Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) introduced a resolution in Congress calling for the designation of Cesar Chavez's birthday, March 31, as National Border Control Day. The late civil rights icon and founder of the United Farm Workers union was a strong opponent of illegal immigration and supporter of increasing border controls.
The New York Times rightly celebrates the "confounding" discovery that millions of working-age Americans aren't lost causes after all. But there is a downside: if we aren't going to give up on these Americans, we've lost a major justification for continued record levels of immigration.
This week, snow hit the Washington, D.C. area and commuters received a treat. I’m not talking about the beautiful white landscape, although that certainly was there. I mean that commuters, when the federal government shut down, got to experience what driving would be like if area population was dramatically smaller. That's a rare treat, indeed, in an area where population is booming, driven by immigration.
Recent economic numbers are encouraging, especially indicators that the long-term unemployed are reentering the labor market. Politicians and the media tend to fixate on the monthly job creation numbers and the official unemployment rate. These aren't inconsequential measures, but there is much more to the story.
Once again, we dodged a last-minute push to include a no-strings amnesty for DACA recipients in the $1.3 trillion spending package that will fund the government through the end of September. But lawmakers couldn't resist a push by business groups to increase the number of H-2B visas issued to foreign workers in 2018.
To establish State-Federal partnerships to provide students the opportunity to attain higher education at in-State public institutions of higher education without debt, to provide Federal Pell Grant eligibility to DREAMer students, to repeal suspension of eligibility under the Higher Education Act of 1965 for drug-related offenses, and for other purposes.
A bill to establish State-Federal partnerships to provide students the opportunity to attain higher education as in-State public institutions of higher education without debt, to provide Federal Pell Grant eligibility to DREAMer students, to repeal suspension of eligibility under the Higher Education Act of 1965 for drug-related offenses, and for other purposes.
The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) hosted a panel discussion this week focusing on the Refugee Resettlement Program and its impact on states and localities. Participants said that even if states withdraw from the program, the federal government pays private organizations to settle refugees in those states, generating the same costs for state taxpayers. The panel concluded refugee resettlement laws require thorough reform, especially since only a miniscule percentage of the refugees the United Nations wants to resettle face threats requiring their immediate removal.
Terms like "chain migration," "amnesty" and "Dreamers" aren't going to go away - short-hand descriptors are necessary, if not always of equal value - but we should understand the underlying policy. The differences between "chain migration" and "family-based migration" (or between "Dreamers" and "DACAs") are significant beyond mere ideological virtue signaling.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are attempting to include a provision in the the 2018 omnibus spending bill that would increase the number of H-2B visas. In the Senate, with the support of Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a vocal advocate for increasing the number of low-skilled foreign guest workers through the H-2B visa program, is pushing to increase the current cap of 66,000 to 90,000. In the House, Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) is seeking to raise the cap to 120,000.
