Immigration Opinions, 11/9/18

Immigration Opinions, 11/9/18 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. "Latest DACA Ruling Doubles As an Activist Press Release," Jason Richwine 2. "CIS Immigration Blog Posts," Preston Huennekens, Dan Cadman, Todd Bensman, Jessica M. Vaughan, Andrew R. Arthur, John Miano, David North, and Jerry Kammer 3. "DEA Reports Record Deaths From Drug Overdoses," Michael Cutler 4. "Jeff Sessions' Legacy as Attorney General: A Steady Fighter for Immigration in the National Interest," John Binder 5. "Trump Administration Urges Supreme Court to Take up DACA Case Immediately," Jack Crowe 6. "If Trump Ended Birthright Citizenship By Executive Order, He'd be Enforcing Existing Law," Ed Feulner 7. "Most Countries Agree With Trump About Birthright Citizenship," Nolan Rappaport 8. "Ending Birthright Citizenship," Cal Thomas 9. "Democrats Will Have to Contend with Immigration Eventually," Reihan Salam 10. "Birthright Citizenship Is Wrong for America," Michael Reagan 11. "Mothers and Children Are Hurt the Most by Not Securing Our Borders," Kimberly Fletcher 12. "Immigration and the Parties," Ramesh Ponnuru 13. "Democrats Gave Trump an Opening on Immigration," Ramesh Ponnuru 14. "The Existing Border Crisis," Jennifer G. Hickey 15. "Don't Tell, But Immigration Helped Republicans on Tuesday," Jennifer G. Hickey 16. "Executive Order: Part Deux," Lloyd Billingsley 17. "Citizenship and Choice," Angelo Codevilla 18. "Lame Duck Congress Still Ruled By GOP Until 2019 — Why Not Get Something Done?," Investor's Business Daily 19. "The GOP Continues Its Transformation Into Trump's Party — Just Look at Josh Hawley," Washington Watcher 20. "October Jobs: Great Month For Native-Born Workers, But There Are So MANY New Immigrant Competitors," Edwin S. Rubenstein 21. "Trump Sees the Migrant Caravan as a Winning Election Issue," Debra J. Saunders 22. "Generals, Borders, and Militias," Jonathan F. Keiler 23. "Stop Migrants' Class Action Lawsuit at Border," Evan Slavitt 24. "Tech Workers Group Takes a Wrong Turn," Norm Matloff 25. "Immigration is an Economic Necessity, Not a Threat," Ramiro Cavazos 26. "Jeff Sessions's Legacy on US Immigration Policy," Ana Campoy 27. "Jeff Sessions May Be Gone, But His Impact On Immigration Policy Will Live On," Hamed Aleaziz 28. "Democrats Need an Immigration Policy Fast," Froma Harrop 29. "2018 Midterms and Immigration: What Will Congress Do Next?," Royce Murray 30. "The Most Pro-Immigration House of Representatives in Over a Century," David Bier 1. Latest DACA Ruling Doubles As an Activist Press Release By Jason Richwine The Corner at National Review Online, November 9, 2018 . . . According to this Ninth Circuit panel, the problem is the Trump administration's justification for ending it. Trump argued that DACA is illegal and therefore must be ended. The Ninth Circuit counters that DACA actually is legal, so ending it on grounds of illegality would be "arbitrary and capricious." Notice the separation-of-powers issue here. If a court rules that the president is required by law to take a particular action, then he must do it or risk impeachment. But when it comes to discretionary actions, the president should never do something he believes exceeds his authority — even if a court has given him "permission" to do it. In this case, the Ninth Circuit has denied the president his right to independently assess the legality of a discretionary action. But leave that aside. To this non-lawyer, what is most disturbing is the Court's activist pose. Like an article from Reader's Digest, Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw's opinion begins with a heartstring-tugging anecdote. It's worth quoting in full to demonstrate her bias: . . . https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/daca-ruling-doubles-as-an-activist-press-release/ Return to Top ******** ******** 2. CIS Immigration Blog Posts By Preston Huennekens Why Not a Domestic Guestworker Program? November 6, 2018 Why isn't there a domestic equivalent of the H-2B foreign guestworker program? What would such a program look like? . . . The Homeless. Often poorly educated and low-skilled, America's homeless population would perhaps benefit the most from a robust domestic guestworker program. Such a program could give them a new lease on life and a chance to earn enough money to get themselves back on their feet. They could use the opportunity to move out of dire conditions, learn new skills, and rescue themselves and their families from continued poverty. Tackling homelessness in large cities has been a priority of city administrators and politicians for decades. A domestic guestworker program is a common-sense solution to alleviate this issue and can help them relocate to areas of the country where the cost of living is much lower and where good-paying jobs are plentiful. Struggling Veterans. America has a commitment to help veterans who defended our freedoms through their service in our armed forces. Nearly 6.9 percent of veterans live in poverty, according to the National Veterans Foundation. Many of these veterans gained physical and technical skills by serving in the military and would be a natural fit for positions often filled by H-2B guestworkers. . . . https://cis.org/Huennekens/Why-Not-Domestic-Guestworker-Program By Dan Cadman Oregon Sheriff Shows Dangers Inherent in the State's Sanctuary Laws November 5, 2018 . . . Despite claims that "cooperating with ICE by exchanging information about arrested aliens or honoring detainers will diminish immigrants' willingness to come forward to report crimes", there is no credible empirical evidence to support the assertion that police-ICE cooperation erodes interactions between police and alien victims and witnesses. The suggestion defies common sense. Exactly who from immigrant communities is being put into the cages of police vehicles? Certainly not victims and witnesses. No, it's aliens who have been taken into custody for commission of crimes, and statistically it's a good bet that the victims of, and