Make Reason Part of the Immigration Debate

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An 850+ page bill to grant blanket amnesty and massively increase legal immigration is now being debated in the Senate. It would be the eighth amnesty enacted since 1986 and would flood the labor market with millions of workers at a time of record unemployment. It would also create enormous fiscal costs while ceding control of the immigration system to an administration that has refused to enforce the law.


The bill has the support of Democrat and Republican leaders, the media, and almost every single interest group. In just the last few years, $1.5 billion dollars has gone to lobbying on immigration. More than 98 percent was spent by an elite coalition that benefits politically and financially from open borders. In contrast, most Americans want existing immigration law enforced, but their position is barely represented in Washington.

The Center for Immigration Studies is the only think tank devoted exclusively to detailing the impact of immigration. Our research informs a debate that has been defined by emotion and distortion.

We provide a complete statistical profile of the immigrant population, including their social, economic, and fiscal impact. No one else provides such data and analysis, which is relied on by those in Congress seeking to regain control of the immigration system. We testify more than any other immigration group. A lobbyist recently told the Washington Post that our research is one of the few reasons that mass amnesty has not already been enacted.

Despite our unique and vital role, we operate on a relatively tiny budget and have actually had to cut staff over the last year. Open-border groups, like the National Council of La Raza, receive millions of dollars from the federal government. And the current Senate bill would appropriate up to $150 million more to such groups. In contrast, we depend on the generosity of private citizens who want to preserve the rule of law.

Please invest in our research so the facts will be represented in this critical debate that will determine the future of America.

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Gang of Eight Betrays Americans

The Gang of Eight immigration bill can be summed up as amnesty now, border closing never. The Department of Homeland Security is not required to build a fence (which was ordered by the Secure Fence Act signed by President George W. Bush). DHS is required only to submit a plan.

If the DHS Secretary decides she has not reached 90 percent of border security, a "trigger" kicks in: the creation of a Southern Border Security Commission empowered (horrors!) to make recommendations. After six months of pondering its mission, the Commission automatically self-liquidates, so there will never be border security.

The Gang of Eight bill will give legal residence to 11 million illegal aliens, which is the actual goal for which they undertook their journey and broke U.S. law. Their new U.S. legality will be concealed under the pompous bureaucratic title, Registered Provisional Immigrant (RPI) status.

This amnesty will cost the U.S. taxpayers $6.3 trillion over the lifetimes of the amnestied persons, mostly outside the 10-year window used for CBO calculations. This horrendous sum, which includes all forms of public benefits less the taxes they pay, was copiously documented by the Heritage Foundation.

The Gang of Eight authorizes the issuance of 33 million lifetime work permits (for 11 million amnesties plus accelerated chain migration) over the next 10 years. This enormous influx of job seekers will flood our labor markets and communities, thus continuing the high unemployment of Americans, driving down the wages of those who do have jobs and eliminating their hope of ever rising to the middle class and achieving the American dream.

Every amnestied person will become eligible for Obamacare upon receiving a green card, and within five years will be able to cash in on our 79 means-tested welfare benefits. The timetable for these generous benefits will almost certainly be advanced because of Senator Chuck Schumer's demands, Obama's executive orders or lawsuits brought before judges who believe in a "living" Constitution.

The promises made about E-Verify have a loophole for existing employees and even for those who steal American identities to get a job. Members of the Gang of Eight even included special provisions (earmarks) to import cheap labor to work in their own state's industries.

The Gang of Eight's so-called requirement that those amnestied will have to pay back taxes is a sham. They will be asked to pay only any taxes already computed and assessed by the Internal Revenue Service and, since the many years the illegals worked off the books never came to the attention of the IRS, those years will not be counted.

There are so many loopholes and exemptions to the so-called requirement that amnestied aliens speak English that it's a total farce.

All 11 million amnestied immigrants are supposed to have a background check, but the mere recital of such a requirement sounds like a joke. Our FBI and CIA missed so many obvious clues that the Boston Marathon bomber Tamarlan was a potential terrorist that government background checks on 11 million persons should provoke an "are you kidding?" laugh.

IRS bureaucrats testified in the congressional hearing that the IRS was so overwhelmed by the copious paperwork involved in a few hundred Tea Party applications that the IRS had to perform "triage." So how can the IRS cope with 11 million applications for RPI status from people whose paperwork is mostly forged or stolen?

Any government program managed by the liberals always includes a "follow the money" segment. The Gang of Eight's claim to promote "immigrant integration" is a ruse to give taxpayers' money to leftwing and Islamist activist groups such as CASA, La Raza, MALDEF and CAIR.

The Gang of Eight bill defines these groups as "nonprofit organizations including those with legal advocacy experience working with immigrant countries." They are actually Alinsky-style community organizers that focus on recruiting and politicizing immigrants.

Current U.S. law provides for the yearly admission of more than one million persons, more than any nation in the world, and the Gang of Eight's bill will double that number. Because of our government's failure to enforce so many existing laws, such as using a biometric entry-and-exit system to track visitors, we should have a pause in legal immigration until current laws are obeyed.

One big fraud in the current admission of legal immigrants is illustrated by the entry of the Boston bomber's family as refugees. Remember, they were given welfare benefits worth $100,000.

The Gang of Eight bill will reduce Republicans and conservatives to a permanent minority status. For the last century, immigrants who came in big waves voted at least 2-to-1 Democratic, in recent years it was 3-to-1, and there is zero evidence that the amnestied persons believe in Republican principles such as limited government and balanced budgets.

SOURCE



23 May, 2013

VIDEO: Immigration Fraud Expert Featured in New Series?

