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Posts Tagged ‘immigration reform’
Study: legalizing undocumented immigrants boosts economy
Thursday, January 7th, 2010The Los Angeles Times reports on the results of a study by UCLA that says legalizing undocumented immigrants would benefit the U.S. economy.
The report said that legalization, along with a program that allows for future immigration based on the labor market, would create jobs, increase wages and generate more tax revenue. Comprehensive immigration reform would add an estimated $1.5 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years, according to the report.
“This is not about bringing in a lot of workers. This is about your neighbors and if we are better off where everybody in the economy has the ability to fight for their families and to contribute more to the economy rather than staying in the shadows,” said the author, Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda, an associate professor with the UCLA Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies.
National Migration Week: Renewing Hope, Seeking Justice
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010Renewing Hope, Seeking Justice is the theme of the 2010 National Migration Week, held January 3 – 9. The observance began over 25 years ago by the bishops to be a moment for Catholics to take stock of the wide diversity of the Church and the ministries serving them. As the face of the local churches continue to change, these materials are becoming more and more necessary. The materials created for National Migration Week also provide an important educational resource that can be used by individuals, families, schools, and parishes to learn about the complex issues surrounding migration phenomena.
2010 National Migration Week Poster Created and Designed by Brother Mickey McGrath
Jesuit Refugee Service/USA supports National Migration Week. Learn more here.
Immigration Advocates Cheer End of ‘Widow Penalty’
Friday, January 1st, 2010U.S. lawmakers have approved a measure that would end the government’s practice of annulling foreigners’ applications for permanent residency when their American spouses die within the first two years of the marriage.
Read the story here on Voice of America.
U.S. buses undocumented immigrants to ‘nowhere’
Friday, December 18th, 2009NPR reports today on a U.S. program to deport migrants to the middle of nowhere.
The Border Patrol has hit on an idea to discourage undocumented immigrants from entering southern Arizona, the nation’s busiest illegal border crossing. When agents catch them, they put them on a bus and send them 570 miles away to the remote port of entry between Presidio, Texas, and Ojinaga, Mexico.
The crossing is the least trafficked of the entire 2,000-mile border. North of Ojinaga is the storied Big Bend country of far West Texas, a sea of thorn brush desert, canyons and steep mesas. There are no large cities where undocumented immigrants can blend in, which is precisely why the Border Patrol sends them here.
Read and listen to the story here.
Jesuit Refugee Service is a partner in the Kino Border Initiative, which assists undocumented migrants after they are deported to Nogales, Mexico, often hundreds of miles from their homes and with nothing but the clothes on their back. Learn more about the KBI here and here.
Immigrant workers are particularly vulnerable to wage theft
Friday, December 18th, 2009An Associated Press story speaks to the issue of how immigrant workers – especially undocumented – are taken advantage of in the workplace by employers who also take advantage of their local communities by not paying taxes on the same workers they exploiting.
Across the nation, the long-simmering problem of employers who don’t pay their workers appears to be getting worse, especially for immigrant laborers.
In the absence of aggressive federal action, some states and local governments have begun to tackle the issue on their own. They say employers who don’t pay overtime or minimum wage are unlikely to pay into state workers’ compensation or unemployment insurance funds — bilking taxpayers even as they’re cheating workers.
The Los Angeles-based National Day Laborer Organizing Network says at least 50 percent of day laborers — there are 120,000 on a given day in the U.S. — experience some form of wage theft.
Read the full story here.
Mayor of New York supports comprehensive immigration reform
Thursday, December 17th, 2009New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg released the following statement:
“New York City’s greatest strength has always been its diversity, and the contributions made by New York’s immigrant communities have driven America’s economic engine for generations. Today, however, our immigration laws are broken, hurting our economy and many immigrant families.
A comprehensive solution is urgently needed, and I applaud Congressman Luis Gutierrez and his colleagues for moving the debate forward by introducing the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009.
(more…)
Immigration reform debate is no place for bigotry
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009Ruben Navarrette, Jr., a member of the San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board, and a nationally syndicated columnist writes on cnn.com that bigotry and racism have no place in the debate on how best to reform the U.S. immigration system.
Let’s be real. Americans have been griping, “There goes the neighborhood” for more than 200 years. The first group of immigrants to the United States who were accused of diminishing the quality of life for everyone else — by altering the demographics, eroding the culture and threatening the language — were the Germans, followed by the Chinese, the Irish, the Italians, the Greeks, the Jews, the Muslims, etc.
Now, it’s the Latinos’ turn to be in the rhetorical crosshairs. They’ll be there again this spring, when the Obama administration has promised to join in an encore to the immigration debate of a few years ago, which, as you may recall, provided substantially more heat than light.
Read the full column here.
Young immigrants have a DREAM
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009Writing in U.S. Catholic, Fr. Tom Joyce relates the story of Rigoberto Padilla. Rigo came to this country at 6, and eventually became an honor student at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He was caught running a stop sign after drinking beers, and, as an undocumented immigrant, had no driver’s license. ICE came upon him as he was locked up in Cook County Jail, and an immigration judge quickly ordered his deportation.
A campaign ensued among his fellow students and faculty at UIC to allow him to stay in the country, at least to finish his education – he is a junior and sociology major. One interesting aspect of the protest in favor of Rigo was that many of the organizers were in the same situation – undocumented students who were brought to this country at young ages. Like Rigo many no longer had effective contacts to their country of origin, may be had never even visited it, and see themselves as “Americans.” Now he can stay to finish his education, but there are many in our schools who have similar histories to Rigo’s.
Immigration reform bill to be introduced Tuesday
Friday, December 11th, 2009Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said today he will introduce the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009, to the U.S. House of Representatives. Gutierrez will be joined by members of many different faiths and backgrounds, including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Black Caucus, Asian Pacific American Caucus and Progressive Caucus.
“We have waited patiently for a workable solution to our immigration crisis to be taken up by this Congress and our President,” said Rep. Gutierrez.
Luis Gutierrez
“The time for waiting is over. This bill will be presented before Congress recesses for the holidays so that there is no excuse for inaction in the New Year. It is the product of months of collaboration with civil rights advocates, labor organizations, and members of Congress. It is an answer to too many years of pain — mothers separated from their children, workers exploited and undermined security at the border— all caused at the hands of a broken immigration system. This bill says ‘enough,’ and presents a solution to our broken system that we as a nation of immigrants can be proud of.”
Rep. Gutierrez has scheduled a press conference in the Rayburn House Office Building at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday to introduce the legislation.
