Immigration Opinions, 10/6/18

Immigration Opinions, 10/6/18 Support the Center for Immigration Studies by donating on line here: http://cis.org/donate ATTN Federal employees: The Center's Combined Federal Campaign number is 10298. This email includes a wide range of views, provided for educational purposes. Inclusion does not constitute an endorsement by the Center for Immigration Studies.  1. "CIS Immigration Blog Posts," Steven A. Camarota, Dan Cadman, Todd Bensman, Andrew R. Arthur, Nayla Rush, David North, and Kausha Luna 2. "Twice As Many Illegal Aliens In US According To MIT," Michael Cutler 3. "Chinese Citizen Arrested By FBI For Spying On U.S.," Michael Cutler 4. "Google vs. Border Security," Michael Cutler 5. "Trump's 'Compromise' on Border Wall," Terry Jeffrey 6. "Hardly Angels, DACA Beneficiaries Run Afoul of the Law," Jennifer G. Hickey 7. "Rhetoric Against Public Charge Law Gets Feverish," Bob Dane 8. "Resettlement Is Only One Measure of Commitment to Refugees," Ira Mehlman 9. "ICE Cold Hypocrisy," Matt O'Brien 10. "California Immigration Virtue-Signaling Fails," Matt O'Brien 11. "Anti-Trump, Far-Left California Judge Shows Why Judicial Nominations Matter," Investors Business Daily 12. "The Decline (and Fall?) of Angela Merkel Is a Warning Sign for Immigration Apologists Everywhere," Nicholas Waddy 13. "Illegal Immigration Helping California Steal Congress," Steve Gruber 14. "Don't Count Illegal Aliens," John F. McManus 15. "Study: Consequences Cut Illegal Immigration," Charles Fain Lehman 16. "The Democrats' Latest Bill to Shield Illegal Aliens," Jazz Shaw 17. "From Reaction to Strategy in the Immigration Debate," Peter Rousmaniere 18. "How Will the Public Charge Rule Impact Employers and Immigrants?," Stuart Anderson 19. "We Need an Independent Immigration Court System," Ben Johnson 20. "Over 100 Million Immigrants Have Come to America Since the Founding," David Bier 21. "Trump Has Cut Christian Refugees 64%, Muslim Refugees 93%," David Bier 22. "A New Immigration Policy is Preventing Foreign Students From Using Their Skills in the US," Erin Dunne 23. "Hundreds of Children Rot in the Desert. End Trump's Draconian Policies.," The New York Times 24. "Expanding the 'Public Charge' Rule Jeopardizes the Well-Being of Immigrants and Citizens," Hamutal Bernstein and Archana Pyati 25. "Trump's Immigration Policies Have Given Us a 'Tent City' for Children," Harry Cheadle 26. "Trump's Immigration Policies Have Especially Affected Women and Domestic Violence Victims," Tal Kopan 27. "What Has America Become? The Lamp Is Dimming, to Our Detriment," Bruce A. Beardsley 28. "Nativism and the Diminishment of American Rights," Brendan Cushing-Daniels 29. "Building Immigrant Communities in the Trump Era," Kavitha Rajagopalan 30. "The Immigration Enforcers," TheWeek.com 31. "USCIS Begins Implementing Plan to Issue More Deportation Notices," Aaron Reichlin-Melnick 32. "As Immigration Court Quotas Go Into Effect, Many Call For Reform," Aaron Reichlin-Melnick 1. CIS Immigration Blog Posts Teen Summer Employment Picture Actually Got Worse in the Last Year By Steven A. Camarota October 4, 2018 . . . Highlights in the new data show: * The labor force participation rate (share working or looking for work) of U.S.-born teens actually declined from 41.2 percent in 2017 to 40.7 percent in 2018. * The decline in teen labor force participation of U.S.-born teens primarily impacted blacks and Hispanics; white labor force participation rose slightly. . . . https://cis.org/Camarota/Teen-Summer-Employment-Picture-Actually-Got-Worse-Last-Year The Lopsided State of Legal 'Standing' in Immigration Cases By Dan Cadman October 4, 2018 . . . Looked at in this context, "standing" becomes a particularly slippery notion where immigration is concerned. Here is why: When an alien, or a group of aliens seeking "class action" status, files a lawsuit, he or they need only say that a particular decision — or new policy being effected — has had (or will have) an adverse impact on their personal circumstances through denial of an application for status of some kind or another. They are at least halfway to the goal of achieving standing simply by the allegation they are harmed by not being given a benefit, or by being detained, or by being ordered deported, or by not being admitted, even if the law overtly and transparently gives the president and his officers statutory authority or sole discretion to say no. Conversely, however, citizens such as you or me who see a policy that we believe adversely affects us — such as huge and burdensome foreign guestworker programs that depress wages or deprive Americans of jobs; or chain migration that strains social services that are ostensibly (but not in actuality) outside the reach of "self-sufficient" migrants whose sponsors have filed meaningless and unenforced affidavits of support — we will have a difficult time convincing a judge that the harm against us or other citizens similarly situated is particularized enough to gain standing to sue. . . . https://cis.org/Cadman/Lopsided-State-Legal-Standing-Immigration-Cases The First Border-Crosser to Attack in North America: Finally, an Update Answers to lingering questions come in a new 3,500-word report on the 2017 Edmonton, Alberta, vehicle attack By Todd Bensman October 3, 2018 . . . Sharif's travel route from Brazil to Mexico is hazy, but court records-based research about how Somali migrants have traveled to the American southern border show that Zambia and Angola are on established smuggling routes from East Africa, to include Somalia and Kenya. From the capital of Luanda, Angola, Somali migrants then find it easy to use bogus identity documents to gain Brazilian visas (sometimes using smugglers who buy them from corrupt consular officials elsewhere in Africa) and to board flights to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. From Brazil, many U.S. border-bound migrants then