June 18, 2010
Gangs, corrupt officials make illegal migrants' trip through Mexico dangerous, June 18, 2010, Washington Post. ...Illegal migrants passing through Mexico are routinely robbed, raped and kidnapped by criminal gangs that often work alongside corrupt police, according to human rights advocates. Immigration experts and Catholic priests who shelter the travelers say that Mexico's strict laws to protect the rights of illegal migrants are often ignored and that undocumented migrants from Central America face a brutal passage through the country.
FBI opens civil rights probe into border shooting, June 11, 2010, AP. The FBI has opened a civil rights probe against a Border Patrol agent who shot and killed a 15-year-old Mexican boy at the boundary with Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, a U.S. official told The Associated Press on Friday. Mexican prosecutors, meanwhile, are investigating the case as a homicide, raising the possibility that the agent could also face charges in Mexico, although it is unlikely the U.S. would agree to extradite him.
Appropriate Use of Force? Not on our Border, June 10, 2010. Statement by the Latin American Working Group. Just days ago, Sergio Adrián Hernandez Güereca, a 15-year-old from Ciudad Juárez, was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent on the banks of the Rio Grande, not far from downtown El Paso. (This shooting came) on the heels of the death of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, a longtime San Diego area resident and father of five U.S.-born children, who died from injuries suffered when Border Patrol and other federal officers responded with a baton and taser gun when he resisted deportation. ... These tragedies illustrate too clearly how our current immigration system fails to meet the realities of our nation’s families and contributes to an increasingly divisive, inhumane, and charged atmosphere for migrants and border communities alike. Driven by rhetoric and rooted in fear, Congress and recent administrations have turned their backs on real immigration reform and instead chosen to throw more resources in an ill-defined attempt to “secure” the border.
Mexican Soldiers Point Rifles at Border Agents After Teen Shooting, June 10, 2010, AP. Mexican security forces chased away U.S. authorities investigating the shooting of a 15-year-old Mexican by a U.S. Border Patrol agent on the banks of the Rio Grande, the FBI and witnesses told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The killing of the Mexican by U.S. authorities - the second in less than two weeks - has exposed the distrust between the two countries that lies just below the surface, and has enraged Mexicans who see the death of the boy on Mexican soil as an act of murder.
Government study finds U.S. side of Mexico border area low on violent crime, (E)ven as politicians say more federal troops are needed to fight rising violence, government figures show (that) the U.S.-Mexico border...isn't so dangerous after all. The top four big cities in America with the lowest rates of violent crime are all in border states: Austin, El Paso, Phoenix and San Diego , according to a new FBI report. And a U.S. Customs and Border Protection report shows that Border Patrol agents face far less danger than street cops in most U.S. cities. June 7, 2010, Dallas Morning News.
June 5, 2010
Coroner: Mexican man's stun gun death a homicide, June 2, 2010, AP. The San Diego County coroner ruled Wednesday that the death of a Mexican migrant at the U.S. border was a homicide, five days after an American immigration officer shot him with a stun gun. The cause of death was determined to be a heart attack, with methamphetamine abuse and hypertension listed as contributing factors. , Anastacio Hernandez, 32, was shocked with a stun gun fired by a Customs and Border Protection officer Friday night at the San Ysidro border crossing that separates San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, said San Diego police Capt. Jim Collins. Hernandez had wrestled two Border Patrol agents to the ground after his handcuffs were removed, police said.
Poll: More Americans want an Ariz.-style immigration law in their states, June 1, 2010, USA Today. A new survey says more American voters want an immigration law in their own state that's similar to the controversial one adopted by Arizona. The non-partisan Quinnipiac University Poll shows American voters say by 48%-35% that they want an immigration law like the one in Arizona. ... "The Arizona immigration law has emerged as a major divide in the country, but the numbers are on the side of those supporting it," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. He predicted the Arizona law would be a factor in the November elections.
Reform Groups Slam "Militarisation" of U.S.-Mexico Border, May 27, 2010, InterPress Service. President Barack Obama will be sending 1,200 National Guard troops to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border after pressure from both Republicans and Democrats to tighten border security and increase funding to combat the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S....Critics of the deployment of National Guard personnel to the U.S.-Mexico border charge that the new policy is one more step in the wrong direction in an unwinnable war on drugs and further evidence of an immigration system in need of reform.
