USA Green Card Immigration Blog

Obama playing games with immigration – CNN.com.

San Diego, California (CNN) — In August 2005, as part of a public arts project, David Smith — aka “The Human Cannonball” — was fired out of a cannon across the border from Tijuana, Mexico, to San Diego. He was caught in a net 150 feet from the border, and he had his passport in hand just in case he had to show it to the U.S. Border Patrol.

For several years, that was considered the best show ever to visit the border. Not anymore.

This week, President Obama — who has already declared that he is running for re-election — kicked off his 2012 Latino outreach effort by traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border at El Paso, Texas, and delivering a speech on immigration.

This wasn’t easy. Finding the border can be tricky when it is your first visit in the 26 months since becoming president.

Besides, immigration isn’t Obama’s favorite topic. You remember that subject in high school that you hated, because, well, you had no interest in it and so you weren’t good at it?

For Barack Obama, that subject is immigration. He’s terrible at it. He doesn’t seem to understand it. And he doesn’t appear to care about it. So he settles for using it as a political tool.

There is a sizable community of immigrants — legal and illegal — in Illinois. Yet, during his stint in the state Senate, Obama demonstrated little interest in the issue and proposed no bills specifically aimed at immigrants.

When Obama ascended to the U.S. Senate, he voted for a so-called “poison pill” amendment to a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would “sunset” a proposed guest worker program after five years. All of this was to please organized labor, but it doomed the compromise.

After becoming president, Obama broke his promise to Latino voters to make immigration reform a top priority and address it early in his administration. Then he added injury to insult by racking up a record number of deportations — nearly 800,000 in his first two years in office. The Department of Homeland Security deports about 1,000 people a day.

We know this because, in a futile attempt to convince Obama’s critics that he’s tough on border security, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano brags about those figures in speeches and before Congress like a proud fisherman posing for a photo while holding the catch of the day.

And how do you get to the point where you’re deporting more illegal immigrants than any U.S. president since Dwight D. Eisenhower launched “Operation Wetback” in 1954? You use local police as a force multiplier, letting municipalities enforce immigration law and deliver to you the apprehended immigrants — while you’re suing the state of Arizona for doing the same thing.

All of which brings us to that speech on the border. This would have been a good opportunity to apologize for his administration’s excesses, and maybe announce a new policy that — while still tough — is fairer and more humane.

But that’s not Obama’s style. He approaches a speech like this as an opportunity to make himself look good and his opponents look bad. Some of the content was terrific; some was farcical. Overall, the president’s speech was menudo (Mexican stew). It had a little of everything mixed in.

On the positive side, you had uplifting stories like that of Dr. Jose Hernandez, the son of immigrant farm workers, who grew up picking vegetables in Central California and became an astronaut. There was common sense about how idiotic it is for our country to educate foreign students, then send them home because we make it so difficult for them to stay. There was the heartwarming assurance that people could be proud of their heritage and still love the United States of America.

But, on the negative side, this was a political speech. And so it was full of deceptions and half-truths, finger-pointing and the ducking of responsibility.

We learned that it was Republicans who demanded the building of border fencing. (True, but Obama left out the part about how he voted for it in the Senate.)

We learned that, while in the Senate, Obama helped forge “a bipartisan coalition” to advance immigration reform. (Actually, Obama undermined that coalition when he helped torpedo immigration reform.)

We learned that Republicans killed the DREAM Act. (They didn’t. Five Senate Democrats did — Jon Tester, Max Baucus, Mark Pryor, Kay Hagan, and Ben Nelson — when they bolted from party leaders and voted against cloture.)

We learned that the administration focuses on deporting “criminal aliens.” (It’s true that — through initiatives like Secure Communities, a cooperative agreement between local law enforcement and federal immigration officials — the number of criminal aliens being deported is way up from the previous administration. But even so, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the total number of criminal aliens apprehended is less than 200,000. That still leaves hundreds of thousands of “noncriminal” deportations. In fact, Obama admitted in his remarks that those subject to removal include “families that are just trying to earn a living or bright, eager students or decent people with the best of intentions.”)

