immigration

The impact of immigration on US population

2010 American Community Survey estimates that closer to 40 million immigrants live in the US.

The data reveals that majority of the immigrants (legal and illegal) are from Mexico, China, India, Philippines, Vietnam, El Salvador, Cuba and South Korea. Immigrants with a Mexican origin account for closer to 12 million and South Korea accounts for approximately one million. Other countries listed above fall in between and many other countries contribute substantial numbers.

The Census Bureau estimate that the US population will grow to 397 million in 2050 with immigration. If discounted for immigration the US population for 2050 is estimated to be 328 million.

The states that will bear the major burden of immigration include border states such as California, Arizona and Texas and the sun shine state of Florida. However, due to current political environment of various parts of the country, some states such as North Carolina, Nevada, Georgia and Arkansas are seeing massive increase of immigrant population.

No matter what, the immigrant population will impact the social fabric of the US. In coming months and years economic and social issues, politics and crime issues will definitely will go beyond the casual water cooler discussion.

Newt Ginrich supports Dream Act

At a recent debate Republican presidential candidate Newt Ginrich spoke out in support of the illegal immigrants in the country where he stated that he prefers a humane approach to dealing with hard working illegal immigrants living in the country and said “ If you’ve been here 25 years and you got three kids and two grandkids, you’ve been paying taxes and obeying the law, you belong to a local church, I don’t think we’re going to separate you from your family, uproot you forcefully and kick you out,”

Ginrich is one of the front runners for the republican presidential candidacy. He was once an us House Speaker and his comments were not well accepted by other hopeful Republican Party candidates and as predicted by the president of the Americans for Legal Immigration Ginrich’s popularity is tumbling as a result of these comments and other groups such as the Federation for American Immigration have stated that this will hurt him.

Ginrich is taking the same stand as President George W Bush and former candidate John Mc Cain. Bush sought a temporary worker program which would have allowed undocumented immigrants to register and stay in the country legally.

Proposal to amend special US Immigrants Juvenile regulations

The Unites States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) are asking for public opinion on a proposal to amend the Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) regulations.

The existing laws permits the USCIS to issue SIJ status to children living in the US and are declared dependents of a juvenile court in the US or legally committed to or placed in the custody of an agency or department in the state the child is residing in. upon being granted SIJ status the child immediately becomes eligible to apply for permanent residency in the US.

The US CIS seeks the make amendments to permit SIJ status to be granted to children who cannot be reunited with one or both parents due to abuse, neglect or abandonment and similar situations provided in the US immigration laws.

The amendments will allow SJP status to be granted to persons who turn 21 years while the petition is still pending. The petitioner should have a valid juvenile court order that is in effect at the time of filing, this will exempt the existing requirement for individuals without a court order at the time of adjudication because the petitioner’s age prevents continued dependency.

Public comments will be accepted until November 7 2011.

Costco teams up with ICE to hire legal workers

Costco, one of the biggest retailers in the country has teamed up with the US immigrations and Customs Enforcement to make sure that all their staff are citizens or legal residents of the US and to avoid hiring illegal or undocumented immigrants.

The retailer which has 424 stores with a staff of over 110,000 nationwide will use E verify, an internet database relying on the files of the Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security to ascertain whether the new employees hired are legally authorized to work in the US.

The hiring department will be trained by government officials on how to spot fake documents like the 1-9 forms. The company will also screen social security numbers using E verify.

Opponents of the controversial E verify say that the creation and maintenance of E verify is costing the American people a substantial amount of money.

E verify which was created in 1997 has seen a significant rise in usage with an estimated 250,000 employers voluntarily using it.

ICE is hoping that the Costco partnership will encourage other employers to start using E verify to screen their new employees in future.

Luis Gutierrez arrested

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-lll) along with ten other immigration reform supporters were arrested on July 26 outside the White House for protesting against the Obama administration’s deportation of families and young people. The rally was attended by around 2500 people who were affected by the deportations.

They were protesting against the more than one million people who were deported during the Obama administration. They were speaking to people who were caught up in the deportation policy. They sat down in front of the White House with signs reading “one million deported under Obama” when they were arrested by U.S. Park Police. They will be processed and released after paying a fine.

Gutierrez who is a critic of the deportation of young people has stated that “the president says that Republicans are blocking immigration reform and he is right, but that does not get him off the hook. Everyone knows he has the power to stop deporting DREAMers and others with deep roots in the US and we think he should use it”

This is the third time Gutierrez had been arrested. He was arrested in 1990 for protesting against the bombing of Vieques, Puerto Rico and in 2010 for protesting against deportation policy.

Lawsuit filed against Georgia immigration law

Opponents of the new Georgia anti immigration law have asked a federal judge to put it on hold until the pending lawsuit filed last week is resolved, they claim that this injunction is “urgently needed to prevent this unconstitutional law from causing irreparable injury to plaintiffs and similarly situated individuals”

The lawsuit was filed challenging the constitutionality of the law saying that it violates the federal government’s power over immigration and policy. It was filed by groups such as the ACLU and the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights.

