comprehensive immigration reform

Weekly Update on Immigration: Event Recap, The Deportation Era, and It's All About Juan

I. "Making the Case for Passage of Comprehensive Immigration Reform This Year" - And our message is going global.  NDN, America's Voice, NCLR, and experts from Lake Research Partners and Benenson Strategy Group teamed up last week to articulate the arguments as to why President Barack Obama and Congress need to pass immigration reform legislation (CIR)this year.  Reporters from around the world were able to participate in our event via live webcast, and a prominent Mexican periodical, El Financiero, covered our event.  Click here to check out the speakers' presentations. The full video will be on our blog this Wednesday.

II. The Deportation Era - There was ample news coverage over the week of the report published by the Migration Policy Center, demonstrating that after seeing its budget soar to $218 million last year, the federal program responsible for tracking down and finding "criminal aliens" yielded 72,000 arrests, 73% of which had no criminal record.   The New York Times published an Editorial this weekend on this pervasive inefficiency (and racial overtones) in enforcement:


Of all the noncitizen Latinos sentenced last year, the vast majority - 81 percent - were convicted for unlawfully entering or remaining in the country, neither of which is a criminal offense.  The country is filling the federal courts and prisons with nonviolent offenders. It is diverting immense law-enforcement resources from pursuing serious criminals - violent thugs, financial scammers - to an immense, self-defeating campaign to hunt down ... workers.

III. Speaking of Enforcement Gone Bad - This Times Editorial also mentions the issue of severely overburdened immigration judges.  As it stands, judges simply are not equipped to properly deal with this "immigration crackdown" and inaction with respect to the rest of the broken immigration system, as reported by Jennifer Ludden.

As it stands, racial profiling is apparently encouraged as a part of "enforcement." One law proposed in Montana would apparently encourage average citizens to file claims against employers they "believed" were employing undocumenteds.  Here in the D.C. area - in Baltimore - a group of ICE officers who were behind their "mandated" quotas of arrests thought it would be ok to just scout a 7-11 for Hispanics and call it a day:

New Tools and Bad Enforcement - In case you hadn't seen this, Texas sheriffs have erected a series of surveillance cameras along the Rio Grande and connected them to the Internet so that your average Joe can be a "virtual Deputy." John Burnett reports on NPR:

Thousands of people are now virtual Border Patrol agents - and they're on the lookout for drug smugglers and illegal immigrants..... Robert Fahrenkamp, a truck driver in South Texas, is one of them. After a long haul behind the wheel of a Peterbilt tractor-trailer, he comes home, sets his 6-foot-6-inch, 250-pound frame in front of his computer, pops a Red Bull, turns on some Black Sabbath or Steppenwolf, logs in to www.blueservo.net - and starts protecting his country.   "This gives me a little edge feeling," Fahrenkamp says, "like I'm doing something for law enforcement as well as for our own country."


With hate crimes already rising against Hispanics at record levels, this "program" really does not help bring communities together to solve crime, or anything else.  It is to be expected that this site will invite extremists to participate in virtual man-hunts.  The people logging in are no "border agents," they undergo no background or criminal check, no psychological profile exams, no training. And to top it off, the website provides no detailed or intelligent information.   A typical description of "what to watch for," includes: "During the day watch for subjects on foot carrying large bags. During the night time hours watch for activity involving lights."  This is no description of drug traffickers, it could be a Mexican just coming home from visiting family, or crossing illegally, but let's not hide his program behind the guise of "fighting border crime".  Let's call a spade a spade - this is a case of Texas sheriffs wanting help in keeping the "illegals" out, not criminals.  If the intent were to keep criminal activity away, then we should begin by re-visiting Texas gun laws, the laws that allow guns to flood into Mexico and play a role in all that "border crime." 