Arizona Law Already in Effect for Some Immigrants, May 26, 2010, InterPress Service. It's not the law yet, but for undocumented immigrants like Ismael Palafox and his family, SB 1070 is already a reality. ...Palafox was questioned by the Apache Junction Police in front of his family in connection with dumping trash in the wrong place and turned over to immigration authorities. He is now in the Florence Detention Centre facing deportation to Mexico.
President Obama to send more National Guard troops to U.S.-Mexico border, May 26, 2010, Washington Post. President Obama will deploy 1,200 National Guard troops and request an extra $500 million to secure the Mexican border, his administration said Tuesday, a move dismissed by Republicans as insufficient to win their cooperation on an overhaul of the nation's immigration system.
Mexico has its own `Arizona' problem, May 22, 2010, Miami Herald. One of the most frequent arguments of supporters of Arizona's anti-immigration law is that it doesn't do anything different than what Mexico does with undocumented Central American migrants, or what most Latin American countries do with their own illegal immigrants. It's a powerful argument, and partially true. Legally, it's a deceiving contention, because Arizona's law is much more likely to lead to racial discrimination than Mexico's. In real life, however, Mexico tolerates abuses against undocumented migrants from Central and South America that are just as bad, if not worse.
May 21, 2010
Mexico's Calderon criticizes state immigration law, May 20, 2010, Houston Chronicle. Mexican President Felipe Calderon took his opposition to a new Arizona immigration law to Congress Thursday, saying it "ignores a reality that cannot be erased by decree." Calderon's comments on the Arizona law and his request that Congress do something about the availability of high-powered weapons along the border drew criticism from several lawmakers saying he was interfering in U.S. internal matters.
Calderon's comments on the Arizona law and his request that Congress do something about the availability of high-powered weapons along the border drew criticism from several lawmakers saying he was interfering in U.S. internal matters.
Fight Over Arizona's Migrant Law Heads to the Courts, May 18, 2010, InterPress Service. The controversy over Arizona's new immigration law heated up further Monday when a powerful coalition of civil rights and immigration advocates asked a U.S. federal court to find the new law unconstitutional and issue an injunction against its taking effect. ...The suit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Mexican-American Legal Defence and Education Fund, the National Immigration Law Centre, the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, the National Day Labourer Organising Network and the Asian Pacific American Legal Centre.
More laws have been enacted to help illegal immigrants than restrict them, May 11, 2010, Washington Post/ Woodrow Wilson Center. Despite recent national attention on such laws as the Arizona measure aimed at cracking down on illegal immigrants, a study released Monday by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars shows that across the country, more laws expanding immigrants' rights are enacted than those contracting them. The study, "Context Matters: Latino Immigrant Civic Engagement in Nine U.S. Cities," found that areas long accustomed to an influx of immigrants, including close-in jurisdictions of the Washington region, tend to focus more on trying to accommodate them rather than restrict them.
May 7, 2010
Immigration: a series of forums and analytic reports, May 6, 2010, Brookings Institute. A forum with Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security and Fernando Gomez Monte, Mexican Secretary of the Interior on US-Mexican border security cooperation, and a series of short papers addressing various questions about immigration, including the Arizona law and possible Congressional action on legislation this year.
Legalization, Not Guest Worker Programs, is the Solution, Jul. 6, 2007, CounterPunch magazine. (Editor's note: This article was written just after Congress failed to pass immigration legislation in June, 2007. It critiques how defining immigrants as ''illegal'' diverts attention away from understanding how US and international financial and trade policys, i.e. NAFTA, undermine Mexico's rural agriculture, creating pressure for people to migrate. It also critricizes ''guest worker'' programs as explotative.
Democrats Unveil “Conceptual Proposal” for Immigration Reform Apr. 30, 2010, National Immigration Forum report. On Thursday, April 29, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, along with Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy, Immigration Subcommittee Chair Chuck Schumer, and Senators Dianne Feinstein and Bob Menendez held a press conference to release a “Conceptual Proposal for Immigration Reform.”... The ideas contained in the proposal are a starting point for a bill that is meant to get through the Senate. That means, of course, that it has to be clear about how immigration laws will be enforced in the future. The rules are proposed to be enforced, however, in the context of a generous program to bring undocumented immigrants out of the shadows and to reform the family- and employment- based immigration systems to eliminate backlogs, to reduce future bottlenecks, and to create more legal channels for immigrant workers.