find their way to Colombia and then through Central America to Mexico. . . . https://cis.org/Bensman/First-BorderCrosser-Attack-North-America-Finally-Update Judge Halts Termination of TPS for Sudan, Haiti, El Salvador, and Nicaragua Under this ruling, would the Trump administration ever be allowed to end TPS for any country? By Andrew R. Arthur October 5, 2018 . . . Not to denigrate a coffee rust epidemic, it appears to have no connection to the earthquakes that prompted El Salvador's TPS designation to begin with. Again, respectfully, the idea that returning to the statutory text of a limited delegation of authority by Congress is a change in the executive branch's policies or practices that would trigger the APA is nothing less than exceptional. Judge Chen also selectively identifies statements made by the president (including when he was then-candidate Trump) to find that "there are serious questions as to whether the terminations of TPS designations could 'reasonably be understood to result from a justification independent of unconstitutional grounds,'" in particular "whether there is evidence that President Trump harbors an animus against non-white, non-European aliens which influenced his (and thereby the Secretary's) decision to end the TPS designation." . . . https://cis.org/Arthur/Judge-Halts-Termination-TPS-Sudan-Haiti-El-Salvador-and-Nicaragua Interesting Takeaways in Recent Report on Asylum Backlogs create an incentive to apply simply to get a work permit By Andrew R. Arthur October 3, 2018 . . . According to USCIS, the agency received 78,564 credible fear cases in FY 2017, and issued 79,710 decisions. Fear was established in 60,566 of those decisions, was not established in 8,245 cases, and an additional 10,899 were closed for various reasons in that year. This means that the rate at which credible fear was found was anywhere between almost 76 percent of the total cases and 88 percent of the cases in which credible fear was adjudicated. The numbers in FY 2018, as reflected in USCIS statistics, have not been any better. By the third quarter of FY 2018, the agency had received 73,283 credible fear cases. It issued 72,661 decisions: In 55,562 cases, credible fear was established; in 6,803 cases, credible fear was not established; and 10,296 cases were closed. Again, this means that the rate at which credible fear was found was anywhere between 76 percent of the total cases and 89 percent of the cases in which credible fear was adjudicated. At least the agency was consistent. . . . https://cis.org/Arthur/Interesting-Takeaways-Recent-Report-Asylum Don't Kick the Can Down the Road on Immigration Legislation There is no time like the current congressional calendar By Andrew R. Arthur September 28, 2018 . . . Courts have not helped the issue. When the administration attempted to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, judges stepped in to keep it going, as I explained in an August 2018 post. The prospect of the program ending would likely have encouraged Democrats (in particular) to make compromises that may have saved at least one of those bills. Perhaps the American people have grown comfortable with the prospect of immigration laws that are not enforced. The biggest issue is that non-enforcement encourages more people to attempt to enter the United States illegally, which causes more lawlessness and hazards, which I detailed in a July 2018 post. Non-enforcement also undermines democracy. As citizens, we agree to live under rules that have been established for us, even if some of those rules are dated. If the people don't like the laws, they can change the laws — that is the beauty of democracy. To have laws on the books that are not enforced threatens the enforcement of any law, in much the same way as the denial of rights to any person or group of people threatens the rights of all. The countenancing of non-enforcement by elected representatives shows a certain lack of fortitude on their individual parts. . . . https://cis.org/Arthur/Dont-Kick-Can-Down-Road-Immigration-Legislation Refugee Resettlement Admissions in FY 2018 By Nayla Rush October 1, 2018 . . . Both FY 2018 and FY 2019 ceiling determinations set by President Trump (45,000 and 30,000 respectively) are the lowest ceilings since Congress passed the Refugee Act of 1980. FY 2018's total admissions of 22,491 are also the lowest number since the beginning of the resettlement program. Total yearly admissions have at times been lower than others (for instance, following 9/11, admissions fell to 27,131 in FY 2002 and 28,403 in FY 2003 – both years had a 70,000 ceiling), but FY 2018 is an all-time low. Ceilings remain targets that can be out of reach. Fiscal year 2018's discrepancy between the ceiling of 45,000 and actual admissions of 22,491 happened because admissions were hindered by travel bans and the setting up of enhanced security and integrity measures. Improving the vetting process for refugee applicants seeking resettlement in the United States has in fact meant admitting fewer refugees. . . . https://cis.org/Rush/Refugee-Resettlement-Admissions-FY-2018 H1-B Employer Holds Off on Visa Extension By David North October 3, 2018 . . . I am not an expert on such things, but it strikes me that a computer-wielding person with a PhD and published books to her credit might well be considered as having a "specialized occupation", so maybe Johns Hopkins overreacted to reports of H-1B tightening; further, there may be some other factor than the announced one for the university's decision, a funding problem or a loss of interest in her specialty of digitizing the humanities, for example. One of the ironies in the story is that Johns Hopkins will not lose an H-1B slot because of its decision in this case. It is a university and all of its reasonable requests for H-1Bs will be met; there is no ceiling on new ones. If one of the IT outsourcing firms had made such a decision, it