IPC In The News

One woman spared deportation, but millions live on the edge

Private bills are not routinely introduced for undocumented individuals, according to Wendy Sefsaf, spokeswoman for the Washington-based Immigration Policy Center. During the 111th session of Congress, 104 bills were introduced for those who may suffer hardships if they were returned to native countries or became undocumented due to administrative delays.

That's low, Sefsaf said, compared to deportations: A record-breaking 392,000 illegal aliens were removed in 2010, a 70 percent increase from the previous administration, officials from the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced in October.

Exactly how many private bills pass is unclear. Last week, for the first time in five years, Congress approved private bills for two Japanese citizens fighting to live in the United States — Shigeru Yamada, son of a woman who was killed in a car crash when he was a teenager and was never adopted, andHotaru "Hota" Ferschke, who found out she was pregnant and got married over the phone with a Marine who was killed in Iraq.

But Sefsaf said those cases are exceptions.

"Congress just needs to focus on a broader plan that would provide relief for the millions in this country that deserve to stay and figure out a way to weed out the ones that might not."

Published In: Detroit News | 12/22/10

588 renowned scholars sign unprecedented document calling upon U.S. Senate to pass DREAM Act legislation

As the Immigration Policy Center, organizers of the letter out it, “By failing to offer these young people a place in America, we are cutting them off from the very mechanisms that would allow them to contribute to our economy and society.”

Published In: La Prensa Ohio | 12/17/10

Arizona's next immigration debate: babies born in U.S.

In an article written for the Immigration Policy Center, lawyer Elizabeth Wydra contends that the reason for the 14th Amendment was to make sure that future legislators could not strip citizenship rights from vulnerable minorities.

Published In: Stateline | 12/16/10

Scholars Call for Passage of the DREAM Act

As part of this push, four prominent scholars of students from immigrant families held a conference call with press yesterday to voice support for the DREAM Act. The call was hosted by the Immigration Policy Center of the Washington-based American Immigration Council. The scholars were Roberto G. Gonzales, of the University of Washington School of Social Work; Douglas S. Massey, of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs; Rubén G. Rumbaut, of the University of California Irvine School of Social Sciences; and Carola Suarez-Orozco, from New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.

Published In: Education Week | 12/14/10

Do any university presidents oppose the DREAM Act?

Finally, I called up Wendy Sefsaf, communications director at Immigration Policy Center, a group that supports DREAM. She hadn't heard of any presidents issuing public statements against the legislation either, but she did have this to say about the lack of academic opposition: "It diminishes any argument that allowing undocumented students to go to college is bad for universities, in terms of economic impact, pushing other students out, or overcrowding. If it wasn't a good idea, universities and their presidents wouldn't be unanimously in support of it."

Published In: Boston Globe | 12/13/10

National debate heats up over DREAM Act

Much of the new criticism is misleading, according to the nonpartisan Immigration Policy Center in Washington, which has published a point-by-point rebuttal.

Published In: San Diego Union Tribune | 11/24/10

Fox continues its all-out assault on the Dream Act

In fact, according to IPC, Dream Act "creates a separate program for students" and does "not compete for visas with other applicants for legal permanent residence." According the Immigration Policy Center (IPC):

DREAM Act students do not compete for visas with other applicants for legal permanent residence. Instead, DREAM Act creates a separate program for students that requires them to earn legal permanent residence by attending college or serving in the military for two years while in a temporary legal status. DREAM will not affect the number of visas available or the time it takes to get a visa for those entering through traditional legal immigration.

Published In: Media Matters | 11/24/10

Sen. Sessions authored DREAM Act opposition alert

The DREAM Act has generated a lot of debate — immigration research centers like the Migration Policy Institute and the Immigration Policy Center have published information on the impact of this proposed legislation.

Published In: Florida Independent | 11/24/10

Military leaders say DREAM Act would benefit recruitment

The Immigration Policy Center cites Margaret Stock, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, and a former professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, who said, ”In a time when several military services are experiencing difficulties recruiting eligible enlisted soldiers, passage of this bill could well solve the Armed Forces’ enlisted recruiting woes and provide a new source of foreign-language-qualified soldiers.”

Published In: Florida Independent | 11/19/10

Run for the Border, Steve King's Coming!

Immigration advocates say that King simply intends to create more rabble-rousing political theater and inflame the masses—particularly as nearly all of his proposals stand little chance of passing the House, let alone the Senate or the president's desk. "A lot of it is theatrics, really using the bully pulpit of committee majority position to push these things out there and stir things up. It wouldn't necessarily result in legislative [victories]," says Mary Giovagnoli, director of the Immigration Policy Center. She adds that the oversight hearings are meant to hammer home the message that "Obama has failed to enforce the law" on immigration—even though the current administration is deporting even more immigrants than under Bush, according to figures from the Department of Homeland Security.

Published In: Mother Jones | 11/10/10