- President James Madison
Obama to Address Immigration Reform in May
As reported in the New York Times, President Obama will begin framing the immigration reform effort this summer, paving the way for legislation debate this year. Immigrants List supports a comprehensive approach to immigration reform, and we applaud his leadership. Read More
Posted on Friday, April 10 | 0 comments | Permalink
The First Annual Michael Maggio Award Reception
The First Annual Michael Maggio Award Reception, held in Washington on March 20, kicked off the Immigrants' List Spring 2009 fundraising drive. The event was a big success, and featured award recipient Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL).
About Luis Gutierrez
Congressman Luis V. Gutierrez is and has been a long-time champion of Latino and immigrants rights. A tireless advocate and leader who has earned widespread acclaim throughout the country, Congressman Gutierrez is a most fitting first recipient of the Immigrants' List Michael Maggio Award.
Congressman Gutierrez is a major voice for comprehensive immigration reform, and continues to lead the fight for legislative action.
In 2007, Rep. Gutierrez introduced the Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy Act of 2007 (STRIVE Act), legislation to improve border security and make immigration policies more realistic and enforceable. In 2000, he authored the LIFE Act, which afforded people who unlawfully entered the country the ability to adjust their status under certain conditions without requiring them to leave the country to obtain their green cards. Earlier in his congressional career, he was a driving force behind Citizenship USA, a program of the Clinton Administration that led to the naturalization of large number of immigrants across the country.
An able legislator and activist, Rep. Gutierrez is currently spearheading a five-week, 14-city national tour that seeks to document the harm caused to our nation's citizens due to the absence of an immigration system overhaul. And, last year he visited Postville, Iowa to witness the devastation ICE raids of Agriprocessors wrought on families and the community at large.
Moreover, as part of an unprecedented nationwide campaign, Gutierrez has partnered with local communities and churches to hold rallies for thousands of U.S. citizens whose families have been or risk being torn apart by our broken immigration system.
Rep. Gutierrez also has opposed and worked to defeat legislation such as the "Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005," which focused almost exclusively on enforcement issues and disregarded other needed reforms. Advocating instead for a realistic, long-lasting, and common-sense solution to this challenge, Rep. Gutierrez has been steadfast in his support of a comprehensive solution.
Rep. Gutierrez is Chair of the Democratic Caucus Immigration Task Force, where he is the party's leading strategist and spokesperson on immigration issues. He also serves as Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Immigration Task Force, and was named to the House Judiciary Committee where he serves on the Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law Subcommittee. He represents Illinois' 4th District.
About the Michael Maggio Award
Established in 2008 to honor the memory of Michael Maggio, the Immigrants' List Michael Maggio Award is conferred annually to a Member of Congress who evidences by words or deeds a firm commitment to advancing the interests of immigrants in the United States. Luis Gutierrez is our first award recipient.
Michael Maggio was one of the founders of Immigrants' List and a nationally recognized immigration lawyer. Justice, the rule of law, legal activism, and respect for human rights were the core principles of Michael's legal philosophy. During his 30-year legal career, he fought for fairness and equal protection under the law. While involved in many high-profile cases during his long career, it was from representing everyday people that he sustained his drive and commitment to furthering justice for those seeking a better life. "Immigrants are the best thing about this country" he often said, "they are the risk takers, the essence of free enterprise." Michael died in February 2008.
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Posted on Wednesday, April 01 | 0 comments | Permalink
Driving away immigrants--and our future
The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) just released a deeply flawed report on “illegal immigration” that focused only on Hispanics to the exclusion of all other groups. Its rationale is that young Hispanics immigrants can be seen as the “likely illegal immigrant population.”
Imagine if crime statistics were similarly restricted to one race or ethnic extraction—the so-called study would be laughed at by all serious observers. But such dubious reports are treated as contributions to the immigration debate.
CIS suggests that there has been an 11 percent decline in the undocumented immigrant population as a result of stepped-up enforcement efforts, which are helped by an imploding economy.
This may or may not be the case. But what is more interesting is that CIS decided to simply collapse enforcement and a decline in the undocumented population with Hispanics. So the message here is that Hispanic communities are “likely” pools of law breakers that should be targeted with punitive policies.
As the Immigration Policy Institute counters, most immigration is shaped by survival economics, not political enforcement policies. It cites the downturn in the construction sector as a factor in why less skilled—not less valuable— workers may be leaving.
Never mind that this recession will not last forever. And as the Essential Worker Coalition has warned, the aging baby boomer generation means the need for more workers.
