#immigration reform
The same people who scream at women outside of Planned Parenthood are laughing at babies being teargassed at the border.
Spoiler: It was never about being “pro-life” and always about control.
AlthoughPresident Trump cites drugs passing over the U.S.’s southern border as a major justification for erecting a border wall, new data shows that, since the legalization of marijuana, drug flow over the border has substantially decreased and fewer drugs are entering where a border wall would matter.
Because it is difficult to conceal, marijuana is the main drug transported between ports of entry where a border wall would matter. However, Border Patrol seizure figures demonstrate that marijuana flows have fallen continuously since 2014, when states began to legalize marijuana. After decades of no progress in reducing marijuana smuggling, the average Border Patrol agent between ports of entry confiscated 78% less marijuana in fiscal year (FY) 2018 than in FY 2013.
As a result, the value of all drugs seized by the average agent has fallen by 70% since FY 2013. Without marijuana coming in between ports of entry, drug smuggling activity now primarily occurs at ports of entry, where a border wall would have no effect. In FY 2018, the average inspector at ports of entry made drug seizures that were three times more valuable overall than those made by Border Patrol agents between ports of entry — a radical change from 2013 when Border Patrol agents averaged more valuable seizures. This is because smugglers bring mainly hard drugs through ports. By weight, the average port inspector seized 8 times more cocaine, 17 times more fentanyl, 23 times more methamphetamine, and 36 times more heroin than the average Border Patrol agent seized at the physical border in early 2018.
Given these trends, a border wall or more Border Patrol agents to stop drugs between ports of entry makes little sense. State marijuana legalization starting in 2014 did more to reduce marijuana smuggling than the doubling of Border Patrol agents or the construction of hundreds of miles of border fencing did from 2003 to 2009.
As more states — particularly on the East Coast — legalize marijuana in 2019, these trends will only accelerate. The administration should avoid endangering this success and not prosecute state-legal sellers of marijuana. This success also provides a model for addressing illegal immigration. Just as legalization has reduced the incentives to smuggle marijuana illegally, greater legal migration opportunities undercut the incentive to enter illegally. Congress should recognize marijuana legalization’s success and replicate it for immigration.
“Refugees have killed fewer Americans than duck face! This isn’t just cherrypicked liberal, snowflake data. According to the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, the chances of you being killed by a refugee terrorist are one in three point six BILLION. It’s not gonna happen.“ — Hasan Minhaj
The chance of an American being murdered in a terrorist attack caused by a refugee is 1 in 3.64 billion per year while the chance of being murdered in an attack committed by an illegal immigrant is an astronomical 1 in 10.9 billion per year.
Could the midterm elections spell good news for much-needed immigration reform?
In this election, journalists following the immigration beat will focus on the outcomes of individual races. Dave Brat, the Virginia nativist whose defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in 2014 doomed hopes of immigration reform, lost in a previously safe GOP seat. Democrats blew out Corey Stewart in Virginia and Lou Barletta in Pennsylvania, the most anti-immigrant Senate candidates. Kris Kobach, the author of state anti-immigrant laws across the country, cost Republicans the governorship in Kansas.
But, when it comes to immigration, the two most important outcomes of this election are in the big picture.
First,nativists have officially squandered their last, best chance to restrict legal immigration. There may never be another moment like the one in 2017 and 2018, where the House, Senate, and White House were all controlled by Republicans with nativist agendas. They held multiple votes in the House and Senate on various measures to make legal immigration cuts, and all their efforts went down in flames.
The second outcome is even more important: the House of Representatives is now the most pro-immigrant that it has been since the 19th century. Current House Democrats would not only pass the broadest legalization in the history of the United States — they also would greatly expand legal immigration. No elected House Democrat is opposed to legalization, even if they would want it paired with some enforcement measures.
Better yet, this House will have the backing of the most pro-immigration general public in recorded history. More Americans oppose cuts to immigration and favor expanded immigration than at any point since at least 1965.
President Trump has announced that he plans an executive order that would remove the right to citizenship for babies of noncitizens and unauthorized immigrants born on U.S. soil.
The 14th Amendment became part of the U.S. Constitution 150 years ago in July of 1868. Among other things, it enshrined our traditional common law practice of granting citizenship to those born in the United States who are subject to its laws-specifically it guaranteed that the recently freed slaves and their descendants would be citizens. The 14th Amendment also applied to the children of immigrants, as its authors and opponents understood at the time.
