Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere – Los Angeles
Wendy Sefsaf
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Home page: http://immigrationimpact.com
Posts by Wendy Sefsaf
Is the Romney Campaign Embracing Anti-Immigrant Extremism?
03 weeks ago
Today, Mitt Romney’s campaign heartily accepted the endorsement of renown anti-immigrant activist, Kris Kobach. As Mitt Romney emerges as the leading contender for the GOP nomination, he and those he affiliates with will garner closer scrutiny, making it critical for Romney’s campaign to understand who Kobach is and why his policies engender such strong emotion.
Kobach and his anti-immigrant cronies are behind much of the draconian anti-immigrant legislation wreaking havoc on the business and economies of Alabama and Arizona. They are driving an extreme ‘attrition through enforcement” immigration agenda that is bad for business and seeks to make life in America so unworkable for the foreign-born that they will pack up and leave. However, the strategy is backfiring and this experimental legislation is driving state economies deeper into recession, locking them into long and costly legal battles, and diminishing state reputations and business opportunities.
The Romney campaign needs to understand that while these anti-immigrant initiatives have served to advance Kobach politically and financially and are supported by the extreme anti-immigrant movement in America, virtually all of them have ended up being costly failures for which taxpayers ultimately foot the bill. Romney touts his pro-business bona fides, however these anti-immigrant policies are anti-business and are should be taken from the state to the federal level or allowed to take hold in other states.
Being anti-immigrant and pursing costly, anti-business policymaking does not appeal to a majority of Americans and will do nothing to repair our economy and bring our nation together.
In the world of political campaigns, the more support you get the better. But it’s important to remember that you are judged by the company you keep. The Romney campaign should carefully consider the impact of embracing extremists and what those budding relationships signal to a range of audiences who are weary of anti-immigrant posturing.
Photo by Gage Skidmore.
Just in Time for the Holidays: Congress Moves 4 Million Children Closer to Poverty
01 month ago
Congress has been unable to pass any meaningful immigration legislation this year, but the House couldn’t miss a chance to stick it to immigrants by going after their U.S. citizen children in a recent tax bill. While Americans are debating whether taxes on millionaires should be raised, the House, at least, is planning to raise taxes on the most vulnerable of American citizens.
The tax package that is likely to pass the House and make its way to the Senate this week denies immigrant taxpayers who file their taxes using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) the ability to claim the Additional Child Tax Credit for their U.S. citizen children. This provision will impact 2 million families and up to 4 million U.S. citizen children and take away a tax credit designed to keep children out of poverty.
Child tax credits can only be claimed by those paying into the system and were designed to alleviate some of the burden that tax payment imposes on low-income, working families. Taking away this credit from tax-paying families could drive more than two million families closer to poverty.
Unauthorized immigrants are required to pay their taxes, just like all Americans. Many fulfill their tax payment obligations using an ITIN, but they are not eligible for the vast majority of benefits their tax dollars pay into.
According to the Treasury Department’s Inspector General, in 2010, ITIN filers reported $60 billion dollars in wages, which according to an estimate by the National Immigration Law Center means they generated an estimated $9.2 billion in payroll taxes. This revenue, which benefits us all, is ten times the amount that would be saved by stripping the child tax credit away from the children of ITIN filers.
ITIN filers are doing the right thing by paying into the tax system with little hope of collecting any future benefits for themselves. If the Senate follows suit, the only ones hurt in the process will be the children.
Photo by miuenski.
American Innovation Takes on Broken U.S. Immigration System
02 months ago
In the past several days news reports have depicted good old American ingenuity taking on our broken and outdated immigration system. CNN ran a story last week from Georgia about a handful of educators who have taken matters into their own hands after the state’s Board of Regents passed an extreme law in 2010 banning undocumented immigrant children from attending Georgia’s top public colleges and universities—banned despite the fact that these kids pay three times the rate of other in-state students due to their immigration status.
