Efforts to protect the younger immigrants known as Dreamers collapsed in the Senate today as three competing amendments failedto get the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster. President Trump had made it clear that he would veto two bipartisan compromise amendments if they passed, and predictably these both failed—the McCain-Coons amendment 52-47 and the Schumer-Rounds-Collins amendment 54-45. But the biggest failure was the Grassley amendment, which incorporated the White House’s own restrictionist positions. This went down in a 39-60 vote, with 10 Republican senators opposing their president’s plan.

DHS head Kirstjen Nielsen. Photo: AP/Alex Brandon

DHS makes outlandish claims about “chain migration.” The press release says Dreamers granted legal status by the bipartisan amendment “would then be able to bring over all of extended families through chain migration, who in turn could bring in their foreign relatives, potentially increasing the legalized population of aliens to 10 million.”

Here’s a list of some of the immigration absurdities now circulating in the media and in the political class.

1. We have a big problem called “chain immigration.” People who say this are actually talking about the family-based visa system established by the 1965 immigration reform. The term “chain migration” refers to an age-old process of people settling in a new country and then sending for friends and relatives. Many or most European Americans got here through this kind of migration. So why do conservatives call family-based immigration “chain migration”? Simple: they claim to support family values, so they don’t want us to notice that they’re opposing a program that favors family reunification.

2. Family-based immigration means “a single immigrant can bring in virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives.” Most people don’t live long enough to create anything like the migration “chain” we find in President Trump’s rants and rightwing TV ads. It’s true that a naturalized U.S. citizen can sponsor green cards for a spouse, for parents, and for minor children, but the process involves many bureaucratic hurdles and delays. To sponsor other close relatives, such as siblings and adult children, the citizen confronts a labyrinth of quotas and restrictions, with delays stretching into decades for people of certain nationalities. Green card holders face even stricter limitations and greater hurdles.

In January Trump claimed that terrorism suspect Sayfullo Saipov brought in “22 people through the chain.” PolitiFact calculates that the 29-year-old Saipov, a green card holder since 2010, could only have done this by somehow “fathering more than 20 kids before he left Uzbekistan.”

Border art: image from JR, the artist

January 28, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/28/opinion/immigrations-border-enforcement-myth.html

The Word May Be Toxic, but Amnesty Is Everywhere

By Amanda Taub, New York Times
October 11, 2017
Mass Deportation Is a Lose-Lose Proposition 
Ousting undocumented workers can hurt the economy and put American freedoms at risk.

By Noah Smith, Bloomberg News

DACA supporters march in San Francisco. Photo: David Bacon

What Would Be Traded Off?
Will the Democrats Cave?

Photo: National Immigrant Youth Alliance/The Dream Is Now

What Do the Dreamers Say?
While reporting extensively on the reactions of pundits and politicians, the media haven’t said much about the views of the people actually affected—the DACA recipients themselves.

One exception was NPR’s Morning Edition on September 15. NPR correspondent Richard Gonzales reported on interviews with Dreamers:  “[T]hey don't want a deal that would, let’s say, implement the E-Verify system, which requires employers to check the legal status of people they hire. To the Dreamers, that’s just another way of increasing the threat of deportation to their undocumented parents. And they also don’t want a deal in which their DACA status is a tradeoff for enhanced border security. That, they say, would further what they consider the militarization of the border.” (Even in this otherwise excellent report, Morning Edition host Mary Louise Kelly persisted in using in the far right’s sense of “amnesty” as a pejorative term.)

February protest in Seattle. Photo: Ted S. Warren AP

Although this is just one poll, it’s in line with other recent surveys showing a majority of the population supporting legalization—despite the anti-immigrant rhetoric from government and much of the media. However, a majority also continue to back the deportation of “criminal aliens”—pointing to an area where the immigrant rights movement needs to work harder.—TPOI editor

By David L. Wilson, Truthout
March 15, 2016

There are two surprising facts that most mainstream US media outlets have studiously ignored in their coverage of immigration and the 2016 presidential campaign:

First, the Republican candidates are promising to end a wave of unauthorized immigration that actually ended eight years ago.

And second, the same working-class white people who cheer billionaire candidate Donald Trump's anti-immigrant rants would themselves benefit from legalizing the immigration status of the approximately 11 million people who currently lack legal papers.

We'd be well on our way to ending the current anti-immigrant frenzy if only we could get these two facts across to a majority of the US population - and this might be the year to do it.[...]

Read the full article:
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/35220-from-scapegoating-to-solidarity-2016-is-the-year-to-turn-the-immigration-debate-around

PRESS RELEASE
February 25, 2016
Contact: Michelle Mittelstadt
202-266-1910
mmittelstadt@migrationpolicy.org

Report: More than 10 Million People Live in Households with Potential DAPA Recipients

WASHINGTON – With the Supreme Court poised to deliberate the fate of the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) program, a new report by the Migration Policy Institute and the Urban Institute finds that work authorization could increase the average DAPA family’s income by 10 percent. The program could also lead to reductions in poverty and other measurable gains for millions of people living in DAPA households, including nearly 4 million children under age 18 who are U.S. citizens.

Using an innovative MPI methodology that permits analysis of the unauthorized population using U.S. Census Bureau data, the report estimates that as many as 3.6 million unauthorized immigrants who are parents of U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents (LPRs) would be eligible for DAPA. The program, which would provide temporary relief from deportation and eligibility for work authorization, was announced by the Obama administration in November 2014. It was temporarily blocked pending resolution of a legal challenge filed by 26 states, and the Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments in the case in April, with a ruling expected by the end of June.