Released earlier this year, President Trump’s immigration position paper, however, famously endorsed an end to birthright citizenship. Michael Anton, a former national security official in the Trump administration as well as a lecturer and researcher at Hillsdale College, has argued that President Trump should use his pen and his phone to exclude the children born here to noncitizens, with little thought of what would happen were such a policy enacted.
Taking Anton’s advice would do grievous harm to our country, destroy one of the finest legacies of the Republican Party, and overturn centuries of Anglo-American common law in exchange for a citizenship system that would slow assimilation.
In addition to being constitutionally questionable, such an order would harm all Americans, not just the children or grandchildren of noncitizens.
Birthright citizenship is good for the United States. It guarantees that everyone who is born in America believes that they are Americans, which is the single best policy for promoting assimilation.
During his campaign, Donald Trump vowed to aggressively ramp up immigration enforcement by implementing “extreme vetting,” building a wall along the southern border, cracking down on so-called “sanctuary cities,” and creating a “deportation force.” President Trump and his allies took steps to implement some of these proposals shortly after his inauguration. There are ample reasons for concern over how such efforts will impact America’s law enforcement agencies and Americans’ civil liberties.
In order to be effective, the president’s proposals require the federal government to gather more information about American citizens. Border Patrol will increase its presence both at the border and at interior checkpoints, inconveniencing Americans and foreigners alike. Immigration law enforcement officials will exploit the lack of privacy protections at the border, leading to citizens being pressured into providing authorities with access to their electronic devices. The federal government will increase surveillance and explore new tools, such as facial-recognition drones. Federal immigration officials will expand databases and include biometric information on both visitors and American citizens.
Although the president could take steps to reverse many of the damaging features of his immigration policy, such a reversal is unlikely. However, policymakers can mitigate the risks of the immigration agenda by strengthening legal protections on the border and limiting federal involvement in state and local policing.
The degree and speed at which immigrant wages converge with the wages of native-born Americans are important indicators of economic assimilation.
According to new research from Cato scholars, newly arrived immigrants have wages lower than otherwise identical natives, but those wage differences diminish greatly or disappear entirely after about two decades of working in the United States.
Over time, the wages of immigrants converge with those of similar U.S.-born Americans. While illegal immigrants never close that gap, providing these workers with legal status would allow them to demand the same wages as similar American workers.
The fact that immigrants tend to achieve the same or greater levels of economic prosperity in the United States shows that the American Dream is still alive and that America’s overly generous welfare state has not stopped immigrants from assimilating into America’s economy.
Today is International Migrants Day. Please take action TODAY to stop the deportation of Janet, a hard-working single mom who lives in Boston.
Sign the petition: www.tinyurl.com/janetspetition
Donate: https://tinyurl.com/janetsfundraiser
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From a vigil in Denver before a deportation hearing of a community member. http://afsc.org/office/denver-co
Heartbreaking. This is why we need immigration reform. Not one more deportation!
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Rally on Capitol Hill for immigration reform on 4/10
America’s Unions Ensuring Immigration Reform Is Not ‘If’ but When’
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#a10 #immigration #immigrationreform #timeisnow #eltiempoesya
Rally for immigration rights in Washington earlier today.
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“As Congress continues to piece together comprehensive immigration reform legislation, a new study from the Center for American Progress asserts that legal status and a path to citizenship for America’s 11 million undocumented immigrants would provide substantial boosts to the nation’s economy in the immediate future.”
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Today, the streets of Washington, D.C. will be filled with immigration reform supporters who will march to Capitol Hill and speak loudly for the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the shadows.
Read the union movement’s framework for creating a road map to citizenship.
Image via Voto Latino
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I love Define American’s “Superman is an Immigrant“ campaign. Here’s a video where I go one step further: SUPERMAN IS UNDOCUMENTED. (And the only one who should be called an "illegal alien.”)
“Immigrants have been good to America; they’ve created some of your most American things. "God Bless America”: written by a Siberian. Levi’s Jeans: a Bavarian. The White House: designed by an Irishman. Superman: a Kryptonian, who was co-created by a Canadian.“
John Oliver, himself an immigrant, agrees that immigration reform is important and it needs to happen now. Watch the rest of his segment on immigration here.
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