Monday, September 19, 2011

Immigration News

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[FYI --
1. A Bleak Employment Picture for the Young (Memorandum)
2. Illegal Immigrants Receive Billions of Dollars More from the IRS than They Pay in (Memorandum)
3. The To-Do List (Memorandum)
4. The New Challenge of Medically Caring for the Poor (Blog)
5. Russian News, the Hershey J-1 Protest, and American Values (Blog)
6. New Audit on H-1B Visas (Blog)
7. Common Sense from Across the Northern Border? (Blog)
8. Violence spurs 'Mexodo' to the United States (Blog)
9. DHS Says 'Yes' to Thousands of Illegals Wanting to Leave the U.S. and Return (Blog)
10. Boycott? Never Mind! (Blog)
11. Will the Justice Department Sue? (Blog)
12. USCIS Decides to Burden its Own Appeals Unit with Extra Paper (Blog)
13. USCIS Devotes Much Staff Time to Abused Alien Step-Parents of Citizens (Blog)
14. Time to Sanction the Sanctuaries (Blog)
15. Disentangling Fee-Waiver Data from the USCIS Statistical Swamp (Blog)
16. Thinking of First Responders (Blog)

-- Mark Krikorian]


1.
A Bleak Employment Picture for the Young
By Steven Camarota
CIS Memorandum, September 2011
http://www.cis.org/do-not-need-more-immigrant-workers-q2-2011

Excerpt: The Obama administration recently announced that many illegal immigrants currently in deportation proceedings would be allowed to stay in the country and would receive work authorization. This decision is difficult to reconcile with the bleak employment situation of American workers, particularly the young and less educated who are the most likely to compete with illegal immigrants for jobs. This report provides a detailed breakdown of employment for U.S.-born and foreign-born workers by age and education.

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2.
Illegal Immigrants Receive Billions of Dollars More from the IRS than They Pay in
By Peter A. Schulkin
CIS Memorandum, September 2011
http://www.cis.org/child-tax-credits-2011

Excerpt: This Memorandum is a follow-up to the November, 2010, Memorandum “Child Tax Credits for Illegal Immigrants.” It highlights new information contained in a report of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) dated July 7, 2011, entitled “Individuals Who Are Not Authorized to Work in the United States Were Paid $4.2 Billion in Refundable Credits.” The $4.2 billion is entirely the product of the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC) for the 2010 tax processing year.

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3.
The To-Do List
By Janice Kephart
CIS Memorandum, September 2011
http://www.cis.org/911-to-do-list

Excerpt: Our work is far from over. We have come a long way but a road remains ahead. The simple fact that we have stopped a few dozen terrorist plots from coming to full fruition hatched by foreign-born terrorists who came here in the last few years means that other terrorists are likely still infiltrating our border apparatus. In fact, the numbers from intelligence sources puts those who pose a potential threat at the tens of thousands. We need to keep more from coming, and do what we can to smoke those out who are already here. As a nation, broadly, we must verify the identity of who is coming and who is being allowed to stay and be vigilant against fraud on all fronts, saving taxpayer monies while securing our nation.

We must insist that our physical borders are respected. We do this by respecting our immigration laws, and enforcing them. We must give our officers the tools they need to do their job well, and support the states and private sector that are trying to do the right thing with the federal immigration legal system. We must do so because if we do, we fight terrorism at home and help secure our borders at the same time. We cannot even pretend as a nation that our borders are secure if we do not make these policy choices. Saying our borders are secure will not make them so; only the hard work of implementing often tedious policies will.

Below are some of the most important aspects of policies and supporting programs that can go a long way toward keeping terrorists out, or at least, keeping them from embedding as easily as they could 10 years ago. These recommendations are not exhaustive, but they should be on top of our priority list for achieving border security.

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4.
The New Challenge of Medically Caring for the Poor
By Dominique Peridans
CIS Blog, September 19, 2011
http://www.cis.org/peridans/the-new-challenge

Excerpt: Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta is the largest hospital in the state of Georgia. It was founded in 1890. As the public hospital for the city of Atlanta, its mission is such that it serves a large proportion of low-income patients. As can be imagined, such a noble operation has not been without financial challenges. In 2004, for example, Grady sued the state over lack of Medicaid compensation. The hospital, which became a non-profit organization in 2008, depends on the government and on numerous foundations to keep its doors open.

