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USCIS Sheds a Little Light on Denial Rates

Denial rates in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) amnesty are still being kept under wraps by USCIS, but some light was shed on related subjects recently; further, the agency earlier released some numbers on non-DACA denial rates. As many have noticed, USCIS is much more likely to talk about case volume (receipts) or grants (approvals) than it is about denials of applications. This is in keeping with its self-image as a benefit-granting agency. Read more...

MALDEF, NILC, ACLU Misrepresent DACA in Lawsuit Against Arizona

A coalition of high-immigration activist groups has filed a lawsuit against Arizona over the state's decision to not issue driver's licenses to illegal aliens granted deferred action (DACA) by President Obama. In their complaint, the groups misrepresent DACA, inaccurately describing the program's eligibility criteria. Specifically, the attorneys wrote: Read more...

DHS to Create a Class of *Undocumented* Permanent Resident Aliens in 2013

Starting on February 1, 2013, America will have a new legal class of aliens — they will be undocumented permanent resident aliens. This bizarre new category of immigrant was created by a notice in the December 14 Federal Register by order of United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), a part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Read more...

Before Considering Another Amnesty, Look at IRCA’s Lessons

There is much talk about the need for “comprehensive immigration reform”. With that in mind it would be useful to review what we as a nation learned, or should have learned, from our last big experiment in the field, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA). Read more...

Missing the point on immigration

A recent report on immigration enforcement from the Migration Policy Institute, touted in these pages by one of its authors [“Beyond secure borders,” op-ed, Jan. 7], was both mistaken and missed the point. The news release about the report announced: “The U.S. government spends more on federal immigration enforcement than on all other principal federal criminal law enforcement agencies combined.” Read more...

Won’t Get Fooled Again

This latest iteration of the decade-old amnesty con contains the same old “back of the line” baloney as its predecessors. In other words, illegal immigrants will supposedly not be able to cut ahead of those who didn’t break the law. But, of course, that’s nonsense, because the only line they might have to wait in is the line for an actual green card. Read more...

A Blueprint for Immigration Reform

The U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, created by Congress as part of the Immigration Act of 1990, had impressive credentials, access to millions in federal funds, and was served by a highly competent staff. Read more...

"Binational Dialogue on Mexican Migrants" Likely to be Abused

People in the immigration field are well aware that visa abusers present an enormous challenge. The release of "Binational Dialogue on Mexican Migrants" at a briefing on Capitol Hill today reminds me of the problems created by "study abusers" who will surely twist this report to advance the interests of the mas migration forces. Read more...

Five More States Submit REAL ID Compliance Packages

With states facing a new REAL ID compliance deadline of July 15, 2013, and DHS enforcement action tentatively set to begin as early as autumn 2013 (DHS hopes), DHS tells me that five more states have submitted compliance packages to the DHS REAL ID Office that DHS says meet the law's certification requirements. These five all have submitted the compliance packages since the December 21, 2012, DHS press release setting forth its compliance and enforcement policy. Read more...

We Should Remember the Bracero Program ... and Shudder

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, was recently quoted in an ABC News story about the dangers of nonimmigrant worker schemes: "Programs like the bracero program or temporary guest-worker programs where individuals were tied to an employer, they got exploited", he said. "They got cheated out of wages [and] they weren't given what was rightfully due to them. They were forced to work under unsafe conditions. They were forced to accept substandard wages. They couldn't say anything, because if they did, [the employer] would jerk their permit and deport them." Read more...

All the News that Fits

A new report by the Center for Immigration Studies shows that the New York Times's coverage of one of the most pressing social issues, U.S. immigration policy, is flawed by ideological bias that frames illegal immigrants as a vulnerable class to be protected against critics whose motivation is rooted in racism. Read more...

Calling C-Span: A Border Patrol Agent in Texas and a Contractor in Massachusetts

This morning C-SPAN’s "Washington Journal" included a pair of calls, one right after the other, expressing frustration with immigration-law enforcement at opposite ends of the country. The first came from a man who identified himself as Gil, a Border Patrol agent from Hebronville, Texas. The second came from Sam in Boston, who said he is a small contractor. Here is some of what they said. Read more...

Pro-Amnesty 'Utah Compact' Rejected by Utah County Republicans

The Utah Compact is the creation of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce and it was designed to push the Chamber's illegal alien amnesty agenda. The Utah Compact has been embraced by the pro-illegal immigrant Mormon Church, the New York Times, and the Obama administration. In addition, the Utah Compact was signed by three former Utah governors, a retired U.S. Senator, the state's former Attorney General, and a who's who of Utah business, civic, and religious leaders. Read more...

Legalization vs. Enforcement

This Backgrounder reports the results of a new Pulse Opinion Research poll, which finds that most Americans want immigration laws enforced. When given a choice between reducing the illegal immigrant population by enforcing the law or a conditional legalization, the public strongly prefers enforcement. This is especially true of Republican voters. Read more...