The New Political Economy of Immigration - In this interesting piece written by Tom Barry of the Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP), he analyzes the political and economic reasons behind the change in the narrative on immigrants and immigration since September 11.  First, by being depicted as more "dangerous," second, by discussing immigration in a vacuum, rather than addressing it as the complex socio-economic issue that it is, there are market forces that have become invigorated due to the immigrant "crackdown," and he argues they have "given rise to an unregulated complex of jails, detention centers, and prisons that create profit from the immigrant crackdown."

IV. Gallup Briefing focuses on Mexico - Click here to review Gallup's latest analysis of escalating violence in Mexico related to the drug trade and public opinion.

V. The Real Economics of Immigration Reform - Workers are workers, are workers.  In case you missed it, check out this piece by Cristina Jimenez, which breaks down the "bottom line" on how the economics of immigration should reframe the debate on the policy in this area.

VI. Obama Continues to Reach out to Hispanics - During this interview with El Piolin, the radio show with the most audience nationally, Obama explained his economic policy to Spanish-speaking listeners, and reiterated his commitment on other fronts, such as immigration reform.

VII. Watch out for the Wolf in Sheep's Clothing - If you look at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) "Morning News," it looks pretty harmless, just a series of clips from major newspapers.  Is it intended to throw off those people who don't happen to know that it is a member of the hate network founded by John Tanton?

VIII. Census Offers a Look at the Make-up of the Nation's Immigrants - This New York Times piece by Sam Roberts provides a broad overview of the Census findings released last week.

IX. It's All About Juan - If you've ever wondered why immigration advocates work so tirelessly on this difficult issue, just look at Juan.  No, not a "Juan Perez" a real Juan - Juan is a Georgetown University student who deserves CIR.  Read his story, featured in the Washington Post.

UPDATE: NDN, America's Voice, NCLR Reiterate the Need for Comprehensive Immigration Reform This Year, the Message Goes Abroad

In keeping with our "new tools" theme, reporters in Mexico made use of our new live webstreaming capability and were able to watch our conversation on "Making the Case for Passage of Comprehensive Immigration Reform This Year."  Our case is crossing borders, as a journalist from one of Mexico's most respected newspapers, El Financiero, writes in this piece.  The article elaborates on the two key points made by the speakers: 1) Immigration reform is vital in order to help revive our economy, and 2) legalizing those currently outside of the protection of American labor law will only help bring them into the system and generate greater revenue for the U.S. Treasury.

NDN, America's Voice, NCLR Team Up to Reiterate the Need for Comprehensive Immigration Reform This Year

Yesterday at NDN we heard from several experts, advocates, and strategists on the issue of immigration reform.  NDN President Simon Rosenberg was joined on a panel by Rick Johnson of Lake Research, Pete Brodnitz of Benenson Strategy Group, Janet Murguia of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), and Frank Sharry of America's Voice.  Andres Ramirez, Vice President, NDN Hispanic Programs, moderated the discussion. 

Building on the great work by these organizations over the last few years, and the creation of the Immigration08 campaign, the meeting consisted of a vibrant - and very timely - discussion during which the panelists reiterated the reasons why our economy and American values require passage of comprehensive legislation to fix the broken immigration system this year.

NDN would like to thank America's Voice, NCLR, Lake Research Partners, and Benenson Strategy Group for their hard work and partnership on this issue.

Video of the event will be posted next week.  For additional information, please refer to the final slide in this presentation, which will take you important work completed by each of the participating organizations.

As NDN mentioned during the event, we are making the speakers' presentations available below.  Presentations in order of appearance: 

Simon Rosenberg, NDN

Rick Johnson, Lake Research Partners

Pete Brodnitz, Benenson Strategy Group

Additional Resources:

NDN - www.ndn.org
The Immigration Proxy Wars Continue, by Simon Rosenberg, 2/13/09
An Updated Analysis of the Hispanic Vote 2008, by Andres Ramirez, 11/13/08
NDN Polls on Comprehensive Immigration Reform in Battleground States, 9/10/08
Hispanics Rising II, 5/30/08
Can Democrats Seize the Opportunity the Immigration Debate Offers Them? by Simon Rosenberg, 12/11/08