In the past decade the hospital has faced new financial challenges in its care for low-income patients. The hospital is serving an increasing number of illegal immigrants. Georgia now has the seventh-highest illegal immigrant population in the country, with, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, an estimated population of 425,000. This roughly translates to approximately 1 in 25 Georgia residents. Indeed, this segment of the population has soared in number. The estimated population of illegal immigrants in the Peach State in 1990 was 35,000.

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5.
Russian News, the Hershey J-1 Protest, and American Values
By Jerry Kammer
CIS Blog, September 19, 2011
http://www.cis.org/kammer/russian-news-hershey-protest-american-values

Excerpt:The reporting of RT, the Russian government-financed English-language news channel, is often characterized by schadenfreude about the social, economic, and political problems of the United States. That dark pleasure was clearly on display in RT's reporting on the foreign college students' protest against working conditions at the Hershey Co.'s distribution center just outside the Pennsylvania town that bears the company's name.

The students have been working under a cultural exchange program administered by the State Department. They have been wrapping, stacking, and packing boxes of candy, many of them on the midnight shift.

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6.
New Audit on H-1B Visas
By John Miano
CIS Blog, September 18, 2011
http://www.cis.org/miano/new-h1b-audit

Excerpt:Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General has a new report out, 'H-1B Workers' Use of Social Security Numbers'. The OIG found that about 18 percent of Social Security numbers issued to H-1B workers were being used to report wages from sources other than the approved employer or were reporting no wages at all.

This follows a 2008 report from USCIS that found a violation rate in the H-1B program of over 20 percent.

The most recent Department of Labor Inspector General report on H-1B is available as well.

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7.
Common Sense from Across the Northern Border?
By James R. Edwards Jr.
CIS Blog, September 18, 2011
http://www.cis.org/edwards/canada-common-sense

Excerpt: This study falls right in line with the findings of the National Research Council, Harvard labor economist George Borjas, CIS, and others. Immigrants with more to offer fare better in a developed nation's economy, but even that caliber of immigrant can end up as an anchor dragging upon the host nation. As the National Post said, 'Regardless of which class the immigrant was admitted under, in troubled times, their earnings growth was lower.'

America's economy continues to drag, with 22 million Americans unable to find a full-time job and the official unemployment rate stuck above 9 percent. Yet American politicians of both parties keep promoting the illogical: high and higher immigration levels.

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8.
Violence spurs 'Mexodo' to the United States
By Jerry Kammer
CIS Blog, September 18, 2011
http://www.cis.org/kammer/violence-spurs-mexodo

Excerpt: Friday evening's Univision newscast included a story about the intensifying flight of wealthy Mexicans to Texas. Reporter Brenda Carmona said the migration is often referred to as the 'Mexodo' – a play on the Spanish word 'exodo,' which means 'exodus' – the equivalent in English would be 'Mexodus'.

A Mexican woman, appearing in silhouette, explained why her family had come to San Antonio. 'My husband was a kidnapping victim,' she said. 'The situation is something that is very difficult to be going through on a daily basis if you have small children. They can't go to school. They can't go anywhere because you see either assaults or shootings.'

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9.
DHS Says 'Yes' to Thousands of Illegals Wanting to Leave the U.S. and Return
By David North
CIS Blog, September 16, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/i192-form-additional-questions

Excerpt:The immigration law and practices of the U.S. include many quirks, some that simply chew up valuable staff time, and some that are down-right dangerous; here is one of the latter.

Suppose you are a thoroughly documented illegal alien, now in the U.S., and you want to leave the country and come back legally.

Two questions: Is there a way to do that? And if so, what are your chances of success?

You might think that a rational nation would say to such an illegal: Good riddance, we never want to see you again. But that's not the U.S. policy.