In response, professors out of the University of Georgia launched a new institution called Freedom University, an educational institution specifically designed for college-ready kids subject to the ban. The University’s website catalogs an impressive list of academics that are supported and taught at the school. Their mission statement reads: “Freedom University defies the Regents’ ban on undocumented students, offering rigorous, college-level instruction to all academically qualified students regardless of their immigration status and without fees or tuition.” While students at Freedom University will not receive college credit, professors report that students’ remain enthusiastic and are willing to learn despite this limitation.
The next example comes from Silicon Valley, the heart of American innovation today. Artstechnica.com, a technology news site, reported that a new company called “Blueseed” is developing a creative solution for those high-tech California companies struggling to get the necessary visas to bring in the high-skilled workers they need.
Blueseed’s plan is to “bypass the political process and solve the problem directly” by purchasing a ship (yes, an actual boat) to be used as a “floating incubator anchored in international waters off the coast of California.” The ship would give high-skilled workers a place to live and work just a few miles off the coast of Silicon Valley. Artstechnica.com writes:
“If Blueseed’s audacious hack of the immigration system is successful, it will not only open up Silicon Valley to a broader range of entrepreneurs, it will also shine a spotlight on the barriers American law places in the way of immigrants seeking to start businesses in the United States.”
American innovation has long tackled our nation’s problems and often develops creative solutions that make all of our lives better. Our broken immigration system is apparently no exception. While Congress may well continue to cede its authority and responsibility to fix our immigration system, their lack of political courage certainly won’t stop groups of thoughtful, committed citizens from doing what is in their power to make America and our lives better today.
Photo by milan.boers.
Restrictionist Lawyer Reveals Long-Term Assault on Immigrant Children
03 months ago
Today, the head of the legal arm of one of the most notorious restrictionist groups in the nation boldly admitted his work on Alabama’s new anti-immigrant law aims to end public education for the children of immigrants. Michael Hethmon of the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), an offshoot of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), made no bones about being the author of the education provision in HB 56—which on its face requires public schools to determine the immigration status of enrolling students and their parents, but in reality chips away at children’s ability to get an education.
In fact, FAIR’s long-term vision to erode any and all rights afforded to the children of immigrants becomes increasingly clear with each new FAIR initiative—from attempts to repeal access to birth certificates at the state level through their state legislative arm (State Legislators for Legal Immigration) to IRLI’s litigation strategies in the courts that attempt to turn U.S. policy against immigrant children.
In defense of the education provision, Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange assured a judge that the provision would require nothing more than data collection and that “no child will be denied an education based on unlawful status.” However in the same New York Times article, Hethmon of IRLI admitted that HB 56’s education provision is just a first step:
The man who wrote the schools provision … that it is not meant as a deterrent — at least not yet. It is, however, a first step in a larger and long-considered strategy to topple a 29-year-old Supreme Court ruling that all children in the United States, regardless of their immigration status, are guaranteed a public education.
Hethmon then goes on to explain why this data collection provision is an important part of bigger plans and why they were careful no to go too far in HB 56:
Mr. Hethmon said the problem with these challenges is that they have not taken the trouble to gather the evidence the court found missing in Plyler.
“The toughest question has been obtaining reliable — and I mean reliable for peer-reviewed research purposes — censuses of the number of illegal alien students enrolled in school districts,” he said. “That information could be compared with other sorts of performance or resource allocation issues.
That information is then passed on to the State Board of Education not only to prepare an annual report with the data but also to “contract with reputable scholars and research institutions” to determine the costs, fiscal and otherwise, of educating illegal immigrants.
Because no one is actually barred from attending school and the data is not passed on to law enforcement, the provision passes constitutional muster, Mr. Hethmon said.
But it also potentially enables a fresh challenge to Plyler v. Doe, and the idea that schools are obligated to provide a free education to illegal immigrants.”