America's Voice - http://www.americasvoiceonline.org
www.immigration2008.org What the 2008 Elections Mean For the Future of Immigration Reform, by Frank Sharry, 1/28/09
A Prescription for Comprehensive Reform
The Facts About Immigration

NCLR - www.nclr.com
http://www.wecanstopthehate.org/
NCLR Position on Immigration Reform
NCLR Immigration Information
NCLR Immigration Basic Fact Sheet

Weekly Immigration Update - Outlook for Immigration in 2009

On yesterday's Meet the Press, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid discusses hopeful prospects for immigration reform in 2009:

MR. GREGORY: Let me ask you about politics.  This is what you told Roll Call two days after the election of Barack Obama.... "‘I think the country has moved to the center,'... ‘I think people want us to get things done.'" Let me test that proposition.  On immigration, do you have a deal between the president-elect and Senator McCain for immigration reform?...

...SEN. REID: "We need comprehensive immigration reform." That was a conversation I had with John McCain.  Yes, we need comprehensive immigration reform.  And what does that mean?  It means we have to make sure our borders are protected, our northern and southern borders.  We have to do something about the millions of people here who are undocumented.  We have to put them on, on a pathway to legalization.  Does that mean that they get to the head of the line?  Of course not.  They'd have penalties and fines and learn English and stay out of trouble.  We have to also do something on a guest worker program and we have to do something about the employer sanctions that works. John McCain believes that should happen.  I believe that should happen. That's...

MR. GREGORY: And he's discussed it with the president-elect?...

MR. GREGORY: McCain has?

SEN. REID: I don't know, but he's discussed it with me.

MR. GREGORY: Mm-hmm.  You think you've got a deal, a prospect of a deal.

SEN. REID: I have, I have John McCain's word that he's going to work real, real hard on immigration reform....

...SEN. REID: And I'll, and I'll work with him.

Gov. Bill Richardson Withdraws From Consideration as Commerce Secretary - This news is not only unfortunate for the President-elect and his team and for the country as a whole, it is bad news for immigration reform.  This Governor's support of reform and criticism of half-measures (such as "enforcement-only"), his legislative, executive, and international experience made him particularly qualified to put a great deal of weight behind comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) legislation in a time of economic crisis as Secretary of Commerce.  Luckily, we still have strong champions for CIR in the administration with Gov. Napolitano as DHS Secretary and Rep. Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor.  The confluence of immigrants and labor is exactly what the current administration has not been able to get right.  What Ms. Solis and the President-elect seem to understand is that by upholding workers' rights, even for the undocumented, you uphold wage and labor rights for all working Americans.  It is indespensable that Barack Obama name a new nominee for Secretary of Commerce that posseses the same passion and ability of Gov. Richardson to strengthen coalitions in favor of CIR in order to pass CIR in 2009.

An article in The Hill comments on what will likely be early tests on immigration for Barack Obama upon assuming the Presidency, and Spanish-language media demonstrates that the Hispanic community has not forgotten Obama's commitments in this area.  Univision's Sunday morning program, Al Punto, aired an "end of the year" summary that featured five stories - four of the five had an immigration focus.  Next to job creation, immigration reform is the top issue on the minds of Latinos for 2009.  The analysts on Al Punto highlighted that as the economy improves, there will be a need to address the economic demand for workers so that businesses can meet their needs legally, and to ensure labor and wage standards for all workers.

The Hispanic community won't forget the promise of immigration reform - This Sunday, Al Punto had a feature on immigration reform in 2009 and re-played an interview with Barack Obama from May 28, 2008.  When asked whether he was committed to passing immigration reform "in his first year," he replied, "yes, in my first year."  Frank Sharry appeared on this segment commenting on the current climate of fear among immigrant communities.  

