This week’s immigration blog roundup discusses a new report by the Council on Foreign Relations, another report detailing the persistence of racial profiling in the United States,the Health Equity and Accountability Act, the E-Verify System, and more.
Comprehensive Immigration Reform
A report by a bipartisan task force from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has recommended the United States overhaul its immigration system in response to national security concerns. The new CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force on U.S. Immigration Policy (co-chaired by former Florida governor Jeb Bush and former White House chief of staff Thomas “Mack” McLarty) concludes in the report:
“The continued failure to devise and implement a sound and sustainable immigration policy threatens to weaken America’s economy, to jeopardize its diplomacy, and to imperil its national security.”
The task force reflects the consensus of a bipartisan group of leaders in the fields of immigration policy, homeland security, education, academia, faith, labor, business, and human rights. The group urges Congress and the Obama administration to move ahead with immigration reform legislation that achieves three critical goals, one of which is to address “a fair, humane, and orderly way to allow many of the roughly twelve million migrants currently living illegally in the United States to earn the right to remain legally.
Race and Immigration
A recent report, The Persistence Of Racial And Ethnic Profiling In The United States, by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Rights Working Group found that racial profiling by law enforcement agencies is widespread and remains a pervasive problem throughout the United States.
The report urges Congress to pass the End Racial Profiling Act, which has been introduced in previous Congresses, but has not passed. The ERPA would disallow law enforcement agencies from racial profiling by requiring them to collect data on the number of stops, searches, and arrests by race and gender, and allow victims of racial profiling to take legal action against offending local, state or federal authorities. The report also reviewed government policies and federal programs like the Department of Homeland Security counterterrorism efforts, and found a rise in racial profiling of immigrants from Muslim-majority countries. The report was submitted to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination last week.
Health Care and Immigration
As the Obama administration is set to start on next steps for immigration reform, Congress must also deal with the question of a national health care plan that could cover the nation’s estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants. Recently, advocates like the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, introduced the Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2009 (H.R. 3090) in June to ensure that such a proposal would be on the table. H.R. 3090 focuses on addressing health disparities in coverage and access and aims to create an equitable health care system that works for everyone. Immigration advocates are urging Congress to include the bill as part of health care reform to address the inequities of the current health care system faced by low-income immigrants. The House will be reviewing H.R. 3090 this week.
National, local and community level immigration news
The Obama administration is continuing with the E-Verify system, which requires employers seeking and receiving federal contracts to verify their workers’ immigration status. The system is meant to prevent federal contractors from hiring undocumented workers. The decision comes after a six-month review, and will take effect on September 8. Previously, the E-Verify system has been voluntary, but now contractors will have to verify all workers, including current employees. Immigrant advocacy groups, the United States Chamber of Commerce and various business groups have criticized the system, saying the databases upon which the system relies are full of errors.
A university study conducted by Jack Levin, a criminologist from Northeastern University in Massachusetts, finds that cities with low murder rates are often safe places to live not despite immigrants, but because of immigrants.
“If you want to find a safe city, first determine the size of the immigrant population,”says Jack Levin. “If the immigrant community represents a large proportion of the population, you’re likely in one of the country’s safer cities. San Diego, Laredo, El Paso;these cities are teeming with immigrants, and they’re some of the safest places.”
According to the study, there were 18 murders in El Paso last year, in a city of 736,000 people whereas Baltimore, with 637,000 residents, had 234 murders.Numerous studies have found that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes or to be behind bars than are the native-born. Advocates urge the issue must be reframed with such expertise in order to debunk the myths and assumptions that cities with high proportions of immigrants are more dangerous.
Grassroots activism played a large role to postpone the deportation of Walter Lara, an undocumented 23 year-old honor student from Miami over Independence Day weekend. The coordinated effort, led by DREAMActivist.org and Service Employees International Union (SEIU), demonstrates the powerful way in which local and national student organizers have gained momentum and support for DREAM Act legislation. Walter, who came to the United States at the age of three, thanked DHS Secretary Napolitano, for granting a one-year stay of his deportation.
Read more at The Opportunity Agenda’s website.
