Selective Service System Requires Even Undocumented Immigrants to Register
February 13, 2011
According to a recent announcement by the U.S. Selective Service System, even unodcumented immigrants must register with the Service. The Selective Service System is the means by which the United States Government keeps track of those men who may be eligible for conscription--or a "draft"--into the military. The formal announcement states:
ATTENTION, UNDOCUMENTED MALES
& IMMIGRANT SERVICING GROUPS!
Selective Service does not collect any information which would indicate whether or not you are undocumented. You want to protect yourself for future U.S. citizenship and other government benefits and programs by registering with Selective Service. Do it today.
If you are a man ages 18 through 25 and living in the U.S., then you must register with Selective Service. It's the law. According to law, a man must register with Selective Service within 30 days of his 18th birthday. Selective Service will accept late registrations but not after a man has reached age 26. You may be denied benefits or a job if you have not registered. You can register at any U.S. Post Office and do not need a social security number. When you do obtain a social security number, let Selective Service know. Provide a copy of your new social security number card; being sure to include your complete name, date of birth, Selective Service registration number, and current mailing address; and mail to the Selective Service System, P.O. Box 94636, Palatine, IL 60094-4636.
To view the announcement, see: http://www.sss.gov/default.htm.
Will Senator Jon Kyl Push For Immigration Reform Before Retiring in 2012?
February 12, 2011
Last week, Arizona Senator Jon Kyl announced he would not run for reelection in 2012, which immediately led to speculation and commentary as to which potential candidate from either party may succeed Mr. Kyl to the U.S. Senate. Although the next Senator to take Mr. Kyl's place in Washington, D.C. will have an important role to play in the comprehensive immigration reform debate, others are already wondering if Senator Kyl, who was once a leading proponent of immigration reform, may take up the cause again before he steps down. Linda Valdez of the Arizona Republic writes, "As an elder statesman with no need to play politics, he can perform a remarkably valuable service to Arizona by helping usher through a national solution to a problem that is tearing this state apart." To read Ms. Valdez' column, please click here: http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/Valdez/118231.
Proposal to Deny Citizenship to Children of Undocumented Immigrants Fails in Arizona Legislature
February 8, 2011
After more than three hours of testimony at the Senate Judiciary Committee, a bid to deny citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants faltered Monday when proponents could not get the votes of a Senate panel. Although there was some testimony in support of the measure,there were also several children who spoke against the bill, including 12-year-old Heide Portugal who said she was born in this country but her parents were not and that a measure like this, had it been in effect, would have denied her citizenship.
The proposals also drew opposition from the business community. Kevin Sandler, president of Exhibit One, said he worried about the message adopting such a law would send. "We've created a toxic environment," he told lawmakers. "Businesses don't want to move here. "He said companies looking to relocate pay attention to the political climate in a state. "What we've really done is create a not-open-for-business environment here." And Glenn Hamer, president of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told legislators they should leave the question of citizenship where it belongs: in Congress.
Activist Salvador Reza said the debate over which children get legal recognition is "not very dissimilar to the debate that happened in South Africa not too long ago." "Young kids like this were denied citizenship for whatever reasons," Reza said. Jennifer Allen, executive director of the Border Action Network, said denying citizenship to children born in this country based on a parent's citizenship would create "a permanent underclass" of people in the state. For more, click here: http://azstarnet.com/news/local/border/article_e3f477cf-fdb2-5609-afd1-db34e3f9dfd0.html.
Immigration Reform Discussed Amongst Democratic and Republican Congressional Leaders
February 7, 2011
Republican Senator Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., and Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have taken preliminary steps to begin building a bipartisan coalition of support for comprehensive immigration reform legislation.
Their call list hasn't focused so much on House and Senate members who've been reliable pro-immigration votes in the past. Instead, they're looking to a strange-bedfellows mix of conservative and liberal constituencies that can provide a "safety net" of support, as Graham put it, once the issue heats up.
"It's in the infant stage," Graham told POLITICO. "I don't know what the political appetite is to do something." The article can be read here: http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0211/Immigration_returns.html.
Study Finds Immigration Prosecutions and Deportations Increase in Recent Years
February 6, 2011
New government data shows the Obama administration has sharply increased immigration prosecutions, according to a study released Tuesday by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a private, nonpartisan group based at Syracuse University that compiled the data from the first two years of the Obama administration and the last two years of the Bush administration. According to the report, felony immigration prosecutions in federal court systems along the border from Houston to San Diego went up 259 percent from 2007 to 2010, increasing nearly 16,000 to 36,321.
Meanwhile, the government deported almost 393,000 people in 2010, at a cost of about $5 billion -- nearly 100,000 more people than the George W. Bush administration deported in 2007.Although illegal immigration levels fell due to slackened job growth, immigration prosecutions steadily climbed in recent years after immigration reform efforts failed in Congress. For more, see: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h4VwJe6Dq8YIk7yXAy_Ui7ZPjLOw?docId=c8113d7516cc49bdb759f7ca369d364c; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/02/immigration-prosecution-deportation-study_n_817323.html
President Obama and John McCain Meet to Discuss Immigration Reform and Other Issues
February 4, 2011
In a rare, face-to-face meeting at the White House, former rivals Senator John McCain and President Barack Obama met to discuss a variety of issues on Wednesday, February 2, 2011. Among the issues reportedly discussed was immigration policy, which is significant, given Mr. McCain's influence with potential immigration reform measures in the past. Senator McCain was one of the original sponsors of comprehensive immigration reform legislation that was proposed, but ultimately defeated, in Congress during the Bush Administration. Although he reversed course in recent years on the issue, the Senator recently stated that he would consider supporting such a renewed measure, once the border has been secured. For more, see: http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/azelections/articles/2011/02/02/20110202obama-meets-wtith-mccain.html; http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/azelections/articles/2011/01/05/20110105mccain-new-congress.html
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano Defends Border Security
February 1, 2011
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, speaking at the University of Texas, El Paso, responded to critics that claim the U.S./Mexican border is overrun with violence from cartels.