Hate Group Lawyer Drafted Arizona’s Anti-Immigrant Law, Apr. 28, 2010, Southern Poverty Law Center. Arizona’s controversial anti-immigrant law was written by a lawyer at the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which the Southern Poverty Law Center has listed as an anti-immigrant hate group since 2007. The law, a recipe for racial profiling, would make the failure to carry immigration documents a crime and give the police broad power to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally.
Apr. 27, 2010
Arizona jumpstarts immigration bill, Apr. 27, 2010, Politico. With a new Arizona immigration law dominating the national debate, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has accelerated the timetable on immigration reform and is planning to bring a bill straight to the Senate floor in hopes of quickly drawing some Republicans to the negotiating table. .... “At some point, we need to make a final decision about whether a bipartisan bill is possible or not. The hope is that we can work something out,” said Jim Manley, Reid’s spokesman. “If they can’t work out a bipartisan bill, he does still intend to take a bill to the floor.”
Republicans and Democrats propelled into immigration debate by new Arizona law, Apr. 27, 2010, LA Times. Backed into a corner by Arizona's tough new immigration law, Democrats and Republicans alike find themselves grappling with a volatile issue neither party wanted to fight over just before important midterm congressional elections.
San Francisco supervisors want economic boycott of Arizona, Apr. 27,2010, SF Chronicle. San Francisco's supervisors are calling for a sweeping boycott of Arizona in the wake of that state's harsh new law aimed at illegal immigrants, but they haven't convinced Mayor Gavin Newsom. A resolution that will go before the board today calls for San Francisco to end any and all contracts with Arizona-based companies and to stop doing business with the state.
Mexico issues travel alert over new Arizona law, Apr. 27, 2010, Washington Post/AP. Mexico's government is warning its citizens about travel to Arizona because of a tough new immigration law there. ... It says that the law's passage shows "an adverse political atmosphere for migrant communities and for all Mexican visitors." It says that once the law takes effect, foreigners can be detained if they fail to carry immigration documents. While enforcement details are not yet clear, the alert says "it should be assumed that any Mexican citizen could be bothered and questioned for no other reason at any moment."
Ariz. governor signs immigration enforcement bill, Apr. 23, 2010, Washington Post. Gov. Jan Brewer ignored criticism from President Barack Obama on Friday and signed into law a bill supporters said would take handcuffs off police in dealing with illegal immigration in Arizona, the nation's gateway for human and drug smuggling.
Arizona at Epicentre of Divisive U.S. Immigration Debate, Apr. 21, 2010, InterPress Service. Protests and acts of civil disobedience are taking place in the southwest U.S. state of Arizona as it becomes the main battleground in a divisive struggle over illegal immigration. New legislation, which was sent to the governor on Monday and is awaiting her action, represents the culmination of a decade-long attempt by conservative Republicans to restrict the migration of people over the U.S.-Mexico border into Arizona. Known as the "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighbourhood Act", the bill includes a number of provisions that go beyond authorising the arrest of undocumented immigrants on "reasonable suspicion". It targets day labourers by making it a crime to look for work on the street, and would fine anyone who harbours or transports an undocumented immigrant, including family members
Apr. 16, 2010
Free Trade and Immigration: Cause and Effect, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, 2007 paper. It is vital that all (political) parties ...examine the inextricable link between ... two failed policies—immigration reform and expansion of free trade. As U.S. concern over both immigration and free trade issues (has reached) a fever pitch, the reality of how the latter impacts the former has not been adequately addressed. It is likely that the group most directly affected by these issues has been the rural, agrarian population of Mexico. Since 1994, the year in which the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect, immigration from Mexico to the U.S. has more than doubled, due, in large part, to the trade pact.
What Drives Migration? Surprise, It's Corn, Feb. 1, 2010, Hamptons.com and Witness for Peace.