And finally, we learned that Obama thinks the United States shouldn’t be “in the business of separating families.” (Guess what? That is exactly the business we’re in. The Obama administration, for purely political reasons, separates hundreds of families every day.)

Are we done now? Enough gamesmanship, Mr. President. How about some leadership? You’ve shown you can get out in front of issues you care about. Try caring more about this one.

President Obama went to the border this week to share his usual campaign message of hope and change. He wound up spreading fertilizer.

Week in review: Immigration 9/6-9/12 | Center for Investigative Reporting.

The Obama administration is changing the government’s strategy in enforcing immigration laws while repealing birthright citizenship would expand the population of illegal immigrants, who, depending on how you look at it, may or may not be a burden on taxpayers.

USA Today published a Pro Publica round-up report that enumerated how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has shifted policies in who the agency targets for deportation, which in turn has reduced the threat of deportation for millions of illegal immigrants.

Meanwhile, the number of removals this year lags slightly behind last year’s figures through 11 months, despite reports that the Obama administration is deporting more illegal immigrants than ever.

Whoever is in the Oval Office in 2050 would have considerably more unauthorized immigrants — at least 5 million — to deport if birthright citizenship is repealed, according to a report by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank.

“The unauthorized population would rise to 24 million in 2050 under a scenario in which citizenship would be denied to U.S.-born children with one unauthorized immigrant parent, even if the other parent were a citizen,” the report states. Illegal immigration is currently at the lowest it’s been in decades.

But would that be a drag on taxpayers, or a benefit? Depends on how you look at it, Edward Schumacher-Matos, a Washington Post columnist, wrote in the Post:

The truth is that unauthorized immigrants are probably a net burden on taxpayers in the short term, but only if you consider education as a cost and not as an investment in the nation’s future, as it was seen a century ago.

So, how does Congress view illegal immigrants who aspire to attend college? We may find out before November, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid “intends to move the DREAM Act” before mid-term elections. The proposed legislation, which has been floating around Congress for the better part of a decade, would pave the way toward legal resident status — and possibly citizenship — for young illegal immigrants if they meet certain requirements.

For cities and towns who believe illegal immigrants are a drag on society — and aim to deter them from taking jobs or renting housing in their communities — passing laws with that in mind are not constitutional, a federal appeals court ruled.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, which struck down ordinances adopted by the City of Hazelton, Pa. that also served as models for like-minded towns and states around the country, “is the broadest statement by a court to date on the vexing question of how much authority states and towns have to act on immigration matters that are normally the purview of the federal government,” The New York Times reported.

Despite a down economy and deterrents such as the Hazelton ordinances and other enforcement efforts, the push/pull of illegal immigration persists. Immigration agents in Riverside found 37 smuggled aliens from six countries jammed inside a tiny bedroom where some claim they had been held for weeks, according to an ICE press release. Six job recruiters were indicted for forcing 400 laborers from Thailand to work after luring them to the United States in what the FBI called the largest human-trafficking case in U.S. history, The Associated Press reported.

It’s not just allegedly greedy businesses that are breaking the law. The Los Angeles Times and Washington Post both had stories about misconduct and corruption among Border Patrol agents and customs inspectors.

The Border Patrol is “grappling with a spate of misconduct cases in its ranks, which have expanded from 4,000 agents in the early 1990s to 21,000 today,” the Times reported while the number of Customs and Border Protection “corruption investigations opened by the inspector general climbed from 245 in 2006 to more than 770 this year,” according to the Post.

Corruption cases at its sister agency, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, rose from 66 to more than 220 over the same period. The vast majority of corruption cases involve illegal trafficking of drugs, guns, weapons and cash across the Southwest border.

But, as the Whittier Daily News reported, some agents are allegedly stealing from the government — and taxpayers — too.

Two former Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were arrested Friday on charges stemming from allegations they falsely claimed nearly $600,000 worth of work hours.

Illegal immigration down sharply; immigration hysteria up sharply

FOXNews.com – Fox News Poll: 72 Percent Say Government Not Enforcing Immigration Laws.

Commentary: Immigration reform takes courage – CNN.com.

No one knows whether the bill could be approved this year. If the debate carries over until 2010, midterm elections could put the issue off until 2011 — which could still work out well for the White House because achieving immigration reform would play well with Hispanics in Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.

