Tag: immigration

Trump seizes on N.Y. attack to push immigration and vetting policies

The following article by David Nakamura and Ed O’Keefe was posted on the Washington Post website November 1, 2017:

After the Las Vegas shooting, the White House said it was “premature” to discuss gun laws. But after the New York attack, President Trump said immigration laws must change. (Bastien Inzaurralde/TWP)

President Trump moved quickly Wednesday to gain ­political advantage in the wake of the New York terrorist attack, casting blame on Democrats for lax immigration laws and calling the criminal justice system’s handling of suspects “a joke.”

A day after a man, identified by authorities as an Uzbek immigrant, killed eight people on a Manhattan bike path in an act authorities said was inspired by the Islamic State, Trump seized on the deadly crime to renew his calls for a series of hard-line policies. Continue reading “Trump seizes on N.Y. attack to push immigration and vetting policies”

‘A Chuck Schumer beauty’: Trump calls for end to diversity visa program

The following article by Derek Hawkins, Samantha Schmidt and J. Freedom du Lac was posted on the Washington Post website November 1, 2017:

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) calls on a reporter during a news conference Wednesday. (Andrew Harnik/AP)

President Trump and some of his allies on the far right have found a new culprit in Tuesday’s deadly terrorist attack in Manhattan: Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.).

As details emerged about the incident, prominent right-wing commentators and news outlets seized on a report from New York’s ABC affiliate that the alleged attacker, Sayfullo Saipov, had come to the United States from Uzbekistan under a State Department program known as the Diversity Visa Lottery.

Long before government officials publicly confirmed the ABC report, Trump slammed the visa lottery and said he’ll ask Congress “to immediately initiate work to get rid of this program.” Continue reading “‘A Chuck Schumer beauty’: Trump calls for end to diversity visa program”

Sessions’s plan for immigration courts would undermine their integrity

The following editorial by the Editorial Board of the Washington Post was posted on their website October 22, 2017:

AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

ATTORNEY GENERAL Jeff Sessions decried the state of the immigration courts in remarks Oct. 12 before the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, lamenting “rampant abuse and fraud” in asylum applications. As part of Mr. Sessions’s push for an overhaul of the immigration system, the department also plans to begin evaluating immigration judges on the basis of how many cases they resolve. This proposal would do little to fix the United States’ backlogged immigration courts and much to undermine their integrity.

The Trump administration hinted at the plan in a wish list of immigration policies, alongside commitments to constructing President Trump’s promised border wall and withholding federal grants from so-called sanctuary cities. According to reporting by The Post, government documents show that the Justice Department“intends to implement numeric performance standards to evaluate Judge performance.” Such a metric would probably involve assessing judges based on how many cases they complete or how quickly they decide them — a plan that the National Association of Immigration Judges has called a “death knell for judicial independence.” Continue reading “Sessions’s plan for immigration courts would undermine their integrity”

Poll: Nearly 9 in 10 Americans Support a Program for Dreamers to Stay

The following article by Griffin Connolly was posted on the Roll Call website September 26, 2017:

Lawmakers working to find a solution by Trump’s deadline

AP/Carolyn Kaster
A woman holds up a sign during a rally supporting DACA outside the White House in Washington, September 4, 2017.

Nearly nine in 10 Americans support a program that allows undocumented childhood immigrants to remain in the United States, a Washington Post/ABC News poll found.

Eighty-six percent of respondents said they supported some kind of program for “undocumented immigrants to stay in the United States if they arrived here as a child, completed high school or military service and have not been convicted of a serious crime.”

Consensus on how to handle the legal status of these immigrants spanned the ideological spectrum. Ninety-six percent of self-identified liberals, 87 percent of moderates, and 77 percent of conservatives supported a program for them to remain in the country. Continue reading “Poll: Nearly 9 in 10 Americans Support a Program for Dreamers to Stay”

The Economic Benefits of Passing the Dream Act

The following article by Francesc Ortega, Ryan Ewards and Philip Wolgin was posted on the Center for American Progress website September 18, 2017:

Credit:  AP/Carolyn Kaster
A woman holds up a sign during a rally supporting DACA outside the White House in Washington, September 4, 2017.

A September 5 announcement from the Trump administration effectively ended Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)1—a program that, since 2012, has helped nearly 800,000 young people gain a temporary reprieve from deportation and a work permit.2The conversation has now shifted to the urgent need for Congress to pass legislation such as the Dream Act, which would provide permanent protection and a pathway to citizenship to unauthorized immigrants who came to the country as children.3

To better understand the potential economic impact of passing the Dream Act, this issue brief calculates the economic gains that would stem from legalizing potentially eligible individuals already in the workforce. This analysis builds on the groundbreaking work of the Center for American Progress’ earlier study, “The Economic Impacts of Removing Unauthorized Immigrant Workers,” which calculated the economic contributions of unauthorized workers to each individual industry, each state, and the nation as a whole, and updates and applies that economic model to the population of workers eligible for the Dream Act.4 Continue reading “The Economic Benefits of Passing the Dream Act”

Trump Administration Rejects Study Showing Positive Impact of Refugees

The following article by Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Somini Segupta was posted on the New York Times website September 18, 2017:

A Syrian family in Fresno, Calif. The draft report by Health and Human Services officials, which was completed in July but not released, found that refugees “contributed an estimated $269.1 billion in revenues to all levels of government” between 2005 and 2014 through the payment of federal, state and local taxes. Credit Jason Henry for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials, under pressure from the White House to provide a rationale for reducing the number of refugees allowed into the United States next year, rejected a study by the Department of Health and Human Services that found that refugees brought in $63 billion more in government revenues over the past decade than they cost.