(Editor's note: I just found the website of this organization, Witness for Peace, a not-for-profit organization in Washington that addresses the impact of US policies on Latin Ameica and sends delegations of US citizens to Mexico and other countries to witness, first-hand, these impacts. This article, about one such delegation, outlines clearly the relationship between the economic impact of NAFTA on the price of corn, resulting poverty of agricultural communities in Mexico and pressure to migrate to the US to seek work.)
This January, a delegation of 15 Long Islanders traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico, to explore the roots of migration from Mexico to the United States, meeting with Mexican migration experts, interviewing migrants, and visiting communities affected by migration. During the trip, the delegation - which included educators, university students, and government appointees from both Nassau and Suffolk counties - made a surprising discovery - they learned that Mexican migration patterns are inextricably linked to the global price of corn. As a result of free trade deals between the U.S. and Mexico, the quantity of cheap imported corn in Mexico has exploded in recent years, undercutting the locally grown product and driving small farmers out of business, a heady blow in a country where 10 million people - a quarter of the workforce - live off the land. Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was enacted in 1994, roughly 1.8 million people have been displaced from the Mexican agricultural sector while the rural poverty rate has climbed to 76 percent, the delegation learned. At the same time, nearly 600,000 Mexican farmers have been forced to migrate to the U.S.,
Immigration Reform: Redesigning the Legal System and Utilizing Temporary Visas, Apr. 15, 2010, Brookings Institue position paper. Any reform proposal on the table must not only address the situation of undocumented immigrants currently in the U.S., but also limit future undocumented flows. Regardless of how the U.S. decides to deal with its current stock of undocumented workers, the problem will continue to arise unless the reform legislation redesigns the legal immigration system. ..If illegal flows respond to economic conditions, because of its effects on the demand for workers, one effective way to reduce these flows is to create a legal immigration system that adapts and responds to changes in the demand for workers. For example, creating a body such as a Commission for Immigration with the ability to revise the number of available visas based on labor demand is a move in that direction. Temporary visas are another tool that can be used to give flexibility and can be an attractive way to bring in workers when they are needed. These visas, alone or combined with the above mentioned commission, can provide the United States with an adequate tool to adjust the inflows to labor market conditions.
Senate Majority Leader Promises to Take Up Immigration Overhaul, Apr. 11, 2010, NY Times. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, told an exuberant crowd at an immigration rally Saturday in Las Vegas that Congress would start work on an immigration overhaul as soon as lawmakers return this week from a recess.
ICE officials set quotas to deport more illegal immigrants, Mar. 27, 2010, Washington Post. Seeking to reverse a steep drop in deportations, U.S. immigration authorities have set controversial new quotas for agents. At the same time, officials have stepped back from an Obama administration commitment to focus enforcement efforts primarily on illegal immigrants who are dangerous or have violent criminal backgrounds.
Mar. 18, 2010
Obama backs senators immigration overhaul outline, Mar. 18, 2010, Washington Post- AP. President Barack Obama is backing an immigration bill outline drafted by two senators that says illegal immigrants must admit they broke the law to become citizens. Obama says in a statement that the outline of a bill Sen. Chuck Schumer and Sen. Lindsey Graham are crafting addresses border security and demands accountability from illegal immigrants and employers who hire them.
Obama says in a statement that the outline of a bill Sen. Chuck Schumerand Sen. Lindsey Graham are crafting addresses border security and demands accountability from illegal immigrants and employers who hire them.
The right way to mend immigration, Mar. 18, 2010, Washington Post OpEd by Senators Charles Schummer and Lindsay Graham. Our plan has four pillars: requiring biometric Social Security cards to ensure that illegal workers cannot get jobs; fulfilling and strengthening our commitments on border security and interior enforcement; creating a process for admitting temporary workers; and implementing a tough but fair path to legalization for those already here.
Jan. 12, 2010
Mexico Says Immigration Reform Unlikely in 2010 Jan. 8, 2010, NY Times. Mexico's ambassador to the United States said Friday he expects immigration reform is unlikely to pass in that country in 2010 because of unemployment and midterm elections. In an unusually frank assessment, Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan said Mexico will continue its quiet, ''under the radar'' lobbying for a reform that would benefit the estimated 11.8 million Mexicans living in the United States. A large percentage are undocumented.