The new law, which will come in to effect from July1 authorizes police to investigate the immigration status of suspects and take illegal immigrants to jail.

Supporters of the law say that this law will stop illegal immigration and bring relief to overburdened schools, hospitals and jails.

There is growing concern among business owners and farmers who face the threat of labor shortages because of this law. Growers are particularly worried as this is fruit picking season and will be adversely affected by any labor shortages. Governor Deal says any shortage will be filled by the unemployed but experts say the natives will not go for these jobs.

DREAM ACT REINTRODUCED IN THE SENATE

Illinois democratic senator Richard Durbin reintroduced the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act or the DREAM Act to the senate on May 11. This bill seeks to legalize persons who arrived to America illegally as minors. First introduced in 2001 it has continually failed to get support. It was re introduced this year after president Obama called for immigration reform and reaffirmed his commitment to the Dream Act in a speech given in Texas. .

To be eligible to apply an applicant should be between the ages of 12 and 35 and should have been under fifteen years of age at the time of arrival in the US and must also prove that they have continuously lived in the USA for the past 5 years.

They also have to fulfill within a six year period one of the following requirements:
Serve two years in the US military with honorable discharge; have graduated from a US high school, have obtained a GED or have been accepted to a higher education institution.

The Dream Act and immigration reform will take centre stage in the upcoming election campaigns.

First Steps to Fixing The Crisis in United States Immigration Courts

If there was anything that was revealed from the case of a Cameroon mother who wanted to seek asylum in the United States and for her children as well, it was the fact that immigration court system in the United moves at a glacial pace if slower.

Delays were prominent while background checks, it seemed, took forever and if that wasn’t enough, 12 hearings were scheduled in a span of 5 years. Her lawyers fearing that the woman might soon turn suicidal appealed to two United States Senators not to intervene but to actually review the immigration system that is desperately in need of a serious overhaul.

One of the lawyers of the Cameroon mother, Judy London, summed it up in a few words in saying that so many things are wrong that it’s really tough to know where to start. And even though there are steps that are being taken in order to improve training, add judges and reduce the influence of politics, critics say that these reforms are too little and should have been auctioned a long time ago.

Despite the criticism, about 38 judges and 90 clerks have been added to the system who will address the backlog of 268000 cases that have remained from last year apart from placing the emphasis on thorough rulings in the appeals stage as well as an open complaint system.

Even though most people think that this is a first important step to changes in the coming years, a lot of people believe that this is not a priority with Congress.

US, Mexico Offer Rewards For The Shooting of Two ICE Agents

Ever since the shooting of two American immigration agents, both the American and Mexican governments have offered rewards for someone who could give any information that could lead to the arrest of the culprits who did the crime.

The ambush of two unarmed ICE personnel was done in broad daylight while they were on their way to an armored truck from San Luis Potosi to Mexico City. One of the ICE agents, Jaime Zapata, was killed during the attack while the other, Victor Avila, was wounded in the leg.  Officials suspect that this was done by gang members who are involved in drug trafficking since the crackdown on drug and weapon trafficking has intensified over the last few years.

The United States government has offered $ 5 million as a reward while the Mexican government has offered up to 10 million pesos in an effort to bring these criminals to justice. Both countries have also set up hotlines just in case somebody knows the needed information.  The Mexican government has already detained almost 30 suspects, including a Zetas drug cartel money man who was arrested only this month.

One of the weapons used during the shootout has been traced back to a Texan who bought it last year and who was also prosecuted for buying arms illegally.  He has not been prosecuted in relation to this case yet.

A Note on Immigration Reform

There’s no doubt that the topic of immigration evokes strong emotions in the American people. With recent developments taken by certain states, and more following suit, it looks like Obama has his work cut out for him ever since he took office in the year of 2009 as President of the United States.

Of course, since he has had to take care of health care reform as well, the entire plan around sorting this complex matter of dealing with 12 million illegal immigrants has taken a backseat. And with the American people divided on whether they should be given citizenship or should be sent back to their homeland, there’s one thing that they do agree on, immigration reform is important enough to be dealt with immediately.

And of course, this is directly related to the Latinos who have made their way across the border from Mexico. Since most of them come to the United States and work illegally, in allowing them to stay back and keep their jobs, this would end up as a $ 1.5 trillion dollar boost for the U.S economy as most of these workers do not pay their taxes to the government. In giving them citizenship, not only will they be paid higher wages but the United States government will receive taxes of the same amount as mentioned earlier but this practice of dishonest employers will come to an end.

Even several people are against doing this, and are taking steps that can only be considered as ‘racial profiling’, one can only surmise that deporting these immigrants will not only cost the government much more (and affect taxpayers to do so) but it won’t be a realistic task to do this either.

Next Page »