Immigration Policy Center

Published on Fri, May 07, 2010

When Arizona passed a law that handed local police unprecedented authority to investigate and arrest suspected illegal immigrants, the state ignited a firestorm in a midterm election year. And for Kris Kobach, the former Bush administration lawyer who helped draft the legislation, the crackdown in Arizona is just the beginning.

Published in the Mother Jones

Published on Thu, May 06, 2010

Here we go again. It seems like an eternity since immigration reform was part of the national dialogue: Back in 2006-2007, George W. Bush was president, and Senator Ted Kennedy was leading the push for a bipartisan immigration reform package in the Senate with the collaboration of Senator John McCain of Arizona. Their proposal ultimately failed, and the 2008 presidential campaign halted all forward movement to reform our outdated immigration system.

Published in the Memphis Flyer

Published on Wed, May 05, 2010

Once again U.S. immigration policies are in the national spotlight. Arizona Gov. Brewer signed legislation on April 23 to authorize the arrest of Arizona residents if a police officer has reasonable suspicion that the person is in the United States without immigration documents. Her decision to sign this legislation has catapulted comprehensive immigration reform from the end of a long list of important Congressional legislation to competing for first place with financial reform.

Published in the Anchorage Daily News

Published on Wed, May 12, 2010

New Mexico's governor says it is a step backward. Texas isn't touching it. And California? Never again.

Arizona's sweeping new law empowering police to question and arrest anyone they suspect is in the U.S. illegally is finding little support in the other states along the Mexican border.

Among the reasons given: California, New Mexico and Texas have long-established, politically powerful Hispanic communities; they have deeper cultural ties to Mexico that influence their attitudes toward immigrants; and they have little appetite for a polarizing battle over immigration like one that played out in California in the 1990s.

Published in the Associated Press

Published on Wed, May 12, 2010

Sir, David Pinsen’s unfounded and inaccurate accusations against Mexican and unskilled immigrants should not be allowed to go unanswered (Letters, May 10). Contrary to the myth that unskilled immigrants consume more in government resources than they pay in taxes, an April 21 study by the Immigration Policy Center shows that Arizona’s immigrant workers contributed $2.4bn in state tax revenue in 2004. One can assume that not many of these workers had PhDs.

The same study shows that Latinos and Asians in that state wield nearly $37bn in consumer purchasing power, the businesses they own had sales of $12.2bn and employed nearly 65,000 people. Studies by the same organisation of many other states show similar results. For every study by an anti-immigrant group alleging that Mexicans cannot assimilate, there is a more objective study.

Published in the Financial Times

Published on Sun, May 09, 2010

Marie, a Haitian mother, couldn't have been more grateful. "Thank you God for TPS," she recently told an attorney helping her fill out forms that will protect her from deportation. She was referring to temporary protected status, which will allow her to work legally, help Haiti and support her two young children. It's the sentiment that we hear most these days.

As longtime advocates, we at Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center were gratified when the Department of Homeland Security granted temporary protected status to unauthorized Haitian immigrants after the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti. Temporary protected status will allow perhaps 100,000 Haitians to legalize their status for the next 18 months.

Published in the CNN

Published on Fri, May 07, 2010

Lawmakers in at least nine states are using Arizona’s immigration law as a test case to craft similar legislation, ratcheting up the pressure on the federal government to act before states enact a patchwork of laws that undercut federal authority.

Arizona’s S1070 opened a door that national anti-illegal immigration advocates had been pushing against for years. Groups such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform and its legal wing, the Immigration Reform Law Institute, have sought for years to create model legislation on illegal immigration that would withstand legal challenges and create a blueprint for states and cities that wanted to follow suit.

Published in the Arizona Capitol Times

Published on Wed, May 12, 2010

The Rev. Douglas Sharp, Dean of the Academy, Protestants for the Common Good

I remember the day, many years ago, when I stumbled across a passage in Leviticus in the New Revised Standard Version that said: “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”

Published in the Chicago Tribune

Published on Mon, May 10, 2010

Kristin Everingham traveled more than three hours west to tell her immigration story.

With her 3-month old son, Zahir, wrapped in her arms, the Wichita resident explained to the large crowd gathered Saturday in Stevens Park that she and her husband, Hipolito Gutierrez, were married in Mexico but have not been able to raise their family of four together since he returned south of the border in 2003.

Published in the Garden City Telegram

Published on Tue, May 11, 2010

Immigrants arrested for decades-old or minor violations, like marijuana possession, may soon be less subject to deportation in at least one state.

Last week, New York state officials promised to ease deportations of immigrants who had committed minor violations. The New York Times reported that the state’s governor, David Paterson, plans to grant more pardons to immigrants facing deportation.

Published in the Latin American Dispatch