House Divided Over Immigration Program

By Andrea Salazar

Republicans and Democrats in a House subcommittee butted heads over the effectiveness of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Secure Communities (S-Comm) program Wednesday amidst claims that the program promotes racial profiling.

ICE Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations Gary Mead testified in front of the House Immigration Subcommittee, part of the House Judiciary Committee, assuring lawmakers that S-Comm is taking dangerous criminals off the streets.

“Secure Communities is smart, effective immigration enforcement,” Mead said. “It provides real time leads to the ICE criminal alien program, greatly reducing the likelihood that criminal aliens will be released from state and local custody back into the community.”

S-Comm — a program designed to identify criminal illegal immigrants in state and local custody — links information from local law enforcement with the FBI and ICE.  Therefore, when a person is arrested, local police send that person’s fingerprints to the FBI, which in turn shares the information with ICE to determine immigration status.

Proponents of the measure applauded the program, but said ICE’s “prosecutorial discretion” is allowing some criminals to go free because of the Obama administration’s decision to focus on deporting only illegal immigrants who have committed a crime.

“There’s no excuse for an illegal alien, who’s not supposed to be here in the first place, driving drunk on our roads and putting the lives of the people of my county in danger,” said Sheriff Sam Page of Rockingham County, N.C., in his written statement.

Instead, Julie Myers Wood, a former assistant secretary for ICE, recommended using the rapid repatriation program - a program that allows for the release of some  illegal immigrants considered non-violent, on the condition that they agree to leave the country, waive their appeal rights and agree not to return to the U.S.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), however, expressed concern over Secure Communities for incidents of racial profiling and sending into deportation proceedings undocumented immigrants who have not otherwise committed serious crimes.

“Everybody who I’ve talked to who has concerns about this program, doesn’t have a concern about having violent dangerous criminals removed,” Lofgren said. “There’s more commonality here than we might expect. Where we get into trouble is when it’s somebody who hasn’t committed an offense or they’re pulled over for a faulty tail light.”

Testifying in opposition to S-Comm, Arturo Venegas, a former police chief and an immigrant himself, said the program is damaging the relationship between law enforcement and the immigrant community because people are less likely to report crimes to police if there’s a chance that they could be deported.

“If you are an immigrant, and you are charged with a serious offense, or even a minor offense, you are ‘guilty until proven innocent’ and you will be referred for deportation,” Venegas said. “As an immigrant myself, and as an American citizen, I cannot support that differing standard.”

ICE plans to implement Secure Communities nationwide by 2013.

House Dems Heading To Alabama To Shed Light On Immigration Law

By Andrea Salazar

House Democrats will be visiting Alabama Nov. 21 to bring attention to the effects the state’s immigration law has had on the Latino community.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), a stark opponent of the Alabama law, considered the strictest immigration law in the country, is leading the effort. Acknowledging that he does not expect any immigration measure to make it to the House or Senate floors before the next election, the congressman said the Alabama visit is to raise awareness.

“The more light you shed on the abusive anti-immigrant law of Alabama, the more likelihood there is that you’re going to defeat it,” Gutierrez said at a news conference Thursday. “We’re going there to say that we came to listen and in listening also to ask you what it is you would like us to do as we return to the Congress of the United States.”

HB56, the Alabama immigration law, requires schools to find out students’ immigration status and calls on police to check a person’s status during stops or arrests if there’s “reasonable suspicion” that the person is in the country unlawfully.

Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) is welcoming her colleagues to Alabama and calling on her state to play the role it did during the civil rights movement.

“So many of the injustices that this nation has faced have been addressed on the ground in Alabama, and once again I believe that we in Alabama will lead the way with making sure we get a federal immigration policy and not a piecemeal state by state effort,” Sewell said.

Gutierrez emphasized that all visiting representatives would be spending their own money to pay for the trip. To that effect, Rep. Charlie Gonzalez (D-Texas) said they were making the trip because immigration is an issue that affects everyone.

“If the law does not protect you today, it will not protect me tomorrow,” Gonzalez said. “We all have an interest in this.”

Pointing out that the author of the Arizona immigration law, Russell Pearce, was recalled in a special election this past month, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), warned politicians to take immigration seriously.

“That recall better be a harbinger for a lot of politicians that it’s time you took this issue of immigration in a serious way,” Grijalva said. “Look at comprehensive reform in a federal level and quit using people in their communities - Alabama, Arizona and others - as a whipping boy for a political advantage.”