There is no doubt the “reputable scholars and research institutions” Hethmon refers to include FAIR’s research arm and sister group, the Center for Immigration Studies. If the Alabama Department of Education continues to collect data on the immigration status of immigrant children and makes it public, it won’t be long before FAIR and CIS produce data on the “fiscal costs of educating the children of immigrants in Alabama.”
While the New York Times article also quotes well-respected legal scholars who feel the chances of a repeal of Plyer V. Doe are highly unlikely, the damage that would be done by allowing these anti-immigrant groups access to private student data is undoubted. FAIR will exploit this information in order to wage a public relations campaign against the children of immigrants.
FAIR and company, also known as the Tanton Network, are continuing to build an elaborate infrastructure and execute a long term plan that systematically chips away at the rights of immigrant children. It’s time Americans, beginning with Alabamians, put their collective foot down against this.
Photo by cybrarian77.
Dishonest Data on Immigration Cripples Honest Debate and Sensible Lawmaking
03 months ago
For years, data produced by restrictionist, anti-immigrant advocacy groups have permeated politics and policy. Today is no different. What’s alarming, however, is the ease with which politicians and lawmakers are using this dishonest data to support their restrictive positions on immigration.
Take the recent passage of HB 56 in Alabama. Sponsors of the bill are using flawed data produced by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) to defend the passage of the bill. Using FAIR’s numbers, they claim unauthorized immigrants in Alabama use public services to the tune of $280 million a year. In the media, these supporters fail (as does the media reporting on it) to cite where the numbers come from. Passing them off as “official” state data, the average person would assume that these numbers were crunched by Alabama’s own legislature or government agencies. However, this is simply not the case. In fact, Alabama legislators failed to produce a fiscal note enumerating the fiscal impacts of HB 56, so the only fiscal justification they had for this bill was flawed data from FAIR.
Strikingly, during the last few debates among GOP presidential aspirants, more than one candidate referenced data by FAIR and the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), another extreme anti-immigrant research group. Michele Bachmann recently quoted FAIR data claiming the costs of unauthorized immigration to the U.S. were $113 billion dollars per year, with $82 billion being shouldered by states. This is the same study Alabama officials pulled their state data from and passed off as official data.
Explaining the basic flaws in FAIR’s reporting is actually simple: they exaggerate the costs associated with unauthorized immigrants while vastly undercounting their contributions. What’s most appalling about their “economic” analysis is how they include the costs of educating the U.S.-born children of immigrants and never credit back the productivity of these children when they grow into contributing adult citizens. FAIR also adds unsubstantiated costs derived from unsupported assumptions about the children of unauthorized immigrants. For example, FAIR assumes all children of unauthorized immigrants are using ESL programs and free and reduced price lunch programs. Finally, to exaggerate the costs as much as possible, FAIR vastly underestimates the contributions that immigrants make as consumers, workers, and taxpayers. This formula allows FAIR to make it look as if unauthorized immigrants cost more than they contribute.
Another recent reference to restrictionist data came from Mitt Romney and his staff, who quoted a CIS study which claims almost half the jobs created in Texas under Governor Perry went to unauthorized workers. Fortunately, these numbers were challenged by FactCheck.org, which noted that the report has been debunked in the Dallas Morning News by Pia Orrenius, an economist and immigration expert at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas—and by a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation who wrote an analysis critical of the CIS study.
No one is arguing that the drastic increase in unauthorized immigration over the past two decades is not an appropriate debate topic or that policy changes aren’t needed. However, we will never achieve real solutions unless we demand intellectual honesty, rather than pandering and platitudes, in debates on immigration. The data and research put forth by anti-immigrant groups, whose only solution is to deport them all, cannot be the basis for honest policymaking or policy discussion.
Photo by jypsygen.
The Facts (and Numbers) Don’t Matter in Alabama
03 months ago
Alabama Attorney General, Luther Strange, testifying before Congress. Photo by lutherstrange.
As each day passes under Alabama’s new, highly restrictive immigration law (HB56), it is becoming increasingly clear that facts (and numbers) had very little to do with the passage of the law—and that they continue to be ignored as state officials defend the law. In fact, this willful disregard of facts and data may mean Alabama is about to pay a very high price for a small problem.
