judge, now retired. “Although the Hispanic population of the state is less than 5 percent, the leaders of the state were hell-bent on removing as much of that 4 percent as possible. And I think they’ve been fairly successful in scaring them out of the state of Alabama.”

US uses more unmanned aircraft to secure border: The federal government continues to work to create a safer and more dynamic southwest border region. The Department of Homeland Security has begun using additional Predator B unmaned aircrafts to monitor our border with Mexico. "Last week's mission was just another night out for a Predator program that is playing a larger role in border security as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection adds to its force of unmanned aircraft. The agency received its second Predator B aircraft in Texas last month and will add its sixth overall on the Southwest border when another is based in Arizona by the end of the year. The aircraft are credited with apprehending more than 7,500 people since they were deployed six years ago. They bring the latest in military technology to one of the oldest cat-and-mouse pursuits in the country. But on the border, even sophisticated devices struggle with the weather and conditions — just as humans do."

Ahead of our event, "A Look at the US-Mexico Border Region," on Wednesday, November 16, we recommend watching the following video featuring the Sheriff of Hidalgo County Texas Guadalupe Trevino.

Guadalupe "Lupe" Trevino is Sheriff of Hidalgo County, Texas. He currently serves on the State of Texas Homeland Security Office Mass Migration Committee and on the Executive Committee of the Texas Radio Interoperability Coalition.  In this video Sheriff Trevino discusses how the border is much safer then political figures would have you believe

For more on our work, including our recent events with DHS Secretary Napolitano, Mexican Ambassador Sarukhan, Governor Bill Richardson and many others, visit here.  See also our new You Tube site which features video of dozens of leaders from both sides of the Mexican border.

Please join NDN/NPI on Wednesday, November 16, for a lunchtime discussion about the challenges and opportunities leaders in the US-Mexico border region are facing today. Joining us will be a terrific set of elected officials and law enforcement officials, all from the region, including:

Congressman Silvestre Reyes of El Paso, Texas
Congressman Henry Cuellar of Laredo, Texas
Police Chief Adolfo Gonzales of National City, California
Police Chief Carlos R. Maldanado of Laredo, Texas
Sheriff Lupe Trevino, of Hidalgo County, Texas

NDN is advancing the notion that through additional resources, better and smarter strategy, and greater cooperation with Mexico, our government, along with its partners along the border had made the region safer, the immigration system better, and commerce and trade between the US and Mexico more robust. While we cannot deny that much work remains to bring greater prosperity and security to the region, tremendous progress has been made, and this progress needs to be acknowledged and built upon.

This is the latest in a series of events hosted by NDN/NPI, which has included dozens of leaders from the border region and the most senior government officials in Washington.  More on our program can be found on our new web site, 21border.com.  We encourage you to read the following to help contextualize the issues raised at our event:

On Guns and Violence In the Border Region – More To Do by Simon Rosenberg 11/3/2001
SPEECH: Smart Effective Border Security and Immigration Enforcement by Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano October/5/2011
SPEECH: Fixing the Immigration System for America’s 21st Century Economy by President Barack Obama 5/10/2011
The U.S. – Mexico Border Strategy Is Working by Simon Rosenberg 3/1/2011
NDN REPORT: The Governments Border Strategy Is Working by Kristian Ramos 2/1/2011
Declaration by The Government Of The United States Of America and The Government Of The United Mexican States Concerning Twenty-First Century Border Management 5/19/2011
Arturo Sarukhan & Alan Bersin Address on a 21st Century Border 5/28/2010

Seating is limited, so please RSVP today to reserve your spot. Lunch will be served at noon, and the program will begin at 12:15pm. All of this will take place at NDN’s offices on 729 15th Street, NW on the 1st floor.

