Lamar Smith is pushing for swift passage of his E-Verify mandate bill. While the bill would likely face a tough battle in the Senate, many wonder whether the President would sign or veto it. The White House has been a strong advocate for E-Verify, but it also knows that enforcement-only bills are hugely unpopular in immigrant communities.
So recent comments by DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano are telling:
Although the Obama administration favors the expanded use of the electronic E-Verify system to confirm the legal status of prospective employees, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said today that any expansion of E-Verify must be part of a larger immigration reform plan.
'If you just do E-Verify, you’re not doing enough,' she told a breakfast meeting with reporters.
Napolitano said that E-Verify expansion should be part of a package that also includes the DREAM Act, which allows some children of Napolitano said that E-Verify expansion should be part of a package that also includes the DREAM Act, which allows illegal immigrants a pathway to U.S. citizenship, along with expanded H1B visas for high-tech workers and H2A visas.
Of course, this isn't really comprehensive immigration reform, but that's okay in my opinion. Interestingly, Napolitano is quoted saying E-Verify "can and should be part of (comprehensive) immigration reform." Note that the Houston Chronicle reporter has put "comprehensive" in parenthesis assuming that Napolitano meant comprehensive reform. But I think she probably meant exactly what she said - just reform. Efforts to pass a comprehensive immigration bill have gone nowhere now for seven years and the politics have only gooten worse. But piecemeal immigration reform is an easier lift and it could be that we get some important reforms like the DREAM Act, perhaps AgJobs and skilled worker reforms in exchange for an E-Verify mandate. I'd take that deal if it were on the table, though I know many in the pro-immigrant community will reject anything less than perfect. But we all know that the perfect solution is the enemy of the good one.
If Perry can avoid demagoguing on the issue (as it appears he is trying), Obama will have a real challenge in the fall keeping Latino voters in the Democratic column.
Lovely. When reporters asked why this happened, they get the typical useless (and insulting) response:
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) welcomes feedback from members of the public, especially regarding their involvement with recent ICE HSI operations.
ICE is able to most efficiently look into complaints when they are brought directly to our attention.
ICE HSI special agents conduct operations on a daily basis based on leads that we receive from various sources.
ICE is committed to conducting safe and secure operations with the public’s welfare being paramount.”
This is right up there with refusing to comment based on concern for the privacy of the person who has been wronged.
President Obama should be worried about Governor Rick Perry for a lot of reasons, but one of the biggest is his potential appeal to Latino voters. Perry probably has the most moderate record on immigration of the GOP candidates (though John Huntsman can be counted among the reasonable). Granted, Perry has been trying to sound tougher lately, but in his years as governor of a conservative state, he has avoided demagoguing on the issue and has pursued commonsense policies. His predecessor, George W. Bush, pursued a similar strategy and performed much better with Hispanic voters than most in his party.
But as the New Republicreports, Perry needs to figure out a way not to upset Tea Party activists over his record on immigration - or at least please them enough on other issues that they downplay this issue. If Perry wants my advice (ha!), I would tell him to closely study the polling data. He will see that while many of the hard right voters who go to the polls in the primaries harbor pretty tough immigration views, it is only a tiny minority of voters who make immigration one of their major issues. In other words, if they like you on everything else, you're going to get some latitude on immigration. Resist the temptation to run to the right on immigration. You don't need to do that to win the nomination and if you can avoid it, you'll gain rich rewards in the general election.
The California state Senate has passed a bill that would allow residents who are illegally present in the state to qualify for state financial aid. They're already eligible for in state tuition and will be on an equal footing with the rest of the state's residents if the bill becomes law. From the Los Angeles Times:
The college dreams of thousands of students who are illegal immigrants moved closer to fulfillment Wednesday after the state Senate approved a bill that for the first time would give them access to public financial aid.
Part of a two-bill package known as the California Dream Act, the measure would allow undocumented students who qualify for reduced in-state tuition to apply for Cal Grants, community college waivers and other public aid programs. To be eligible, they must be California high school graduates who attended schools in the state at least three years, and demonstrate financial need and academic merit.
The Senate vote brought relief to Brian Lee, a UCLA undergraduate who was brought to the U.S. at age 4 from South Korea and fell out of legal status when his mother did not renew their visas. Lee, a biology major who hopes to become a dentist, said the chance to apply for financial aid would help him finish school more quickly and alleviate the stress of working multiple under-the-table jobs. As it is, he has worked for two academic quarters to pay for each term he attends.
"I feel there is light at the end of the tunnel, finally," said Lee, 24, who has completed just two quarters in more than two years.
Luis Miranda: The expectation is, we'll continue to see deportation numbers at similar rates because that's what they are based on Congressional funding. [...]
Maria Hinojosa: Luis, but can you really say that this White House has prioritized it's resources when now the number that is carried by President Obama is the fact that he has deported more immigrants than any other President in U.S. History?
Mr. Miranda: And you know it's such a misleading number because it is really a factor of congressional funding for this. So any President who would have come in would have had a similar number of deportations. [...]
Ms. Hinojosa: So the Obama administration, at this point, will continue to reach that number of a 400,000 deportation per year
Mr. Miranda: Well we don't have a specific quota, but the funding from Congress is going to put any President in that range.
A federal court announced today that HB 56, the Alabama immigration law, has been temporarily placed on hold. The law was scheduled to go into effect on Sept. 1. The temporary hold was ordered to give the court sufficient time to issue a decision on motions filed in three consolidated lawsuits to block the law, pending a ruling on the motions. The court’s temporary order does not reflect any view about the substance of the motions.
The hold will remain in place until Sept. 29 at the latest, and the court is expected to publish its decision on the three pending motions by then. The motions were filed by a coalition of civil rights groups, the United States of America, and bishops of the Episcopal, Catholic and Methodist churches in Alabama.
Just days earlier, [Sha' Vonne Ironche] and her husband, Esterny Ironche, a 55-year-old Spanish teacher, had high hopes he would be spared from deportation. Obama administration officials last week announced a case-by-case review of pending immigration cases, saying they planned to dismiss "low-priority" cases involving non-criminals to better target dangerous criminals.
Esterny Ironche had no criminal history, and he was married to a U.S. citizen. He had overstayed a visa 15 years ago, but had paid his taxes and had legal work authorization from the government. He had a case pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals. And he was in remission for prostate cancer and participating in a clinical trial in Houston.
All of those factors, the lives that had carefully constructed together here, would surely count in his favor, they figured.
But the government did not spare Ironche, who was loaded onto a flight from Houston to Dallas with the suitcase his wife had packed for him. He arrived in Madrid early Thursday.
DHS' lame excuse for how this happened? According to the Chronicle:
A DHS official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the agency has not yet started the national case reviews. The agency is still operating as it did before the Aug. 18 announcement, the official said, and will continue to do so until the government establishes a formal case review process.
In the mean time, other cases around the country seem to have been closed under the new policy so this is no excuse for a case like this. Obviously, the denial of the green card based on the marriage not being bona fide was clearly an error so this case should never have been denied in the first place. Now another injustice has taken place. DHS needs to make this right and take the steps to bring this father and husband back to America where he belongs.
Louis Gohmert (R-TX), a member of the House Immigration Subcommittee, makes outrageous statements on immigration all the time, but this was pretty over the top. Media Matters reports and has provided the clip below.
