One day after the Department of Homeland Security announced record-high deportations of illegal immigrants, ColorLines has a good story about some of the problems of heavy enforcement — particularly under a system that strongly favors deportation. Framed by the story of a legal resident who was More…
Three pro-immigration reform Republican representatives from Miami made a somewhat awkward endorsement of Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott Monday, admitting they oppose his harsh anti-immigration policy stances. Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen threw their support behind Scott because of his positions on jobs and lowering taxes. But More…
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has deported 350,000 people so far this year, more than half of whom had criminal convictions, the Sacramento Bee reports today. This is a change from 2008, when the numbers were skewed toward non-criminal deportations. The trend seems to indicate that the agency More…
Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman, a longtime supporter of strict immigration enforcement, has made pushing for Arizona-style immigration legislation a central part of his re-election campaign. He argues copycat bills will spring up all over the country when state legislature return next year, telling The New York Times, “Next 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…
Republicans just successfully filibustered a defense authorization bill, killing an effort by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to attach the DREAM Act and a repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to the bill. All Democrats voted to bring the bill to the floor, but they were unable to More…
The Senate will make a procedural vote today on the defense authorization bill, but how the vote goes will likely have major implications for the DREAM Act and the future of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. If Republicans are successful in filibustering the bill from moving to the floor, More…
When a comprehensive immigration reform bill failed in 2007, eight Democrats voted to kill it. The Hill reported today some of these senators may again help to block immigration reform legislation: Five of the Democrats who voted “no” in 2007 are unsure how they will vote on the More…
The recession has been hard on almost everyone, but a report released today by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute found immigrants suffered higher job losses between 2007 and 2009 in health care, construction, information technology and hospitality. Construction jobs, which previously employed a huge number of Latino men More…
The private detention industry stands to gain substantially from a growing immigrant detention system, so it’s no accident that a lobbying group partially funded by Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA, which operates some of the country’s largest private detention facilities, has had a hand in crafting both Arizona’s harsh More…
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