Fraud rates were in the double digits in nearly every benefit program audited

A top immigration fraud expert tells of fraud and national security risks in our legal immigration system and what should be done about it, in a new video series from the Center for Immigration Studies.

Louis "Don" Crocetti, Jr., architect and former (retired) chief of the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS) of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), discusses the nature and volume of fraud detected, actions taken to combat it, and vulnerabilities that continue to exist, while simultaneously being responsive to qualified applicants.

Mr. Crocetti says in the introduction video, "The principal types that we're talking about that have the double digit rates that exceed 10 to 20 percent in some areas, perhaps even 30 to 40 percent in others, do track back to more of the employment-based and asylum applications and petitions. Marriage obviously has a double digit fraud rate - below 20 percent - but in my opinion, that is pretty significant."

Crocetti's observations and recommendations take on new importance as the Senate debates the Schumer-Rubio bill, S. 744, which would dramatically expand guest worker and legal immigration programs, as well as legalize an estimated 11 million illegal aliens. The union representing 12,000 USCIS employees who administer these programs announced its opposition to the bill on Monday, warning of fraud, among other things. The union's president said "USCIS adjudications officers are pressured to rubber stamp applications instead of conducting diligent case review and investigation."

Interview Table of Contents

1. An Introduction to FDNS
2. An Introduction to Immigration Fraud
3. Benefit Fraud Assessments
4. Marriage Fraud
5. A Modern Employment Visa Program
6. Immigration Fraud and National Security
7. Confidentiality Provisions and Privacy
8. Evaluating DACA
9. Affidavits of Support and Sponsers
10. The Value of Compliance Reviews
11. Overseas Verification Program
12. The Resolution of Fraud Cases
13.Benefit Fraud Assessments
14. FDNS Needs
15. Moving Towards a Cost Effective Immigration System

Among the points made by Crocetti:

Terrorists and criminals continue to exploit our immigration system, which shows the need for more thorough and recurring screening of applicants, as well as better information-sharing between agencies.

Fraud rates were in double digits among employment and marriage-based categories, and asylum applications, including the controversial H-1B program.

Unlike years past, technology is available to detect and deter fraud and identify threats to national security and public safety; we simply need to use it more effectively and on all applications. USCIS must collect biometrics to establish identity, conduct background checks, and verify information critical to determining eligibility.

Compliance audits, verification, and assessments have proven invaluable to identifying fraud. In one application type (green card replacement) USCIS was able to nearly eliminate fraud through collection of biometrics. In another category (religious workers), fraud was significantly reduced through site visits to verify information on the petition. These tools need to be used for all categories, but their implementation has been stalled.

USCIS adjudicators need to be provided more anti-fraud training and allowed additional time to pursue suspected fraud, as well as empowered to place those who are denied a benefit into removal proceedings if unlawfully present.

The video can be viewed  here.





Stockholm burns as rioters battle police after three days of violence in immigrant 'ghetto'

Sweden is reeling after a third night of rioting in largely run-down immigrant areas of the capital Stockholm.  In the last 48 hours violence has spread to at least ten suburbs with mobs of youths torching hundreds of cars and clashing with police.

It is Sweden's worst disorder in years and has shocked the country and provoked a debate on how Sweden is coping with youth unemployment and an influx of immigrants.

The disorder has intensified despite a call for calm from Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.

Last night, rioters attacked the police station in the Jakosberg area in the northwest of the city and set fire to 30 cars.

Groups of youths also smashed shop windows and burned down a 19th Century cultural centre.

Gangs of up to 60 set fire to a school and a nursery and hurled rocks at police and firefighters.

The unrest appears to have been sparked by the police killing of a 69-year-old man wielding a machete in the suburb of Husby on Sunday, which prompted accusations of police brutality.

It has provoked fierce debate in the country, which prides itself on a reputation for social justice, on the government's economic policies.

The violence has sparked debate in the country on the effect of the government's social policies

Critics say immigrant ghettos have been created where unemployment is high and there are few opportunities for residents.

The left-leaning tabloid Aftonbladet said the riots represented a 'gigantic failure' of government policies, which had underpinned the rise of ghettos in the suburbs.  'We have failed to give many of the people in the suburbs a hope for the future,' Anna-Margrethe Livh of the opposition Left Party wrote in the daily Svenska Dagbladet.

An anti-immigrant party, the Sweden Democrats, has risen to third in polls ahead of a general election due next year, reflecting unease about immigrants among many voters.

Eight people were arrested last night but police said they had no reports of injuries.

Kjell Lindgren, spokesman for Stockholm police, said today: 'We've had around 30 cars set on fire last night, fires that we connect to youth gangs and criminals.'

Prime Minister Reinfeldt told reporters yesterday: 'Everyone must pitch in restore calm - parents [and] adults.'

After decades of practising the 'Swedish model' of generous welfare benefits, the country has been reducing the role of the state since the 1990s, spurring the fastest growth in inequality of any advanced OECD economy.

While average living standards are still among the highest in Europe, governments have failed to substantially reduce long-term youth unemployment and poverty, which have affected immigrant communities worst.

Some 15 per cent of the population is foreign-born, the highest proportion in the Nordic region.

Unemployment among those born outside Sweden stands at 16 per cent, compared with just six per cent for native Swedes, according to OECD data.

Among 44 industrialised countries, Sweden ranked fourth in the absolute number of asylum seekers, and second relative to its population, according to U.N. figures.

SOURCE

VIDEO: Immigration Fraud Expert Featured in New Series?

Fraud rates were in the double digits in nearly every benefit program audited

A top immigration fraud expert tells of fraud and national security risks in our legal immigration system and what should be done about it, in a new video series from the Center for Immigration Studies.

