IPC In The News |
Some researchers noted that the Pew figures did not identify families where both parents were illegal immigrants. “If anything, the Pew report highlights how complicated this issue is, given that so many unauthorized immigrants live in families that include U.S. citizens and legal immigrants,” said Michele Waslin, senior policy analyst for the Immigration Policy Center, a group that supports legalization for illegal immigrants.
Recently I saw a CNN debate between Michele Waslin of the Immigration Policy Center and Former Representative Tom Tancredo (R-CO) on the issue of birthright citizenship and the 14th Amendment. The most incredible part of the video, for me at least, was Tancredo's insistence that the issue of birthright citizenship has never come before the Supreme Court. As anyone who has taken a course on the history of U.S. immigration, or an introductory constitutional law class would know, the very idea of granting citizenship to those born on U.S. soil came from a Supreme Court decision in 1898, Wong Kim Ark.
WATCH IPC's Senior Policy Analyst, Michele Waslin, debates immigration hawk Tom Tancredo on CNN.
Mary Giovagnoli, director of the Immigration Policy Center, said the timing of his announcement and his harsh choice of words – “They come here to drop a child. It’s called drop and leave” -- indicated Graham was simply trying to rile up his conservative base in the midst of the red-hot immigration debate.
Giovagnoli, whose group backs comprehensive immigration reform, said “it really is a politically manufactured issue.”
Amid the illegal immigration debate is talk of overtunring the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to most children born here, regardless of their parents’ status. The American Immigration Council offers a host of essays against the proposal.
“You can make the argument that it can reinforce the Obama administration efforts to disentangle the border issues from the immigration issues, but that’s probably not how it’s going to play out,” Mary Giovagnoli, director of Immigration Policy Center, told TWI. “When you see actions like this at the end of a session, you can bet it’s more politics than policy that’s driving their decisions.”
Giovagnoli said she does not expect the bill to help the comprehensive immigration reform effort, but that it could help pave the way for senators who previously supported reform, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), to re-enter discussions.
Earlier this year, the Center for American Progress and the American Immigration Council released studies estimating that comprehensive immigration reform, as described above, would increase the U.S. gross domestic product by at least $1.5 trillion over 10 years.
In Colorado, immigrants keep tourism going in small mountain towns with pricey real estate; they often drive hours each day to and from minimum-wage positions in ski towns. Migrants also work the fields and grunt construction jobs.
On a conference call today, opponents of changing the policy said that while Americans are "justifiably frustrated" with current immigration policy, eliminating birthright citizenship "would punish the innocent children of undocumented immigrants, which flies in the face of American values," according to Michele Waslin, Senior Policy Analyst at the Immigration Policy Center.
But according to a January 2010 study by the Immigration Policy Center, the cost of implementing comprehensive immigration reform would be considerable less than a sweeping program to deport all undocumented workers and their non-citizen family members.
From the study: “comprehensive immigration reform that includes a legalization program for unauthorized immigrants and enables a future flow of legal workers would result in a large economic benefit—a cumulative $1.5 trillion in added U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years. In stark contrast, a deportation-only policy would result in a loss of $2.6 trillion in GDP over 10 years.
Supporters of a change say the amendment adopted just after the Civil War was designed simply to make sure that former slaves became citizens, and wasn't intended to apply to illegal immigrants' kids. But the pro-immigration Immigration Policy Center offers a rebuttal, with scholar Elizabeth Wydra citing the "clear intent of the Reconstruction framers to grant U.S. citizenship based on the objective measure of U.S. birth rather than subjective political or public opinion."
According to a 2008 report from the conservative America's Majority Foundation, crime rates are lowest in states with the highest immigration growth rates.
Scroll down our issue list for accurate information about the effects of immigration on the U.S. economy and society.
