• ICE deported 47,000 parents who had least one U.S. citizen child

    Between 1 January 2011and 30 June 2011, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 46,686 parents who had at least one U.S. citizen child; more than 5,100 children of immigrants have ended up in foster care because their parents had either been detained or deported; if the second half of 2011 saw the same rate of deportations, there would be 100,000 kids who are U.S. citizens who had parents deported, and about 15,000 would end up in foster care

  • Arizona's illegal immigrant population takes a downward turn

    The number of illegal immigrants in Arizona has declined in recent years, according to U.S. census data

  • SFO launches program to battle human traffickers

    San Francisco International Airport is now home to the first program in the nation that trains airport personnel in identifying and stopping human traffickers

  • U.S. citizenship determined by unreliable civics test

    New study finds that the fate of nearly half a million immigrants hoping for U.S. citizenship may have been determined randomly, at least in part; to be awarded citizenship, immigrants must correctly answer six of ten questions on the verbally administered civics portion of the U.S. Naturalization Test, but researchers argue that the high-stakes civics test is not a reliable measure of civics knowledge

  • No racial profiling, abuse by Secure Communities

    The Earl Warren Institute at the University of California, Berkeley Law School claimed that DHS Secure Communities program suffers from a disturbing pattern of abuse of authority by ICE, including wrongful arrests of thousands of U.S. citizens, a pattern of racial profiling against Latinos, and denial of due process for aliens in removal proceedings; a new study by the Center for Immigration Studies says this is not the case

  • Fearful immigrants trickle back into Alabama

    After Alabama enacted its tough new immigration laws last September, the state saw a large exodus of fearful immigrants who packed up their entire families and fled the state; since the law went into effect, some illegal immigrants have begun returning to the state

  • DHS suspends expansion of Secure Communities in Alabama

    Due to ongoing federal litigation against Alabama’s tough new immigration laws, DHS has halted the expansion of the Secure Communities immigration program in the state; the law has been tied up in legal battles, and a federal appeals court has already blocked portions of it

  • GOP proposes ending child tax credits to undocumented immigrants

    A new proposal by Republican lawmakers could end child tax credits to undocumented immigrants

  • Minnesota becomes twenty-seventh state to fully join Secure Communities

    Last week Minnesota joined the controversial federal immigration program known as Secure Communities, while critics continue to blast the program; Minnesota is the twenty-seventh state fully to join the now mandatory program designed to share fingerprint information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

  • New Mexico considers ending immigrant licenses

    Lawmakers in New Mexico are considering a bill that would repeal a state law that permits undocumented immigrants to receive state driver’s licenses

  • ICE appoints first immigration advocate

    Earlier this week the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency announced that it had appointed Andrew Lorenzen-Straight as its new public advocate to handle all questions and complaints about immigration policy

  • U.S. Chamber of Commerce: ease immigration laws to stimulate economy

    According to a recent report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, easing immigration policies will stimulate economic growth by encouraging more entrepreneurs from abroad to work in the United States

  • Texas pushes undocumented college students to become legal

    Texas lawmakers recently amended a law to encourage undocumented immigrants, who have been allowed to attend college and pay in-state tuition rates, to seek legal immigration status

  • Was/is border National Guard really worth it?

    Since 2006, National Guard troops have been deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border under the assumption that they would help bolster security; with little training, Congressional oversight, or analysis, it is difficult to say how effective the National Guard Troops were; $1.35 billion later, was it really worth it?; as Congress authorizes another $60 million to keep troops stationed along the border, we must ask once more, was it really worth it?

  • Administration loosens visa requirements, expands VWP

    President Obama, during a visit to Disneyland, announced that the administration was working on expanding the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), and waiving the consular interview requirement for people renewing U.S. visas; critics of the administration’s immigration policy are upset.