Louis "Don" Crocetti, Jr., architect and former (retired) chief of the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS) of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), discusses the nature and volume of fraud detected, actions taken to combat it, and vulnerabilities that continue to exist, while simultaneously being responsive to qualified applicants.

Mr. Crocetti says in the introduction video, "The principal types that we're talking about that have the double digit rates that exceed 10 to 20 percent in some areas, perhaps even 30 to 40 percent in others, do track back to more of the employment-based and asylum applications and petitions. Marriage obviously has a double digit fraud rate - below 20 percent - but in my opinion, that is pretty significant."

Crocetti's observations and recommendations take on new importance as the Senate debates the Schumer-Rubio bill, S. 744, which would dramatically expand guest worker and legal immigration programs, as well as legalize an estimated 11 million illegal aliens. The union representing 12,000 USCIS employees who administer these programs announced its opposition to the bill on Monday, warning of fraud, among other things. The union's president said "USCIS adjudications officers are pressured to rubber stamp applications instead of conducting diligent case review and investigation."

Interview Table of Contents

1. An Introduction to FDNS
2. An Introduction to Immigration Fraud
3. Benefit Fraud Assessments
4. Marriage Fraud
5. A Modern Employment Visa Program
6. Immigration Fraud and National Security
7. Confidentiality Provisions and Privacy
8. Evaluating DACA
9. Affidavits of Support and Sponsers
10. The Value of Compliance Reviews
11. Overseas Verification Program
12. The Resolution of Fraud Cases
13.Benefit Fraud Assessments
14. FDNS Needs
15. Moving Towards a Cost Effective Immigration System

Among the points made by Crocetti:

Terrorists and criminals continue to exploit our immigration system, which shows the need for more thorough and recurring screening of applicants, as well as better information-sharing between agencies.

Fraud rates were in double digits among employment and marriage-based categories, and asylum applications, including the controversial H-1B program.

Unlike years past, technology is available to detect and deter fraud and identify threats to national security and public safety; we simply need to use it more effectively and on all applications. USCIS must collect biometrics to establish identity, conduct background checks, and verify information critical to determining eligibility.

Compliance audits, verification, and assessments have proven invaluable to identifying fraud. In one application type (green card replacement) USCIS was able to nearly eliminate fraud through collection of biometrics. In another category (religious workers), fraud was significantly reduced through site visits to verify information on the petition. These tools need to be used for all categories, but their implementation has been stalled.

USCIS adjudicators need to be provided more anti-fraud training and allowed additional time to pursue suspected fraud, as well as empowered to place those who are denied a benefit into removal proceedings if unlawfully present.

The video can be viewed  here.





Stockholm burns as rioters battle police after three days of violence in immigrant 'ghetto'

Sweden is reeling after a third night of rioting in largely run-down immigrant areas of the capital Stockholm.  In the last 48 hours violence has spread to at least ten suburbs with mobs of youths torching hundreds of cars and clashing with police.

It is Sweden's worst disorder in years and has shocked the country and provoked a debate on how Sweden is coping with youth unemployment and an influx of immigrants.

The disorder has intensified despite a call for calm from Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.

Last night, rioters attacked the police station in the Jakosberg area in the northwest of the city and set fire to 30 cars.

Groups of youths also smashed shop windows and burned down a 19th Century cultural centre.

Gangs of up to 60 set fire to a school and a nursery and hurled rocks at police and firefighters.

The unrest appears to have been sparked by the police killing of a 69-year-old man wielding a machete in the suburb of Husby on Sunday, which prompted accusations of police brutality.

It has provoked fierce debate in the country, which prides itself on a reputation for social justice, on the government's economic policies.

The violence has sparked debate in the country on the effect of the government's social policies

Critics say immigrant ghettos have been created where unemployment is high and there are few opportunities for residents.

The left-leaning tabloid Aftonbladet said the riots represented a 'gigantic failure' of government policies, which had underpinned the rise of ghettos in the suburbs.  'We have failed to give many of the people in the suburbs a hope for the future,' Anna-Margrethe Livh of the opposition Left Party wrote in the daily Svenska Dagbladet.

An anti-immigrant party, the Sweden Democrats, has risen to third in polls ahead of a general election due next year, reflecting unease about immigrants among many voters.

Eight people were arrested last night but police said they had no reports of injuries.

Kjell Lindgren, spokesman for Stockholm police, said today: 'We've had around 30 cars set on fire last night, fires that we connect to youth gangs and criminals.'

Prime Minister Reinfeldt told reporters yesterday: 'Everyone must pitch in restore calm - parents [and] adults.'

After decades of practising the 'Swedish model' of generous welfare benefits, the country has been reducing the role of the state since the 1990s, spurring the fastest growth in inequality of any advanced OECD economy.

While average living standards are still among the highest in Europe, governments have failed to substantially reduce long-term youth unemployment and poverty, which have affected immigrant communities worst.

Some 15 per cent of the population is foreign-born, the highest proportion in the Nordic region.

Unemployment among those born outside Sweden stands at 16 per cent, compared with just six per cent for native Swedes, according to OECD data.

Among 44 industrialised countries, Sweden ranked fourth in the absolute number of asylum seekers, and second relative to its population, according to U.N. figures.

SOURCE

Crossing the Rio Grande…  upsurge in Mexicans trying to get over border

Rio Grande Valley arrests rose 65 per cent last year and they hit 16,000 in March alone, fuelled by human smugglers who pay tax to drug cartels.

Attempts to cross the border alone are met with violence. About 70 bodies were found in the area in the six months from October, more than twice as many as the same period in the previous year.

Just across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas, stands a dormitory-style shelter filled with people recently deported and other migrants waiting to cross the border.

