Immigration Policy Center

Published on Mon, Sep 09, 2013

The IPC's Senior Policy Analyst, Guillermo Cantor, was interviewed on CNN Spanish regarding immigration reform and the IPC's recently released Special Report, "Stepping Up: The Impact of the Newest Immigrant, Latino, and Asian Voters," which explains the effect those groups will have on future elections in the United States.  Watch it here:

Published in the CNN

Published on Wed, Sep 04, 2013

A recent article on VOXXI featured a recent Special Report created by IPC Fellow Rob Paral, entitled, "Stepping Up:  The Impact of the Newest Immigrant, Latino, and Asian Voters."

The report, which details the future changes the U.S. Congress can expect in terms of voter demographics, was the central focus of the article: 

"The newly released study shows that the electoral composition in congressional districts is on track to change as more naturalized U.S. citizens and young Latinos and Asians — many of whom support immigration reform — become eligible to vote in the next few years.

“Representatives contemplating their eventual vote on immigration reform need to weigh the numerous policy arguments in favor of reform and make an informed decision, but they must also understand the shifting demographic dimensions of their districts,” stated Rob Paral, the author of the study."

Published in the VOXXI

Published on Wed, Aug 28, 2013

Guillermo Cantor, the Senior Policy Analyst at the Immigration Policy Center, was published in Aging Today in an article titled, "Will Immigration Reform Address Our Need for Eldercare Workers?"

In it, Cantor writes:

"The implications of S. 744 are manifold. First, by offering a path to citizenship for undocumented workers currently living in the country, the bill would certainly help stabilize the direct care workforce, which would in turn improve the quality of care. In particular, as a 2011 report by the National Council on Aging (NCOA) and the National Hispanic Council on Aging (NHCOA) has shown, once unauthorized care workers become legalized, they can legally drive, undergo enhanced background checks and access better opportunities for training and career advancement.

While the legalization of undocumented workers constitutes a significant step forward in strengthening the direct care workforce of current undocumented workers, the bill’s implications for the future flow of immigrant care workers must also be considered. Several signs suggest that the new legal immigration system created by S. 744 falls short of providing a sustainable solution to the eldercare shortage."

Published in the Aging Today

Published on Wed, Aug 21, 2013

In a Santa Fe Reporter article titled, "American DREAMers," a recent IPC state fact sheet and infographic were used to point out the importance of immigrants in New Mexico:

"According to Congressional Budget Office estimates, for instance, the US economy would grow by $1 trillion if immigration reforms pass.

On the flip side, state-by-state data released by the Immigration Policy Center shows that removing the 5.6 percent of New Mexico’s workforce that is unauthorized would eliminate more than 12,000 jobs and cost the local economy as much as $1.8 billion a year. "

Published in the Santa Fe Reporter

Published on Tue, Aug 20, 2013

In a recent article discussing Senator Ted Cruz and his dual citizenship with Canada, AIC Executive Director Ben Johnson was quoted to verify whether or not dual citizenship would preclude Cruz from holding the Presidency.

"Ben Johnson, executive director of the American Immigration Council, said he wasn't aware of whether there are rules prohibiting a sitting president from having dual citizenship.

"I would think the optics would be more challenging," he said."

Published in the MSN News

Published on Wed, Aug 14, 2013

In their recent report, "Immigration Facts:  Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals," the Brookings Institution cited the IPC's estimate of the number of potentially eligible DACA Recipients.

"Estimates of the potentially eligible population calculated by the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) using age, country of birth, educational attainment and enrollment, and year of entry to the United States show approximately 936,000 immigrants were immediately eligible at the time of the announcement of the program. Eligibility criteria such as continuous residence and criminal history are much harder to approximate."

Published in the Brookings Institution

Published on Wed, Aug 07, 2013

Vivek Wadhwa, an advocate for reform of America's high-skilled immigration system, cited the IPC in a Washington Post article focusing on DREAMers:

"There are an estimated 1.8 million children in the U.S. who could be classified as “illegal aliens”, according to the Immigration Policy Center. They didn’t knowingly break any laws. Their parents brought them to this country to give them a better future. These “DREAMers” as they are called, grew up as Americans, believing they were entitled to the same rights and freedoms as their friends. But, because they don’t have the proper paperwork, they are forced to live in the shadows of society—as second-class human beings with limits on where they can work and study, and what they can do. Until recently, they would also fear being rounded up in the middle of the night to be deported to a land that they don’t even remember."

Published in the Washington Post

Published on Mon, Aug 05, 2013

In a recent article in the Huffington Post, Judy Rickard, who wrote the IPC publication, "Passport Pages Tell Our Tale," highlighted a report by the AIC.  The article, titled, "The Glass Wall That Divides Us," cites the IPC on the demographics of immigrants in the United States.

"Information from American Immigration Council shows that immigration (documented and undocumented) includes the following cultural and ethnic groups in these proportions:

Fewer than one-third (29 percent) of immigrants in the United States are from Mexico. Roughly 28 percent are from Asia, 24 percent from countries in Latin America and the Caribbean other than Mexico, 12 percent from Europe, and 4 percent from Africa. Moreover, contrary to some popular misconceptions, most Latinos in the United States (63 percent) are native-born -- not immigrants. And 29 percent of foreign-born Latinos are naturalized U.S. citizens."

Published in the Huffington Post

Published on Tue, Aug 06, 2013

An article in the California newspaper The Hanford Sentinel cited a number of resources from the Immigration Policy Center in an attempt to bust a number of immigration myths.  The article cites the recently posted California state fact sheet, a separate California fact sheet highlighting immigrants and innovation, and the recent report by Jack Strauss on Latino immigrants, African-Americans, and the myth that they are in competition for jobs.

"“Immigrant workers spend their wages in U.S. businesses,” said an Immigration Policy Center summary. “They buy food, clothes, appliances, cars and much more. Businesses respond to the presence of these new workers and consumers by investing in new restaurants, stores and production facilities. Immigrants also are 30 percent more likely than the native-born to start their own businesses. The end result is more jobs and more pay for more workers.”

What about immigrants’ effect on African-Americans? “Cities experiencing the highest rates of immigration tend to have relatively low or average unemployment rates for African-Americans,” Saint Louis University economist Jack Strauss concluded in an analysis of Census findings. “Cities with greater immigration from Latin America experience lower unemployment rates, poverty rates and higher wages among African-Americans.”

This may be counter-intuitive, but it’s probably because Latino newcomers and African-Americans don’t compete for the same jobs.

“Native-born workers take higher-paying jobs that require better English-language skills,” said the Immigration Policy Center report."

Published in the Hanford Sentinel