witnesses to, the crime(s) were other members of the immigrant community. So why would city, county, or state leaders think that it serves them well to send these criminals back to prey once again on those same immigrant communities? Isn't that where the trust of those communities is most likely to be quickly eroded . . . https://cis.org/Cadman/Oregon-Sheriff-Shows-Dangers-Inherent-States-Sanctuary-Laws By Todd Bensman What's at Stake when Bangladeshis Arrive at the U.S. Southwest Border, in a Migrant Caravan or Not November 5, 2018 . . . Terrorism Presence in Bangladesh Homeland security workers always feel a professional — and moral — obligation to find out who people really are when they're arriving at the Southwest border from countries like Bangladesh. Intelligence types who work, for instance, in the National Counterterrorism Center, Customs and Border Protection Office of Intelligence, the National Targeting Center, and DHS's Intelligence and Analysis want to know first what's going on in the home country, terrorism-wise. And it's not been looking good these days in Bangladesh, according to the U.S. State Department's most recent Country Reports on Terrorism, considering these takeaways from the September 2018 report: * "Dozens" of plots by terrorist groups inside the country have been foiled while several were successful inside the country in 2017 alone. * AQIS and ISIS claimed responsibility for nearly 40 attacks in Bangladesh since 2015. * Terrorist organizations used social media to "spread their ideologies and solicit followers" throughout Bangladesh. * Bangladeshi militants have been featured in multiple publications, videos and websites associated with ISIS and al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS). . . . https://cis.org/Bensman/Whats-Stake-when-Bangladeshis-Arrive-US-Southwest-Border-Migrant-Caravan-or-Not By Jessica M. Vaughan Scrapping the Per-Country Cap Helps the Companies that Shun U.S. Tech Workers November 9, 2018 . . . A number of these Indian firms and their large clients have registered to lobby for HR 392, called the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, which would eliminate the per-country cap. Versions of this bill have been batted about for at least six years and surfaced a few months ago in the form of an amendment to the must-pass DHS spending bill put forth by Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.). Most significantly, Yoder's provision would end the per-country caps for employment-based green cards. The statutory caps stipulate that if there are more people seeking employment green cards or immigrant visas than are available under the numerical limits set by Congress, then the allocation of the numbers will be capped at 7 percent of the total, plus any numbers not used by citizens of non-capped countries. The purpose of the caps is to prevent the large immigrant-sending countries such as Mexico, India, China, and others from monopolizing the supply of visas. In practice, the cap preserves the ability of companies who are not major users of guestworker programs to obtain green cards or immigrant visas for skilled individuals from abroad or directly from U.S. universities. In contrast, the applicants who are affected by the caps are citizens of India who are currently in the United States as guestworkers, typically in the IT sector. . . . https://cis.org/Vaughan/Scrapping-PerCountry-Cap-Helps-Companies-Shun-US-Tech-Workers By Andrew R. Arthur DOJ Again Asks SCOTUS to Take Up DACA Was the Ninth Circuit dragging its feet? November 8, 2018 . . . On November 6, 2018, the U.S. Department of the Justice (DOJ) filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari Before Judgment in U.S. vs. Regents of the University of California, a case currently pending before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. This is the second such petition that DOJ has filed with the Supreme Court (the first was in January 2018), but has a better chance of getting heard than the first, which the Court dismissed without prejudice to refiling on February 26, 2018, particularly given the fact that the Ninth Circuit finally issued its decision and that matter on October 8, 2018, after months of consideration. At issue in those cases is whether the government must continue the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA) program. As I explained in a post regarding the Supreme Court's dismissal of that first petition: . . . https://cis.org/Arthur/DOJ-Again-Asks-SCOTUS-Take-DACA Send Troops to the Border, but Send Immigration Judges, Too November 5, 2018 . . . The best way to deter future caravans of migrants will be for the administration to quickly screen those migrants who arrive in this caravan. If their purpose in coming to the United States is to live and work in this country (the likely goal of most, if not all of those migrants), then detention, expedited screening for credible fear by asylum officers, and expedited adjudication of the asylum applications filed by those aliens found to have a credible fear that will be key. Given the fact that anywhere between 74 and 90 percent of all aliens screened for credible fear receive a positive determination according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) statistics, large numbers of immigration judges will be needed to hear those cases, and large numbers of ICE attorneys will be needed to represent the government therein. . . . https://cis.org/Arthur/Send-Troops-Border-Send-Immigration-Judges-Too By John Miano Latest Update on OPT Case November 6, 2018 . . . The OPT program now allows aliens admitted on student visas to remain in the United States for up to 42 months after they graduate to work or be unemployed. The Washington Alliance of Technology Workers ("Washtech") v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security lawsuit presents the federal courts with a simple question of law: Are aliens who have graduated from college, and who are working full-time, bona fide students solely pursuing a course