Immigration Policy Center

Speaker Boehner Ignores the Costs of Doing Nothing

Released on Thu, Nov 14, 2013

Washington D.C. - Yesterday, Speaker of the House John Boehner reassured the far-right wing of the Republican Party and anti-immigrant activists that he would never agree to a conference to hammer out an agreement on a House immigration bill and S. 744, the Senate’s bipartisan immigration bill that passed in June. While that statement may have been reassuring to a few die-hard anti-immigration reform activists, it had the opposite effect for the vast majority of Americans. The Speaker’s statement does not stop the clock on the economic, social, and societal costs of doing nothing on immigration. It also does not honor the hard work of Democrats and Republicans who have worked in good faith to pass the Senate bill and negotiate on various fronts in the House.

However, what Speaker Boehner's statement does do is open the door to more protests and public outrage, encourage states to continue to take the lead on immigration policy and leave the administration in the difficult situation of deciding how long they will let Congressional inaction continue before they will intervene. When Congress refuses to act they make themselves less relevant and reinforce the idea that they cannot work constructively to fix our nation's most pressing problems.

Thus, rather than tamp down the flames of reform, the Speaker’s statements will embolden those who will work to fix immigration policy on their own - for better or worse. It’s inevitable that immigration reform will happen it’s just a matter of how much our economy, communities, and the Republican Party will lose in the meantime

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For press inquiries contact, Wendy Feliz at [email protected] or 202-812-2499

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IPC Cited in Chicago Sun-Times Op-Ed

Published on Thu, Oct 31, 2013

In a recent op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times titled "How Immigration Reform Would Help Chicago," Stephen Bouman cited the Immigration Policy Center while making the case for the economic benefits of passing immigration reform:

"The Immigration Policy Center’s researchers find that Latino and Asian entrepreneurs and consumers already add tens of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs to Illinois’s economy. Imagine how Chicago’s economy could buzz if all immigrants were buying homes, investing in education, and planning for secure futures."

Published in the Chicago Sun-Times

Ben Johnson Featured in the State Journal Register

Published on Sun, Oct 27, 2013

The AIC's Executive Director, Ben Johnson, was recently featured in an op-ed piece in the Illinois newspaper, the State Journal-Register. The piece focused on what the cost of congressional inaction on immigration reform would be for the state of Illinois. It was based off of a recent fact sheet released by the IPC titled, "The Cost of Doing Nothing: Dollars, Lives, and Opportunities Lost in the Wait for Immigration Reform."

In the piece, Johnson writes:

"Immigrants make up 14 percent of Illinois’ population, and 20.3 percent of all business owners in Illinois are foreign-born. The state has everything to gain from a smoothly functioning immigration system and much to lose from a system that is not in tune with current economic and social realities.

"Yet, two-and-a-half months after the Senate passed immigration reform legislation (S. 744), the House of Representatives continues to dawdle. Other than giving speeches and mulling over a few backward-looking, enforcement-only bills, the House has done nothing to revamp the broken U.S. immigration system or put forward any vision of what to do with the 11 million unauthorized immigrants now living in the United States — 525,000 of whom call Illinois home."

Published in the State Journal-Register

AIC's Ben Johnson Featured in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Published on Wed, Oct 16, 2013

Ben Johnson, the Executive Director of the American Immigration Council, was recently published in the South Florida Sun Sentinel in an article titled, "Costs too High Not to Act on US Immigration Reform." Johnson was making an argument based off of the recent IPC publication, "The Cost of Doing Nothing: Dollars, Lives, and Opportunities Lost in the Wait for Immigration Reform."

Published in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

IPC Senior Fellow Rob Paral in Politico

Published on Thu, Oct 10, 2013

Rob Paral, a Senior Fellow for the IPC, was published yesterday in Politico explaining why Republican lawmakers can't ignore minority voters in regards to immigration reform. The article was based on Paral's recent Special Report for the IPC, "Stepping Up: The Impact of the Newest, Immigrant, Latino, and Asian Voters."

"A recent Immigration Policy Center analysis of demographic and immigration trends shows that many Republican congressional districts are seeing their constituency profiles evolve dramatically, with emerging electorates that care deeply about immigration reform. In fact, according to my research, based on U.S. Census Bureau age and citizenship data, Asian and Latino youth and newly naturalized U.S. citizens will make up 34 percent of newly eligible voters at the time of the 2014 elections in 55 Republican-held congressional districts."

