Texas Immigration Lawyer Blog

Texas Republicans Take Harder Line On Immigration

NPR by Wade Goodwyn

In Texas, the Republican Party is changing its tactics on illegal immigration.

The relatively welcoming, tolerant attitude embraced by George W. Bush when he was governor is waning. It has been overtaken by a flood of Arizona-style get-tough measures, with nearly 100 immigration bills written or filed.

And while legal challenges will surely follow if many of those measures pass, the debate in Texas is clearly shifting.

The “Border Security First” Argument: A Red Herring Undermining Real Security

Center for American Progress 

Opponents of comprehensive immigration reform argue that we need a fully secure border before we can systemically overhaul our immigration laws. Ironically, the “border security first” mantra is actually thwarting progress on border security.

The argument to delay broader immigration reforms until the border is secure relies on the following dubious assumptions:

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  • Congress’s current “operational control” standard—implying absolute control of the border—is realistic and achievable.
  • The American public will reject practical legislative reforms unless and until the border is fully secured.
  • The administration has failed to demonstrate adequate commitment to border enforcement to justify broader reforms.

The evidence belies each of these points, and this brief examines them in turn. It also shows—as the Center for American Progress has done before—that the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, met and exceeded stringent enforcement benchmarks that “border security first” supporters laid out in legislation that failed to pass Congress in 2007.

It is past time to put aside this tired expression and start working on comprehensive solutions to fix the system.

 

A Boom Behind Bars -- the private prison system that houses ICE detainees

 
Mexican detainees leave Harlingen, Tex., on their way to the border LM Otero/AP Photo

Bloomburg Businessweek by Graeme Wood

Private jail operators like the Corrections Corporation of America are making millions off the crackdown on illegal aliens

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The private prison system runs parallel to the U.S. prisons and currently accounts for nearly 10 percent of U.S. state and federal inmates, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Those numbers rise and fall in response to specific policies, and CCA has been accused of lobbying for policies that would fill its cells—such as the increase in enforcement of regulations like the one that snagged Cardenas. Tougher policies have been good for CCA. Since the company started winning immigrant detention contracts in 2000, its stock has rebounded from about a dollar to $23.33, attracting investors such as William Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management, which is now its largest shareholder.

CCA has current contracts with ICE and other federal clients, as well as 19 state prison systems. Its largest competitor, the Geo Group (GEO), is slightly smaller, and together they account for more than $3 billion in gross revenues annually. The next-largest player, MTC, is privately held and does not disclose numbers, but the industry as a whole grosses just under $5 billion per year.

In Houston, ICE is paying CCA to hold about 1,000 alleged illegal immigrants while they are processed for potential deportation. CCA manages them until the moment they leave U.S. soil. If they are Mexican, it puts them in white CCA buses with tinted windows and drives them on its daily run to the Mexican border. If they're from somewhere else, it drives them across the road to the airport, marches them to an airline counter, and watches them fly away.

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CCA's opponents, such as human rights and pro-union groups, say the firm is run by amoral penny-pinchers who are in a business best left to the state because of the perverse incentives prison companies have to lobby the government to adopt policies that will increase America's already high rate of detention. When every prisoner is a daily $100 bill, say these opponents, you'll do everything you can to get as many of them as you can.

Over 2 million undocumented living in U.S. for more than 20 years

Yesterday I posted a link to the Immigration Policy Center  "Unauthorized Population Today." I was struck by  the fact that 19% of the unauthorized population came to the U.S. in the 1980's. That's more than 2 million people living in the shadows for more than 20 years.

 

 

Unauthorized immigrant population remains 11 million majority present 10 years+

Immigration Policy Center

Recent estimates from the Pew Hispanic Center and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) indicate that the number of unauthorized immigrants in the United States has remained unchanged at roughly 11 million since 2009.  This comes after a two-year decline of approximately one million that corresponded closely to the most recent recession, which ran from December 2007 to June 2009.  Despite that decline, the new data make clear that the current population of unauthorized immigrants is very much part of the social and economic fabric of the country.  Three-fifths of unauthorized immigrants have been in the United States for more than a decade.  Unauthorized immigrants comprise more than one-quarter of the foreign-born population and roughly 1-in-20 workers.  Approximately 4.5 million native-born U.S.-citizen children have at least one unauthorized parent.  While the largest numbers of unauthorized immigrants are concentrated in California and Texas, there also are sizable unauthorized populations in Florida, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Georgia, North Carolina, and Maryland.  In short, unauthorized immigrants who are already in the country have become integral to U.S. businesses, communities, and families.

Very interesting graphs.

Arizona flinches on immigration

New York Times Editorial

Arizona, the nation’s leader in over-the-top immigration laws, has pulled back. Its Republican-controlled Senate rejected five anti-immigration bills in one day last week. It was a startling rebuke to the Senate president, the architect of the state’s go-it-alone approach to enforcement. Other states weighing similar crackdowns should take note.

The reversal has to do with money, of course. The bills were dead once the state’s business lobby weighed in against them. Sixty chief executives signed a letter to the Legislature saying the harsh immigration measures were having “unintended consequences” — boycotts, lost jobs, canceled contracts, publicity so bad that businesses with Arizona in their names were suffering — even one based in Brooklyn. The chief executive of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Glenn Hamer, said the reaction to Arizona’s extremism had already cost the state $15 million to $150 million in lost tourism revenue.

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While it is a relief to see Arizona realizing that bigotry is bad for business, it is not the end of harsh, shortsighted laws. Other legislatures were already striving to follow Arizona’s model. There is still a federal vacuum on immigration reform that allows state mischief to thrive. And it’s important to note that none of the objections by Arizona’s businesses had anything to do with the strong moral arguments against xenophobic anti-immigration bills.

Judge Harry Pregerson on the "Unconscionable" Breaking Up of a Family

Immigration Professor Blog on Ninth Circuit Judge Harry Pregerson's immigration opinions:

In a rare dissent to a memorandum (unpublished) disposition in a cancellation of remopval case, Judge Pregerson derides the "unconscionable" result of the majority -- the deportation of the father from his wife, who had previously been granted cancellation, and U.S. citizen child.  Judge Pregerson, who dissented on similar grounds in 60 memorandum dispositions in immigration cases a few years back, feels strongly that the immigration laws should not be enforced so as to split up families with U.S. citizen children. 

Map showing number of U.S. deportations by country 2001-2009

kcet.org

Very interesting presentation of ICE statistics.

For example:

Mexico -- 1,329,425 deportations (643,457 non-criminals)

Japan - 791 deportations (210 non-criminals)

Deportation divides family

Orange County Register by Yvette Cabrera

Story of 2 parents of U.S. Citizens who were granted Cancellation of Removal by an Immigration Judge. They were deported in 2008 after the Department of Homeland Security appealed the judge's decision and it was reversed by the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Immigration Facts Power Point

You can download the Power Point presentation I made to the Waco League of Women Voters on March 15, 2011:

Download Immigration_Waco LWV 2011 Fact and Fiction

Thanks to Nina Perales for her outline.