would have lost one of its H-1B slots, as they are subject to the numerical ceilings that do not touch the universities. . . . https://cis.org/North/H1B-Employer-Holds-Visa-Extension USCIS Moves to Limit Fee-Waiver Requests, and Thus Save Money By David North October 2, 2018 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is proposing to limit the number of people who can secure waivers for USCIS fees. This is good news as it will strengthen the finances of that fee-supported agency, probably reduce the number of fee-waiver applications it handles, reduce the number of relatively low-income applicants who get USCIS services for free, and perhaps nibble a little at the total amount of immigration benefits handed out each year. . . . https://cis.org/North/USCIS-Moves-Limit-FeeWaiver-Requests-and-Thus-Save-Money Salvadorans Migrate for Economic Reasons Concerns about violence are not at the forefront By Kausha Luna October 2, 2018 . . . Calleja's emphasis on the need for economic development, as it relates to migration, is not misplaced. According to the "National Survey on Migration and Remittances: El Salvador 2017" by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Salvadorans primarily migrate for economic reasons. The three principal reasons reported as causes for Salvadoran emigration were as follows: Employment, better living conditions, and remittances. Because IOM recognizes that migration can have multiple causes, survey respondents could mention more than one reason, so the sum of individual percentages is greater than 100. Of those surveyed, 73.8 percent reported employment as a motive for migration. Meanwhile, 48.2 percent migrated, or intended to migrate, in order to attain better living conditions. And 22.3 percent said they migrated in order to be able to send remittances back to El Salvador. In contrast, only 16.3 percent of respondents identified insecurity as reason to migrate. About 9 percent mentioned family reunification as a factor for leaving El Salvador; 3.2 percent identified other reasons. . . . https://cis.org/Luna/Salvadorans-Migrate-Economic-Reasons Return to Top ******** ******** 2. Twice As Many Illegal Aliens In US According To MIT The magnitude of the crisis is greater than has been reported. By Michael Cutler FrontPageMag.com, October 1, 2018 . . . The number of illegal aliens who are present in the United States, however, most certainly has direct and real-world daily implications for all Americans Open borders advocates understand just how important minimizing the actual number of illegal aliens is to their cause. They are determined to convince Americans that the numbers are as small as possible. This is not unlike the speeding motorist who attempts to convince the police officer who just pulled him over than he/she was not really going "that fast." . . . https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271442/twice-many-illegal-aliens-us-according-mit-michael-cutler Return to Top ******** ******** 3. Chinese Citizen Arrested By FBI For Spying On U.S. A case that highlights the nexus between immigration and espionage. By Michael Cutler FrontPageMag.com, September 27, 2018 . . . According to the complaint, Ji was born in China and arrived in the United States in 2013 on an F1 Visa, for the purpose of studying electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. In 2016, Ji enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves as an E4 Specialist under the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) program, which authorizes the U.S. Armed Forces to recruit certain legal aliens whose skills are considered vital to the national interest. In his application to participate in the MAVNI program, Ji specifically denied having had contact with a foreign government within the past seven years, the complaint states. In a subsequent interview with a U.S. Army officer, Ji again failed to disclose his relationship and contacts with the intelligence officer, the charge alleges. I have written several articles and commentaries about my concerns that while China has acted as an adversary of the United States last year more than 150,000 Chinese students were admitted into the United States to study the STEM (Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics) curricula. . . . https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271428/chinese-citizen-arrested-fbi-spying-us-michael-cutler Return to Top ******** ******** 4. Google vs. Border Security How Google employees colluded to undermine Trump's executive orders. By Michael Cutler FrontPageMag.com, September 25, 2018 On September 21, 2018 Newsweek published a disturbing article that contained infuriating revelations titled Google Brainstormed Ways To Combat Trump's Travel Ban By Leveraging Search Results For Pro-Immigration Causes. The Newsweek report stated that Google and their hi-tech colluders took legal action to block the Trump administration from enforcing standing immigration law. . . . https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271407/google-vs-border-security-michael-cutler Return to Top ******** ******** 5. Trump's 'Compromise' on Border Wall By Terry Jeffrey Townhall.com, October 3, 2018 . . . If the Democrats win control of the House in November, Trump will have lost any chance he had of building the border wall he promised his supporters. If the Republicans hold the House and the Senate, Trump will need to decide whether he is going to follow them on border security or they are going to follow him. . . . https://townhall.com/columnists/terryjeffrey/2018/10/03/trumps-compromise-on-border-wall-n2525286 Return to Top ******** ******** 6. Hardly Angels, DACA Beneficiaries Run Afoul of the Law By Jennifer G. Hickey ImmigrationReform.com, October 4, 2018 . . . A more detailed analysis released in June by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) found that almost 8 percent of the 59,786 