Published in the Politico

The AIC's Ben Johnson Featured in Boulder's Daily Camera

Published on Wed, Oct 02, 2013

The AIC's Executive Director, Ben Johnson, wrote a recent article in Boulder, Colorado's Daily Camera, focusing on the cost of inaction if Congress should do nothing to pass immigration reform. The article was based on the recent IPC publication, "The Cost of Doing Nothing: Dollars, Lives, and Opportunities Lost in the Wait for Immigration Reform."

Published in the Daily Camera

House Democrats Unveil Comprehensive Immigration Reform Proposal

Released on Wed, Oct 02, 2013

Washington D.C. - Today, in an important effort to keep the conversation and momentum on immigration reform moving forward in the House, a group of centrist Democrats introduced their version of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act. Although the full text has not yet been made available, it is said to be a modification of the bipartisan Senate bill of the same name adopted earlier this year. Among other reported changes, the House bill takes a different path on border security, incorporating a bill introduced by Republican Congressman Mike McCaul which passed unanimously out of the House Committee on Homeland Security in May of 2013. The House sponsors—including Representatives Garcia, Chu, Polis, DelBene, and Horsford—adopted provisions of the McCaul-Thompson bill as a replacement for the costly, controversial “border surge” strategy adopted by the Senate under the Corker-Hoeven amendment.

Substantively, the comprehensive immigration reform bill introduced today reflects a series of bipartisan policy and political compromises made during deliberations in the Senate. The original co-sponsors represent diverse interests from within the Democratic Party, including the New Democrats Coalition, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Congressional Black Caucus, and Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

The following is a statement from the American Immigration Council’s Executive Director, Benjamin Johnson:Read more...

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AIC Executive Director Ben Johnson in the Roanoke Times

Published on Mon, Sep 30, 2013

The AIC's Executive Director, Ben Johnson, had an op-ed titled "The High Cost of Inaction" published in Virginia's Roanoke Times. In it, he draws attention to the recent IPC Fact Sheet, "The Cost of Doing Nothing: Dollars, Lives, and Opportunities Lost in the Wait for Immigration Reform," released last week.

"Yet, three months after the Senate passed immigration reform legislation (S. 744), the House of Representatives continues to dawdle. Other than giving speeches and mulling over a few backward-looking, enforcement-only bills, the House has done nothing to revamp the broken U.S. immigration system or put forward any vision of what to do with the 11 million unauthorized immigrants now living in the United States — 210,000 of whom call Virginia home. The standard excuse for this inaction is that there are too many other high-priority items on the legislative agenda right now — so immigration reform will have to wait.

"But while Congress waits, dollars and lives are being lost."

Published in the Roanoke Times

IPC Cited in USA Today

Published on Tue, Sep 24, 2013

The Immigration Policy Center was cited in a recent USA Today article titled, "Temporary Visa Opens Up World for Young Immigrant." The article, focusing on Iowa DACA recipient Eren Sanchez, mentions the IPC's oft-cited number of potentially eligible DACA recipients.

"Sanchez, 24, is among the more than 565,000 young immigrants in the U.S. who have received two-year visas in the past year. The permits are offered under a year-old federal program for people ages 15 to 30 who have grown up in the U.S., but arrived illegally in the country as children.

Under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy put in place in August 2012 by the Obama administration, about 950,000 immigrants nationwide were eligible for the visas, according to an estimate from the Immigration Policy Center in Washington, D.C."

Published in the USA Today

IPC Senior Fellow Rob Paral Published in Houston Chronicle

Published on Wed, Sep 11, 2013

Rob Paral, a Senior Fellow at the Immigration Policy Center and the author of our recently published Special Report, "Stepping Up: The Impact of the Newest Immigrant, Asian, and Latino Voters," made the case in the Houston Chronicle that the long-term demographic shift in many Republican and Democratic districts makes immigration reform even more of an urgent priority:

"A new analysis of immigration trends and demographic composition of U.S. House districts shows that many Republican congressional districts have emerging electorates that care deeply about immigration reform.

"Many Republican representatives will see their constituency profiles evolve in the coming years. Asian and Latino youth and newly naturalized U.S. citizens will make up 34 percent of newly eligible voters in 55 Republican-held congressional districts."

Published in the Houston Chronicle