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Just the Facts

Immigration Fact Checks provide up-to-date information on the most current issues involving immigration today.

Why States and Localities Should Not Require Employers to Participate in the Basic Pilot/E-Verify Program

The Basic Pilot/E-Verify electronic employment verification system is often portrayed as the magic bullet that would curb unauthorized employment.

Published On: Tue, Jan 15, 2008 | Download File

Facts About the Social Security "No-Match" Letter

Basic information about SSA No-Match Letters.

Published On: Thu, Jan 03, 2008 | Download File

What are the Three Year, Ten Year & Permanent Bars to Admission?

U.S. immigration law contains three-year, ten-year, and permanent bars on admission to the United States for a variety of immigration status violations.

Published On: Tue, Jan 01, 2008 | Download File

America Needs AgJOBS, not Harsh Guestworker Programs

Background:  Immigration is a critical issue for farmworkers.  The majority of farmworkers are undocumented, with estimates ranging from 53% to 75% of the workforce.  Without legal status, most farmworkers are too fearful of deportation to challenge unfair treatment.  Intensified immigration enforcement efforts have driven undocumented workers further underground, leaving them even more vulnerable to exploitation.  Read more...

Published On: Tue, Jan 01, 2008 | Download File

Pulling at the Thread: Anti-Immigrant Proposals Threaten Social Security Traditions

Proposals in Congress adversely target immigrants' retirement security in ways that would require the Social Security Administration (SSA) to alter the current retirement benefits framework by significantly changing the way work history is credited to individuals.

Published On: Tue, Jan 01, 2008 | Download File

Demographics: Low Skill Immigration

Answers the questions, How many low-skilled immigrant workers are in the U.S.?

Published On: Tue, Jan 01, 2008 | Download File

Myths and Facts: Displacement of Workers & Downward Pressure on Wages

NUMBERS:    Opponents of a more robust H-1B program declare that immigrant workers, particularly high skill workers, displace U.S. workers and drive down the wages of those workers.  In many areas of the country, however, businesses are encountering something quite different:  that there simply are not enough qualified, high skill U.S. workers to fill the needs of U.S. employers.  High skill foreign professionals are therefore essential in filling these needs and complementing the native born workforce.  Read more...

Published On: Tue, Jan 01, 2008 | Download File

Why Denying Driver's Licenses to Undocumented Immigrants Harms Public Safety and Makes Our Communities Less Secure

States need to create practical, workable solutions, and denying undocumented immigrants licenses is simply bad public policy.

Published On: Tue, Jan 01, 2008 | Download File

Low Wage Worker Myth & Facts

Myth: Foreign low wage workers depress the wages of U.S. workers.
Fact: Immigrants don’t have a negative impact on the majority of native born workers, and often exact a positive impact.

  • The primary reason that immigrants don’t have a negative impact on the majority of native-born workers is that they aren’t competing for the same jobs.
  • The U.S. population is growing older and better educated, while the U.S. economy continues to create a large number of low skill jobs that favor younger workers with little formal education. As a result, immigrants increasingly are filling jobs at the less-skilled end of the occupational spectrum for which relatively few native-born workers are available.
  • Even among workers with the same level of formal education, the foreign-born tend to be employed in different occupations than U.S. natives. Less-educated foreign-born workers, for instance, are found mostly in agricultural and personal service jobs, while less-educated natives are found mostly in manufacturing and mining.
  • Immigration raised the average wage of the native-born worker by 1.1 percent during the 1990s. Among native-born workers with a high-school diploma or more education, wages increased between 0.8 percent and 1.5 percent.
  • Since workers with different levels of education perform different tasks and fill different roles in production, the majority of native-born workers (those with intermediate educational levels) experience benefits, more than competition, from foreign-born workers concentrated in high and low educational groups.

Published On: Tue, Jan 01, 2008 | Download File

Summary of AgJOBS: The Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits and Security Act of 2007

What is AgJOBS?     

AgJOBS, the Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits and Security Act, is a proposed immigration law that would provide agricultural employers with a stable, legal labor force while protecting farmworkers from exploitative working conditions.  The AgJOBS compromise was reached in 2000 after years of Congressional and labor-management conflict resulting in tough negotiations between the United Farm Workers (UFW), major agricultural employers, and key federal legislators.  On January 10, 2007, Senators Kennedy (D.-Mass.), Feinstein (D-Cali.), and Craig (R.-Idaho) and Reps. Cannon (R.-Utah) and Berman (D.-Cal.) introduced AgJOBS in the 110th Congress.  Read more...

Published On: Tue, Jan 01, 2008 | Download File