The long rows of bunk beds offer immigrants a place to rest on their long journey. But the shelter is no safe haven in a town controlled by the Gulf cartel.

Armed men once showed up and took away 15 men, who were probably put to work as gunmen, lookouts or human mules hauling bales of marijuana into the United States.

As Congress takes up immigration reform, lawmakers may have to confront the reality of this place and others like it, where people say the current system of immigration enforcement and deportation produces a constant flow of people north and south that provides the cartel with a vulnerable labor pool and steady source of revenue.

'This vicious circle favours organised crime because the migrant is going to pay for safe passage', said the Rev. Francisco Gallardo, who oversees immigrant-assistance efforts for the Matamoros Catholic diocese.

The cartel controls who crosses the border and profits from each immigrant by taxing human smugglers.

At the shelter, the cartel threat was so alarming that shelter administrators began encouraging immigrants to go into the streets during the day, thinking they would be harder to round up than at the shelter.

There have been record numbers of deportations in recent years and tens of thousands landed in Tamaulipas already this year, the state that borders Texas from Matamoros to Nuevo Laredo.

Arizona is often singled out as the busiest border crossing for immigrants entering the US, but more and more migrants are being caught in the southernmost tip of Texas, in the Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley sector.

Apprehension statistics are imperfect measures because they only capture a fraction of the real flow, but the arrest numbers are definitely shifting.   Arrests in the Tucson, Ariz., sector dropped 3 per cent last year, while Rio Grande Valley arrests rose 65 percent.

The makeup of the immigrants apprehended here is changing, too, driven by people flowing out of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

The Border Patrol made 94,532 arrests of non-Mexican immigrants along the south-west border last year, more than double the year before. And nearly half of those came in the Rio Grande Valley sector.

The Border Patrol is responding by redirecting personnel, sending most new graduates from its academy to the Rio Grande Valley, according to senior Border Patrol officials.

When immigrants from Central America and Mexico arrive in Matamoros ahead of their trip to America, they are met by smugglers who have to pay the cartel tax for every person they take across the border.

Attempts to cross alone are met with violence. Some immigrants are kidnapped and their families extorted by the organisation.

Reported murders in Tamaulipas, the state that borders Texas from Matamoros to Nuevo Laredo, increased more than 250 percent in the past four years, according to the Mexican government.

Official statistics are generally thought to undercount the real toll. Soldiers recently killed six gunmen in a clash in Matamoros.

And yet, even with the high-degree of danger for immigrants crossing this part of the border, they keep coming.

Central American migrants continue to use the route up the Gulf Coast side of Mexico and through Tamaulipas because it's the shortest to the US, said Rodolfo Casillas Ramirez, a professor at Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales in Mexico City.

The smugglers choose the route, and even if immigrants have heard about the violence in Tamaulipas, 'they trust that the premium they've paid includes the right of passage,' he said.

They continue to leave their home countries for economic reasons. Although the US economy has provided fewer jobs for immigrants during the Great Recession and a long, slow recovery, opportunities south of the border have been even more limited, Casillas said.

That's why the Rev. Alejandro Solalinde, a Roman Catholic priest who founded a shelter for immigrants in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, said the answer is in regional development, not increased border security.

'This situation has grown because ultimately the migrants are merchandise and organised crime profits in volume,' he said during a recent visit to Matamoros.

Filemon Vela, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee whose district includes Brownsville, said the immigration-reform debate has so far left out discussion of the security and economic development in Mexico.

'The incentive for people to cross over illegally from Mexico will never subside until these individuals feel safe and until they are able to feed themselves and their families,' Vela said.

At the 150-bed shelter, more than half of the immigrants have just been deported from the US, Gallardo said.  The others are immigrants preparing to cross. He said shelter workers constantly chase out infiltrators who are paid by smugglers to recruit inside.

At Solalinde's shelter in southern Mexico, threats from organised crime forced them to bring in four state police officers and four federal ones, who have lived at his shelter for the past year as protection.

Solalinde now travels with bodyguards after having fled Mexico for a couple of months last year following threats.

One immigrant at the Matamoros shelter was a 48-year-old man who would only give his name as 'Gordo' because he feared for his safety. He said he had arrived two days earlier after traveling from Copan, Honduras. Gordo said he had lived in Los Angeles for 10 years but had been in Honduras for the past four. He was trying to make it back to California, where he has a 15-year-old daughter.

Asked about his prospects for successfully crossing the river, he said: 'It's difficult, not so much for the Border Patrol'. His chief concern being the cartels.

SOURCE




Recent posts at CIS  below

See  here for the blog.  The CIS main page is here. 

Congressional Testimony

1. The Fiscal and Economic Impact of Immigration on the United States

Media

2. Op-Ed: We Trust Barack Obama

3. Op-Ed: The Fiscal Impact of Immigration

4. TV: Jessica Vaughan Discusses In-state Tuition in MA

Publications

5. The First Quarter of 2013 Employment Picture

6. Rubio’s Deceptive Amnesty Ad

Blogs

7. Schumer-Rubio Amnesty Would Legalize 45 Percent of ICE Criminal Caseload

8. Key Amendment to S.744 – Do the Amnestied REALLY Need to Pay Back Taxes?

9. Lord, Give Us Biometrics – But Not Yet

10. Immigration and Trust in Government: R.I.P. Part 1

11. Immigration Has Little Impact on U.S. Aging

12. What Happened to Sen. Schumer's National Employment Card?

13. Differential Treatment of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Requests

14. Five Myths about Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants in Senate Bill

15. Gang of Eight Prevails on H-1B in Judiciary Hearing

16. Sessions' Amendments Fail at Senate Judiciary

17. Consternation with the Administration? We Can Relate

18. Naked Political Interest: The Bipartisan Kind

19. A Hopeful Story — H-1B Age Discrimination Victim Fights Back

20. Contra Norquist

21. Two Harmless Bits of S.744 – Exceptions that Prove the Rule

Immigration Officers' Union Blasts Immigration Bill

The Senate's immigration bill will raise national security risks and the Obama administration will do little more than "rubber-stamp" illegal immigrants into the program, endangering Americans, says the labor union representing the 12,000 employees who will have to approve the applications.