President-elect Obama on Raids - During the same interview that took place in May and was replayed this Sunday, Obama was asked how he would handle raids.  He responded that he considered raids a "good public relations move," to make it seem like the government is doing something, but they don't solve the problem in the long-term.  He recognized the terror that affects communities as something to be given due consideration, "I don't think it is the American way to capture a mother and separate her from her child," and not think of the consequences.  Clearly raids are a part of the general review the President-elect will undertake.  Rather than demand or expect him to issue an order "halting raids," I think we can expect Obama to shift the focus of enforcement to going after unscrupulous employers, criminal aliens, and human traffickers.

How to convince Barack Obama that reform is needed this year?
- This question was posed on the Sunday morning Spanish-language showI would posit that the bigger question is how to make sure we educate legislators in both chambers on this issue.  The bottom line is that American voters voted for Obama and for a large number of Democratic legislators as a repudiation of the inaction of the past eight years.  CIR provides the opportunity to demonstrate a will to govern, to take action and solve problems - particularly at a time of economic crisis.  The economy and immigration go hand in hand.  Immigration is a national security issue, it is an economic issue with economic roots and consequences.  By ignoring the undocumented and those who are wanted as workers, you encourage the exploitation that erodes working conditions and job security everywhere.  In a time of economic crisis, the stability and dignity of the work force are especially vital.  This is also why CIR must not be limited to addressing the legalization of the undocumented - CIR must address issues of future flow and it must revamp the entire visa system.  The existing visa system is outdated, unfair, and clearly unrealistic given that most of the undocumented came into the country legally and overstayed their visas.  With the amount of work immigration reform will take, it is vital that it is truly "comprehensive." 

Re: A long road back for the GOP - An interesting article in the CQ, "The Republican Search for Self Better Find Something Quickly," echoes what NDN has been writing about in Simon's post on their "long road back" and my post on how the current GOP is so out of touch - intentionally or not - with 21st century America.  John Bicknell writes: "Republicans are going to have to figure out who they are, and how that identity is relevant to modern America. And they are going to have to do it in less than two years. Otherwise, they could well find themselves on their way to another 40 years in the wilderness." For Democrats, CIR represents a great deal of opportunities to prove their ability to govern, and for Republicans, passing CIR can be the first step out of the wilderness.  

More Examples of our Broken Immigration System:  All of which exacerbate undocumented migration - 1) Marriage Fraud - CQ covers a CIS study as part of a larger piece on marriage fraud and immigration.  While CIS is a known hate group as identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and even though we have no factual basis with which to accept their data, even one fraudulent marriage is one too many, and it demonstrates the insufficient legal means for immigration in our laws.  

"The real problem with marriage and immigration law and policy is how the government disrespects the marriages of U.S. citizens and legal immigrants who obey the rules," Paul Donnelly, spokesman for American Families United, which works to reunite Americans' foreign spouses and children, said in an interview....Legal permanent residents have to wait almost five years - nearly eight years for Mexicans - to bring a foreign-born spouse or child into the United States. Americans who marry foreigners that have overstayed prior visas or have been discovered in the country illegally cannot bring that spouse or child into the country for at least three years, with a maximum 10-year term of inadmissibility if the visa overstay is greater than one year or the foreigner is deported.

2) Immigrants priced out of legal status - Only about half of all Central American immigrants eligible for a renewal of their temporary protected status actually filed for their renewals.  Many of these immigrants could not afford the filing fees due to having been laid off or having their number of work hours cut in this time of economic recession.  

3) The Face of Slavery - As long as there are insufficient legal channels for immigrants to come into the country, and as long as those existing channels remain slow and bureaucratic, we will continue to see crimes against humanity like those shown in this New York Times feature - examples of human trafficking and slavery into which women and children fall as they try to achieve the American dream.

The State of Courts - Chief Justice Roberts provided his annual report on the state of the federal courts, which showed bankruptcy filings rose by 30%, filings concerning criminal charges in immigration cases jumped by 27% (the cases are concentrated in the Southwest).  "Criminal charges" could mean criminal activity, or they could mean cases like the one that occurred in Iowa, where many undocumenteds with no IDs or social security numbers unkowingly signed guilty pleas for identity theft.  In the meantime, prosecution of sex offense cases grew by only 9%, and the number of drug cases actually dropped by 7%.  Chief Justice Roberts explained, "Those reductions occurred when investigative agencies shifted their focus from drugs to terrorism and sex offenses." 

