This week’s Immigration Blog Roundup will cover some policy news, newly released research on immigration and more.
Washington D.C. will join 94 other jurisdictions in employing the Secure Communities program which allows authorities to check the immigration status of every person booked into a local jail. The program which started with President Bush in 2008 has expanded under the Obama administration in an effort to target immigrants that have committed crimes.
The Center for Disease Control has lifted the requirement that young women seeking permanent residency in the United States get vaccinated for the Human Papillomavirus (HPV).
Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Alejandro Mayorkas has stated that although it would be a last resort, the agency is considering increasing fees for immigration benefits. After a sharp decline in immigrant benefit applications, the USCIS experienced a $164 million defecit this year.
The Migration Policy Institute released Tied to the Business Cycle: How Immigrants Fare in good and Bad Economic Times (PDF) which discusses the trend from the mid 1990’s through 2007 in which immigrants surpassed native-born workers in employement rates and other market indicators. However, the current recession starting with the housing bust in 2006 is largely responsible for reversing this trend. A summary of details can be found here.
As part of a larger series regarding the positive economic impacts of immigration in various states, The Immigration Policy Center has released their findings on immigration in Indiana. A fact sheet and summary of findings can be found here.
Some highlights include:
– Immigrants in Indiana paid an estimated $2.3 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2007.
– The purchasing power of Indiana’s Latinos totaled $6.8 billion and Asians totaled $3.1 billion in 2008.
– If all unauthorized immigrants were removed from Indiana, the state would lose $2.8 billion in expenditures, $1.3 billion in economic output and approximately 16,700 jobs.
Lastly, in a speech made last Friday to the Center for American Progress, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano reaffirmed President Obama’s support for a "tough but fair" path to legal status for illegal immigrants and said that Congress is expected to start moving on the issue early next year.