Mexican Migrant Fatally Shot by U.S. Border Patrol Jan. 8, 2010, Latin American Hearld Tribune. Mexico’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that it will closely follow the investigation into the fatal shooting of an undocumented Mexican migrant by a U.S. Border Patrol agent. The Jan. 4 death of Jorge Alfredo Solis Palma near Douglas, Arizona, is cause for “profound concern,” the ministry said in a statement.
UCLA study says legalizing undocumented immigrants would help the economy LA Times, Jan. 7, 2010. Even during the ongoing recession, immigration reform legislation that legalizes undocumented immigrants would boost the American economy, according to a new study out of UCLA. The report said that legalization, along with a program that allows for future immigration based on the labor market, would create jobs, increase wages and generate more tax revenue. Comprehensive immigration reform would add an estimated $1.5 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years, according to the report.
Mexico: 5,000 migrants died on way to US since '94 Dec. 17, 2009, Associated Press. Mexico's National Human Rights Commission says more than 5,000 Mexican migrants have died... trying to reach the U.S. since 1994. The commission says governments must do more to protect migrants from robbers, smugglers and others who seek to exploit them. On average, three migrants perished every two days in 2007 and 2008 in the U.S.-Mexico border region. More than 280,000 Mexicans emigrated in the first six months of 2009 — a 25 percent drop over the same period last year.
Dec. 15, 2009
Gutierrez Proposal Sets a Marker for Reform Dec. 16, 2009. On December 15, Representative Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) introduced legislation to reform our immigration laws. The Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act (CIR ASAP) represents an important step in getting Congress to act to fix our broken immigration system next year. This link leads to a thumbnail sketch of the contents of the bill.
Between Two Worlds: How Young Latinos Come of Age in America, Dec. 11, 2009, Pew Research Center. Hispanics are the largest and youngest minority group in the United States. One- in-five schoolchildren is Hispanic. One-in-four newborns is Hispanic. Never before in this country's history has a minority ethnic group made up so large a share of the youngest Americans. By force of numbers alone, the kinds of adults these young Latinos become will help shape the kind of society America becomes in the 21st century. This report takes an in-depth look at Hispanics who are ages 16 to 25, a phase of life when young people make choices that-for better and worse-set their path to adulthood.
Illegal Immigration Has Negligible Impact on U.S. Economy Dec. 2, 2009. Migration Policy Institute. Illegal immigration's overall impact on the U.S. economy is negligible, despite clear benefits for employers and unauthorized immigrants and slightly depressed wages for low-skilled native workers, according to a report by a University of California, San Diego economist released today by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI). ...A more constructive immigration policy, (the author) suggests, would aim to generate maximum productivity gains to the U.S. economy while limiting the fiscal cost and keeping enforcement spending contained. He recommends a policy redesign that provides sufficient legal channels, fluctuating with economic needs, for entry of low-skilled workers while maintaining reasonable immigration enforcement.
Dec. 5, 2009
Panic Erupts in Wake of New Arizona Anti-Immigrant Law Dec. 4, 2009, InterPress Service. An Arizona law, which took effect on Nov. 24, requires state, city and any government employee in Arizona to report to immigration authorities any undocumented immigrants who request a public benefit. Government workers could face up to four months in jail if they fail to make a report. Arizona community activists and religious leaders are trying to mitigate fears over the law.
The boon of immigration: Newcomers to America more than pull their economic weight Nov. 30, 2009, NY Daily News editorial. As documented by theFiscal Policy Institute, immigration has, in fact, been a vital force in the American economy. Even in tough times, immigrants boost or replenish the labor pool and inject entrepreneurial energy that opens businesses and creates jobs.
Nov. 21, 2009
Money Trickles North as Mexicans Help Relatives, Nov, 15, 2009, NY Times. Unemployment has hit migrant communities in the United States so hard that a startling new phenomenon has been detected: instead of receiving remittances from relatives in the richest country on earth, some down-and-out Mexican families are scraping together what they can to support their unemployed loved ones in the United States.