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10.
Boycott? Never Mind!
By Mark Krikorian
CIS Blog, September 16, 2011
http://www.cis.org/krikorian/boycott-never-mind

Excerpt:La Raza announced last week that it was lifting its boycott of Arizona, imposed last year in response to the passage of SB 1070, the state's controversial immigration law. I missed the announcement because, you know, what boycott? They put a brave face on the whole thing, saying they'd succeeded in scaring off other states from passing similar measures (except Alabama, Indiana, Georgia, South Carolina, and Utah, of course!). But this was really just surrendering to the obvious — their boycott was a flop and backfired on them, an act of impotent bravado. Even L.A., San Francisco, and Oakland, which voted to join the boycott, did nothing to implement it; as the LA Times pointed out:

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11.
Will the Justice Department Sue?
By Mark Krikorian
CIS Blog, September 16, 2011
http://www.cis.org/krikorian/will-doj-sue

Excerpt: SCAAP is the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, that reimburses jurisdictions for some of the costs of incarcerating non-citizens. That points to a broader need for Congress to start withholding funds if states subvert immigration law by, for instance, giving in-state tuition to illegal aliens without also giving in-state rates to out-of-state American students, as required by federal law. (I'd love to hear Gov. Perry's whine for the restoration of federal money if this were to happen.) Congress has the ability to stop states from undermining American sovereignty, and it should exercise it.

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12.
USCIS Decides to Burden its Own Appeals Unit with Extra Paper
By David North
CIS Blog, September 15, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/AAO-burdened-with-extra-paper

Excerpt: What does the Obama administration do when a quasi-independent immigration appeals board repeatedly says 'no' to alien admission requests?

Well, that presents a problem, because the decision-makers are all civil servants, and perhaps union members, too. The administration really cannot fire them, and it certainly cannot tell them to start ignoring their own opinions and rubberstamp 'yes' every time they see an appeal.

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13.
USCIS Devotes Much Staff Time to Abused Alien Step-Parents of Citizens
By David North
CIS Blog, September 14, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/abused-alien-step-parents

Excerpt:How often did the odd scenario outlined above actually occur during the last fiscal year?

Well, USCIS gets coy on this point, and while numbers of immigrants are routinely listed for groups of them (in Table 7 of the 2010 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics) we do not see a number for this category; instead, we see the notation 'D'.

You look at the footnote to the table regarding 'D' and you find another indication of the agency's bizarre privacy policies; the text reads: 'Data withheld to limit disclosure.' I have never been able to understand the rationale of this policy.

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14.
Time to Sanction the Sanctuaries
By Jessica Vaughan
CIS Blog, September 13, 2011
http://www.cis.org/vaughan/time-to-sanction-the-sanctuaries

Excerpt: Cook County, Illinois (which includes the city of Chicago) passed an ordinance last week instructing the sheriff to disregard requests from ICE to hold suspected removable aliens who are arrested. This irrational directive already is sending violent criminal aliens back to the streets instead of into ICE custody, where a few of them might actually be deported, sparing future victims. ICE director John Morton probably doesn't care if Cook County keeps his agents from doing their job, but if Congress does, there is an easy fix – stop rewarding Cook County with millions of dollars in annual SCAAP payments until they start honoring the ICE detainers.

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15.
Disentangling Fee-Waiver Data from the USCIS Statistical Swamp
By David North
CIS Blog, September 13, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/disentangling-fee-waiver-data

Excerpt:In a recent blog I wrote that USCIS had reported losses from fee waivers of $27 million in FY 2009 and a projected $87 million in FY 2011. Fee waivers are granted to low-income applicants who want something from USCIS but who argue successfully that they are too poor to pay the related fees.

The statement above might imply that the two numbers – $27 million and the much larger $87 million – both were published, as such, by the agency.

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16.
Thinking of First Responders
By W.D. Reasoner
CIS Blog, September 11, 2011
http://www.cis.org/reasoner/thinking-of-first-responders

Excerpt:It's natural that, with the advent of the tenth anniversary of the terror attacks on our nation, one's thoughts would drift to the first responders who go about protecting us throughout the nation on a daily basis. They so often go unnoticed until trauma or tragedy strikes, as it did so quickly and so violently on September 11, 2001. It's a sad truism that only then do we seem to stop, take stock, and come to recognize their dedication and quiet heroism.

'First responders' are almost inevitably the state and local police, firefighters, emergency medical workers who live side-by-side with us. This is no surprise. Even in times of starkly drawn political lines about the size and role of the federal government in our lives, the fact remains that the federal government is not, will never be, and should not be, so large as to effectively supplant the role of those who live and work in, but at the same time serve, their communities as first responders.