Arizona spends little over 2 million in legal fees defending SB1070: Days after SB1070 mastermind Russel Pearce lost his recall election, it has been revealed that Arizona has spent a little over $2 million  in defending the anti-immigrant law.  "Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's office says the state has now spent just over $2 million of donated money in its legal defense of the 2010 immigration enforcement law known as SB1070.  Brewer's office says that's the total spending after an expenditure of nearly $500,000 for legal fees incurred by a Phoenix law firm in the 10 months through September. "

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley Says New Immigration Law Must be Simplified:  Alabama's immigration law has been touted the toughest in the nation, it is also appearently the most confusing.  Much of the problems associated with any state passed immigration law comes from how best to implement them.  From a very basic municipal level, thesee laws create fissures in everyday activity. The Governor of Alabama is finding this out the hard way. "Alabama's immigration law has plenty of critics. But you wouldn't expect one of them to be the man who signed the measure into law. Gov. Robert Bentley, who still firmly supports the law's objective to crack down on illegal immigration, wants the Legislature to simplify the state's tough new immigration law that has been challenged in court, with some of its provisions put on hold by a judge. The Legislature passed the law in late June with the Republican governor's approval and it took effect in late September. "We did pass a very complicated bill," Bentley told the Birmingham Business Alliance "

Feds Ask Supreme Court To Stay Away From AZ Immigration Law:  The federal government has asked the Supreme Court not to take up a law suit from Arizona over the enforcement of SB1070. "The U.S. Justice Department asked the Supreme Court  Thursday to leave be a lawsuit involving Arizona's controversial immigration law, claiming that lower courts have already blocked tough provisions targeting undocumented immigrants. The state law is a challenge to federal policy and is designed to establish Arizona's own immigration policy, the department's solicitor general said in a filing with the justices. Arizona says the law is an effort to cooperate with the federal government."

Also please be sure to join NDN and the New Policy Institute on Wednesday, November 16th for a lunchtime discussion about the challenges and opportunities leaders in the US-Mexico border region are facing today. Joining us will be a terrific set of elected officials and law enforcement officials, all from the region. Seating is limited, so please RSVP today to reserve your spot. Lunch will be served at noon, and the program will begin at 12:15pm.  All of this will take place at NDN’s offices on 729 15th Street, NW on the 1st floor.

Attorney General testimony before Congress touches on Fast Furious program: Attorney General Eric Holder appeared before the Senate Judiciary committee for an oversight hearing on Monday his full testimony can be seen here. In his testimony he takes the time to elaborate on the flaws inherent in gun walking, and the need to stop guns from flowing from the United States into Mexican drug cartels:  "I want to be clear: any instance of so-called “gun walking” is unacceptable. Regrettably, this tactic was used as part of Fast and Furious, which was launched to combat gun trafficking and violence on our Southwest Border. This operation was flawed in concept, as well as in execution. And, unfortunately, we will feel its effects for years to come as guns that were lost during this operation continue to show up at crimes scenes both here and in Mexico. This should never have happened. And it must never happen again."

Poll shows Arizonans favor an overhaul of our immigration system:  An Arizona State University poll shows that 78 percent of Arizonans favor reform of our federal immigration system which gives undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship. "The poll by ASU's Morrison Institute for Public Policy found that 78 percent of Arizonans would support legislation letting longtime undocumented immigrants become citizens if they also paid a fine, passed criminal background checks, paid taxes and show they can speak English."

Alabama has jobs. trouble is, Americans don't want them: A story examines how the exodus of immigrant workers from Alabama has left many jobs open, with no Americans filling the positions: "There’s no shortage of people he could give those jobs to. In Alabama, some 211,000 people are out of work. In rural Perry County, where Harvest Select is located, the unemployment rate is 18.2 percent, twice the national average. One of the big selling points of the immigration law was that it would free up jobs that Republican Governor Robert Bentley said immigrants had stolen from recession-battered Americans. Yet native Alabamians have not come running to fill these newly liberated positions. Many employers think the law is ludicrous and fought to stop it. Immigrants aren’t stealing anything from anyone, they say. Businesses turned to foreign labor only because they couldn’t find enough Americans to take the work they were offering."

Milbank, Fast Furious the scandal that isn't: Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank gives his take on yesterdays Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on Department of Justice Secretary Eric Holder: there’s not yet evidence of any high-level White House involvement. Neither of the two leading Republicans probing the case, Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), has called for Holder’s resignation. The most that can be done for now, then, is to harangue Holder and his colleagues and hope something shakes loose. And so Sen. John Cornyn (Tex.), head of the Senate Republicans’ reelection effort, was in a rather furious state of mind Tuesday morning as he questioned Holder before the Judiciary Committee. Cornyn went after the attorney general as if prosecuting him.

