Perspectives on Immigration

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ImmigrationImpact.com: FAIR Gets It Wrong Again

IPC Senior Policy Analyst, Michele Waslin, addresses another attempt from hate group FAIR to get policymakers to believe that they should not support a comprehensive solution to our immigration problems. Like all of their other arguments, this one falls flat. Read the full post at ImmigrationImpact.com. (January 8, 2009)

ImmigrationImpact.com: Bush Regrets Not Pushing for Immigration Reform

This week, in an interview with Cal Thomas of the Washington Times, George W. Bush admitted that he regretted concentrating so much on Social Security and not pushing for immigration reform after his '04 reelection. Read the full post at ImmigrationImpact.com. (January 7, 2009)

ImmigrationImpact.com: Immigration Battle Rages on at State and Local Levels

It's not just Congress that's getting back to work. State legislators are also returning to state capitals for another year of lawmaking. Many of us begin this New Year filled with hope and optimism about the possibility of enacting fair and practical immigration policies in Congress. It's important to keep in mind the state and local levels, where harsh laws threaten to further disrupt communities. Read the full post at ImmigrationImpact.com. (January 6, 2009)

AILF 2008 National Contest Grand Prize Winner

The American Immigration Law Foundation sponsors the Annual "Celebrate America" Creative Writing Contest in an ongoing effort to educate the public about the benefits of immigration to our society. This year’s winner is fifth grader Cameron P. Busby’s “American is a Refuge.” (May 2008)

Beyond Border Enforcement: Enhancing National Security Through Immigration Reform

Since 9/11 the watchword in the debate over immigration reform has been “security.” As a result, most policymakers and pundits now approach the subject of immigration largely from a law-enforcement perspective. That is, the focus is how best to fortify U.S. borders so as to prevent the illicit entry into the country of terrorists or weapons of mass destruction. However, the current border-enforcement strategy, which tends to lump together terrorists and undocumented jobseekers from abroad as groups to be kept out, ignores the causes of undocumented immigration and fuels the expansion of the people-smuggling networks through which a foreign terrorist might enter the country. (Walter Ewing, May 2008)

From Denial to Acceptance: Effectively Regulating Immigration to the United States

U.S. immigration policy is based on denial. Most lawmakers in the United States have largely embraced the process of economic “globalization,” yet stubbornly refuse to acknowledge that increased migration, especially from developing nations to developed nations, is an integral and inevitable part of this process. Instead, they continue an impossible quest that began shortly after World War II: the creation of a transnational market in goods and services without a corresponding transnational market for the workers who make those goods and provide those services. (Walter Ewing, May 2008)

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Letter to the Editor: Poverty is Still Home-Grown

In his Sept. 5 op-ed, "Importing Poverty," Robert J. Samuelson made a common yet fatal mistake when it comes to the supposed link between immigration and poverty.  Immigrants are no more responsible for poverty than are the native-born working poor. (September 8, 2007)