This week’s immigration blog roundup discusses the National Summit on Local Immigration Policies, new poll findings revealing different immigration patterns for women, and more. 

Comprehensive Immigration Reform

At the National Summit on Local Immigration Policies, sponsored by the the Police Executive Research Forum, about 100 police chiefs and administrators from around the country called upon Congress to adopt a measures for comprehensive immigration reform.

Participants said their local law enforcement agencies are struggling to deal with crime and confusion caused by a broken system, and agreed that there needs to be reform. According to Chuck Wexler, the forum’s executive director, such reform would include guest-worker programs, a means for immigrants to become permanent residents, and federal enforcement of the prohibition against hiring illegal immigrants.

Police administrators said that Department of Homeland Security enforcement efforts have been inconsistent and unreliable for years. Police administrators were especially critical of the government’s 287(g) program which provides for state and local police to enforce immigration law. Representatives of local law enforcement argue that immigration enforcement by local officers conflicts with community policing by making undocumented immigrants fearful of reporting crimes or serving as witnesses.

National, local and community level immigration news

According to recent poll,"Women Immigrants: The New Face of Migration in America,” the majority of new immigrants coming to the United States are now women, a change from the past when most immigrants were men. The poll was sponsored by New America Media , and conducted by Bendixen and Associates, a Florida-based firm that specializes in multilingual and multiethnic research.

A panel of immigration advocates and experts has been meeting around the country as part of a national tour to discuss the implications of the poll findings. The advocates want to bring the face of immigrant women to center-stage around the discussion of comprehensive immigration reform.The poll sheds lights on the daily lives of immigrant women, their roles in their families, and the impact of migration on their lives.

Irasema Garza, president of Legal Momentum, a New York-based legal defense and education fund for women rights, said that the poll is a good opportunity to change the tone of the discussion.

"Unless Americans start seeing immigrants as they are, hard-working people, most of them women, not terrorists or criminals, we won’t see real changes," she said.

Another study released by the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University documents the violations of law and agency rules by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during home raids in Long Island and New Jersey. The study by the school’s Immigration Justice Law Clinic found a widespread pattern of misconduct by agents after analyzing 700 arrest reports. ICE agents illegally entered homes without judicial search warrants, arresting hundreds without any legal basis. Two-thirds of those arrested in home raids were undocumented immigrants, largely Latinos, and with no criminal records.

"If any local law enforcement agency in the nation were involved in these types of widespread constitutional violations it would prompt a federal investigation,” said Lawrence W. Mulvey, the Nassau city police commissioner, who led a panel that guided the report.

The ICE responded to the study with an e-mail statement defending the conduct of its agents and the home raids.

Health Care and Immigration

In a recent interview with CBS News’ Katie Couric, President Obama stated that while undocumented immigrants should not be covered under a new health care plan, an exception could be made for children.

"The one exception that I think has to be discussed is how are we treating children,” he said.

Advocates will continue to follow the debate on health care reform and how it will impact undocumented immigrants.

Read more at The Opportunity Agenda’s website.

0 0 votes
Article Rating