Kenneth Palinkas, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 119, which represents officers and staff at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, will deliver a damning critique of the Senate bill Monday, according to a copy of his statement obtained by The Washington Times.

His statement goes well beyond the current debate, portraying an agency intent on approving as many illegal immigrants as possible.

"The culture at USCIS encourages all applications to be approved, discouraging proper investigation into red flags and discouraging the denial of any applications," his remarks say. "USCIS has been turned into an 'approval machine.'"

The union becomes the second key Homeland Security Department labor group to oppose the bill. Its opposition dents the bill and deals a blow to the AFL-CIO — the coalition of labor unions that has put major legislative muscle behind the bill this year but is seeing its members peel off.

Mr. Palinkas says the bipartisan "Gang of Eight" senators who wrote the Senate bill never talked to the USCIS and that the legislation is riddled with special-interest loopholes and shirks security checks.

"The legislation was written with special interests — producing a bill that makes the current system worse, not better," Mr. Palinkas' remarks say. The bill "will damage public safety and national security and should be opposed by lawmakers."

That was the same complaint made by Chris Crane, chief of the union representing agents and officers of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Mr. Crane has said the Senate bill would hurt ICE agents' ability to enforce the law.

But the USCIS officers' opposition could be even more potent. They describe themselves as the "backbone" of any legalization effort — the officers who will have to review each application and decide whether it meets the standards and whether the person is a security risk.

Their warnings could carry weight with lawmakers worried about a repeat of the amnesty in 1986, when hundreds of thousands of immigrants defrauded the system. All sides say they want to avoid the same scenario.

Chief among the USCIS union's worries is the way the administration has handled President Obama's non-deportation policy for "Dreamers" — illegal immigrants who arrived as children and who the Obama administration has said should not be deported.

Last year, Mr. Obama announced a policy titled Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals that grants a two-year stay of deportation and work permits.

The latest statistics show that the administration is approving almost every application it receives: 99.2 percent of all applications decided through the end of April, according to numbers released Friday.

About 500,000 applications have been submitted in the 8 months the deferred action has been available. Of those, 291,859 have been approved while 2,352 have been denied. The rest are still in processing.

The action is seen as a test-run should Congress pass the Senate's legalization bill, which would apply to a broad swath of 11 million illegal immigrants estimated to be in the U.S.

Mr. Palinkas said the reason so many deferred action applicants are being approved is because the Obama administration has determined that they don't need in-person interviews, which "virtually guarantees widespread fraud and places public safety at risk."

The Senate Judiciary Committee is working its way through hundreds of amendments to the bill written by the Gang of Eight.

The crux of the bill gives quick legal status to illegal immigrants but withholds the full path to citizenship until the Homeland Security Department spends more on border security, puts an electronic verification system for workers into place and creates a working entry-exit system to check visitors as they come and go at airports and seaports.

Obama administration officials cheered the progress from the sidelines Sunday.

"Comprehensive immigration reform is continuing to move forward in the Senate. That's a really good sign," White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer told CNN's "State of the Union" program Sunday.

The ICE and USCIS union objections could become a problem for the AFL-CIO, which enthusiastically embraced the bill this year.

Mr. Crane has accused the AFL-CIO of "threatening" those who disagreed with its stance.

The AFL-CIO has put major muscle behind this year's push for the Senate bill, having negotiated terms of the legislation's guest-worker program with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

On a conference call with reporters this month, Ana Avendano, who works on immigration issues for the AFL-CIO, said the union saw such positive signs for passage that Mr. Obama should stop most deportations now because the bill likely would give the immigrants legal status.

She also disputed a reporter's characterization of opponents' efforts to poke holes in the bill, saying the coalition behind the legislation remains strong.

"It's dangerous to treat the bill as fragile because it's not fragile. By treating it as fragile, it really gives the nativists power," she said.

 SOURCE

       


 
Schumer-Rubio Amnesty Would Legalize Tens of Thousands of Offenders

The eligibility criteria established for the Schumer-Rubio amnesty, S.744, are so generous that 45 percent of the criminal aliens in ICE's recent caseload would qualify for legal status, according to the Center for Immigration Studies' examination of ICE records.

Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants with criminal convictions, and tens of thousands of aliens with arrests on top of serious immigration violations would be legalized under the provisions of the Gang of Eight bill.

The proposed amnesty would significantly curtail ICE efforts to expel immigrants who have been a threat to public safety in American communities, including gang members, drunk drivers, and other offenders considered non-serious by the bill's proponents.

For more details see: here.

"It's no wonder so many law enforcement leaders have gone public with their opposition to the Schumer-Rubio amnesty bill. This measure will legalize tens of thousands of offenders who should be deported instead. I shudder to think about how many Americans and legal immigrants will become the victims of their future crimes. The Gang of Eight seems more intent on protecting lawbreakers than protecting our communities."

While interior enforcement and removals of convicted criminals have declined very noticeably in the last two years under the Obama administration's "prosecutorial discretion" policies, ICE has continued to remove some of the aliens who are referred after arrest by state, local, and federal law enforcement agencies under the Secure Communities program.

