For the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, designating land as wilderness is pretty much like breathing. And so when the committee unanimously passed a bill to convert a swath of southern New Mexico into wilderness in July, people didn’t think much of it.
Until they did. Suddenly, advocates of More…
On July 21, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources unanimously approved a bill to designate part of the Organ Mountains in southern New Mexico as wilderness. It was a routine measure — the committee passes several federal land designation bills each year — that generated little debate More…
A new poll from Pew Hispanic Center provides some insight into how Latinos — both U.S.-born and immigrants — view immigration issues. Perhaps most interesting is the fact that fears over discrimination and deportation have increased since 2009. This makes sense: Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported More…
As Republicans push for increased border enforcement, many have sought to expand Operation Streamline, a “zero tolerance” immigration enforcement program that automatically slates all migrants caught crossing the border illegally for criminal prosecution. (Immigrant deportation is generally a civil, not a criminal, matter.) But critics of the program More…
Speaking of border security, Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller, a Tea Partier who ousted Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the state’s Republican primary, has a proposal for how to make the borders safer: Emulate East Germany.
“The first thing that has to be done is secure the More…
Alan Bersin, the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, was asked a good question during a talk this afternoon hosted by the Migration Policy Insitute: Securing the border is his job, but what exactly does he consider a secure border?
It’s an interesting question, particularly given the debate over More…
There are 1,200 National Guard troops on the U.S.-Mexico border, working as extra “eyes and ears” for Border Patrol agents to watch for trafficking and illegal border crossing. But as the Associated Press points out in its story today on the troop deployment, many question whether they will More…
Near the end of August, the number of deaths by border crossers in Pima County, Ariz., was beginning to climb to near-record numbers. Today, NPR reports that the number of deaths by migrants in the Arizona desert has officially surpassed all previous years: 252 bodies of More…
Change.org links to a good summary of the 874-page comprehensive immigration reform bill Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) introduced Wednesday. The bill includes paths to legalization for non-criminal illegal immigrants in the country, provided they pay a fine and application fees. But first it focuses More…
The GOP’s “Pledge to America” is pretty brief when it comes to immigration issues: It advocates control of the border, enforcement of immigration laws and strengthening visa security. (Notably absent? Any paths to legalization for illegal immigrants already in the country.) The document does not go so far More…
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