Reps. Joe Baca (D-Calif.), Yvette D. Clarke (D-N.Y.), Al Green (D-Texas), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.) and Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) will join Gutierrez, Grijalva, Gonzalez and Sewell in Alabama on Monday where they will hold a field hearing and attend the launch of a campaign to repeal the Arizona immigration law.

Ex-Labor Secretary Suggests New Immigration Advisory Committee Be Created

By Janie Amaya, Adrianna McGinley and Andrea Salazar

Former Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall suggested Monday at the Economic Policy Institute that a new, permanent and high-level government position be created to oversee immigration in the United States.

Economic analysts joined Marshall for the release of his new book, “Value-Added Immigration: Lessons for the United States from Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom,” a study comparing the successes and failures of the immigration policies in each country.

Marshall said that the success of the United Kingdom’s Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) in collecting data to determine the country’s need for migrant workers is an idea that should be introduced and implemented in the U.S. 

“The [Department of Homeland Security] looks at this problem as a law enforcement problem,” Marshall said. “[But] the Labor Secretary sees it as a labor market problem, [and] it would be fairly easy…to have these systems so that they could communicate with each other.”

Ron Hira, associate professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, said that the lack of data collection in the United States on the effects of immigration on the labor market is a leading factor in policy uncertainties. 

“We haven’t built up any analytical capability in immigration, and in many cases we aren’t even collecting data that would inform policy choices,” Hira said. “Analysis isn’t a panacea, but the lack of it contributes to the stalemated positions on immigration policy.”

Like in a business, Marshall acknowledged that the importance of collecting data to measure the economic impact of immigration rather than focusing solely on the enforcement of such policies would improve the effectiveness of future comprehensive immigration policies.

“Immigration is a part of overall economic and social policy in these countries,” Marshall said. “They strive to see to it that the workers they import are complementary to the domestic workers and not competitive with them.”

Report Reveals Decreasing Number Of New Unauthorized Immigrants

A recent report released by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center, revealed that the number of unauthorized immigrants entering the country has sharply decreased since 2005. 

Jeffrey Passel, Senior Demographer and co-author of the report, said that although the current population of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. is “substantially larger” than it was in 2000, but is 8% lower than it was during its peak in 2007. Since 2007, Passel said there are nearly 1 million less new unauthorized immigrants entering the country. 

“We found the most marked drop was among immigrants from Latin America, other than Mexico,” Passel said. “Mexico remains, by far, the largest source of unauthorized immigrants.”

According to the report, Mexicans represent about 60% of the nearly 12 million unauthorized immigrants currently living in the country. 

Passel acknowledged that the general trend for the inflow of new unauthorized immigrants has sharply decreased over the past 2 years, he admitted that the report does not provide insight as to why. 

Passel said that a southern border that has greatly increased its security, along with a struggling economy may have played a role in the decreasing trend.

“We’ve seen in the past that flows have varied with the state of the U.S. economy,” he said. “We know that it’s harder and more dangerous for undocumented immigrants to sneak into the country.” 

Senate Democrats Look To Beef Up Border Security

Senate Democrats introduced new legislation Thursday that is aimed at beefing up security along the country’s Southwest border.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), alongside Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), unveiled a $600 million emergency measure in an effort to fully secure the U.S.-Mexican border.  The proposal would deploy 1,500 new enforcement agents and fund unmanned aerial vehicles to boost border surveillance.

“This package shows a serious commitment to securing the border, even though we know it will take comprehensive immigration reform to fully address the problem,” Schumer said. “We plan to push this measure immediately in the Senate, and it will send the personnel and equipment we need along the border.”

Sens. Schumer and McCaskill touted the new bill by distinguishing it from a similar bill introduced by Senate Republicans. Under the GOP’s version, funding would originate from surplus Recovery Act funding, a measure Democrats said would eliminate jobs.

Democrats plan to fuel this measure without increasing the nation’s debt while simultaneously creating jobs.

“[The bill] would avoid adding to the deficit by raising fees on a handful of foreign corporations that exploit U.S. visa programs to import workers from India,” the Sens. said in a statement. “The Senate Democrats’ proposal is paid for by raising fees on companies that take jobs away from U.S. workers.”

The Senate duo are hopeful this measure hits the floor running and comes up before the Senate breaks for recess.