Like other short-sighted, one-dimensional, and fear-based analysis, the CIS report does nothing to move us closer to immigration reform that makes sense for this nation.
- volver arriba
- http_wwwimprecom_eldiariony_opinion_2008_7_31_driving_away_immigrants
Posted on Thursday, July 31 | 0 comments | Permalink
False Victory at the Border
How secure is the border? The opinion of government optimists is that it is way secure. So secure you wouldn’t believe it — and not as secure as it will be.
That is the least the country should expect after all it has given up to lock the border down. Billions of dollars since the 1980s in fencing, razor wire, electronic sensors and vehicle barriers. A major deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops in 2006, to bolster the Border Patrol. The trashing of the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and a host of environmental and land-management laws. (When Congress ordered the homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, to build 670 miles of border fence by the end of this year, it decreed that no law or judge, no wild creature or endangered homeowner, should stop him. Last month, the Supreme Court declined to intervene in one of the many legal disputes the fence has provoked.)
The National Guard is leaving the border at the end of the month. And even though the border states want them to stay, the Bush administration is declaring victory. That’s how good things are down there.
Too bad, though, that the results that restrictionists predict from victory — an end to illegal immigration, the expulsion of illegal immigrants, the restoration of jobs to American workers, the protection of American culture and language from a Hispanic invasion — are not coming anytime soon. That’s because fixing immigration has very little to do with any of the hustle and bustle along the 2,000-mile line from San Diego to Brownsville, Tex.
The Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego, recently did the radical thing of talking to border-crossers about why and how they come. In a survey of undocumented immigrants from four Mexican states, it found that fewer than half are caught by the Border Patrol. Those who fail the first time try again and again, and their success rates for entering the country hover consistently above 90 percent. Sheriffs, police officers and elected officials in border communities — some of whom have ridiculed the fence and sued to block it — would readily confirm that.
The study offered another compelling example of enforcement gone awry: reports that illegal immigrants who are stymied by a tighter border are staying put, setting down roots and bringing their families over.
This is not to argue for giving up on enforcement. The real victory will come when a repaired, well-patrolled border coincides with a repaired, well-run immigration system that requires undocumented workers to come forward and be legalized, has expanded avenues for legal workers, including would-be citizens, and cracks down on illegal hiring as staunchly as it protects workers’ rights.
There is a long list of things to do to make the immigration system correspond to American values and economic realities, and the country is doing just about none of them. We’re paying a huge price to pay for an ineffective fence and some symbolic victories on the border.
Posted on Tuesday, July 08 | 0 comments | Permalink
Prince William County Immigration Reform
Without widespread immigration reform from Congress, some local governments are taking it upon themselves to deal directly with illegal immigration. But using taxpayer money can stir tensions, at least in the case of Prince William County, Virginia, and nearby communities.Posted on Thursday, June 05 | 0 comments | Permalink
The Great Immigration Panic
Posted on Tuesday, June 03 | 0 comments | Permalink
“The Visitor” - New Film Takes on Immigration
It is something that hasn't been done enough in movies. Immigration has been all over the news the past couple years, but it has been largely avoided by Hollywood - perhaps its a fear of making people uncomfortable and thefore hurting sales a la Stop-Loss or any other Iraq War movies.
But regardless there is a new film out called The Visitor that takes on many of the problems of our immigration system. According to Entertainment Weekly, "The harsh inequities and Kafka-country miseries of secretive U.S. immigration procedures in a post-9/11 state of anxiety and suspicion shift The Visitor from dream to nightmare." Looks like its going to be a limited New York/LA release for now, but hopefully it will do well enough to go elsewhere.
As a sidenote, Immigrants' List member Cheryl David was the immigration consultant on the film.
Posted on Friday, April 11 | 0 comments | Permalink
SAVE ACT would cost US $40 Billion
To put it in context, that's just $10 Billion more than a year of universal health care according to a report on Presidential Candidate Barack Obama's Health Care proposal.
The Congressional Budget Office Report gets even scarier when you look at where that $40 billion dollars comes from. Over $17 billion of it comes from lost taxes over the course of the next 10 years.
According to the CBO, the $1.73 billion dollars a year will be gone because the immigrant workers who are paying taxes now would be moved underground. The report is essentially admitting that the SAVE Act would not end the employment of illegal immigrants, it would instead move them further off the books and cost the US more money.
Unless the US does something about the pool of legal workers, we can never expect an enforcement-only solution to fix our problem.
Posted on Tuesday, April 08 | 0 comments | Permalink