Asking for Trust, Evading Verification

The Center has prepared a chronology that traces the history of border-security metrics back to 2004, illustrating the efforts by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and other officials to block efforts to measure their performance at the border. Read more...

Dynamic Scoring of Immigration?

The core of Holtz-Eakin's argument is that immigration makes the economy larger in the future by increasing the population. This he believes will change behavior, thereby increasing productivity, income, and resulting tax payments. To be clear, the author does not cite any research showing immigration itself increases per capita GDP. Nor does he ever discuss the fiscal impact of legalizing 11 to 12 million illegal immigrants. The article is really just speculation about the benefits of increasing population growth. Yet a number of advocates of high immigration have latched on Holtz-Eakin's claim that dynamic analysis means that amnesty would be a boon for the treasury. Read more...

Wanted: More Reporting on K Street's Influence

The Hill, the Capitol Hill newspaper, has noted in an editorial that the new immigration reform bill was produced by a "bipartisan group of eight senators [who claim it] will both secure the border and create a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants." The paper said that accomplishment "follows months of difficult negotiations in which the Gang of Eight sought to address weaknesses that have killed prior immigration bills." True enough, as far as it goes. But there has been little reporting on efforts to shape the bill for purely commercial purposes. The public needs to understand what is being done along the axis of influence that ties K Street and Capitol Hill. There, dozens of lobbyists are representing the interests of a myriad of employers who want to shape the bill to suit their purposes. They also perform the complementary duty of raising money for the politicians whose opinions they seek to shape — and for whom many of the lobbyists previously worked. Read more...

Immigration Bill Contains Slush Funds for Pro-Amnesty Groups

The pro-amnesty lobbyists who helped craft the Schumer-Rubio immigration bill included within the bill two "slush funds" amounting to $150 million that may be supplemented with additional taxpayer dollars for years to come. Slush fund grantees are "public or private, non-profit organizations" described in the bill as including "a community, faith-based, or other immigrant-serving organization whose staff has demonstrated qualifications, experience, and expertise in providing quality services to immigrants, refugees, persons granted asylum, or persons applying for such statuses." In other words, the grantees would include many of the groups involved in writing and promoting the amnesty. Read more...

Let Us Now Praise Ethan Bronner of the New York Times

After writing criticisms of the New York Times's coverage of immigration in which I expressed dismay at the paper's seeming disinterest in the negative effects that foreign workers can have on U.S. workers, I want to express my admiration for Monday's story out of Georgia by Times reporter Ethan Bronner, "Workers Claim Race Bias as Farms Rely on Immigrants". Read more...

2013 Katz Award Ceremony Video

Bob Segall, a senior investigative reporter for WTHR-TV in Indiana, is the recipient of the 2013 Eugene Katz Award for Excellence in the Coverage of Immigration. In 2012, Mr. Segall exposed policies within the Internal Revenue Service that allowed illegal aliens to receive billions of dollars in improper tax credits and refunds. For a decade, managers within the agency encouraged tax examiners to ignore this fraud. Mr. Segall’s eleven-part series has drawn more than 13 million of viewers and resulted in congressional action to reform the system. Read more...

CBO: Schumer-Rubio Bill Will Be a Failure

Heritage, CIS, and others will be examining the assumptions behind the Congressional Budget Office projections of the Schumer-Rubio immigration bill's budget impact, but why not start by just assuming, for the sake of argument, that all the CBO assumptions are plausible and their calculations correct? If so, the bill will fail on its own terms. Read more...

Schumer-Corker-Hoeven Overstay Provisions Overstated

Among the faux enforcement improvements being hyped by supporters of the deceptive Schumer-Corker-Hoeven substitute amendment to the Gang of Eight bill is a new section titled "Removal of Nonimmigrants Who Overstay Their Visas". Not exactly. The new provision (Section 1201) says that no later than six months after the enactment of the bill, the DHS Secretary shall begin dealing with those foreign visitors who arrived after the bill's enactment and who overstayed their temporary visa by at least six months. The Secretary is required to deal with at least 90 percent of the overstayers. Read more...

Castaneda Blasts Border Fence

In an interview broadcast Sunday on Univision's "Al Punto" program, former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda sharply criticized the just-passed U.S. Senate bill's provisions to lengthen the border fence and limit the number of temporary worker visas. His comments, together with those of Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, contradicted the claim by many advocates of the Senate bill that emigration from Mexico is declining rapidly. Read more...

Widening Existing Vulnerabilities

The Senate-passed S.744 has three distinct, mandatory airport exit requirements, only two of which involve seaports. None solve the air carrier problem, only one provides funding, and all conflict with current law. Read more...

Video: DC March for Jobs

The Black American Leadership Alliance (BALA) organized the the DC March for Jobs, which was held on July 15, along with community leaders of all races from around the country. The march was organized in an attempt to stop Congress’ amnesty push, enforce immigration laws as written, and support policies that put black U.S. citizens back to work. The following videos are of the speakers from the event. Table of Contents Read more...