American Immigration Council

Published on Tue, Aug 10, 2010

Recently I saw a CNN debate between Michele Waslin of the Immigration Policy Center and Former Representative Tom Tancredo (R-CO) on the issue of birthright citizenship and the 14th Amendment. The most incredible part of the video, for me at least, was Tancredo's insistence that the issue of birthright citizenship has never come before the Supreme Court. As anyone who has taken a course on the history of U.S. immigration, or an introductory constitutional law class would know, the very idea of granting citizenship to those born on U.S. soil came from a Supreme Court decision in 1898, Wong Kim Ark.

Published in the The Huffington Post

Published on Mon, Aug 09, 2010

Mary Giovagnoli, director of the Immigration Policy Center, said the timing of his announcement and his harsh choice of words – “They come here to drop a child. It’s called drop and leave” -- indicated Graham was simply trying to rile up his conservative base in the midst of the red-hot immigration debate.

Giovagnoli, whose group backs comprehensive immigration reform, said “it really is a politically manufactured issue.”

Published in the Politico

Published on Fri, Aug 06, 2010

“You can make the argument that it can reinforce the Obama administration efforts to disentangle the border issues from the immigration issues, but that’s probably not how it’s going to play out,” Mary Giovagnoli, director of Immigration Policy Center, told TWI. “When you see actions like this at the end of a session, you can bet it’s more politics than policy that’s driving their decisions.”

Giovagnoli said she does not expect the bill to help the comprehensive immigration reform effort, but that it could help pave the way for senators who previously supported reform, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), to re-enter discussions.

Published in the The Washington Independent

Published on Fri, Aug 06, 2010

Amid the illegal immigration debate is talk of overtunring the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to most children born here, regardless of their parents’ status. The American Immigration Council offers a host of essays against the proposal.

Published in the Albany Times Union

Published on Thu, Jul 29, 2010

The Immigration Policy Center, based in the nation's capital, pulled together immigration data from a variety of sources. Then it released fact sheets for all 50 states.

The center's Wendy Sefsaf says the study concludes that, if all undocumented workers were booted out of the Northwest immediately, the economic impact would be huge.
Read more...

Published in the NPR - KPLU

Published on Fri, Jul 30, 2010

"Sheriff Joe Arpaio and some other folks there decided they can make a name for themselves in terms of the intensity of the efforts they're using," said Benjamin Johnson, executive director of the pro-immigrant Immigration Policy Center. "There's no way to deny that. There are a lot of people getting caught up in these efforts."

Published in the Associated Press

Published on Thu, Aug 05, 2010

Earlier this year, the Center for American Progress and the American Immigration Council released studies estimating that comprehensive immigration reform, as described above, would increase the U.S. gross domestic product by at least $1.5 trillion over 10 years.

In Colorado, immigrants keep tourism going in small mountain towns with pricey real estate; they often drive hours each day to and from minimum-wage positions in ski towns. Migrants also work the fields and grunt construction jobs.

Published in the Colorado Springs Independent

Published on Wed, Aug 04, 2010

But according to a January 2010 study by the Immigration Policy Center, the cost of implementing comprehensive immigration reform would be considerable less than a sweeping program to deport all undocumented workers and their non-citizen family members.

From the study: “comprehensive immigration reform that includes a legalization program for unauthorized immigrants and enables a future flow of legal workers would result in a large economic benefit—a cumulative $1.5 trillion in added U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years. In stark contrast, a deportation-only policy would result in a loss of $2.6 trillion in GDP over 10 years.

Published in the OC Register

Published on Wed, Aug 04, 2010

On a conference call today, opponents of changing the policy said that while Americans are "justifiably frustrated" with current immigration policy, eliminating birthright citizenship "would punish the innocent children of undocumented immigrants, which flies in the face of American values," according to Michele Waslin, Senior Policy Analyst at the Immigration Policy Center.

Published in the CBS News

Published on Sun, Aug 01, 2010

"Now, the question is whether politicians at the state and federal level will stop playing politics and start solving problems," said Benjamin Johnson, executive director of the American Immigration Council. "Arizona must start focusing on serious criminals and the federal government must assume its Constitutional duty of fixing the broken immigration system. America needs real solutions that make our communities safer, our border more secure, and finally fix our broken immigration system."

Published in the New York Daily News