of study at an approved academic institution that will report their termination of attendance? That simple question has been before the courts for over a decade of litigation with no final decision. . . . https://cis.org/Miano/Latest-Update-OPT-Case By David North What Happened to All Those Turkish H-1Bs Hired by Gulen Charter Schools? November 9, 2018 . . . For example, the charter schools associated with the conservative Islamic cult led by Fethullah Gulen, a self-exiled Turkish cleric now living in the Poconos, have filed hundreds of H-1B applications for teachers of Turkish. There is absolutely no demand for the teaching of Turkish at the high school level, so why should they be granted visas? There are, however, members of the Gulen cult, or relatives of the cult leaders, who may have few other qualifications but are clearly native speakers of Turkish. The Turks who run the Gulen schools want to facilitate green cards for these specific individuals, and can do so, quite legally, through the H-1B system. So the teachers of Turkish are brought to the United States, and their salaries, the H-1B fees, and perhaps their travel, are all funded by public school funds. . . . https://cis.org/North/What-Happened-All-Those-Turkish-H1Bs-Hired-Gulen-Charter-Schools Nadler Likely to be House Judiciary Chair, Graham the Senate Chair November 8, 2018 . . . In the immigration context, Nadler's district includes Ellis Island, which processed incoming migrants from across the Atlantic in the days of steamship travel. And though his voting record does not reflect it, he is also the congressman from Wall Street. We use the word "likely" above because, while Nadler's selection is pretty sure to occur, it is not certain. The Democratic members of the House might choose someone other than Nadler, who is currently the ranking member. At the immigration subcommittee level in the House, there will be a new leader as well. It is likely to be the second-ranking Democrat on the full committee, former immigration lawyer Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.). She contested the selection of Nadler as the ranking member following the resignation of John Conyers (D-Mich.) earlier this year, and lost. Nadler has one more term in the House than she does, and the party members chose him for the position. Nadler and Lofgren have no disagreements on immigration policy, however, as is shown below. . . . https://cis.org/North/Nadler-Likely-be-House-Judiciary-Chair-Graham-Senate-Chair Some Musings on that Caravan November 5, 2018 . . . What Remains. This leaves us with a worrisome and all-too-real situation: There is tremendous poverty, crime, and corruption in some places on our continent and we have a segment of the immigration system that seems to offer at least a chance for asylum for those who can reach our borders. These are major problems that the dispatch of thousands of troops will not solve. Our president threatens to cut off economic assistance to the three small nations involved (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador) when what we should do is to devote a tiny bit of our national resources to creating jobs and better government in the Northern Triangle. If we were to get out of Afghanistan, or tack half a percentage point on to the income tax of the richest of us, we could do this without raising a sweat or the size of the debt. Such an investment, a small-scale Marshall Plan, would not only reduce the desire to emigrate, it would serve to discredit the current excuses for illegal immigration. . . . https://cis.org/North/Some-Musings-Caravan By Jerry Kammer Considering George Soros, Villain on the Right, Hero on the Left November 5, 2018 . . . Many liberal foundations — including the Carnegie Corporation, Ford Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, the Tides Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation — have together donated tens of million dollars over the past decade to promote immigration policies they characterize as generously expansive and compassionately inclusive. Some have also financed campaigns by activist groups to vilify those of us who call for firm immigration limits to protect American workers and preserve social cohesion. But Soros's controversial public profile and his emergence as a leader of the liberal "resistance" to President Trump have prompted intense criticism of his immigration-related philanthropy, which he conducts through his Open Society Foundations. Much of the criticism has been unfounded in its conspiratorial excesses and blatant anti-Semitism. Some is worthy of consideration as a window into the discussion of important questions in the national immigration debate. For example: When does warm-hearted advocacy for expansive immigration and illegal immigrants shade into political opportunism and contempt for those alarmed at the resulting demographic and cultural transformation? And when do love of tradition and patriotic nationalism shade into xenophobia and white nationalism? . . . https://cis.org/Kammer/Considering-George-Soros-Villain-Right-Hero-Left Return to Top ******** ******** 3. DEA Reports Record Deaths From Drug Overdoses How a broken southern border allows narcotics to flood America. By Michael Cutler FrontPageMag.com, November 9, 2018 . . . Clearly our porous borders, particularly the U.S./Mexican border, enable narcotics to flood into America with disastrous results including violent crimes, loss of life, lives ruined by drug addiction, and the impact on families and especially children, and money that finances criminal organizations and terror organizations. As I noted in my recent article Trump Connects the Dots on Dangers of Illegal Immigration, terror organizations such as Iran-sponsored Hezbollah increasingly have been working in close coordination with Latin American drug trafficking organizations to move drugs and aliens, including terrorist sleeper agents, into the United States. Although I was an INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) officer