Hate Crimes - Two Hispanic youths assaulted a 28 year-old Hispanic woman in San Francisco.  The woman is a lesbian who lived with her partner near the boys, the crime has been qualified as a hate crime.  This horrific crime is made more appalling by the fact that it occurs at a time when Hispanics are crying out in protest against the hate crimes that resulted in the murders of several Latino immigrants and as communities are fighting for their right to be free of fear of having hate crimes perpetrated.  How can we demand certain behavior of other communities if we don't begin with our own? 

Speaking of Border Security - A couple, their children, and family of 7 were killed en route from Dallas, TX to Mexico.  As they were about to cross the border in Texas, they drove on a bridge half of which had collapsed during rain storms.  There were no road blocks, not a single sign warning of the end of the bridge, so as the family drove during the night they fell over the edge of the bridge into a river, only one grandmother survived.

Al Franken to the Senate - It is expected that Al Franken will be declared the winner today in his race against Norm Coleman.  This is good news for immigration reform, click here to see Sen.-elect Franken's position on CIR. UPDATE:  Franken declared winner.   

NDN Releases Major Findings on Immigration

Today, NDN released polls conducted among all voters in four key battleground states - Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada - that show strong support for comprehensive immigration reform. As Simon and Courtney mentioned, the poll was conducted in key swing states that also have a large Hispanic Population. Additionally, the states in question are reflective of the cross-section of Hispanics in the United States, with Florida's Hispanic population consisting mainly of foreign-born Hispanics from the Caribbean and South America, Nevada with mostly foreign-born Hispanics from Mexico, and New Mexico and Colorado with largely native-born Hispanics.

For an in-depth look at how the public views the immigration debate in these four states, please view our full Immigration Survey Report here.

As stated in the Executive Summary, our findings indicate that in each of these four states, voters:

  • Overwhelmingly support Comprehensive Immigration Reform as:
    1. Strengthening border security
    2. Strengthening interior enforcement through an employer verification plan
    3. New visa program for 200,000 workers annually
    4. Increasing the number of family visas available
    5. Path to earned citizenship for the undocumented once they meet certain requirements.
  • Have a positive view of undocumented immigrants, believing that they have come here to work and seek a better life, are not taking jobs from American citizens and are not interested in receiving public handouts.
  • Blame the federal government and businesses - not immigrants - for the broken immigration system. This tells us that the anti-immigrant message of the Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaughs of the world actually doesn't resonate with the large majority of voters.

The data also shows:

  • The issue of immigration remains an important issue to voters, particularly Hispanics, and Democrats and Barack Obama are more trusted to handle the immigration issue than U.S. Sen. John McCain and the Republican Party.
  • The dramatic swing of Hispanic voters to Senator Obama in Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada - with a total of 46 electoral votes - has helped turn these previously red states, which were critical to Bush's narrow victory in 2004, into competitive swing states this year.
  • But in each state, 14 percent to 20 percent of the Hispanic electorate remains undecided, which translates into a two percent to six percent of the statewide vote in each state - a percentage significant enough to tip dead-even states into one camp or the other.
  • The Hispanic vote may very well determine the Presidential winner in these four states. Given how close the election is, this may determine the outcome of the Presidential race itself.

Therefore, the data proves that the paranoia over the prospect of dealing with the broken immigration system due to the emotional nature of the debate as framed by anti-immigrant activists is unfounded. An overhaul of our current immigration system is not only the right thing to do, there is an urgent need for it and the data demonstrates that there is overwhelming support to enact it. Enforcement-only is not an immigration policy. We need to fix the entire broken system. Just this morning, USA TODAY's Emily Bazar wrote a story reporting how the higher application fees at ICE are actually discouraging immigrants from seeking citizenship. Even Mark Krikorian, Executive Director of the research center for a series of anti-immigrant hate groups, CIS, which calls for reduced immigration agrees fees are, "probably too high" and should reflect only processing costs.

