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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.
