Fixing Our Broken Immigration System

The Daily Border Bulletin is up! Today's stories include:

Arizona's police agencies challenged to enforce SB 1070- The Supreme Court’s decision to upheld section 2 of the SB 1070 law will complicate the job of Arizona’s local police departments, requiring them to check people’s immigration status as part of their regular traffic stops and other activities.

Reports looks at ways to attract and retain talent in El Paso- Manpower, a consultant firm on workfoce solutions, published the report Labor Market Study of the Paso del Norte Region which includes recommendations on how to attract and retain high skilled workers in North America’s largest cross-border metropolis.

Mexican non-oil exports remain flat- Mexican exports slipped in May on a drop in world oil prices but non-oil exports remained steady. “For second straight month, Mexico posts trade deficit,” the news agency Reuters reported.

The United States Supreme Court determined that three sections of the controversial anti-immigrant law in Arizona, SB 1070, are preempted by federal law and therefore were stroke down. However, the court left standing only the "check your papers" part of the law that requires state and local police to check immigration status of people they've stopped or detained if a "reasonable suspicion" exists they are in the country illegally. The Court ruled that immigration status checks do not interfere with the federal immigration scheme since it considers consultation between federal and state officials.

When the hearings on that key provision occurred back in April, federal judges Sonia Sotomayor, Anthony Kennedy, and Samuel Alito appeared troubled by the SB 1070's provision to allow local law enforcement to detain someone until their immigration status was confirmed. Arizona’s lawyer, Paul Clement, responded that a person could be held for “reasonable time” and that immigration check takes an average of 11 minutes. A lower court blocked key parts of the law immigration policy because the Justice Department made the argument that it interfered with the federal government’s authority to set immigration policy. The federal government never presented the argument of racial profiling as immigration activists have denounced, reported the website Politico.

Arizona's Governor Jan Brewer considered the Supreme Court ruling "a victory for the rule of law" on a written statement. In her opinion, SB 1070 supports the rule of law, including other laws against illegal immigration and racial profiling. Brewer noted that "law enforcement will be held accountable should this statute be misused in a fashion that violates an individual’s civil rights."

Other three sections of Arizona´s SB 1070 were stroke down on the argument of federal preemption. Section 3, which required immigrants to register in a state list, was struck down because t is responsibility of the federal government to create a single integrated and all-embracing registration system.

In the same way, section 5 imposes criminal and civil penalties on employers who knowingly hire, recruit, refer, or continue to employ unauthorized workers. The Supreme Court ruled that it is inappropriate to impose criminal penalties on employers or unauthorized employees and that a state law on this matter would be an obstacle to the regulatory system that Congress chose. The Supreme Court also ruled that it is not “a crime for a removable alien to remain in the United States.” Therefore, SB 1070 which considered “warrantless arrests of immigrants” suspected of being removable represents “an obstacle to federal law.” The Supreme Court cited that according to federal law, the Attorney General can issue a warrant for trained federal immigration officers to execute but those officers can only arrest an alien only when the immigrant is “likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained.”

Here is a quick analysis of what was struck down and upheld in today's SCOTUS ruling on Sb1070:

The Supreme Court struck down Section 3, 5, 6 of SB1070 but upheld Section 2 the "papers please" part.

Here is what those sections do.

Struck Down Sections 3, 5 and 6:

Section 3: creates a misdemeanor for immigrants who willfully fail to complete or carry alien registration documentation. it effectively adds a new state penalty for conduct already proscribed by federal law

Section 5: makes it a state misdemeanor for unauthorized aliens to knowingly apply for work or work as an employee for an independent contractor

Section 6: state officers can arrest people they have "probably cause to believe" that the person has committed a public offense that makes him/her removable from the us

Upheld Section 2

Section 2: requires state officers to determine the immigration status of any person they stop detain or arrest on a legitimate basis if there is reasonable suspicion that the person is an illegal alien

The Daily Border Bulletin is up! Stories of today are as follows:

Mitt Romney´s proposal does not solve uauthorized immigration- During his speech Thursday to the annual conference of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), the Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney did not in any way distance himself from the “self-deportation” strategy he outlined during the GOP primaries.

Mexico refuses to stop antidumping investigation against U.S. chicken-Mexico’s Ministry of Economy refused to revoke a resolution to investigate antidumping practices on chicken quarters from the U.S., reported CNN Expansion.

Mexican presidential front-runner promises a strategy to reduce violence- Last Wednesday, Congressman James Sensenbrenner accused the Mexican presidential front-runner Enrique Peña Nieto of “turning a blind eye to the cartels” because of his proposal to fight drug-related violence in lieu of drug trafficking.

Your Daily Border Bulletin is up! Stories of today include:

Courting Hispanic voters, 2012 presidential candidates focus on immigration- Immigration is roiling the presidential contest as President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney seek to court the nation’s swelling Hispanic voters, reported the Associated Press. The outcome could influence political battle lines and shape American politics for generations.

A minority of Mexicans would move to the U.S., report says- Most Mexicans (61%) say they would not move to the U.S., even if they had the means and opportunity to do so, according to the Spring 2012 Pew Global Attitudes survey conducted in Mexico.

Mexico ranks four in the issuance investor visas to the U.S.- Treaty Trader visas (E-1) and Treaty Investor visas (E-2) are temporary visas for nationals of a country with which the United States maintains a treaty of friendship, commerce and navigation (which includes Mexico) who wish to go to the United States for one of two purposes: to carry on substantial trade, principally between the United States and the treaty country (E-1); or to develop and direct the operations of an enterprise in which the national has invested or is in the process of investing a substantial amount of capital (E-2).