In the most recent six-month reporting period (October 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013), ICE removed 38,547 aliens who had been identified as a result of arrest by a state, local, or other federal law enforcement agency. Of these, 55 percent (21,339) were convicted of a felony or at least three misdemeanors. The other 45 percent (17,208) were lesser offenders who would be exempt from deportation and eligible for legalization under the Schumer-Rubio amnesty.

The 15 states most affected, in terms of the number of criminal aliens who would be legalized, are, in order of magnitude: California, Texas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, New York, Washington, North Carolina, Colorado, Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Nevada, and Illinois. However, Texas has by far the highest number of convicted criminals, as opposed to mere arrested immigration violators, who would be legalized. The state with the highest percentage of its criminal aliens who would qualify for amnesty is New York.

The above is a press release from from Center for Immigration Studies. 1522 K St. NW, Suite 820,  Washington, DC 20005, (202) 466-8185 fax: (202) 466-8076.  Email: center@cis.org. Contact: Marguerite Telford, 202-466-8185, mrt@cis.org.  The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent research institution which examines the impact of immigration on the United States.  The Center for Immigration Studies is not affiliated with any other organization

   

Biometric database of all adult Americans hidden in immigration reform

The immigration reform measure the Senate began debating yesterday would create a national biometric database of virtually every adult in the U.S., in what privacy groups fear could be the first step to a ubiquitous national identification system.

Buried in the more than 800 pages of the bipartisan legislation (.pdf)  is language mandating the creation of the innocuously-named “photo tool,” a massive federal database administered by the Department of Homeland Security and containing names, ages, Social Security numbers and photographs of everyone in the country with a driver’s license or other state-issued photo ID.

Employers would be obliged to look up every new hire in the database to verify that they match their photo.

This piece of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act is aimed at curbing employment of undocumented immigrants. But privacy advocates fear the inevitable mission creep, ending with the proof of self being required at polling places, to rent a house, buy a gun, open a bank account, acquire credit, board a plane or even attend a sporting event or log on the internet. Think of it as a government version of Foursquare, with Big Brother cataloging every check-in.

“It starts to change the relationship between the citizen and state, you do have to get permission to do things,” said Chris Calabrese, a congressional lobbyist with the American Civil Liberties Union. “More fundamentally, it could be the start of keeping a record of all things.”

For now, the legislation allows the database to be used solely for employment purposes. But historically such limitations don’t last. The Social Security card, for example, was created to track your government retirement benefits. Now you need it to purchase health insurance.

“The Social Security number itself, it’s pretty ubiquitous in your life,” Calabrese said.

David Bier, an analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, agrees with the ACLU’s fears.

“The most worrying aspect is that this creates a principle of permission basically to do certain activities and it can be used to restrict activities,” he said. “It’s like a national ID system without the card.”

For the moment, the debate in the Senate Judiciary Committee is focused on the parameters of legalization for unauthorized immigrants, a border fence and legal immigration in the future.

The committee is scheduled to resume debate on the package Tuesday.

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Immigration to Germany soars as workers fleeing crisis-hit southern Europe join waves of Poles, Bulgarians and Romanians

Immigration into Germany has soared as people from crisis-hit southern European countries join waves of Poles, Romanians and Bulgarians seeking jobs and homes in the EU's economic powerhouse.

Official figures show immigration reached a 17-year high, a sign of what Britain can expect when borders are opened to workers from new EU countries in January next year.

And as in the UK, they have fuelled a debate about new strains on the Germany's welfare system and the long term consequences for the country's economy.

In all, 1.08million people moved to Germany last year, according to the Federal Statistics Office, a 13 per cent increase on 2011.

The numbers reveal how the eurozone's debt crisis is reshaping the fabric of European society as well as individual national economies.

The biggest increases came from people moving from the stricken economies of Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy, but the most people came from Poland (68,100), while 45,700 came from Romania, and 51,500 from from Hungary and Bulgaria.

'Until recently, Germany was an emigration country, but now people are flocking to Germany in search of work, as their home countries are mired in recession,' said Wolfgang Nagl, a labour market expert at the Ifo institute.

The number of people moving to Germany from Spain jumped 45 per cent in 2012 from a year earlier to 30,000.

Some 42,000 people moved to Germany from Italy - a 40 per cent spike - while the number of immigrants to Germany from Greece and Portugal rose 43 per cent for each country, highlighting an acceleration which started in 2010 after the Greek economy imploded.

Strains are already being felt. In Duisburg, an old industrial city on the Rhine, Roma people are accused of turning neighbourhoods into rubbish-strewn ghettos.

Mayor Soren Link claims Romanian and Bulgarian migrants are causing havoc, committing crimes and costing his authority close to o15million a year to house, feed and police.

He claims prostitution and robberies have spiked since the EU's latest members began arriving last year.

'We are massively affected,' said the mayor, confirming the fears of the Association of German Cities which recently warned of 'social unrest' in many places because of the economic refugees.

On the other hand, many of those from southern countries are welcomed because they contribute to the economy.

According to the Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration, immigrants are on average 10 years younger than German natives and more likely to have a university degree.

'Germany is reaping the measurable rewards of free movement thanks to skilled immigrants from other EU countries. This has received too little attention to date,' said the group's chairman Christine Langenfeld.

Immigration from Slovenia was up 62 per cent as the transition period toward free labour movement ended in May 2011. The number of Hungarians moving to Germany rose 31 per cent.

SOURCE

Jump off here for the UK: Looking like Casper the Ghost, migrants smuggled here inside a flour tanker... only to be set free by border officials and told how to claim asylum

Covered in flour, they clamber from a foreign lorry – to the amazement of other motorists on a busy motorway.  This is the moment that at least nine suspected illegal immigrants emerged from their hiding place after smuggling themselves into the UK.