for my entire federal career, I spent roughly half of my career assigned to work with other law enforcement agencies to conduct investigations into narcotics-related crimes. Consequently my 30-year career with the former INS, the forerunner to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), provided me with an intimate view of the multifaceted immigration system. It also provided me with an insider's understanding of the drug crisis in the United States. . . . https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271846/dea-reports-record-deaths-drug-overdoses-michael-cutler Return to Top ******** ******** 4. Jeff Sessions' Legacy as Attorney General: A Steady Fighter for Immigration in the National Interest By John Binder Breitbart.com, November 7, 2018 . . . Much like his fighting on behalf of American workers in the Senate, Sessions targeted a number of businesses in high-profile cases that he found had hired foreign workers over U.S. citizens, a violation of the country's discrimination laws. In many cases, Sessions Civil Rights Division's "Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative" fined and punished businesses that had skipped over Americans to instead hire their cheap, foreign labor counterparts. When a caravan of migrants was headed to the U.S.-Mexico border, less than six months ago, Sessions took matters into his own hands by building a legal wall against the migration by instructing prosecutors and immigration judges to take action to block false asylum claims. . . . https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/11/07/jeff-sessions-legacy-attorney-general-steady-fighter-immigration-national-interest/ Return to Top ******** ******** 5. Trump Administration Urges Supreme Court to Take up DACA Case Immediately By Jack Crowe National Review Online, November 5, 2018 . . . Should the Supreme Court refuse his request, Francisco pointed out, the administration would be required to continue accepting DACA applications while waiting on California's ninth circuit to rule on the legality of ending the program. "Absent prompt intervention from this court, there is little chance the court would resolve this dispute for at least another year," Francisco wrote in a letter to the Supreme Court. . . . https://www.nationalreview.com/news/trump-administration-supreme-court-daca-program-ruling/ Return to Top ******** ******** 6. If Trump Ended Birthright Citizenship By Executive Order, He'd be Enforcing Existing Law By Ed Feulner The Daily Signal, November 9, 2018 . . . That leaves us with the question of whether he would be right to set this issue straight via an executive order. Some people who agree with him on birthright citizenship, such as National Review's Andrew C. McCarthy, believe that he shouldn't. They argue that it should be done by the same body that issued the amendment in the first place: Congress. In other words, this is a job for Congress, the branch of government that creates our laws, not the executive, which enforces them. According to McCarthy, a president cannot "unilaterally change an understanding of the law that has been in effect for decades under a duly enacted federal law." Granted, but as constitutional scholar Hans von Spakovsky points out, "that assumes the 'understanding' is the correct one. If that understanding actually violates the plain text and intent of the law, the president as the chief law-enforcement officer can, and indeed has an obligation, to direct the federal government to begin applying and enforcing it correctly." . . . https://www.dailysignal.com/2018/11/09/if-trump-ended-birthright-citizenship-by-executive-order-hed-be-enforcing-existing-law/ Return to Top ******** ******** 7. Most Countries Agree With Trump About Birthright Citizenship By Nolan Rappaport TheHill.com, November 8, 2018 . . . Why have most of the countries in the world rejected birthright citizenship? Part of the answer can be found in the fact that almost all of the countries that have birthright citizenship are in the Americas. According to John Skrentny, a prominent sociology professor, the European countries that colonized the Americas established lenient naturalization laws here in order to grow and overpower native populations. The main drawback of birthright citizenship is that it gives up a country's sovereign right to decide who will become a citizen by birth. With some exceptions, anyone born in the country's territory automatically becomes a citizen. This is why the United Kingdom (UK) terminated birthright citizenship. . . . https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/415647-most-countries-agree-with-trump-about-birthright-citizenship Return to Top ******** ******** 8. Ending Birthright Citizenship By Cal Thomas Townhall.com, November 6, 2018 . . . If you prefer a more recent opinion, here is Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) in 1983: "If making it easy to be an illegal alien isn't enough, how about offering a reward for being an illegal immigrant? No sane country would do that, right? Guess again. If you break our laws by entering this country without permission and give birth to a child, we reward that child with U.S. citizenship and guarantee a full access to all public and social services this society provides. And that's a lot of services. Is it any wonder that two-thirds of the babies born at taxpayer expense at country-run hospitals in Los Angeles are born to illegal alien mothers?" I concur with Trumbull, Howard and Reid and so should the rest of us, if we are to keep America's culture from being overwhelmed and destroyed. . . . https://townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/2018/11/06/ending-birthright-citizenship-n2535105 Return to Top ******** ******** 9. Democrats Will Have to Contend with Immigration Eventually By Reihan Salam The Washington Post, November 4, 2018 . . . Understandably, many Democrats object to Trump's hyperbolic characterization of their party as standing for "open-borders socialism." Yet Democrats find themselves locked in a kind of left-wing bidding war. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) calls for $50,000 nest eggs for poor children. Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) backs a new poverty-fighting refundable tax credit that would cost, according to the right-of-center Tax Foundation, $2.7 trillion over the coming decade. . . . But can a newly arrived Central American asylee expect Booker's nest egg for her children? If she can't find remunerative employment because of her limited skills, can she expect Harris's tax credit to keep her family afloat? Many foreigners who could make a plausible asylum claim would happily accept Sanders's federal job guarantee. Should they be eligible? Poor immigrants often live in squalid conditions in high-poverty neighborhoods. Is Warren's housing initiative for them, too? It wasn't so long ago that at least some Democrats recognized a trade-off between the generosity of the safety net and America's openness to low-skill labor. In 1995, President Bill Clinton spoke favorably of the findings of the Jordan Commission, which called for a sharp reduction in low-skill immigration. President Barack Obama's commitment to stringent immigration enforcement led critics to label him "deporter in chief." . . . https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/democrats-will-have-to-contend-with-immigration-eventually/2018/11/04/49f89554-de06-11e8-85df-7a6b4d25cfbb_story.html?utm_term=.4f0429168528 Return to Top ******** ******** 10. Birthright Citizenship Is Wrong for America By Michael Reagan Townhall.com, November 3, 2018 . . . Not that you learned it from the media, but the 14th Amendment was never intended to automatically award U.S. citizenship to the babies of foreign parents who happen to be here when their child was born. It certainly wasn't meant to create the "birth tourism" business, which is run by Russian and Chinese companies that make it possible for wealthy foreigners to visit the United States for a month or two so their newborns arrive on our soil. . . . https://townhall.com/columnists/michaelreagan/2018/11/03/birthright-citizenship-is-wrong-for-america-n2534387 Return to Top ******** ******** 11. Mothers and Children Are Hurt the Most by Not Securing Our Borders By Kimberly Fletcher Townhall.com, November 3, 2018 . . . The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has reported that leadership in both Mexico and Guatemala has alerted our government that there are criminal elements among the throng, and many are actively participating in violence. As the caravan reached Mexico young men threw rocks and stormed Mexican police who were trying to protect their border. After seeing those images, it's hard for a mother to accept the idea of the caravan only containing oppressed migrants who have been driven from their home country. If they are seeking asylum from violence, why do they bring it along with them? . . . https://townhall.com/columnists/kimberlyfletcher/2018/11/03/mothers-and-children-are-hurt-the-most-by-not-securing-our-borders-n2534664 Return to Top ******** ******** 12. Immigration and the Parties By Ramesh Ponnuru The Corner at National Review Online, November 5, 2018 . . . Pew has also asked whether immigrants strengthen or weaken the country. Similar percentages of Republicans and Democrats picked "strengthen" from 1994 through 2004. Between 2004 and 2010, Republicans became less likely to say that while Democrats stayed flat. Since 2010, Republican agreement with "strengthen" has bounced back but Democratic agreement has risen very sharply. . . . https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/immigration-and-the-parties/ Return to Top ******** ******** 13. Democrats Gave Trump an Opening on Immigration Their views on the issue used to be more moderate. Now they may have moved too far for their own good. By Ramesh Ponnuru Bloomberg News, November 2, 2018 . . . While most Americans favor granting legal status to illegal immigrants who have put down roots and behaved well here, some members of that majority doubtless fear that a continuing refusal to enforce the law means that one amnesty will be followed by more. Americans are also open to combining an amnesty with some of the changes that Trump wants, such as ending the visa lottery designed to increase diversity. Democrats also seem to be failing to make the favorable trade between the white working class and Hispanics that they had expected. For some voters, the new rhetoric, which emphasizes the harshness of deportation and downplays the necessity of enforcement, signals indifference to the rule of law and to their opinions. The abandonment of the old, more balanced approach has lent credibility to Trump's claim that Democrats favor "open borders." . . . https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-11-02/democrats-gave-trump-an-opening-on-immigration Return to Top ******** ******** 14. The Existing Border Crisis By Jennifer G. Hickey ImmigrationReform.com, November 6, 2018 . . . How bad has it gotten? Manuel Padilla Jr., Chief of the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol says in South Texas there were nearly 20,750 illegal alien arrests were made in October – a 113 percent increase compared to October 2017. As open border politicians and media were snickering about the caravan and sneering at pro-enforcement candidates, Border Patrol agents were dealing with the crisis those politicians and pundits have helped to create. Just last weekend, CBP handled 22 alien smuggling cases, took custody of more 1,500 pounds of marijuana, made more than 2,600 arrests, arrested two gang members and found one migrant dead, according to Padilla. . . . https://immigrationreform.com/2018/11/06/the-existing-border-crisis/ Return to Top ******** ******** 15. Don't Tell, But Immigration Helped Republicans on Tuesday By Jennifer G. Hickey ImmigratioReform.com, November 8, 2018 . . . The open border caucus, however, do not speak of defeats of Florida's Carlos Curbelo, New York's John Faso, Utah's