Nov. 7, 2009
Immigrant Jail Tests U.S. View of Legal Access, Nov. 1, 2009, NY Times. A startling petition arrived at the New York City Bar Association in October 2008, signed by 100 men, all locked up without criminal charges in the middle of Manhattan. In vivid if flawed English, it described cramped, filthy quarters where dire medical needs were ignored and hungry prisoners were put to work for $1 a day. The petitioners were among 250 detainees imprisoned in an immigration jail that few New Yorkers know exists. In Greenwich Village, the Varick Street Detention Facility takes in 11,000 men a year, most of them longtime New Yorkers facing deportation without a lawyer.
The LAPD fights crime, not illegal immigration, Oct. 27, LA Times, OpEd by William Bratton, Chief of Police, Los Angeles. Americans want a solution to our immigration dilemma, as do law enforcement officials across this nation. But the solution isn't turning every local police department into an arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ...Working with victims and witnesses of crimes closes cases faster and protects all of our families by getting criminals off the street. We must pass immigration reform and bring our neighbors out of the shadows so they get the police service they need and deserve. When officers can speak freely with victims and witnesses, it goes a long way toward making every American neighborhood much safer.
Oct. 24, 2009
CNN’s Special on Latinos Stirs Protests Against Anchor, Oct. 22, 2009, NY Times. CNN’s broadcast of a four-hour documentary about Latinos this week turned into a political rallying cry for activist groups that are calling on the cable news channel to fire Lou Dobbs, a veteran anchor with anti-immigration views. An array of minority groups held small protests in New York and other cities on Wednesday, the first night of the “Latino in America” presentation. They are trying to highlight what they say are years of lies about immigration by Mr. Dobbs, who anchors the 7 p.m. hour on CNN.
October 14, 2009
Hispanics of Mexican Origin in the United States, 2007 Pew Hispanic Center, Oct. 14, 2009, This statistical profile describes the demographic, employment and income characteristics of the Hispanic population of Mexican origin in the United States. The characteristics of Mexicans are contrasted with the characteristics of all Hispanics and the U.S. population overall. The profile uses data from the Census Bureau's 2007 American Community Survey.A total of 29.2 million Hispanics of Mexican origin resided in the United States in 2007, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.Mexicans are the largest population of Hispanic origin living in the United States, accounting for nearly two-thirds (64.3%) of the U.S. Hispanic population in 2007.
Immigration Hard-Liner Has His Wings Clipped, NY Times, Oct. 6, 2009. The Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff, Joe Arpaio, who has drawn scorn and praise for a running crackdown on illegal immigrants in this city’s metropolitan area, said Tuesday that federal officials had taken away his deputies’ authority to make immigration arrests in the field.
Homeland Security Report Critical of Scope of Immigration Detention NY Times, Oct. 6, 2009. A report on immigration detention released Tuesday by the Obama administration paints a picture of a costly, inappropriately penal system that is growing without basic tools for management and monitoring, while the government office nominally in charge struggles with high turnover and a lack of expertise.
Border Deaths Are Increasing Despite Fewer Crossers Washington Post, Sept. 30, 2009. Despite a 50 percent drop over the past two years in the number of people caught illegally entering the United States from Mexico, the number of those who died while trying to cross the border increased this year and is the highest since 2006... The American Civil Liberties Union and Mexico's human rights agency allege that consistently high numbers of border deaths -- hovering around 350 to 500 a year, depending on which government's figures are used -- are a predictable but largely unrecognized result of border security policies.
Immigrants Out to Destroy U.S., Washington Times Columnist Warns Southern Poverty Law Center, Sept. 24, 2009. This past weekend, The Washington Times featured a columnfilled with apocalyptic visions of a white America overrun by a “massive invasion” of immigrants. The column was penned by Jeffrey T. Kuhner, who heads theEdmund Burke Institute, which is described by the paper as a “Washington-based think tank.” Taking a page out of the white nationalist playbook, Kuhner frets that the Obama administration plans a massive amnesty that will allow the “army of illegal immigrants” to wipe out America’s European “roots.”