The gang brazenly strolled off into the English countryside. And although all were caught within minutes, almost half were immediately set free. They were even taken to a hostel, given free accommodation and told how to apply for asylum and benefits.

The graphic illustration of how Britain remains a soft touch for migrants occurred on the M26 in Kent this week. And it seems it was not a rare event. Kent Police say that for the past two years they have received on average one report a day relating to clandestine immigration.

The incident happened near the junction with the M25, as rush-hour traffic slowed to a crawl, and was photographed by a Daily Mail reader. The immigrants opened the hatch in the top of the German food tanker, which had apparently just arrived from France via the Channel Tunnel and was parked on the hard shoulder of the motorway.

They emerged one by one, then jumped down on to the ground in a shower of dust. Several witnesses called police, while the tanker driver was also apparently on the phone to the authorities as his stowaway passengers fled.

One caller told officers the flour-covered Middle Eastern fugitives would be easy to spot as they all ‘looked like Casper the Friendly Ghost’. They were picked up within the hour at the nearby village of Otford. But after Kent Police handed the nine men over to the Border Agency, four were allowed to go free.

The other five remain in detention ‘pending removal from the UK’ but may yet wage legal bids to stay.

It is believed the group had sneaked into the tanker – assumed to have been used previously for transporting flour or other foodstuffs – somewhere in France before being brought to England without the knowledge of the driver.

Lorry drivers face heavy fines for bringing illegals into the country, and the Border Agency – under fire for its failure to tackle unauthorised immigration – claims to have tightened security checks for stowaways, with specialist equipment to detect body heat or breath.  But it seems the flow of people sneaking in continues regardless.

The Daily Mail reader who photographed the gang said: ‘I was just near the M25 when I saw this German lorry on the hard shoulder. The driver was talking on his mobile. Maybe he heard something inside his tanker, so stopped.

‘As I went past the tanker, I saw these people start coming out of the hatch on top. They were all covered in this white stuff that looked like flour, but seemed to be from the Middle East. They were a bit unshaven and shaggy.

‘They were not running across the fields, just walking slowly and smiling. I think they were happy because they managed to cross the border.’

Last night Kent Police said: ‘We were called at around 8.15am on Tuesday by several members of the public who reported seeing a group of men getting off a lorry on the westbound M26, near to where it joins the M25. The men were on foot, described as being covered in a white, flour-like powder.

‘Officers, assisted by sightings by members of the public, arrested nine men in the Sevenoaks area on suspicion of entering the country illegally. They have been taken to Dover and handed over to the UK Border Agency.’

The Border Agency said: ‘Immigration Enforcement officials were contacted by Kent Police after they attended an incident on the M26 on Tuesday.

‘Nine men – four Syrians, two Iranians, an Egyptian, an Iraqi and a Palestinian – were arrested at the scene on suspicion of immigration offences.’ But it admitted: ‘Four of the men – two Syrians, an Egyptian and an Iranian – have since been released on immigration bail while their cases are considered by the Home Office.

‘If they are found to have no right to remain in the UK they will face removal. The other men remain in immigration detention pending their removal from the UK.’

The Home Office said: ‘When suspected illegal immigrants found on lorries are arrested by police, we respond quickly.

‘We work closely with police to tackle illegal immigration. Where someone is found to have no legal right to remain in the UK we will take action to remove them.’

Last night a Home Office spokesman refused to discuss the nine arrivals in detail but suggested that the four who were set free would have been given transport to a hostel where they would be housed rent-free. They would be given information on how to apply for benefits for asylum seekers, which would start with cash payments of £36 a week, and be told to check in regularly to dissuade them from absconding again.

The Home Office spokesman claimed to have no figures for the number of clandestine arrivals caught in Kent – saying immigration control centres were in France and Belgium, not England.

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Immigrants now make up 13% of the British population as it’s revealed more Europeans arrived in the UK in the past decade than in the previous 50 years

The number of migrants in England and Wales has doubled over the past decade, census figures have revealed.

They now make up one in eight of the population after more arrived between 2001 and 2011 than in the previous five decades put together.

The number living in the country is now 7.5million.

More than half of those arrived over the ten years since 2001, according to a national census analysis published yesterday.

The figures show 3.8million people came to Britain from abroad in the period – more than the 3.7million who came during the previous 50 years.

The breakdown comes  from an analysis of the ten-yearly census carried out in March 2011.

The figures have already revealed that at the time there were almost half a million more people living in the country than previously suspected

The latest analysis provides a fresh illustration of the impact of the wave of immigration under the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

They come in the week former minister Lord Mandelson acknowledged the scale of migration encouraged by Labour had made life difficult for people who are now hard-pressed to find or keep jobs.

He said that in 2004 ‘we were sending out search parties for people to come’.

Sir Andrew Green of MigrationWatch said: ‘It is simply astonishing that the number of immigrants in the country should have been allowed to double in ten years.’

There were more than 4.6million people born abroad and officially considered to be immigrants in 2001.

Around 900,000 of them died, returned to their countries of origin, or moved on elsewhere over the subsequent decade.

According to the breakdown, nearly a third of the current immigrant population of the country arrived in just five years between 2004 and 2009 –  the years after Poland and seven other Eastern European countries joined the EU.

About 2.4million people came to Britain over the five-year period, during which Labour ministers had predicted that Eastern European migrants would come at the rate of 13,000 a year.

The decade after 2001 also saw high immigration from countries outside Europe.

‘Over half of all residents born in Nigeria, South Africa and the United States arrived since 2001,’ the ONS report said.

‘For residents born in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh the decade 2001-2011 also had the highest percentage of arrivals.