Mia Love, or Minnesota's Erik Paulsen – all Republicans who signed the discharge petition to reopen the immigration debate in the House. At the end of Election Day, the argument that immigration hurts may have been the biggest loser according to analyses of exit poll data. "Pre-election fears by some Republicans that Trump's inflammatory immigration message would sink GOP candidates in tight races proved overblown," reported Politico. . . . https://immigrationreform.com/2018/11/08/dont-tell-but-immigration-helped-republicans-on-tuesday/ Return to Top ******** ******** 16. Executive Order: Part Deux How Trump can curb document fraud, voter fraud, and illegal immigration. By Lloyd Billingsley FrontPageMag.com, November 9, 2018 . . . President Trump should issue an executive order mandating that the U.S. Department of State cross-check every passport application with birth and death records. This is the computer age, so a check can be accomplished swiftly and accurately. Those government officials who fail to comply with the order should be exposed, fired, and charged with obstruction of justice. Those foreign nationals who rip off the identity of the dead, in the style of Mexican fraudster Gustavo Araujo Lerma, should be immediately referred to the Department of Justice for prosecution, then deported. As a matter of course, citizenship should be stripped from anyone who used fraudulent means to obtain it. For legitimate citizens and legal immigrants, a lot is at stake. In 2016, Donald Trump estimated that three to five million illegals had caused him to lose the popular vote, which Democrat Hillary Clinton carried by 2.8 million votes, most of them in California. Trump launched a commission on voter fraud headed by Mike Pence and Kris Kobach but California Secretary of State Alex Padilla refused to participate and wouldn't let anyone see the data. Padilla clearly has something to hide and that raises questions about the 2018 mid-term election. . . . https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271897/executive-order-part-deux-lloyd-billingsley Return to Top ******** ******** 17. Citizenship and Choice How our current immigration system is a political scam. By Angelo Codevilla FrontPageMag.com, November 8, 2018 . . . How then are we to think about citizenship for illegals, their children, as well as "anchor babies?" Lyman Stone's recent article in The Federalist argues that "Birthright citizenship creates birthright loyalty, whereas denying citizenship to foreign children helps alienate the entire family and slows down assimilation." This sidesteps the crucial matter of mutual choice. To suggest that granting citizenship to all who are born here encourages their illegal parents, or their "birth tourist" parents "to see themselves as Americans," looks at allegiance from the wrong end. How is granting someone the status and powers of citizenship supposed to make up for his failure to see himself as an American in the first place? How does satisfying a hunger and capacity for which there is no evidence generate that very hunger and capacity? In the same breath, but without showing any causal relationship, Stone cites the short time of residence that Canada and Australia require to grant citizenship to immigrants as evidence that easy grants of citizenship make for successful assimilation. But that has it backwards as well: Successful assimilation results from both sides' willingness to assimilate. Unreflectively, but correctly, he points out both these countries choose carefully to whom they extend the privilege of immigration and that, unlike the United States, neither country allows the uninvited to remain. . . . https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271869/citizenship-and-choice-angelo-codevilla Return to Top ******** ******** 18. Lame Duck Congress Still Ruled By GOP Until 2019 — Why Not Get Something Done? Investor's Business Daily, November 7, 2018 . . . One big problem: Congress faces a deadline of Dec. 7 to pass a spending bill to keep the government open. Neither party wants to close the government now, but President Trump has threatened to do just that if he doesn't get money to build a border wall. That might prompt Republicans to think about a grand deal on immigration. Democrats and Republicans might be willing to make a deal on funding a border wall, a Republican desire, in exchange for an "amnesty-lite" for immigrant Dreamers, a Democrat desire. Now that the election is past and the lame duck Congress is begun, the political logic of such a deal is strong. . . . https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/lame-duck-congress-gop-deals/ Return to Top ******** ******** 19. The GOP Continues Its Transformation Into Trump's Party — Just Look at Josh Hawley By Washington Watcher VDare.com, November 8, 2018 . . . In a September op-ed, Hawley decried how "our ruling elite" have become "globalists first, Americans second" when it comes to immigration. "McCaskill and her globalist allies live in a fantasy world where citizenship doesn't matter and national borders are embarrassments. Their most important priorities are getting cheap labor at home and cheap products from aboard," Hawley wrote. [America needs a border wall and an immigration policy to protect Americans, by Josh Hawley, Fox News, September 12, 2018] . . . https://vdare.com/articles/the-gop-continues-its-transformation-into-trump-s-party-just-look-at-josh-hawley Return to Top ******** ******** 20. October Jobs: Great Month For Native-Born Workers, But There Are So MANY New Immigrant Competitors By Edwin S. Rubenstein VDare.com, November 6, 2018 Illegal immigration is a security problem, and Trump is justifiably hammering that point home in the days leading up to the mid-terms. Legal immigration is an economic problem. Just how huge a problem is made clear by data released with the October jobs report. Immigrants, legal and illegal, accounted for more than half of working-age population growth over the past 12 months. The foreign-born working-age population grew 1.383 million, the U.S.