individuals who have requested DACA status, had arrest records at the time their application was submitted. The crimes included those as serious as assault and battery, rape, murder, and drunk driving. One startling statistic: 199 individuals who requested DACA had 10 or more arrests – and 51 percent of them had their DACA status recently "approved." . . . https://immigrationreform.com/2018/10/04/hardly-angels-daca-beneficiaries-run-afoul-of-the-law/ Return to Top ******** ******** 7. Rhetoric Against Public Charge Law Gets Feverish By Bob Dane ImmigrationReform.com, October 4, 2018 "Scaring vulnerable populations off public assistance and blocking use of public programs could cost much more in the long run, because neglecting preventive health care and basic medical problems creates chronic and complex medical problems, making patients more expensive to treat down the road," writes Goleen Samari, a demographer at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco. . . . No one is suggesting that the public charge policy would disqualify people who went to a public hospital to get a flu shot or some other vaccination. That is hysteria being whipped up by activists, and they are the ones willing to put immigrants' health at risk by spreading false information. Ms. Samari's emotional arguments are yet another way the open-borders lobby infantilizes immigrants. To cite a parallel example: . . . https://immigrationreform.com/2018/10/04/rhetoric-against-public-charge-law-gets-feverish/ Return to Top ******** ******** 8. Resettlement Is Only One Measure of Commitment to Refugees By Ira Mehlman ImmigrationReform.com, October 3, 2018 . . . There is much to criticize about Donald Trump, but it doesn't follow that absolutely everything he says and does is wrong. And a true commitment to aiding the millions of people around the world in desperate situations does not require that they all be resettled in other countries. While the administration's 30,000 cap on refugee admissions has drawn a lot of negative attention, other actions the United States is taking to aid and protect refugees around the world are being ignored. While catching flak for reducing refugee admissions, the United States has been stepping up other relief efforts. One example has been increased aid for those who are caught up in what the U.N.'s World Food Program director David Beasley has described as "undeniably the world's worst humanitarian crisis by far." The crisis to which Beasley was referring is the brutal civil war in Yemen that has left 18 million of the country's 22 million people hungry and homeless. Even the savagery in Syria pales in comparison. . . . https://immigrationreform.com/2018/10/03/resettlement-is-only-one-measure-of-commitment-to-refugees/ Return to Top ******** ******** 9. ICE Cold Hypocrisy By Matt O'Brien ImmigrationReform.com, October 2, 2018 The Washington Post has published an article, titled "County By County, ICE Faces a Growing Backlash," fawning over communities that have decided not to aid U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in apprehending criminal aliens. As the Post describes it, vocal protesters have begun pressuring local sheriffs to refuse ICE requests to hold criminal aliens until the federal government can take them into custody. They have also insisted that sheriffs refuse to rent detention bed space to ICE. The Post, characterizes this as "a furious backlash in local communities across the country," against Trump administration immigration policies. But what the Post has characterized as a "furious backlash" would be more accurately described as the shrill cries of a small number of vocal activists who don't reflect the true consensus of the communities where they are protesting. It also smacks of the guilty whining about facing the consequences of their actions. Even though the mainstream media prefers to refer to them as "immigrants," many of the leaders of the movement to abolish ICE are illegal aliens. . . . https://immigrationreform.com/2018/10/02/ice-cold-hypocrisy/ Return to Top ******** ******** 10. California Immigration Virtue-Signaling Fails By Matt O'Brien ImmigrationReform.com, October 1, 2018 . . . So, did Governor Brown veto SB349 because it's unconstitutional and, therefore, null and void? No, he was worried that the bill might have unintended consequences. SB349 would have prohibited the civil arrest of anyone in a California courthouse while attending a court proceeding or having legal business in the courthouse. That's a problem, because every day, in every court in the United States, thousands of people are subject to civil arrest for violating all manner of laws and court orders. In essence, had SB349 been signed into law by Governor Brown, the Golden State would have shot itself in the foot and hobbled both its court system and many of its own law enforcement agencies. Why not just draft legislation specifically referencing immigration arrests? Because any mention of immigration would likely have meant that California was impermissibly intruding into federal jurisdiction. So, the bill's sponsors tried to play it off as legislation granting judges "the power to preserve and enforce order in judicial proceedings" and, in the process, nearly eliminated their state's ability to effectuate civil arrests of everyone from debt defaulters to fish-and-game violators. . . . https://immigrationreform.com/2018/10/01/california-immigration-virtue-signaling-fails/` Return to Top ******** ******** 11. Anti-Trump, Far-Left California Judge Shows Why Judicial Nominations Matter Investors Business Daily, October 5, 2018 A federal judge in — where else? — California has ruled that the U.S. can't send temporary refugees back to their countries because, basically, he doesn't like President Trump. In doing so, he's shown why both elections and judicial nominations matter. Federal Judge Edward M. Chen is a classic President