Immigration Blog

The Speechifying of Charlie Rose and Concerns of an Immigrant's Grandson

By Jerry Kammer, August 12, 2013

Two comments in different media venues last week grabbed my attention. The first came from PBS interviewer Charlie Rose. The second on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal", came from the grandson of an immigrant from Mexico.

Rose's comment came in an interview with Max Levchin, the Internet entrepreneur and co-founder of PayPal whose family immigrated to the United States from the Ukraine when he was a young boy. Read more...

Soros-Backed Sojourners Pontificates for Amnesty

By James R. Edwards Jr., August 12, 2013

Jim Wallis, the head of the politically leftist "evangelical" organization Sojourners, has penned an op-ed that the L.A. Times ran. Wallis's op-ed claims biblical "compassion" requires Christian lawmakers to enact amnesty. He liberally employs the term, playing on emotions and sob stories from illegal aliens. He cites a recent Washington fly-in of 300 "evangelical Christians" who met with 110 legislative offices, mostly Republicans. Read more...

Alleged Murderer Is an Illegal Alien, but Washington Post Won't Say So

By David North, August 9, 2013

As so often is the case, the murder suspect on the front page of today's Washington Post is an illegal alien, but the paper does not report it.

It was a particularly brutal, senseless murder of a good samaritan by an illegal from Guatemala, a now 27-year-old man. Julio Miguel Blanco Garcia was in a suburban Virginia shopping center with his one-year-old daughter; he asked a woman, apparently a stranger to him, to drive him to the hospital. She agreed; she made a wrong turn and this caused Garcia, apparently crazed by drugs, to think she was about to turn him in to the police. He then repeatedly stabbed her with a knife, as he told police investigators. Read more...

The GOP's Immigration Leverage; No, Really!

By Stanley Renshon, August 9, 2013

The basic stance of many prominent members of the GOP establishment after the 2012 presidential election can be described as panic. The president's sufficiently successful effort to reenergize his base, including Hispanic voters, coupled with Mitt Romney's lackluster showing among that same group, plus instant but erroneous extrapolations of ethnic and racial population trends, led to almost hysterical worry that Republicans were in a demographic "death spiral" from which they could not recover. Read more...

Assorted Examples of Overseas Immigration Practices

By David North, August 8, 2013

American policymakers rarely look at the practices of other nations in the field of immigration. That is a shame because much can be learned there.

Today we have two examples, one from Britain and one from Canada, both mixes of useful and non-useful precedents for the United States. Read more...

GOP Congressman Calls Illegal Aliens "Undocumented Citizens", Trusts Obama Administration

By Jon Feere, August 8, 2013

While holding a town hall meeting, Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) was caught on video supporting amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, people he calls "undocumented citizens". In response to a question from a woman with illegal alien family members who have been in the country for over 13 years, he illustrated a lack of understanding of immigration policy and unjustifiable faith in the Obama administration to secure the border. Seven problems with his response are analyzed below. Here's his quote: Read more...

Why President Obama Will Sign Any Reasonable Immigration Bill that Reaches His Desk

By Stanley Renshon, August 7, 2013

It is very clear that President Obama sees himself as a transforming leader, one who bends circumstances to his convictions and preferred goals. However his ability to validate his self-image by real legislative and policy accomplishments has been stymied by the domestic, political, and foreign policy choices he has made. Read more...

Investor Visa Program Gets Another Black Eye, This Time from the FBI

By David North, August 7, 2013

The immigrant investor (EB-5) program got another black eye, this time from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to the Associated Press.

A USCIS-licensed regional center in South Texas, used as a conduit for funds in the EB-5 program, was raided by the FBI, which hauled away a Mercedes SUV and a "Texas-sized pick-up truck" belonging to the conspirators, according to a local reporter. Both apparently had been purchased with siphoned-off EB-5 funds, invested by wealthy Mexican nationals wanting to flee that country.

The McAllen Monitor called it a "Ponzi Scheme" because new EB-5 investments were used to pay off other, earlier investors. Read more...

Aiming for Greatness: President Obama's Accomplishment Gap

By Stanley Renshon, August 7, 2013

President Obama is fast approaching the point at which the record of his aspirations in relation to his actual accomplishments will come into shaper focus, and the extravagant expectations that greeted his candidacy will face the harsh light of reality.

This would be difficult enough for any ambitious person; however, it is very likely intolerable for someone whose presidency and its legacy is meant to be an affirmation of his status as a "great president".

The last two words in quotes are President Obama's, not mine. Read more...

Prosecutor: Seattle Law Would Shield Illegal Alien Burglars, Arsonists, Bombers

By Jon Feere, August 6, 2013

Lawmakers in King County, Wash., are considering a sanctuary policy that the county's own prosecutor says would shield dangerous criminal aliens from federal immigration enforcement. Read more...