Holder Urges Lawmakers to Support Efforts to Stop Gun Trafficking:  During the Senate oversight hearing yesterday, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa ranking Republican on the committee was adament that there be no tightening of gun laws as a result of the findings of the ATF program. Holder responded thusly:  “Like each of you, I want to know why and how the firearms that should have been under surveillance could wind up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels,” Mr. Holder said. “But beyond identifying where errors occurred and ensuring that they never occur again, we must be careful not to lose sight of the critical problem that this flawed investigation has highlighted: we are losing the battle to stop the flow of illegal guns to Mexico.  This means, I believe, that we have a responsibility to act.” 

Author of Arizona Immigration Law Loses Recall Election:  Arizona State Senate President Russell Pearce has lost his recall election to political newcomer Jerry Lewis. Pearce is the and only elected official to ever face a recall in the history of Arizona politics: With thousands of ballots counted and results in from all 16 precincts, charter school executive Jerry Lewis led with 53 percent of the vote, compared with about 45 percent for Pearce, a margin of about 1,800 votes. An unknown number of early ballots turned in Tuesday remained to be counted, but Pearce was resigned to defeat.

Holder says, "Never again,"  on Fast and Furious tactics: Attorney General Eric Holder took the stand today at an oversight hearing for the Senate Judiciary Committee, while there he took the time to correct some of the misperceptions surrounding the program: “I would like to correct some of the inaccurate — and frankly some of the irresponsible — accusations surrounding Fast and Furious,” Holder said. “Some of the overheated rhetoric might lead you to believe that this local, Arizona-based operation was somehow the cause of the epidemic of gun violence in Mexico. In fact, Fast and Furious was a flawed response to, not the cause of, the flow of illegal guns from the United States into Mexico.”

He also took the time to note that the use of "gun walking" tactics would not be tolerated in his Justice Department:  "This operation was flawed in concept, as well as in execution," Mr. Holder told the committee. "Unfortunately, we will feel its effects for years to come as guns that were lost during this operation continue to show up at crime scenes both here and in Mexico. This should never have happened. And it must never happen again."

He later put a finer point on the subject by saying: "I want to be clear: Any instance of so-called 'gun walking' is unacceptable," Holder said of weapons smuggling, later adding: "This operation was flawed in its concept, and flawed in its execution."

He concluded his testimony by vowing to work with Republicans to stop the flow of guns from the U.S. into Mexican Cartel members hands: "I am determined to ensure that our shared concerns about Operation Fast and Furious lead to more than headline-grabbing Washington 'gotcha' games and cynical political point scoring,"

Please join NDN and the New Policy Institute on Wednesday, November 16th for a lunchtime discussion about the challenges and opportunities leaders in the US-Mexico border region are facing today. Joining us will be a terrific set of elected officials and law enforcement officials, all from the region, including:

Congressman Silvestre Reyes of El Paso, Texas
Congressman Henry Cuellar of Laredo, Texas
Police Chief Adolfo Gonzales of National City, California
Police Chief Carlos R. Maldanado of Laredo, Texas
Sheriff Lupe Trevino, of Hidalgo County, Texas

With so much attention on border region issues now – smuggled guns and the Mexican cartels, immigration reform and overall border security – this timely event is sure to be informative and spirited.  

This event is the latest effort of our “21st Century Border Initiative,” which is working to advance a vision of a better managed border region.  For more on our work, including our recent events with DHS Secretary Napolitano, Mexican Ambassador Sarukhan, Governor Bill Richardson and many others, visit here.  See also our new You Tube site which features video of dozens of leaders from both sides of the Mexican border.  

Seating is limited, so please RSVP today to reserve your spot. Lunch will be served at noon, and the program will begin at 12:15pm.  All of this will take place at NDN’s offices on 729 15th Street, NW on the 1st floor.