Obama appointee to the bench. A legal leftist from the University of California, Berkeley, his first years in practice were spent as a staff lawyer for the ACLU. . . . Despite Trump's crude remarks, a judge's job isn't to create the law from the bench, or to act on his own personal feeling about those who make and enforce our laws. A judge's job is to determine whether the case before him was within the scope and authority of the law. That's it. Judges do not make policy. In the case before Chen, anyone who wishes to consult the Constitution and the body of law that supports it will find that the President has the power, authority, and even the obligation, to determine policy in both security and immigration matters. In short, it's his job, Chen's petulant decision notwithstanding. . . . https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/tps-trump-judge-constitution-immigration/ Return to Top ******** ******** 12. The Decline (and Fall?) of Angela Merkel Is a Warning Sign for Immigration Apologists Everywhere By Nicholas Waddy Townhall.com, October 1, 2018 . . . Of particular relevance to the 2016 election, lost by Obama's ally and unabashed illegal immigration apologist Hillary Clinton, Obama could have greeted the waves of "unaccompanied minors" and "refugees" appearing at the U.S border in that pivotal election year with a stern policy of quick repatriation. That would have been not only fully consonant with his responsibility to uphold American sovereignty, but it would also have been in the interests of many of the migrants themselves, who risked their lives trying to reach the U.S. border because of their belief that soft-hearted Obama would welcome them with open arms. And welcome them he did, to a point, with a policy of "catch and release" that not only allowed "refugees" to stay in this country unsupervised, but helped transport them within the country wherever they wished to go. In the process, Obama outraged many law-abiding Americans and fed a narrative that the Democratic Party supported "open borders" and was oblivious to the ill-effects created by the migrant wave. In short, Obama handed an issue to the Republicans that would fire their electoral base with unprecedented enthusiasm. And what was the result of President Obama's shortsightedness – his Merkel-esque imperiousness in dismissing the qualms of his countrymen about unchecked immigration? Donald Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States, and much of Obama's handiwork was steadily undone as America lurched, very predictably, to the right. . . . https://townhall.com/columnists/nicholaswaddy/2018/10/01/the-decline-and-fall-of-angela-merkel-is-a-warning-sign-for-immigration-apologists-everywhere-n2524379 Return to Top ******** ******** 13. Illegal Immigration Helping California Steal Congress By Steve Gruber Newsmax.com, October 3, 2018 . . . Consider for a moment this scenario; what if California, New York, and Illinois, all states with large numbers of illegal residents determine the outcome of a very close Presidential Election but between them they delivered 8 or 10 Electoral Votes they would not have if those here illegally had not been counted. This is by definition illegal voting. What else would you call it? If states are awarded Electoral Votes based on counting people violating Federal Immigration Law and living here unlawfully and as a result their residency some states have more influence on the outcome of elections, that is fraud. It is citizenship fraud that leads to voter fraud and that fraud is being perpetrated on you and me because we live in a state that follows immigration laws. Why should we allow states that ignore the rule of law to benefit from those blatant violations? The answer is we should not, period. ... . . . https://www.newsmax.com/stevegruber/immigration-california-census-citizenship/2018/10/03/id/884661/ Return to Top ******** ******** 14. Don't Count Illegal Aliens By John F. McManus The New American, September 20, 2018 . . . The Alabama congressman contends that his own state, where the number of illegal immigrants is far fewer than the national average because laws dealing with illegal immigration are upheld, is deprived of its rightful number of electoral votes and representation in the U.S. House. If congressional districts were awarded according to the number of citizens instead of the number of residents, says Brooks, the states where federal laws regarding illegals are generally ignored — such as California — would have diminished congressional and electoral clout. Obviously aware of the current practice that includes counting illegals in population totals, President Trump has announced that the 2020 Census will count only citizens. If this presidential decision stands, states where illegal immigrants are currently residing will lose representation and electoral clout. At least 20 of each could change hands. States, such as Alabama, would likely see an increase in their numbers of representatives and electoral votes. . . . https://www.thenewamerican.com/reviews/opinion/item/30129-don-t-count-illegal-aliens Return to Top ******** ******** 15. Study: Consequences Cut Illegal Immigration Research shows prosecution reduces migrant reentry after deportation By Charles Fain Lehman Washington Free Beacon, October 1, 2018 Prosecuting illegal immigrants, or banning them from obtaining a visa, substantially reduces their likelihood of attempting to cross the border a second time, a new study concludes. Although it only discusses a policy rolled out between 2008 and 2012, the study may have major implications for President Donald Trump's zero tolerance approach to immigration enforcement, which still requires the prosecution of most childless border crossers. . . . https://freebeacon.com/issues/study-consequences-cut-illegal-immigration/ Return to Top ******** ******** 16. The Democrats' Latest Bill to Shield Illegal