Musings on Immigration

Oficiales federales muestran su preocupación sobre la escasez de mano de obra que generan las represalias migratorias Durante su campaña, el Presidente Trump no perdió oportunidad de compartir su meta de frenar el flujo de inmigración ilegal a los Estados Unidos. Según USA Today, desde que el presidente firmó una orden ejecutiva en enero para mejorar la aplicación de la ley de inmigración, las detenciones de inmigrantes indocumentados aumentaron un 38 por ciento en comparación con el mismo período del 2016. Aunque los partidarios de las recientes medidas de inmigración argumentan que abren oportunidades de empleo para los ciudadanos de los Estados Unidos, los opositores señalan que los inmigrantes ilegales constituyen una porción importante de la mano de obra estadounidense. De hecho, según un informe de Pew Research del 2016, los inmigrantes indocumentados representaban alrededor del 5 por ciento de la mano de obra civil en el 2014. En junio, funcionarios de la Rese...

On the campaign trail, President Trump missed no opportunity to share his goal to stem the flow of illegal immigration to the United States. According to USA Today , since the president signed an executive order in January to enhance immigration enforcement, arrests of undocumented immigrants have increased 38 percent compared to the same period in 2016. Although supporters of the recent immigration crackdowns argue that they open up job opportunities for U.S. citizens, opponents point out that illegal immigrants make up a major portion of the U.S. workforce. In fact, according to a 2016 report from Pew Research , undocumented immigrants accounted for about 5 percent of the civilian workforce in 2014. In June, Federal Reserve officials voiced their concern that a major increase in deportations could lead to a shortage of low-skilled labor. According to a report from Bloomberg , companies around the United States have had to raise worker wages to maintain sufficient labor ...

Tensions between Washington and Moscow have taken yet another downturn. After U.S. Congress approved sanctions against Russia for attempting to influence the 2016 presidential election, Vladimir Putin retaliated in early August by ordering the reduction of U.S. diplomatic staff by 755, or about two-thirds. In response, the U.S. embassy announced that it will be suspending non-immigrant visas for eight days. According to ABC News , the suspension will be permanent at consulates in Yekaterinburg, Vladivostok, and St. Petersburg. Visa operations will only resume in the U.S. embassy building in Moscow on September 1. According to a spokesperson from the U.S. embassy, despite Russia’s cap on the number of embassy staff, personnel levels will still be sufficient for the embassy to “carry out essential elements of our mission.” According to NBC News , Russia has not yet retaliated to the suspension of non-immigrant visas, but Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov remarked that Russ...

At the end of July, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 650 people during a four-day operation that targeted individuals who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border as unaccompanied alien children (UACs) and family units. According to a recent report from TIME , only 193 of the 650 people detained in this second iteration of Operation Border Guardian/Border Resolve were the actual targets of the raids. The other 457 (about 70 percent) were “non-targets,” essentially meaning that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.   Basically, they were “low hanging fruit.” According to an ICE spokesperson, certain categories of removable aliens were not considered amenable to arrest under the Obama administration, but now, ICE agents have been instructed to deport anyone who is in the country illegally. Some of the people who were detained in the recent raids just happened to be visiting family members when ICE agents were there, and many of them were eligible for ...