In the report, Deferred Action for Unauthorized Immigrant Parents: Analysis of DAPA’s Potential Effects on Families and Children, MPI and Urban Institute researchers describe the population potentially eligible for DAPA and estimate the effects of work authorization and relief from deportation on family income, poverty and child well-being.

Among the key findings of the report, which draws from analysis of 2009-2013 Census Bureau data:

• Controlling for other measureable factors, the average family could expect to see a $3,000 (10 percent) income gain if potentially DAPA-eligible parents obtained work authorization and earned the same as LPR parents with comparable characteristics such as age, educational attainment, English proficiency and length of U.S. residence. As a result, 6 percent fewer DAPA families would be living in poverty.
• Although the labor force participation of potentially DAPA-eligible fathers exceeds immigrant fathers overall and the U.S. born, nonetheless DAPA families have lower incomes (in part because potentially DAPA-eligible mothers’ labor force participation is lower): $31,000 versus $43,000 for all families with immigrant parents and $47,000 for families with U.S.-born parents. The poverty rate for potentially DAPA-eligible families is 36 percent, compared with 22 percent for all immigrant families and 14 percent for families with U.S.-born parents. The report finds DAPA would not have any significant impact on labor force participation rates.
• Of the 3.6 million unauthorized immigrants potentially eligible for DAPA, 3.3 million are parents of U.S.-citizen or LPR children under age 18 who are living with them. Another 340,000 parents of adult children would also potentially be DAPA eligible. An estimated 85 percent of all minor children in potential DAPA households are U.S. citizens.
• More than 10 million people live in households with at least one potentially DAPA-eligible adult. Beyond the 3.3 million potentially DAPA-eligible parents of minor children, an estimated 2.3 million other adults and 4.3 million children under 18 reside in these households. Together with 340,000 DAPA-eligible parents of adult children, as many as 10.2 million people could be affected.
• -Sixty-nine percent of the potentially DAPA eligible have lived in the United States ten years or more, and 25 percent at least 20 years.

The report builds on previous research by MPI and the Urban Institute describing the effects of parental unauthorized status on these children, finding that deferring deportation would protect children and families from potentially substantial economic and other harm.

“When parents lack legal status, their children – who are often U.S. citizens – are harmed. A strong body of evidence demonstrates that parents' unauthorized status reduces the well-being and development of children due to increased family stress, fear of deportation, poor work conditions, lower income, inferior housing and reluctance to access community supports for children,” said Heather Koball, an Urban Institute senior fellow who co-authored the report.

Said co-author Randy Capps, director of research for U.S. programs at MPI: “If the Supreme Court permits DAPA to go forward, the program has the potential to improve the incomes and living standards for many unauthorized immigrant families through protection from deportation and eligibility for work authorization.”

The report can be downloaded at: www.migrationpolicy.org/research/deferred-action-unauthorized-immigrant-parents-analysis-dapas-potential-effects-families.

# # #

The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank in Washington, DC dedicated to analysis of the movement of people worldwide. MPI provides analysis, development and evaluation of migration and refugee policies at the local, national and international levels. For more on MPI, visit www.migrationpolicy.org.

PRESS RELEASE
November 24, 2015
https://berniesanders.com/press-release/sanders-introduces-families-first-immigration-plan/

BURLINGTON, Vt. – As he returned home to celebrate Thanksgiving with his family, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced a bold plan to reform our immigration system. Sanders’ plan puts families first, focuses on common sense reforms to build the middle class and embraces our nation’s diversity.

“As we gather with our loved ones to give thanks, we should reflect on the fact that not all families will be so lucky,” Sanders said. “Millions of families are torn apart by our broken immigration policies. We cannot forget about the aspiring Americans who continue to live in the shadows. As the son of an immigrant, I can tell you that their story – my story, your story, our story – is the story of America: the story of hardworking families coming to the United States to create a brighter future for their kids. We have an obligation to enact policies that unite families, not tear them apart.”

If elected, Sanders would:

* Dismantle inhumane deportation programs and private detention centers.
* Offer humane treatment and asylum to victims of domestic violence and minors fleeing from dangerous circumstances in Latin America.
* End policies that discriminate against women and ensure that mothers and wives who come into the United States with their families have the same right to work as their partners.
* Pave the way for a swift legislative path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants.
* Close loopholes that allow federal agencies to use racial and ethnic profiling at the border.
* Ensure our border remains secure and protects local communities.
* Make it easier for immigrants to access the judicial system.
* Increase oversight of key Department of Homeland Security agencies to guard against waste, fraud and abuse.

Sanders pledged to make immigration a top priority of his administration, even if Congress refuses to act. He will take executive action to allow all undocumented people who have been in the United States for at least five years to stay in the country without fear of being deported. Under Sanders’ plan, close to 9 million aspiring Americans will be able to apply to stay in the United States.

“As president, I will fight for comprehensive immigration reform that provides a pathway to citizenship and is grounded in civil, humane and economic rights. But let me be clear: I will not stand idly by waiting around for a dysfunctional Congress to act. Instead, during the first 100 days of my administration I will take extensive action to accomplish what Congress has failed to do and to build upon President Obama’s executive orders.”

Click here to read Sanders’ plan.