Aliens By Jazz Shaw HotAir.com, October 2, 2018 . . . Since we're on the subject, however, let's take a moment to examine the premise being put forth with this legislation. The claim here is that we can prevent the pursuit of a person who is guilty of a particular crime simply because they are volunteering to perform a specific good deed to assist children. While individual police have no doubt chosen to look the other way on occasion if some minor scofflaw was in the process of doing a public service, that's not the norm. It's also no way to regulate the activities of law enforcement. This bill would basically issue a temporary amnesty to anyone showing up and offering to take in a migrant child. Could that happen from time to time on an unofficial basis? Clearly so, and I wouldn't have any problem with an ICE agent who decided to do that. But as some sort of blanket, official policy enshrined in law it would be a terrible idea. . . . https://hotair.com/archives/2018/10/02/democrats-latest-bill-shield-illegal-aliens/ Return to Top ******** ******** 17. From Reaction to Strategy in the Immigration Debate By Peter Rousmaniere The Valley News (NH), September 29, 2018 . . . Automation will eliminate some of these jobs, but most will remain. What would it take to remove foreign-born workers from these jobs and preserve them for native-born Americans? As many of the foreign-born are likely unauthorized to work, to require all employers to verify the work status of their employees will likely go a long way to achieve this goal. The mechanism, E-Verify, is in place. That might well raise wages, improve compliance with labor laws and improve job quality. This would severely disrupt businesses and entire industries (such as smaller dairy farms) that have depended on a low-wage, foreign-born workforce. The households of these workers, many of them here for decades, would be upended. And what if some industries are starved for workers and could not be rescued by mechanization? Industries have withered in the past from lack of workers. Instead of removing foreign-born workers, we might do the opposite: add millions to fill more of these 25 million jobs and encourage native-born Americans to seek better employment. That might be done through large-scale, long-term guest worker programs set up for specific industries, such as the California farm sector. Native-born Americans would effectively be removed from the labor ranks of these industries, remaining as managers. . . . https://www.vnews.com/Column-Immigration-From-Reaction-to-Strategy-20344088 Return to Top ******** ******** 18. How Will the Public Charge Rule Impact Employers and Immigrants? By Stuart Anderson Forbes.com, October 1, 2018 . . . Anderson: How would a parent, adult child or sibling be denied under the rule? Rand: It's possible even more parents of U.S. citizens would be denied than spouses. If you look at the list of new criteria DHS wants to impose, a great many parents could be denied on the basis of age, income, medical condition or English proficiency. The Migration Policy Institute used Census data to estimate the impact of the 250% income threshold and found that some 56% of all family-based green card applicants could be denied. . . . https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2018/10/01/how-will-the-public-charge-rule-harm-employers-and-immigrants/#5be8385a4995 Return to Top ******** ******** 19. We Need an Independent Immigration Court System By Ben Johnson TheHill.com, October 1, 2018 . . . This flaw in our judicial system has made it vulnerable to the extreme policies of the Attorney General. One such policy goes into effect today, Oct. 1—the imposition of numerical quotas to measure the performance of immigration judges. These quotas will require judges to adjudicate a minimum of 700 cases each year or possibly face disciplinary action. The National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ) opposes the move, calling it a "death knell for judicial independence." The judges argue that quotas will compromise the integrity of the court, undermine due process, and add to the court's backlog, which now exceeds 700,000 cases. In other words, the quotas are unethical, unfair, and inefficient. . . . https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/409172-we-need-an-independent-immigration-court-system Return to Top ******** ******** 20. Over 100 Million Immigrants Have Come to America Since the Founding By David Bier CATO at Liberty Blog, October 4, 2018 . . . The estimate for the number of illegal immigrants is much more tentative for obvious reasons. About 11.3 million immigrants without legal status show up in the Census Bureau's American Community Survey in 2016. Broadly reliable estimates of the illegal population exist back to 1980. While relatively few people immigrated illegally prior to the 1980s, I estimated amounts using the available evidence. Based on estimates of the mortality and emigration rates of illegal immigrants in recent years, we can conclude that about 1.4 million immigrants died without status and 6.4 million illegal immigrants voluntarily emigrated. In addition to these, about 2.4 million were deported. It would be reasonable to increase these figures by 10 to 20 percent, but the overall picture of U.S. immigration in Figure 1 would hold. America's tradition of receiving people from around the world is admirable, but as Figure 2 shows, the rate of legal immigration right now is still far lower than its historic highs in the 19th and early 20th century. America can not only easily sustain a much higher rate of legal immigration than what it permits at the moment—it would benefit greatly from a much higher rate. . . . https://www.cato.org/blog/over-100-million-immigrants-have-come-america-founding Return to Top ******** ******** 21. Trump Has Cut Christian Refugees 64%, Muslim Refugees 93% By David Bier CATO at Liberty