Musings on Immigration

You know, when you appear on Fox News that the questions are going to be tough. That is what I love about this discussion--Tough questions, Tough answers: Russ and I spoke both before and after this segment about Immigration and Immigration Reform. What I admire about him, is that he get both sides of the debate and understands that we are all going to have to settle somewhere in the middle.

I originally posted this at the A ILA Leadership Blog. The next goal of the anti-immigration crowd is to eliminate what some call “birthright” citizenship. This is a derogatory way of saying the following: If you are born in the United States, you are a citizen by right of birth in the United States. This was not always the case in America, at least as it applied to African Americans or Native Americans. It took the Civil War, and the 14 th Amendment, to ensure that anyone born in the United States “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” is a United States Citizen. Have no doubt about it, despite what you will read below, the anti-immigrant movement, including folks like new Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce , and new Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach have plans in the works to try to destroy this fundamental and well settled constitutional issue. For folks like Pearce and Kobach (see the picture above from his campaign website) the overriding concern is not the rule of...

Yikes--just when you thought this election season could not get any crazier. Last Wednesday, a Tea Party Congressional candidate from Arizona, Jesse Kelly, appeared on the Mark Levin show. Kelly stated that "rumors" were floating around that "Mexicans" were going to be bused in to vote against him in the election. LEVIN: You’re gonna have to squeeze out every single vote there plus some because they’re gonna pull their dirty tricks like they always do, Jess. KELLY: They already are down here. We’re already getting reports of voter fraud. Especially in one of the counties in my district there is actually rumors — people have video of them busing people across from our southern border. We’re a border district. They literally bus people across from Mexico to have them vote at the polls on election day, give them a meal, and then bus them back. So we’re really fighting against that down here. You can listen to this segment here in case you cannot believe what you read...

Recently U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a memo to its immigration officers explaining how to do “unannounced cyber site-visits” on petitioners and beneficiaries of applications filed with the agency. That's right, Immigration wants to be Your Friend! Now Immigration intends t o look at your social network to check up on you, and possibly use what they find against you in an effort to deny your application. The memo advises immigration officers on how to set up profiles on social networking sites (e.g.. Facebook , Myspace , Hi5, Buzznet , etc.), and search for petitioner and beneficiaries on cases they are reviewing. This virtual visit, as detailed by USCIS , “provides an excellent vantage point for [immigration fraud investigators] to observe the daily life of beneficiaries and petitioners who are suspected of fraudulent activities.” You also need to understand that USCIS supposes that every petition presented to them is fraudulent, so USCIS ...

We are two weeks out from the election, and silly season is in full bloom, from a candidate in Delaware who does not understand the Constitution, to a candidate in Kentucky, who may or may not have worshiped Aqua Buddha, to perhaps the wackiest candidate of all in Nevada, Sharon Angle (the first "Asian" in the Nevada State Legislature). This week two significant things happened that bring home how the immigration "thing" remains a strong undercurrent to this election. First, Sharon Angle told a group of Hispanic youth at a Hispanic youth group meeting over the last weekend (trying to defend her anti-Latino/anti-immigration ad), that some of them "looked Asian" to her so how was she to know who was Hispanic anyway: Second, a Republican funded and led group, Latinos for Reform, has run an ad in Nevada urging Latinos not to vote (for Democrats) because Democrats have not delivered on their promise of immigration reform. While is it true that the Democrats ...

This week Senator Hatch (R. Utah) offered an anti-immigration bill to the Democratically controlled Senate. This bill, known as the "STRENGTHENING OUR COMMITMENT TO LEGAL IMMIGRATION AND AMERICA’S SECURITY ACT" (truly an ironic name) is nothing more than the same political gamesmanship that Senator Hatch claims that Senator Reid engaged in by seeking passage of the DREAM Act. Senator Hatch says his bill would do the following: Require eligible states, counties and cities to participate in the Secure Communities or 287(g) programs or forego compensation for incarceration expenses; Specify that illegal aliens may only be paroled or granted deferred action on a case-by-case basis; mass paroles and deferrals would be prohibited; Preclude applicants who are members of known criminal organizations and gangs from getting visas to come to the U.S.; Require the Homeland Security Secretary to create a mandatory exit procedure for foreign vi...

A wonderful morning at the Utah Chamber of Commerce! http://www.slchamberblog.com/top-immigration-attorney-discusses-utahs-next-steps-10001393.htm