05/03/13 The Wall Street Journal today editorializes against the recycled “border security first” talking points emanating from some conservatives who are intent to attack the progress and momentum behind immigration reform legislation in the U.S. Senate. According to Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice Education Fund: This is a leadership moment for the true backers [...]
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03/28/13 Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is at it again—apparently making up Texas friends with property overrun by border crossers. During an appearance on a Texas radio show this morning, Cornyn claimed that people all over the world are now crossing the border through Texas and that any immigration reform that Congress passes this year must invest [...]
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03/27/13 Four Senators from the bi-partisan “Gang of Eight” that is drafting immigration legislation will tour the U.S./Mexico border at Nogales, AZ today.  After their visit, Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), John McCain (R-AZ), and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will hold a press conference.  With all eyes on the Senators, they have an important opportunity to explain [...]
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03/06/13 Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) has an imaginary friend—and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee wants everyone to know it. A few weeks ago, Cornyn tweeted about a “friend” of his who said that “300 ppl” were coming across his property every night: Friend on border sez 300 ppl coming across his property every night.And Napolitano sez [...]
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02/27/13 As countless reports and briefings by now have noted, the US-Mexico border is more secure than ever.  Even though a 2007 immigration reform bill did not pass through Congress and become law, every border security benchmark from that bill has since been met or exceeded.  Yet many legislators who find it more convenient to sit [...]
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02/25/13 This weekend, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and one of the key players in the effort to pass immigration reform, appeared on CNN’s State of the Union. He expressed hope that a reform bill can be passed, noting “The time is now.”  Chairman Leahy is a longtime immigration reform champion [...]
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02/15/13 This week, the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) hosted a briefing on border security and how the border should stop being used as an excuse not to pursue immigration reform.  As countless reports (see below) have noted, we spend billions of dollars on border security every year, and the border is more secure than ever.  As [...]
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02/01/13 In Washington, many of the usual suspects want to have the same old debate about border security. Today, we get further proof that the border is more secure than ever. The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) released a new report, “Border Security: Moving Beyond Past Benchmarks”: The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) released a report this [...]
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01/31/13 At a Politico Playbook breakfast yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) made an important comment about the politics of immigration reform and why it is so critical for Republicans to engage on the issue.  As Elise Foley reported at Huffington Post: “As you look at demographics in states like mine, that means that we will go [...]
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01/30/13 As part of their continuing series of “Bibles, Badges, and Business” events, the Forging a New Consensus project of the National Immigration Forum today held a press conference with Bill Bratton, the former Police Commissioner to both the Los Angeles and New York Police Departments.  In the midst of continuing Republican insistence that the border [...]
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01/30/13 This week, eight Senators unveiled their plans for immigration reform, and one thing noticed by many advocates was the continued emphasis on border security. For many, it’s a replay of the 2007 debate, which was mostly focused on border security and immigration enforcement. As Suzy Khimm at the Washington Post notes, while the 2007 bill [...]
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01/11/13  Earlier this week, the Migration Policy Institute published a report, Immigration Enforcement in the United States: The Rise of a Formidable Machinery. The headline of MPI’s press release summed up its findings, “U.S. Spends More on Immigration Enforcement than on FBI, DEA, Secret Service & All Other Federal Criminal Law Enforcement Agencies Combined.” Of course, [...]
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01/09/13 A Migration Policy Institute report on the expansion of immigration enforcement has received much attention this week, with its findings that the government spends more on immigration enforcement than on all other federal law enforcement combined, and that it has spent $187 billion on immigration enforcement since 1986 (the last time comprehensive immigration law was [...]
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01/08/13 Two new studies on immigration enforcement show that the border first/border only immigration policy is not enough.  After spending more on immigration enforcement than all other federal law enforcement agencies combined, and achieving record levels of enforcement, the immigration system remains broken.  The missing piece—and the centerpiece of the reform we need to see in [...]
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01/07/13 As momentum grows for a real debate on immigration reform with a path to citizenship, we expect the usual suspects (mostly Republicans) to adhere to their worn out “border security first” talking point as a way to thwart progress. Today, the Migration Policy Institute is releasing a new report, Immigration Enforcement in the United States: The [...]
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07/25/12 In court yesterday, the self-proclaimed “America’s Toughest Sheriff” ran from his record of terrorizing immigrant communities. Gone was the swagger, and under the light of overwhelming evidence, he tried to scramble away and evade responsibility for all of it. 1. “I don’t get involved in those operations. I’m not there on the street patrolling and [...]
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07/20/12 Cross-Posted at Mom’s Rising: I’d like to believe that most Americans, perhaps with the exception of the hard-core nativists, like Rep. Steve King and Romney advisor Kris Kobach, knows our nation’s immigration policies need to be fixed.  But behind these failed policies are real human beings:  those who make decisions about how to enforce the [...]
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05/23/12 Alfonso Martinez Sanchez, a 39 year-old father of five, died while trying to cross the Arizona desert last month. He was attempting to reunite with his family after Border Patrol arrested and deported him to Mexico. As the North Carolina Times reports, the tragic story began when Martinez signed for a letter as an employee [...]
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11/03/11 Very powerful op-ed in The Hill, written by Professor Randall McGuire about the Border Patrol titled, Border Patrol abuses of human rights must be stopped. McGuire cuts right to the problem with Border Patrol. It's a "rogue agency."
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10/26/11 This October 26th marks the fifth anniversary of President George W. Bush's signing the law to build a 700-mile fence on the U.S.-Mexico border. Five years later the "border security first" approach has gotten us nowhere. Yet, it's still the number one response from GOP Presidential candidates when asked about immigration.
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10/17/11 A new poll shows that Latino voters don't know who the Republican 2012 presidential candidates are, but they don't like what they're hearing. This weekend, former Godfather Pizza CEO and newest GOP "front-runner" Herman Cain called for an electrified border fence capable of killing people, coupled with "real guns and real bullets" to deter border-crossers.
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10/13/11 For your viewing pleasure this morning, we're forwarding around last night's episode of South Park, "The Last of the Meheecans." Hilarious and relevant, it's also a sign of how thoroughly the immigration debate has permeated pop culture and the American consciousness.
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09/23/11 Outside a Catholic Church in July, Border Patrol agents handcuffed a Latino man for what witnesses say was no reason at all. His only crime, according to on-lookers, was looking Latino. Later, it was found that the man arrested was residing in the US legally, and he was released. Had Border Patrol done their homework ahead of time, they might have saved themselves loads of embarrassment.
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09/13/11 In an event entitled "Is the Border Broken? Rethinking the Conventional Wisdom," also held yesterday, a panel of speakers at the Immigration Policy Center discussed the dangers of this sort of approach and tried to decouple the problem of border security from that of immigration enforcement.
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09/08/11 An article by Julian Aguilar at Texas Tribune about Roxann Lara, a pregnant woman detained by Border Patrol agents, raises many more concerns about how that agency is complying with the Obama administration's new deportation policy.
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08/24/11 Local and national immigration experts spoke on a call with reporters to relate stories and highlight concerns that Secure Communities and other police-immigration collaboration efforts are destroying the relationship between police and immigrants and making communities across the country less safe.
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08/18/11 A scathing editorial today in the Washington Post blasts the Republican Party's "scare tactics" on border security and calls out Senator John Cornyn for trying "to have it both ways." The conclusion notes that by promoting "myths" about border security, "politicians perpetuate both a lie and the national disgrace of a dysfunctional policy."
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