When it comes to immigration reform, our data matches the data from the many polls conducted on this issue for the last three years: politically, immigration is actually a positive and not a negative because voters want action, and from a policy standpoint there is a consensus to enact it.

 

 

 

I.C.E Ends Self-deport Program

I suppose most of us saw this coming...

The federal government will scrap a program for illegal immigrants to turn themselves in for deportation after only eight people volunteered during a nearly three-week trial, an official said Thursday.


And yet, I find myself rather stunned at the ongoing incompetence. They tried for three weeks. They spent $41,000 to advertise the program and then gave it only three weeks?


After years of rounding people up and scaring the hell out of immigrant communities by tearing families apart, making people disappear and allowing people to die while in custody, ICE calls it quits after three-weeks and, predictably, blames the immigrants and immigration advocates:

The bottom line is it is not effective," Hayes said. "Quite frankly, I think this proves the only method that works is enforcement...Hayes said lack of support from those activists shows they are unwilling to accept any enforcement."They want amnesty, they want open borders, and they want a more vulnerable America," he said. Hayes told the AP that other tactics have proven more effective. ICE has been tracking down so-called immigration "fugitives" by knocking on their doors at home, often during pre-dawn hours.


Apparently it's not "enforcement" unless they're hunting people down and dragging them out of their homes in the middle of the night.


Pathetic.


Note to Congress: Comprehensive immigration reform is the only answer.


Note to the GOP: Throw the nativist, xenophobic Know-nothings over board...they're in the way of a responsible solution.

Lincoln Díaz-Balart ataca a Obama

El Congresista Republicano Lincoln Díaz-Balart acusó abiertamente ayer a Obama de no tener idea del problema migratorio. Declaró también que es absurdo que Obama trate de tomar crédito por su lucha por reforma migratoria, ya que -según el- Obama trabajó en contra de la reforma migratoria integral.

Lo que es absurdo es que se critique a alguien que - a diferencia de McCain- ha mantenido su posición a favor de una reforma migratoria desde el principio. Es ridículo también que se le acuse de ir en contra de la reforma cuando fue verdaderamente un líder en buscar una reforma balanceada, presionando al Congreso para que encontrara una solución que reflejara un acuerdo o término medio entre las dos posiciones, introduciendo enmiendas que hubiesen priorizado mantener la unidad de los inmigrantes con sus familias y castigado a aquellos empleadores que contrataran inmigrantes ilegales.

Asímismo, Obama, conjuntamente con el Representante Demócrata de Illinois Luis Gutierrez, introdujo el Acta de Promoción de Ciudadanía (el cual controla los precios de las solicitudes de ciudadanía para asegurar que sean justos y razonables). Obama también introdujo legislación que fue aprobada en el Senado para mejorar tanto la rapidez como la exactitud de las investigaciones de antecedentes que realiza el FBI como parte del proceso para obtener la ciudadanía.

¿Cómo, entonces, puede tener la osadía el Sr. Díaz-Balart de denunciar a un candidato que ha mantenido su posición firmemente sobre una reforma migratoria integral, produciendo respuestas y soluciones genuinas a uno de los problemas que más incomoda a nuestra nación? Y especialmente cuando el candidato al que el Sr. Díaz-Balart respalda, el Sen. Mc Cain, ha cambiado su posición notablemente. Consideremos principalmente que dicho cambio de opinión cumplió un rol instrumental en que el proyecto de ley McCain-Kennedy (su propio proyecto), que presentaba una reforma migratoria amplia e integral, no fuera aprobado en el Senado. Mi pregunta es; ¿Cómo podemos apoyar a un candidato que no se apoya a sí mísmo?

Syndicate content