The draft report, which was obtained by The New York Times, contradicts a central argument made by advocates of deep cuts in refugee totals as President Trump faces an Oct. 1 deadline to decide on an allowable number. The issue has sparked intense debate within his administration as opponents of the program, led by Mr. Trump’s chief policy adviser, Stephen Miller, assert that continuing to welcome refugees is too costly and raises concerns about terrorism.

Advocates of the program inside and outside the administration say refugees are a major benefit to the United States, paying more in taxes than they consume in public benefits, and filling jobs in service industries that others will not. But research documenting their fiscal upside — prepared for a report mandated by Mr. Trump in a March presidential memorandum implementing his travel ban — never made its way to the White House. Some of those proponents believe the report was suppressed. Continue reading “Trump Administration Rejects Study Showing Positive Impact of Refugees”

Obama calls President Trump’s decision to end DACA ‘wrong,’ ‘self-defeating’ and ‘cruel’

The following article by Jenna Johnson was posted on the Washington Post website September 5, 2017:

Former president Barack Obama said Tuesday that it is “wrong,” “self-defeating” and “cruel” for the Trump administration to end an Obama-era program that allowed younger undocumented immigrants to continue to live in the United States without fear of deportation.

“Let’s be clear: The action taken today isn’t required legally. It’s a political decision, and a moral question,” Obama said in a lengthy statement posted on his Facebook page on Tuesday afternoon, following an announcement earlier in the day that the Trump administration will unwind the program, pending action from Congress in the next six months. “Whatever concerns or complaints Americans may have about immigration in general, we shouldn’t threaten the future of this group of young people who are here through no fault of their own, who pose no threat, who are not taking away anything from the rest of us. … Kicking them out won’t lower the unemployment rate, or lighten anyone’s taxes, or raise anybody’s wages.” Continue reading “Obama calls President Trump’s decision to end DACA ‘wrong,’ ‘self-defeating’ and ‘cruel’”

Trump Chooses Sessions, Longtime Foe of DACA, to Announce Its Demise

The following article by Matt Apuzzo and rebecca R. Ruiz was posted on the New York Times website September 5, 2017:

WASHINGTON — As an up-and-coming politician in Alabama, Jeff Sessions watched as his state’s poultry industry illegally hired Mexican and Central American immigrants to jobs that had once been filled by poor, unskilled American workers. As a senator, Mr. Sessions argued that displaced American workers like these — not the people replacing them — deserved compassion.

So when President Trump chose Mr. Sessions, now the attorney general, to announce on Tuesday the end of an Obama-era immigration program that shielded young immigrants from deportation, there was no doubt what message he would deliver. Mr. Trump has expressed conflicting emotions about those who were brought to the country as children, but Mr. Sessions expressed no such qualms. Continue reading “Trump Chooses Sessions, Longtime Foe of DACA, to Announce Its Demise”

8 Immigration Horror Stories From Trump’s Radicalized And Empowered ICE Agency

The following article by Alex Anderson was posted on the AlterNet website September 1, 2017:

Law enforcement officials are terrorizing immigrant communities, with the government’s approval.

ICE raid, San Jose, California, February 2017 Credit: ICE

During his eight years as president of the United States, Barack Obama deported a staggering 2.5 million people. That figure represents a 23 percent increase over the Bush administration, without including the hundreds of thousands who self-deported or were turned away at the border. In 2014, Janet Murguía, president of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), labeled Obama the “deporter-in-chief.”

The title seems almost quaint in the age of Donald Trump.

Within weeks of his taking office, arrests by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement increased 32.6 percent. By mid-March, the number of arrests of immigrants with no prior criminal record had doubled. Dan Satterberg, head prosecutor in King County, Washington State, asserts that ICE has been “emboldened in a way that I have never seen.” NCLR and other immigrants’ rights groups are the first to say that the U.S.’ immigration system is badly in need of reform. But under Trump, ICE has terrorized immigrant communities, discouraging them from reporting crimes or working with law enforcement.

Here are eight ICE horror stories from Trump’s seven-plus months in office.

Continue reading “8 Immigration Horror Stories From Trump’s Radicalized And Empowered ICE Agency”

Trump Ends DACA Immigration Program — With a Twist

The following article by John T. Bennett and Neils Lesniewski was posted on the Roll Call website September 5, 2017:

President calls on members to help him find a legislative fix

Immigration rights activists rally in Dupont Circle in Washington before their May Day march to the White House to voice opposition to President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)

Updated 11:24 a.m. | President Donald Trump, answering pleas from his base but again breaking with many congressional Republicans, on Tuesday ended Barack Obama’s program that shielded from deportation individuals who came to the United States with their parents before their 16th birthday.

“The policy was implemented unilaterally,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday while making the formal announcement, referring to then-President Barack Obama implementing the program via an executive order. Sessions called the Obama-era program “unconstitutional.”

Continue reading “Trump Ends DACA Immigration Program — With a Twist”