This time around, congressional leaders would be wise to avoid those pitfalls and focus on solving the three big problems: porous borders; the difficulty in immigrating legally; and the fact that 12 million illegal immigrants are in a state of suspended animation where they work hard, pay taxes, buy homes, and join the PTA, but never achieve full civic participation and the responsibilities that come with it.

One question invariably haunts the minds of foreign nationals who are aspiring to settle down in the United States of America: is America anti-immigrant? America’s anti-immigration policy is a thing of the past. An entry into the land of opportunity is not all that restricted these days, despite what the media portray and rampant rumors suggest. Since the twentieth century, America’s anti-immigration policy has weakened. In many aspects, the current U.S. immigration policy can be characterized as being quite immigrant-friendly. Current-day U.S. immigration policy welcomes immigrants through many visa opportunities including the Green Card Lottery program. The large numbers of foreign nationals who have gained entry into America and have become U.S. citizens is proof of America’s continuing acceptance of immigrants from all faiths, races, cultures, nationalities, and walks of life. Many of these immigrants are skilled foreigners who make major contributors to America’s economy. But, the policy is still unbendable for those who hold a criminal background. If a foreign national has a criminal background or if he/she is involved in illegal activities, then immigration will be denied to that person. So, is America anti-immigrant? The answer is no, especially for skilled, law-abiding foreigners. According to U.S. immigration policy, Lawful Permanent Residence or obtaining the USA green card is one of the channels through which any foreign national can become a legal resident of the United States of America. The U.S. Department of State conducts a Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) program or the Green Card Lottery every year. Through this Green Card Lottery program, the country provides 55,000 green cards to eligible foreign nationals. Applying for the Diversity Immigrant Visa program (DV) is not simple, but the benefits of the Green Card Lottery are many. Winners of the Green Card Lottery can bring their families with them to the U.S. and are entitled to work and live in the United States of America. Green Card Lottery advantages include permanent residence permission, equal opportunity to be lawfully employed by any employer, and the ability to pursue education and health benefits. In short, Green Card Lottery benefits include almost all the same rights enjoyed by a full-fledged U.S. citizen. If your ultimate goal is to become a U.S. citizen, winners of the Green Card Lottery can eventually file a petition to do so. If you obtain a U.S.A. green card, you can live and work anywhere throughout the 50 states and also enjoy the benefits of unbiased employment in the country. The winners of the Green Card Lottery can also apply for American citizenship after 5 years of their immigration into the country. The Green Card Lottery benefits also include the right to become the legal owner of any property such as housing, vehicles, etc. Finally, one of the most important Green Card Lottery benefits is that the green card holder can travel abroad as a permanent resident of the United States of America. A word of caution for applicants: many Green Card Lottery applications are rejected every year because of errors on the form or incomplete information. This is where you will need an expert’s help. USA Green Card provides professional assistance with the Green Card Lottery application procedure. USA Green Card assures that your registration in the program complies 100% with the requirements of the U.S. Government in preparing and submitting your application. Are you ready to start enjoying all the benefits that come with the possession of an American green card? Complete the registration form today!

VOA News – Obama Calls for US Immigration Reform .

Today, US President Barack Obama reiterated his desire to see US immigration policy reformed to allow for continued legal immigration and stop future illegal immigration.  His remarks were made at the Esperanza National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast and Conference.  He further went on to remark that those illegal immigrants who are currently in the US should get a chance to become legal citizens if they fulfill certain requirements, such as learning English, paying taxes, and fines.  The President did not speculate on a timeline for the envisioned reform.

Organized crime is preying on illegal immigrants’ American dreams.  “Gangs own the people-smuggling trade” and are kidnapping illegals and then holding them hostage for ransom of as much as $5000.  The phenomenon is particularly acute in the Phoenix, Arizona area.  How is this happening?  A variety of factors are at play, including:  the spike in abandoned property (where the hostages can be kept), tighter border security (which makes border crossings more difficult and encourages gangs to handle them), and the decline in immigration resulting from job losses in the US (which decreases gangs’ revenue made from border crossings, and invites them to hold hostages for ransom money).  Read the article for more information on this disturbing trend.