‘By contrast 60 per cent of Jamaican-born residents arrived before 1981.’

SOURCE

Rep. Steve King: Gang of 8 Immigration Bill `Destroys the Rule of Law'

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said immigration reform being considered in the Senate "destroys the rule of law"  by granting amnesty to illegal aliens.

"It destroys the rule of law," King said at a Tuesday press conference outside Capitol Hill.  "And the rule of law is an essential pillar of American exceptionalism, many people come here because we have equal justice under the law."

"If we reward people who break the law, they're unlikely to raise their children to respect it," he said.  "The rule of law, at least with regard to immigration, would be destroyed."

"And the promise that the law would be enforced from this point forward?  I don't know how we can listen to that with a straight face," King said.

The "Gang of Eight" bill, brought forth by a bipartisan group of Senators, including Florida Republican Marco Rubio, is currently in mark-up in the Judiciary Committee.  The bill (S. 744) would give a pathway to citizenship for an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.  It also requires the Department of Homeland Security to secure the border within five years-but if not, the legislation will set up a commission to address the issue.

King and other House Republicans said on Monday that they offered "another viewpoint" from Republicans who believe amnesty is necessary for the GOP following the 2012 election.   He said the bill is "being stampeded" without enough scrutiny.

"The people on the other side of the aisle, they want amnesty for a number of reasons, the biggest one it's a big political boost for them," King said.  "I don't understand why Republicans think it's a good idea, but somehow they've bought into this idea."

He also said the bill is a "terrible idea" from an economic perspective.  "At no stage in their lives does the universe of those who would receive amnesty make a net financial contribution to this country," King said.  "At no stage.  Not a single year."

A member of the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, King cited the Heritage Foundation's recent report by Robert Rector and Jason Richwine that found granting amnesty to illegal immigrants would add $6.3 trillion to the federal deficit and $9.4 trillion in government benefits to the newly minted citizens.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) has also warned that the bill gives Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano "virtually unlimited discretion to waiver" prohibitions on obtaining legal status, such as criminal activity or previous deportation.

"The big question I would pose out there is, why?" King said.  "Why is that 844-page bill, why is it good for America and Americans?"

"I can't get that answer on why it's good for us," he said

SOURCE





Immigration Has Little Impact on U.S. Aging

New Census projections show small effect on working-age share of population

 The Census Bureau has released new projections which examine the impact of different levels of immigration on the United States. The projections, analyzed by the Center for Immigration Studies, show what demographers have long known: immigration has only a small impact on slowing the aging of America. Many promoters of the Gang of Eight immigration bill, which roughly doubles legal immigration, argue it's needed to forestall aging, but the Bureau's new projections show immigration's impact is slight.

The Center's Director of Research, Steven Camarota, observes, "Many worry that there won't be enough workers in the future to support the economy or pay for government. While immigrants often arrive young, and have somewhat larger families than natives, immigrants age just like everyone else, and the differences with natives are not large enough to fundamentally alter the nation's age structure. The debate over immigration should focus on other areas where it actually has a significant effect."

The tables released by the Census Bureau show:

The Bureau's high-immigration projection shows that if net immigration totals 67 million by 2060, a total of 57.3% of the U.S. population will be of working age (18 to 64). The low-immigration projection (35 million immigrants by 2060) shows a working-age share of 56.4%.

The high-immigration projection assumes 67 million arrivals by 2060, roughly double the 35 million that the low projection assumes. Yet the working-age (18-64) share of the population increases by less than one percentage point.

Turning to the 65 and older population, the new projections also show immigration has only a small impact. The high-immigration projections show that 21.3% of the population would be of retirement age in 2060, compared to 22.6% under the low-immigration projection.

Mathematically, immigration levels simply cannot have a large impact on aging. An important 1992 article in Demography, the leading academic journal in the field, points out that "constant inflows of immigrants, even at relatively young ages, do not necessarily rejuvenate low-fertility populations. In fact, immigration may even contribute to population aging."

The Census Bureau concluded in projections done in 2000 that immigration is a "highly inefficient" means for increasing the percentage of the population that is of working-age in the long run.

To understand why immigration has a small impact on aging it is helpful to remember that although many immigrants arrive young, they grow older like everyone else. As a result, in 2012 the average age of an immigrant was 43 years compared to 37 years for natives.

It is also important to note that the Total Fertility Rate in the United States (for immigrants and the native-born together) is 1.98 children per women (ages 15-49). Without immigrants, the rate is 1.88. So immigrants do increase the nation's TFR, but only by .1 children on average.

The Census Bureau's new projections are here

Table 17 shows the net immigration levels under the Bureau's high and low immigration assumptions. Table 3 shows the share of the population to 2060 that is of working age - ages 18 through 64 - under the Bureau's high- and low-immigration projections.

The 1992 Demography article mentioned above was authored by Carl P. Schmertmann. It is entitled: "Immigrants' Ages and the Structure of Stationary Populations with Below-Replacement Fertility", (Vol. 29, No. 4). The 2000 Census Bureau population projections mentioned above can be found here (PDF). The average age figures for immigrants and natives discussed above is from the public use file of the Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey from 2012. The Total Fertility Rate discussed above is from the public use file of the 2011 American Community Survey, also collected by the Census Bureau.

View the Senate bill, CIS Senate testimony and commentary here

The above is a press release from from Center for Immigration Studies. 1522 K St. NW, Suite 820,  Washington, DC 20005, (202) 466-8185 fax: (202) 466-8076.  Email: center@cis.org. Contact: Marguerite Telford, 202-466-8185, mrt@cis.org.  The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent research institution which examines the impact of immigration on the United States.  The Center for Immigration Studies is not affiliated with any other organization