A total of 1,130,818 persons obtained permanent resident alien status in fiscal year 2009; it was the first time in U.S. history that this number topped one million for the fifth year in a row.

Department of Homeland Security data on the year was released a few days ago. Read more...

An item on the political website RealClearPolitics argues that Americans are just fine with high legal immigration – rather, it's just illegal immigration they have a problem with and are exercised about. But that argument doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Read more...

The USCIS has begun a comprehensive review of one aspect of its decision-making, and it starts in an interesting place – the migration problems of the rich and famous.

The agency has released a summary of the April 12, 2010, "listening session" which dealt with the "Request for Evidence Project," an examination of the agency's requests for information in connection with the three nonimmigrant visa classes, O, P, and Q, and one immigrant category, E 11. Read more...

The Arizona Senate yesterday approved the final House version of an immigration bill, sending it to the governor for her signature (which is expected, though she hasn't committed to it yet). The bill describes its intent this way: Read more...

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1. Biometrics considered as solution
2. Sen. to meet with activists
3. College accused of discrimination
4. Advocates to help Haitians
5. Iraqi refugees struggle Read more...

Telemundo, a Spanish-language TV network, had a big day on Sunday. Not only did it introduce a new Sunday public-affairs program with a spirited discussion of immigration, but the program's anchor was also a participant in the roundtable discussion of NBC's Meet the Press. Both Telemundo and NBC are owned by General Electric. Read more...

Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street powerhouse charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with fraud, is also a substantial user of H-1B workers. Read more...

The USCIS Office of Public Engagement has issued an invitation for comments on its various programs, and it behooves one and all to respond.

The survey is online at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6N2T3BQ and is open to the public. Read more...

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1. House bill protects federal lands
2. ICE to return smugglers to Mexico
3. AZ representatives split on fence
4. AZ bill leads on enforcement
5. Activists tout tax contributions Read more...

Illegal immigrants are standing at the ready to solve America's public deficit crisis – or so you might conclude upon reading the Schumer-Graham immigration reform/amnesty proposal. One of the least plausible elements of the bill is the notion that providing legal status to illegal immigrants will be a boon to the U.S. Treasury. Read more...

A significant think tank has just issued a study on the effects of the proposed legalization of currently illegal alien residents.

It states (on p. 18) that "Our estimates suggest that 87 percent of former crossers and 91 percent of overstayers filed federal tax returns in 2002." Read more...

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1. Sen. Reid hesitates on amnesty
2. AZ congresswoman pushes fence
3. AZ gov. considering new bill
4. VA jurisdictions join Sec. Comm.
5. Birthright laws questioned Read more...

The Arizona legislature is showing that federalism still lives. State lawmakers have passed a bill to make it a state crime to reside in the state without proof of lawful U.S. residence. The legislation also empowers police officers to check a suspect's immigration status. Read more...

The Mexican House of Representatives has called for that nation's government to boycott all goods made in Oklahoma because it is upset by that state's unique tax-withholding scheme, according to an AP dispatch. Read more...

A well-attended session at a Washington think tank yesterday provided some nuanced clues as to the intellectual rhetoric that will accompany the upcoming legalization debate.

Briefly: 1) if your research asks soft questions, you will get soft answers, and 2) there are the inevitable statements that legalization is just part of a broader, thoughtful, problem-solving program. Read more...

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1. H-1B sees drop in demand
2. Mexico unhappy about OK tax
3. Sen. Reid to press amnesty
4. VA man caters to niche
5. BP nabs 24 off CA coast Read more...

Անօրինական ներգաղթի մասին հարցազրոյց Մարկ Գրիգորեանի հետ.

An interview on illegal immigration with Mark Krikorian. Read more...

Millionaire huckster Morris Dees, whose venomous and malevolent Southern Poverty Law Center exists almost exclusively "to separate wealthy liberals from their money," in the words of Harper's Ken Silverstein, has done remarkably well for himself. (See a CIS profile of Dees' foray into the immigration business here.) You can see for yourself just how well he's done in this slide show of his Montgomery, Ala. estate. I'm not sure which I like better — the pool house, the guest house, the studio building, or the main mansion. Read more...

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1. Amnesty initiative faltering
2. Sen. Reid reiterates promise
3. CA campaign may pivot on issue
4. Multi-city protests for amnesty
5. Firm settles $18m lawsuit Read more...

One way to spin the news is by selecting stories that together create a single message. With immigration looming as a national issue the editors of my local paper, The Contra Costa Times, are doing their part to move amnesty forward by diffusing public misgivings about it and about Mexico as a neighbor through the selection of articles in their news coverage. Read more...

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, late in the Bush administration, issued an emergency ruling that silently robs the Social Security Trust Fund of nearly a billion dollars a year, every year.

This stealth attack may have been reported in the press somewhere, but I doubt it.

As is everything at the murky intersection of immigration and tax policy, the matter is complicated, indirect, and until now totally hidden from public view. Further, USCIS's adamant, continuing refusal to routinely issue statistics on much of what it is doing makes the murk murkier. Read more...

This morning USCIS announced that the number of H-1B petitions filed in the first week of the month fell sharply from last year's comparable period, and even more dramatically vis-a-vis earlier years. One of the impacts of this is a major blow to the agency's budget. Read more...

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1. DHS IG criticizes 287(g)
2. Illegal students to lobby
3. NYPD looks after foreign victims
4. SEIU blasts Obama policies
5. Chicago businesses rally Read more...

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1. House Dem warns Obama Admin
2. Report: ESL students make gains
3. AZ gov. asks for border sec.
4. AZ activists push for amnesty
5. Banned Muslim cleric visits Read more...

An interesting question has arisen as a result of a congressional hearing: would a massive legalization program, as many advocates want, slow the processing of applications filed routinely by citizens and legal aliens wanting immigration benefits? Read more...

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1. DHS IG: program lacks oversight
2. Amnesty study: no economic effect
3. CA has hawkish primary candidates
4. CA co. implements Sec. Comm.
5. Sec. Comm. begins in OR co. Read more...

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1. Amnesty unlikely for 2010
2. DHS report criticizes 287(g)
3. Labor Dept. revs up effort
4. Poll: "pathway" favored
5. SC company to work with ICE Read more...

Immigration attorneys have been pushing to expand the definition (and application) of asylum in order to create an asylum policy that welcomes many and denies entry to very few. For at least the past three decades, a number of activist-minded attorney groups have pushed for this expansion, even though it has meant advancing analysis that contradicts the original intent and traditional interpretation of the law. Read more...

Imagine 2050, a web site devoted to smearing those who do not share their support of high immigration, claimed last year that I wrote an article for the American Free Press (AFP). First, I did not give permission to AFP to publish anything I have written. I was unaware that AFP even existed until this issue came up. AFP simply lifted from the internet parts of something I wrote for the Center for Immigration Studies. Read more...

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1. No consensus on amnesty
2. DHS IG: 287(g) oversight needed
3. Rancher's murder incites alarm
4. OSHA campaign reaches out
5. Pol: sanctuary cities are safer Read more...