Friday’s incredible announcement that the White House will be deferring the deportation of DREAM Act students, that is younger undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children and have since led law-abiding lives, is the latest in a series of moves initiated by President Obama to fix a broken immigration system. 

A system which Congressional Republicans have steadfastly refused to help reform. 

The administration’s most recent move cannot be seen as an isolated instance in an election year because it is just one of many times when the president has stepped up to fix an inherited, broken system. 

Simply put, without the legislative work the White House utilized in introducing prosecutorial discretion in August of last year, the current relief for "DREAMers" would be impossible. 

These actions are merely the tip of the iceberg. 

Here are the facts: the president has invested in our border to increase safety, increased legal immigration and trade, and has lowered the number of undocumented immigrants entering the country. Quite simply this administration has done a lot to fix an anachronistic immigration system which no longer works for our country. 

The Republican Party has not been able to pass a single piece of legislation that would do anything to fix our immigration system. They have tried to pass mandatory E-Verify, a national employment verification system; the leadership in the House could not even bring this to the House floor. 

On the issue of immigration, when it comes to actually pro-actively coming up with ideas to make the legal system of immigration into the country the Republican Party is utterly impotent. 

Currently Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will not even utter the word  “immigration” in public. Forever living in mortal fear of angering Tea Party activists or further alienating Hispanic activists, has effectively boxed Romney in on this issue. 

Romney has consistently said that he would veto the DREAM Act as president. On the other hand Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio has thus far been unable to get any support from his party for a Republican version of the DREAM Act, and has yet to release any legislation. 

In reality the deferment of deportation of our best and brightest undocumented immigrants is smart, fair policy. In no way does it give a pathway to legal citizenship, IT merely offers those who were brought to the United States as young children, who do not present a risk to national security or public safety, an opportunity to continue to contribute to our society as a whole.

The deferment of deportation of our best and brightest undocumented immigrants is smart, fair policy

Furthermore, any immigrant with a criminal background is ineligible for this deferment. This will prevent the deportation of as many as 800,000 of our best and brightest undocumented immigrants. 

Let us be clear: we are NOT talking about millions of people. Still, this has not prevented Texas Republican Rep.Lamar Smith from stating: “President Obama’s decision to grant amnesty to potentially millions of illegal immigrants is a breach of faith with the American people.” 

This is not only false, it also highlights a highlights a very real divide between the president’s vision for our country. It is a question of progress versus the stagnation presented in the “enforcement only” version of our immigration system as espoused by the Republican Party. 

The reality is that this latest move is very much consistent with President Obama's overall vision of fixing our immigration system. This move by the administration is fair. It will not lead toward citizenship but will remove the threat of deportation and grant those who have been in the United States most of their lives the ability to work here legally. 

Cecilia Munoz, White House Domestic Policy Adviser, characterizes this as a next step in a series of administration moves to fix our broken immigration system. One could argue that this is one of the most significant steps in recent immigration reform in recent memory. It is this type of bold leadership which will eventually lead to broader reforms of our broken immigration system.

This has been cross posted on Fox News.com 

The Daily Border Bulletin is up! Today´s stories include:

Chamber of Commerce endorses immigration reform- In an op-ed published in the McClatchy-Tribune newspapers, Thomas J. Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said that immigrants can strengthen economic growth, job creation, and competitiveness as this country faces a sluggish economic recovery and persistently high unemployment.

Police departments in Arizona prepare for lawsuits on the SB 1070- As the nation awaits the Supreme Court’s decision on  Arizona’s SB 1070 bill, opponents of the 2010 immigration law are preparing to sue police departments on claims that officers racially profile, while supporters are set to sue police agencies for failure to enforce the law, according to Fox News Latino.

Mexican economy grows faster than Brazil´s- After 17 years of macroeconomic stability, low inflation, manageable debt, an open economy and increasing competitiveness, the Mexican gross domestic product increased 3.9 percent in 2011, ahead of Brazil’s growth of 2.7 percent, reported The New York Times on Monday, June 18th.

President Obama delivered a speech on Friday, June 15 in which he stood with young immigrants who were brought as undocumented children before turning 16 years old and who would qualify for a pathway to citizenship under the DREAM Act bill if they obtain a college degree or serve in the military.

He said that a recent policy decision to stop deportations of undocumented young people is “the right thing to do” to the country´s economy although he recognized that this is a temporary relief for young people. Obama urged Congress to pass the DREAM Act along with a Comprehensive Immigration Reform to allow farmers and ranchers to have access to a stable workforce, and to allow high skilled immigrants to work in the fields of science and technology.

The President also reminded when the Dream Act was approved in the House but failed to pass in the Senate last time it was voted in December 2010. “The need has not changed, the only thing that changed is politics. It makes no sense to expel talented young people."

Watch his speech on video.

Today's Daily Border Bulletin is up! These are the stories of the day:

Rubio´s DREAM Act bill is inexistent- Three months after U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio announced an alternative to the Dream Act, he has yet to produce a written proposal.

Austin launches partnership to lure Mexican entrepreneurs- The University of Texas through its IC2 Institute and the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce plan to hold the Instituto de Empresarios de Austin to provide information to Mexican business owners about starting a business in Austin, Texas.

Arizona governor prepares for Supreme Court rule- While awaiting for the U.S. Supreme Court rule on the future of Arizona's controversial immigration law Senate Bill 1070, Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona issued an executive order requiring the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board to redistribute to all law enforcement agencies by Friday a training video originally sent out when the law passed two years ago.