Sept. 27, 2009
Pew Hispanic Center Founded in 2001, the Pew Hispanic Center is a nonpartisan research organization that seeks to improve understanding of the U.S. Hispanic population and to chronicle Latinos' growing impact on the nation. The Center does not take positions on policy issues. It is a project of the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan "fact tank" in Washington, DC that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. It is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, a public charity based in Philadelphia. The Center conducts studies on a wide range of topics with the aim of presenting research that at once meets the most rigorous scientific standards and is accessible to the interested public. The Center regularly conducts public opinion surveys that aim to illuminate Latino views on a range of social matters and public policy issues.
Mexican Immigrants: How Many Come? How Many Leave? Pew Research Center, Jul. 22, 2009. The flow of immigrants from Mexico to the United States has declined sharply since mid-decade, but there is no evidence of an increase during this period in the number of Mexican-born migrants returning home from the U.S.The current recession has had a harsh impact on employment of Latino immigrants, raising the question of whether an increased number of Mexican-born residents are choosing to return home. This new Hispanic Center analysis finds no support for that hypothesis in government data from the United States or Mexico.
Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States Pew Research Center,Apr. 14, 2009. A 2008 report by the Center estimated that 11.9 million unauthorized immigrants lived in the United States; it concluded that the undocumented immigrant population grew rapidly from 1990 to 2006 but has since stabilized. In this new analysis, the Center estimates that the rapid growth of unauthorized immigrant workers also has halted; it finds that there were 8.3 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. labor force in March 2008.
Open Markets, Closed Borders Reason Magazine, May 31, 2007. This article was written before the last effort to change US immigration law. It provides a still relevant, clear analysis of the economic dynamics of the cross-border labor market.
Filmmakers Document Consequences of Immigration Raid LA Times, Sept. 25, 2009. Back in May 2008, U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials rounded up 389 undocumented workers in the Agriprocessors Inc. kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa. The raid was the largest in U.S history. Two weeks later, filmmakers Jennifer Szymaszek and Greg Brosnan started filming "In the Shadow of the Raid," a documentary film showing at the Morelia International Film Festival in Mexico.
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Mexican American astronaut isn't changing course on immigration stand, LA Times, Sept. 18, 2009. NASA went ballistic when Jose Hernandez advocated legalization of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. shortly after his return to Earth. The California-born son of migrants (from Michoacan) isn't backing down.
Sept. 15, 2009
When Law Flies Out the Door: Immigration Raids Washington Post, Aug. 1, 2009. A new report from the Immigration Justice Clinic of Cardozo Law School in New York offers the first detailed insight into the home raids. Overseen by regular police officers and police professionals, the report, based on ICE records obtained through Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, uncovers a pattern of ICE behavior that raises the question of what kind of nation we want to be. Proponents of harsh immigration enforcement often forget that it is the Fourth Amendment, and not some liberal court, that specifically prohibits "unreasonable searches and seizures" and demands that police get warrants based upon "probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
As Immigrants Move in, Americans Move UP , Free Trade Bulletin, July 21, 2009. Contrary to popular notions, low-skilled immigration has not contributed to a swelling of the underclass, or any increase at all, nor has it contributed to a rise in crime or other antisocial behaviors. In fact, it would be more plausible to argue that low-skilled immigration has actually accelerated the upward mobility of Americans on the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder. At the same time, the influx of lowskilled immigrants has helped to transform the American underclass into a demographic group that is still poor—but more inclined to work and less prone to crime.
Immigrant Crackdown Joins Failed Crime and Drug Wars, Apr. 30, 2009, Report of the America's Program "The campaign to detain and deport immigrants got its policy legs from two previous (and continuing) wars: the "war on crime" and the "war on drugs," both launched by President Richard Nixon in the early 1970s. The new emphasis by the Obama administration on tracking down and removing "criminal aliens" indicates that the ongoing immigrant crackdown will be driven more by the imperatives of the crime and drug wars than by the ideological fears and fervor of the war on terror."
Collateral Damage: An Examination of ICE's Fugitive Operations Program, Feb. 2009, Report of the Migration Policy Institute.The Fugitive Operations Program of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is mandated to seek out immigrants with criminal convictions who flee deportation. Yet 73% of those apprehended between 2003 and Feb. 2008 by the service had no criminal record. In 2007, only nine percent had criminal records.
E-Verify Reason Magazine, Oct. 2008. Describes the E-verify system for checking if workers are legally in the US and the database problems with it.