Blog, October 3, 2018 . . . The rate of Christian refugee admissions has been 50 percent lower under President Trump's first two years than under President Obama's entire term, and it is 25 percent the monthly rate under President Bush. President Trump's rate of admissions for Muslims was 72 percent lower than Obama and 47 percent lower than Bush. His rate of admitting people of other faiths was 78 percent and 64 percent lower than Obama and Bush, respectively. . . . https://www.cato.org/blog/trump-has-cut-christian-refugees-64-muslim-refugees-93 Return to Top ******** ******** 22. A New Immigration Policy is Preventing Foreign Students From Using Their Skills in the US By Erin Dunne Washington Examiner, October 1, 2018 . . . It didn't have to be this way. These workers had already applied for the visa, and those with expired student visas or recent tech graduates had been given an extension until Oct. 1 that meant they could keep working. That deadline has passed without those applications being processed. Adding to the pain is the fact that the option of paying a little more for expedited processing has also been also been suspended by the Trump administration. Instead, companies are shorthanded, willing workers are left without jobs, and the only option seems to be to wait while U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services tries to process applications. . . . https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/a-new-immigration-policy-is-preventing-foreign-students-from-using-their-skills-in-the-us Return to Top ******** ******** 23. Hundreds of Children Rot in the Desert. End Trump's Draconian Policies. The administration created this crisis. The New York Times, October 1, 2018 . . . Instead, the Trump administration's own draconian policies are to blame. Around the same time that it began separating immigrant children from their parents as they crossed into the United States, the Department of Homeland Security also established strict requirements for the relatives and friends who might care for these children while their cases are sorted out. Prospective sponsors are now required to submit fingerprints, and to share their information with federal immigration officers. Because most of them are undocumented immigrants themselves, they have been scared off by these requirements. And with good cause: Dozens of applicants who took the chance of applying to be sponsors have been arrested on immigration charges. As would-be sponsors shrink away, more children are stranded in federal custody. . . . https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/opinion/migrant-children-tent-city-texas.html Return to Top ******** ******** 24. Expanding the "Public Charge" Rule Jeopardizes the Well-Being of Immigrants and Citizens By Hamutal Bernstein and Archana Pyati Urban Institute, October 3, 2018 . . . The proposed rule could have significant health and economic consequences beyond the individual applicants and for family members who are still eligible for benefits, including children. The public charge rule may force parents to choose between meeting their children's basic needs in the near term and securing their legal residency in the long term. Nearly 20 million children, or one in four, live with an immigrant parent, and nearly 90 percent of these children are citizens. We've seen chilling effects before. After the 1996 welfare reform, refugees' use of benefits declined 33 percent, even though they were exempt from the eligibility restrictions enacted for other immigrant groups in the law. Other research has shown how immigration enforcement programs can have negative "spillover" effects to legally authorized immigrants and citizens, as the broader community experiences rising fear around interaction with government authorities. . . . https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/expanding-public-charge-rule-jeopardizes-well-being-immigrants-and-citizens Return to Top ******** ******** 25. Trump's Immigration Policies Have Given Us a 'Tent City' for Children His administration has constructed yet another monument to needless human suffering. By Harry Cheadle Vice.com, October 1, 2018 . . . Just as the Trump administration's family separation policy was a hamfisted, jackbooted attempt to make life hard for immigrants with no thought as to the practical or political consequences, ICE's crackdown on sponsors has helped foment a crisis. There's no easy answer as to what should be done with unaccompanied minors who cross the border illegally or in search of asylum and get detained by the US government. But the Trump administration has made things worse and erected yet another monument to needless human misery. . . . https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vbnzpx/trumps-immigration-policies-have-given-us-a-tent-city-for-children Return to Top ******** ******** 26. Trump's Immigration Policies Have Especially Affected Women and Domestic Violence Victims By Tal Kopan CNN, September 30, 2018 . . . The result: Victims who apply for the special visas but fall short, including for reasons like incomplete paperwork or missing a deadline, could end up in deportation proceedings. Previously, there was no guidance to refer all visa applicants who fall short to immigration court for possible deportation. Under the new policy, it'll be the presumption. Advocates for immigrants worry the risk will be too great for immigrants on the fence about reporting their crimes. In the Salvadoran woman's case, Sessions ruled in June that gang and domestic violence victims generally don't qualify for asylum, and the Department of Homeland Security applied those rules to all asylum seekers at the border and refugees applying from abroad. . . . https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/30/politics/trump-immigration-women-victims/index.html Return to Top ******** ******** 27. What Has America Become? The Lamp is