Republican Voters Warn Lawmakers Against Citizenship for Illegal Immigrants

National Journal, 6/24/2013

The conservative rank-and-file have a loud and clear message for Republican officials: Support citizenship for illegal immigrants at your own peril. A sizable plurality of registered GOP voters say they will be less likely to support their incumbent lawmaker if he or she votes for immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship for those currently living illegally in the United States, according to the latest United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll. The findings show that even as national Republican leaders tout the Senate’s reform measure as a political necessity for the party, it remains a risky vote for individual GOP lawmakers wary of a primary challenger.

Among all adults surveyed, immigration is something of a moot issue: 42 percent of them said a vote either for or against immigration reform would not greatly affect their support for their senator or representative. Thirty-three percent said it would make them less likely to support him or her, and 21 percent said such a vote would make them more likely to back the incumbent.

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Immigrants: Let them drive

The Economist, 6/15/2013

As the Senate voted this week to allow debate on comprehensive immigration reform, several states are pondering a narrower problem. Until this year illegal immigrants could not legally drive except in New Mexico, Utah and Washington state. So they typically drive without lessons, testing or insurance.

This is dangerous: unlicensed drivers are almost five times more likely to be in a fatal crash. They are also less likely to stay at accident scenes, according to Yale Law School’s Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organisation. The costs of accidents involving the uninsured are passed on to other motorists in the form of higher insurance premiums.

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House immigration talks hang on health care

Politico, 5/21/2013

House immigration negotiators have given themselves until the end of the week to hash out language on what kind of health benefits should be available to undocumented immigrants seeking U.S. citizenship, a crucial issue for the talks. If they can’t resolve this issue, the four-year immigration negotiations could come to a crashing halt. Top Democrats said late Tuesday they do not think Republicans will walk away from the talks.

It was only less than a week ago that the bipartisan House group announced it had reached a tentative agreement on a proposal “in principle” to be introduced in June. The provision, in essence, said immigrants seeking citizenship must provide their own health care — and if any government entity provides them with services, they would be ineligible for permanent citizenship. The language was aimed at assuaging Republican concerns that the immigration bill would plunge the nation further into debt.

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Immigration Overhaul Proposal Is Likely to Ignite Fierce Debate

The New York Times, 4/16/13

The introduction of sweeping immigration legislation on Tuesday is likely to ignite a months-long battle between those who want citizenship for the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants and opponents who view such an approach as amnesty.

A bipartisan group of eight senators plans to unveil legislation, drafted largely in secret, that would provide a 13-year path to American citizenship for illegal immigrants who arrived in the country before Dec. 31, 2011, but would demand that tougher border controls be in place first. The legislation is certain to unleash a torrent of attacks from Republican opponents on the immigration overhaul, similar to the kind of criticism that killed an effort supported by President George W. Bush in 2007.

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Banning the Term ‘Illegal Immigrant’ Won’t Change The Stigma

Time, 4/9/13

Last week the Associated Press announced that it would ban the term illegal immigrant from its stylebook. They are among many organizations and immigration advocates of late who argue that the term is uncivil, or even defamatory.

Whether there is a point in that or not – and quite a few, including immigrants, think there isn’t – the main problem here is a matter of how language works. The idea is that banning “illegal immigrant” will change how people think, that using the term undocumented immigrant will improve the public opinion of the people in question. But it won’t.

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Remittances To Mexico Drop 11 Percent In February

Fox News Latino, 4/2/2013

Mexico received $1.58 billion in remittances in February, 11.1 percent below the amount recorded in the same month of 2012, the country’s central bank said Monday. This was the eighth straight month in which remittances declined on an inter-annual basis. In the second month of 2013, the average remittance was $293.17, less than the $320.34 in February of 2012, the Bank of Mexico said in its monthly report.

In February, 5.4 million transactions were recorded, most of them electronic transfers. Remittances to Mexico totaled $22.45 billion last year, a decline of 1.57 percent from 2011. Remittances from expatriates are Mexico’s second-largest source of foreign exchange after oil exports and help cover living expenses for millions of households. Most of the money is sent from the United States, where an estimated 12 million Mexicans live, about half of them undocumented migrants.

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3 reasons why illegal immigration from Mexico is down – #MexFacts

Click here to read Andrew Selee’s op-ed…

Op-ed: The new reality at the border

Los Angeles Times, 4/2/2013

The image of illegal immigration in the minds of most Americans is of poor Mexicans streaming across the Southwest border. This is not entirely wrong, but it is outdated. As Congress debates immigration reform, it is worth taking a look at what’s changed. Mexican illegal immigration flows have been dropping steadily and seem to be continuing a downward trend even as the U.S. economy recovers. There are reasons to believe this trend is becoming permanent.

For most of the 1990s and early 2000s, most unauthorized immigrants crossed the Southwest border, and most years 90% to 95% were Mexicans. Since as far back as 2007, however, the numbers in the Southwest — and, in particular, the number of Mexicans — have been declining rapidly. Illegal border crossings there are now down to levels not seen in 40 years, and in 2012, more than a quarter of unauthorized Southwest border crossers were what the government calls “Other Than Mexicans,” mostly Central Americans and a few immigrants from outside the hemisphere.

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THIS SUNDAY ON WILSON FORUM!

Young and Undocumented: The New American Story

Sunday, March 24th, 11:00AM

This Sunday on an all new episode of Wilson Forum  three undocumented students from Georgetown’s Hoyas for Immigrant Rights group discuss the current challenges, including limited access to education, healthcare, and financial opportunities, that immigrant college students face in the U.S. today. John Milewski, host of Dialogue at the Wilson Center, moderates the discussion.

Watch the live stream here.

Also available on television in Washington, DC and nationally.

Immigration Poll: Most Favor Path to Citizenship

The Wall Street Journal, 3/21/2013

A majority of Americans believe the estimated 11 million of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally should be allowed to become citizens, a new survey shows. Some 63% of nearly 4,500 surveyed supported a path to citizenship “provided they meet certain requirements,” the poll by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution showed. The survey, released Thursday, adds public support to bipartisan immigration plans being hashed out in both the House and Senate that are expected to include a path to citizenship.

Support for citizenship spanned the political spectrum, though the idea was far more popular among Democrats. Some 71% of Democrats in the poll supported the citizenship option as well as 64% of independents. More than half of Republicans surveyed, 53%, supported a path to citizenship.

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