-born rose 1.364 million. Nearly 5 million native-born were unemployed in October. . . . The October gains have not undone the damage done by eight years of Obama. Native-born American workers lost ground to their foreign-born competitors throughout the Obama years. And, as seen in the chart above, this trend accelerated significantly in the months leading up to the 2016 election. Trump has barely broken the trend. Since taking office in January 2017, he has presided over a labor market in which immigrants have gained 1.478 million jobs, a 5.7% increase, while native-born Americans gained 3.003 million jobs—a rise of 2.4%. As far as the labor market is concerned, "America First" has not (yet) translated into Americans First. . . . https://vdare.com/articles/national-data-october-jobs-great-month-for-native-born-workers-but-there-are-so-many-new-immigrant-competitors Return to Top ******** ******** 21. Trump Sees the Migrant Caravan as a Winning Election Issue By Debra J. Saunders Townhall.com, November 4, 2018 . . . Many Trump fans have sympathy for people who want to create a better life, but the sense of entitlement from immigrants who are here illegally and their advocates disturbs them. They resent being painted as extremists or racists because they support duly enacted federal laws. And they remember when Democrats did too. . . . https://townhall.com/columnists/debrajsaunders/2018/11/04/trump-sees-the-migrant-caravan-as-a-winning-election-issue-n2534450 Return to Top ******** ******** 22. Generals, Borders, and Militias By Jonathan F. Keiler American Thinker, November 6, 2018 . . . The border deployments in logistic and intelligence support of police are well within the letter and intent of the statute. Nobody is asking or expects Army personnel to make arrests of illegal migrants on this side of the border, and they have not been so tasked. As for defending the border, by supplying logistic support to federal and local police, there could hardly be a more legitimate use of the military. Defending national borders is the core function of government. It is what governments were founded to do in the first place, many millennium ago. People may agree or disagree about the politics of it, but it is disingenuous to question whether defending the border is an appropriate mission. . . . https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/11/generals_borders_and_militias.html Return to Top ******** ******** 23. Stop Migrants' Class Action Lawsuit at Border By Evan Slavitt The Boston Herald, November 3, 2018 . . . The Constitution gives rights to U.S. citizens and to any person physically located in the United States. So an undocumented person within the U.S. does have some due process rights under the Constitution — no less a person than the late Justice Antonin Scalia said so. The rights may be somewhat different in deportation hearings than they would be in criminal hearings, but the government does have to provide some due process. But here is the key problem for the plaintiffs and the organizations bankrolling this suit. The caravan is in Mexico! So they boldly claim that even though they are not U.S. citizens and even though they are a thousand miles away, they still are protected under constitutional law because someday they might wind up here. This is absurd. As the late Judge Keeton used to say, "Federal courts have limited jurisdiction." That is, they can only address concrete disputes brought by those whose rights are clearly in dispute. They do not resolve hypothetical cases that belong in the law school classroom. If Hondurans in Mexico can sue, then basically anyone anywhere can pick a policy they don't like and bring a lawsuit just in case they ever come to the United States. . . . http://www.bostonherald.com/opinion/op_ed/2018/11/stop_migrants_class_action_lawsuit_at_border Return to Top ******** ******** 24. Tech Workers Group Takes a Wrong Turn By Norm Matloff NormSaysNo Blog, October 31, 2018 . . . But Lucinda, in urgent proselytizing mode, repeatedly pressed me to look into PUW's lobbying against HR 392, a bill being promoted by Immigration Voice, an organization of H-1Bs who are stuck in an interminable wait for green card approval. The cause of their troubles is that current green card law allocates the same yearly number of green cards for each country of origin. Since the tech green card applicants are mainly Indian and Chinese, their wait times are years or even decades. HR 392 would remove the per-country limits while preserving the current overall cap. I am well aware of the bill (on which I have been neutral), but I wondered why Lucinda was so agitated. If enacted, the bill would not increase the number of jobs available to US citizens and permanent residents. After a few more DM iterations on Twitter, it came out: Lucinda resents the Indians. She'd been mistreated by them, and extrapolates that to all Indians. HR 392 would reduce green cards for "our allies," in Europe and Israel. She is not bothered by the Chinese H-1Bs, just the Indians. Revenge. . . . https://normsaysno.wordpress.com/2018/10/31/tech-workers-group-takes-a-wrong-turn/ Return to Top ******** ******** 25. Immigration is an Economic Necessity, Not a Threat By Ramiro Cavazos TheHill.com, November 6, 2018 . . . The United States needs more immigrants to help our economy grow in the post-recession era. In fact, economists estimate that, for every 1 percent increase in immigration to the U.S., GDP rises by 1.15 percent. Right now, key industries in our country are facing a labor shortage. This means that some companies are scaling so rapidly that they have more jobs than workers that can fill them. From construction to agriculture to the restaurant industry, America needs more immigrants of all skill levels. In the construction industry, there are more than 196,000 jobs waiting to be filled. Across the country, 25 percent of construction workers are immigrants. In urban areas, that number is much higher. In New York City, 74 