Dimming, to Our Detriment By Bruce A. Beardsley The New York Daily News, October 4, 2018 . . . Today, on our southwest border, we are confronted by a similar challenge. But our response is much different, and contrary to our basic values. Rather than offering asylum seekers a cloak of protection, our government seems to purposely make their lives as harsh as possible. And at great monetary and reputational expense. Is separating families, caging children, and pressuring people to request removal, we have lost our way. The latest twist is using the pretext of investigating the suitability of a household for hosting a minor a vehicle for finding more potential deportees! . . . http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-what-has-america-become-20181003-story.html Return to Top ******** ******** 28. Nativism and the Diminishment of American Rights By Brendan Cushing-Daniels RealClearPolitics.com, September 9, 2018 . . . Recent immigration policy changes are troubling. Without evidence of any deep policy discussion, the federal government has involuntarily discharged legal, foreign-born military recruits in the MAVNI program that leads to citizenship. While there is a temporary halt to this policy, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services—an agency of the Department of Homeland Security--has announced a program to denaturalize large numbers of citizens in administrative procedures that, according to a troubled Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, give the government unlimited power to denaturalize anyone it wants. . . . https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/09/09/nativism_and_the_diminishment_of_american_rights.html Return to Top ******** ******** 29. Building Immigrant Communities in the Trump Era Immigrant networks ought to be supported and funded, not dismantled and driven into hiding. By Kavitha Rajagopalan The Nation, September 28, 2018 . . . What support these refugees should have and from whom it should come are central questions for policy-makers. Nearly all scholars and resettlement experts agree that refugees and host countries benefit more from long-term transitional models of integration than from the interim-support models like in the United States. Five countries—the UK, Spain, Argentina, Ireland, and New Zealand—have endorsed a pilot version of Canada's community-based refugee sponsorship model, which places refugees within networks of sponsors who help integrate them into their new homes over the long term. These networks connect new migrants to work, support services, and grassroots mechanisms like peer lending, scholarship pools, and mutual assistance associations. This in turn helps immigrants buy homes, send their kids to college, and start businesses. . . . https://www.thenation.com/article/building-an-immigrant-community-in-the-trump-era/ Return to Top ******** ******** 30. The Immigration Enforcers TheWeek.com, September 29, 2018 . . . "ICE has become a deportation force," said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). "That's why I believe [we] should get rid of it." Is that likely to happen? No. The Trump administration says ICE is vital to national security. The agency's workers are "American heroes," Vice President Mike Pence said, who "have played a critical role in ensuring that no major terrorist attack occurred on our shores." Most voters agree that ICE is needed: Only 25 percent want to scrap the agency, according to a July Politico poll. Former Obama immigration adviser Cecilia Muñoz says activists need to accept that immigration enforcement "is a reality" and focus on reforming ICE. "Abolishing ICE sounds very close to saying, 'Well, maybe we don't need a border,'" she says. "I don't believe that's where the country is." . . . http://theweek.com/articles/798457/immigration-enforcers Return to Top ******** ******** 31. USCIS Begins Implementing Plan to Issue More Deportation Notices By Aaron Reichlin-Melnick ImmigrationImpact.com, October 2, 2018 . . . USCIS has now clarified that it will not issue NTAs in three major categories of cases: those involving initial or renewal requests for DACA, those involving employment-based petitions, and those involving "humanitarian applications and petitions" such as visas for victims of domestic violence or serious crimes. In addition, an NTA will generally not be issued immediately after a benefit is denied. The agency will only issue an NTA once the period for appeals has expired or after the applicant appeals and the denial of the benefit is upheld. Importantly, USCIS indicated that adjudicators will have the option to refer certain cases for review by a "Prosecutorial Review Panels." This panel would evaluate the case in order to determine whether to exercise prosecutorial discretion and choose not to issue an NTA. . . . http://immigrationimpact.com/2018/10/02/uscis-issue-more-deportation-notices/ Return to Top ******** ******** 32. As Immigration Court Quotas Go Into Effect, Many Call For Reform By Aaron Reichlin-Melnick ImmigrationImpact.com, October 2, 2018 . . . Because the quotas will likely put pressure on immigration judges to expedite hearings and issue decisions without sufficient time to consider all the issues, the NAIJ has called the performance metrics a "death knell for judicial independence." Other groups have raised similar concerns, including the New York City Bar Association, which called the quotas "neither efficient nor just." In response to all of these attacks on judicial independence, many are calling on Congress to protect immigration judges by creating an independent Article I immigration court, similar to the U.S. Tax Court. Under those reforms, judges would no longer be career DOJ employees and would be further insulated from political pressures. . . . http://immigrationimpact.com/2018/10/01/immigration-court-quotas-call-reform/ Return to Top ******** Visit Website