"It is inaccurate to state, as too many have, that the border is overrun with violence and out of control," Ms. Napolitano said. "This statement - often made only to score political points - is just plain wrong." The DHS Secretary went on to criticize recent claims made by anti-immigration reform politicians to the contrary, stating that such remarks "ignore statistical evidence" and they "belittle the significant progress that effective law enforcement has made" in protecting residents living near the border.
The Obama administration continues to advocate for comprehensive immigration reform, which includes the DREAM Act, a legislative measure that would provide a mechanism for earned legalization of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. For more, please see: http://www.thestatecolumn.com/articles/janet-napolitano-immigration-reform-critics-scoring-political-points/.
SB 1070 Protestors Fight Charges
January 29, 2011
Protestors who were arrested by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office last July during demonstrations against SB 1070, the controversial Arizona immigration enforcement bill that has been, at least temporarily, blocked by the U.S. District Court, have chosen to fight the criminal charges against them. The protestors' attorneys conducted an evidentiary hearing earlier this month in a Phoenix courtroom, and the proceedings will continue in February. For more on this story, please see: http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/azelections/articles/2011/01/11/20110111arizona-immigration-law-protesters-fight-fine.html.
Arizona Legislators Introduce Bill To Revoke Birthright Citizenship
January 28, 2011
On Thursday, Arizona lawmakers introduced bills that will challenge the 14th Amendment birthright citizenship of children born in the United States to illegal immigrants. The proponent of the legislation, Republican Representative John Kavanagh, is one of two co-sponsors. CNN reports that critics say the measure is unconstitutional, and Andrei Cherny, chairwoman of the Arizona Democratic Party, called the proposal "downright un-American. What makes America so special is the fact that anyone born here is as much an American as anyone else," Cherny said in a statement. "As the party in power, Republicans have a responsibility to stand up for real solutions on immigration, jobs and the economy. Instead, they've picked yet another political battle that solves nothing and wastes taxpayer money," Cherny said. For more, click here: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/28/arizona.immigration.citizenship/index.html.
Among the critics of such legislation is Arizona Republic editorialist E.J. Montini, who writes that such an approach ends any hoped for civility in politics this session on the issue of immigration reform, and instead amounts to nothing less than an attack on babies. Montini's column can be found here: http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/EJMontini/115980.
Matthew Green recently weighed in on the issue of legislative attempts to repeal the 14th Amendment's birthright citizenship clause during an interview with a local news channel: http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=13784707.
Comparing the Costs of Deportation and Immigration Reform
January 27, 2011
At a House of Representatives subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, January 26, 2011, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deputy director Kumar Kibble announced that the average cost of arresting, detaining, and deporting an undocumented immigrant costs approximately $12,500.00. The Associated Press reports that "ICE deported almost 393,000 people from the U.S. in 2010. At $12,500 per person the cost to remove them was almost $5 billion." The AP also reports that an estimated 11 million people are living in the United States without proper immigration status.
If we are to accept these figures, it follows that the cost to arrest, detain, and deport every undocumented immigrant in the United States comes to over $137 billion. In comparison, according to a report issued by the Cato Institute in August of 2009, 8.3 million workers in the U.S. are undocumented immigrants. The Cato Institute, a libertarian but often conservative-leaning think tank, concluded that a legalization process "would allow immigrants to have higher productivity and create more openings for Americans in higher-skilled occupations. The positive impact for U.S. households of legalization under an optimal visa tax would be 1.27 percent of GDP or $180 billion."
The new figures seem to reinforce earlier economists' conclusions that an intelligent legalization program that maximizes the productivity and input of undocumented workers is much more cost effective--by nearly $50 billion--than the alternative of instituting a mass-deportation program.
Mr. Green also addressed these issues in an editorial published by the Arizona Daily Star in 2010: http://azstarnet.com/news/opinion/article_3b0515d4-9413-5ced-8dbb-cafbdd2b1f0b.html.
The Cato Report referred to above can be found here: http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10438.
President Obama Discusses Immigration Reform in State of the Union Address
January 26, 2011
In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, January 26, 2011, President Barack Obama discussed the importance of tackling Comprehensive Immigration Reform in 2011. He challenged lawmakers to fix a broken immigration system that can, at times, not only be unfair, but also economically unwise. Here is what the President said:
Today, there are hundreds of thousands of students excelling in our schools who are not American citizens. Some are the children of undocumented workers, who had nothing to do with the actions of their parents. They grew up as Americans and pledge allegiance to our flag, and yet they live every day with the threat of deportation. Others come here from abroad to study in our colleges and universities. But as soon as they obtain advanced degrees, we send them back home to compete against us. It makes no sense.
Now, I strongly believe that we should take on, once and for all, the issue of illegal immigration. And I am prepared to work with Republicans and Democrats to protect our borders, enforce our laws and address the millions of undocumented workers who are now living in the shadows. (Applause.) I know that debate will be difficult. I know it will take time. But tonight, let's agree to make that effort. And let's stop expelling talented, responsible young people who could be staffing our research labs or starting a new business, who could be further enriching this nation.
The entire 2011 State of the Union Address can be read here: http://www.npr.org/2011/01/26/133224933/transcript-obamas-state-of-union-address.