percent are immigrants. There is a similar labor shortage in agriculture, and crops are dying before they can be harvested. According to the most recent National Agricultural Workers Survey, 73 percent of farmworkers are immigrants. . . . https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/415215-immigration-is-an-economic-necessity-not-a-threat Return to Top ******** ******** 26. Jeff Sessions's Legacy on US Immigration Policy By Ana Campoy Quartz, November 7, 2018 . . . One of his roles as attorney general is to oversee immigration courts, which unlike other courts are not part of an independent judicial power from the executive branch. He's broadly used that authority to influence how those courts apply immigration law, including by reopening closed cases and overruling the decisions that settled them. He has done that on numerous occasions to make it more difficult for immigrants to stay in the US. Sessions also put pressure on immigration judges to process cases more quickly, an attempt to reduce the the courts' bulging docket that immigrant advocates said scrimped on due process. His department has also defended Trump's decision to end an Obama-era program known as DACA, under which immigrants who came to the US as children can legally live and work in the US, and sued jurisdictions that protect immigrants. . . . https://qz.com/1454850/jeff-sessions-resigns-with-dark-immigration-legacy/ Return to Top ******** ******** 27. Jeff Sessions May Be Gone, But His Impact On Immigration Policy Will Live On The attorney general shaped immigration policy like few others in the Trump administration. By Hamed Aleaziz BuzzFeed News, November 7, 2018 . . . Though he lasted less than two years, Sessions made use of his limited time: He sued sanctuary cities and states. He recommended that the president rescind a popular program that protected immigrants from deportation (DACA) and later announced its end. He implemented a "zero tolerance" policy at the border that resulted in parents being separated from their children. And, perhaps most consequentially, in his role overseeing the immigration courts, made monumental changes to the way judges could oversee their cases and rule on asylum claims. . . . https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/hamedaleaziz/jeff-sessions-impact-immigration-trump Return to Top ******** ******** 28. Democrats Need an Immigration Policy Fast By Froma Harrop The Gazette (WI), November 7, 2018 . . . Democrats lucked out in having Trump to run against. And they were smart in the final days of the campaign to ignore Trump's desperate fearmongering against immigrants. They stuck to safe issues for them, such as health care. But now that they will control the House, Democrats need a coherent immigration policy right away. It can't be—or even appear to be—favoring open borders. Listen to how Canada's minister of immigration, Ahmed Hussen, responded to a convoy of Haitians headed toward the Quebec border: "We don't want people to illegally enter our border, and doing so is not a free ticket to Canada. We are saying, 'You will be apprehended, screened, detained, fingerprinted, and if you can't establish a genuine claim, you will be denied refugee protection and removed.'" See? No attacks on the Haitians' character. No racial smears. Hussen's message was clear. In no uncertain terms, Canada's immigration laws would be enforced. And that's a big reason Canada's large immigration program is less controversial than ours. . . . https://www.gazettextra.com/opinion/columns/harrop-democrats-need-an-immigration-policy-fast/article_d151e0c3-ce68-5a77-b98f-02e2c0d1df9e.html Return to Top ******** ******** 29. 2018 Midterms and Immigration: What Will Congress Do Next? By Royce Murray ImmigrationImpact.com, November 7, 2018 . . . House leadership may also push a more affirmative legislative agenda, such as moving a bill in early 2019 to legalize Dreamers and TPS holders, whose long-held status was ended by President Trump. Although litigation has temporarily kept those benefits on life support, the House may advance legislative solutions to allow them to remain in the United States with their families. With the Senate in Republican hands, it's unclear whether and when such a bill would be considered, and what additional reforms might be included to get it through the chamber. Overall, the American public expressed fatigue with the divisive environment created by President Trump's nonstop attacks on immigrants and asylum seekers. The new Congress will have a window of opportunity to create a fresh approach and an immigration system that is humane, orderly, and meets the needs of our country in the 21st century. . . . http://immigrationimpact.com/2018/11/07/2018-midterms-immigration-congress/ Return to Top ******** ******** 30. The Most Pro-Immigration House of Representatives in Over a Century By David Bier CATO at Liberty blog, November 7, 2018 . . . House Democrats today would not just protect every expansive immigration measure enacted from 1965 to 1990—they would greatly build upon them if they could reasonably expect them to be signed into law. The starting place for reform for them is the 2013 comprehensive immigration reform bill, H.R. 15, a version of which the Senate had passed. At the time, every House Democrat except two cosponsored the legislation. The bill would legalize more than 8 million illegal residents and at least double permanent legal immigration. However, the bill also had some provisions that are unlikely to remain. In particular, while it expanded immigration overall, it ended the Diversity Visa Lottery and cut so-called "chain migration," two issues that President Trump has championed. Because the lottery disproportionately benefits African immigrants—who Trump reportedly referred to as coming from "shithole" countries—many Democrats are now opposed to repealing it as a matter of principle. . . . https://www.cato.org/blog/most-pro-immigration-house-representatives-over-century Return to Top ******** Visit Website