Case in point: yesterday, Alabama’s Attorney General claimed in his federal court filing that “illegal aliens” make up a substantial portion of the state’s prison population. As evidence, he used an affidavit saying that 1) Alabama doesn’t track immigration status, and 2) 182 inmates are currently subject to deportation based on holds placed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That is 182 inmates out of more than 31,000 inmates total. Is 0.6% of the total prison population the substantial portion of which the Attorney General speaks?
He continues with his baseless claims by noting that “many of these people are taking jobs away from United States citizens and authorized aliens who desperately want to work in these hard economic times: while the unemployment rate in Alabama stands at 10%, approximately 4% of Alabama‘s workforce consists of illegal aliens.”
However, he provides no proof that undocumented workers are replacing native workers. To say that one undocumented worker fired is one documented worker hired might be politically expedient, but the research actually shows just the opposite. Undocumented workers tend to have different skills, education, and experience levels than native-born workers. In fact, if a 1 to 1 worker replacement was the answer, why is the Governor considering using the prison population to alleviate a severe worker shortage on Alabama farms? Where are all those unemployed Americans waiting to work in the fields?
Alabama’s Attorney General also ignores data on the tax contributions of Alabama’s undocumented population when he writes “and the difficulties in collecting taxes from these persons, many of whom work off the books, means that many of them are utilizing Alabama’s public resources without paying their fair share.”
If by public resources he means public education, as the state’s Attorney General he should know that the Alabama public school system is funded by tax receipts, not just income taxes (which 50% of undocumented persons pay anyway). Education funding comes from sales, property, beer, utility, and use taxes—which we know the vast majority of the undocumented do pay. In fact, according to the Institute on Tax and Economic Policy, undocumented immigrants in Alabama pay $25 million in income taxes, $5.8 million in property taxes, and $98 million in sales taxes, for a total contribution of more than $130 million.
The lack of research and data to back up HB56 shouldn’t be terribly surprising. One need look no further than the flimsy fiscal note produced by the Alabama legislature when considering the law. The fiscal note is astonishing in its incompleteness. There is no attempt to enumerate either the costs or potential fiscal benefits of the legislation. There is no consideration of costs to law enforcement, courts, licensing offices, schools, businesses, or the foster care system.
Alabama legislators could have looked to their neighbors for guidance. The legislatures of both Tennessee and Kentucky, when considering similar measures earlier this year, produced fiscal notes that actually laid out the costs. Both bills scored millions of dollars in lost revenue and expenses to the state. Such information is certainly inconvenient for Alabama legislators, especially when the state faces a $979 million budget shortfall.
To be fair, one can’t say HB 56’s supporters have totally ignored research. In fact, in place of any official state-generated data, they have relied upon (and passed off as “official”) a highly controversial report from a likewise controversial anti-immigrant group. Legislators have derived from this report a $280 million estimate of how much undocumented immigrants allegedly cost the state—a number which they have been parroting as justification for HB56. The report has been rebuked by a number of fiscal and policy groups around the country for its exaggeration of costs and under-reporting of contributions by unauthorized immigrants.
The actual costs to Alabama’s economy have yet to be determined, and no real estimates have been provided by the lawmakers behind HB56. It has always been the case that estimating the costs and contributions of unauthorized immigrants is not an exact science. But Alabama is about to make it a bit easier. No longer will losing your undocumented population be an abstract proposition. In Alabama it’s about to be a reality, and with it the economic ramifications of a mass exodus of workers, consumers, and taxpayers from an already struggling state economy.
Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Alabama’s Immigration Law
05 months ago
Today, the federal judge hearing the case against Alabama’s harsh anti-immigrant law HB 56 issued a temporary order preventing the law from going into effect on September 1, 2011. The judge made no ruling on the merits of the pending motions but rather temporary blocked it to buy herself more time to consider the numerous challenges filed by groups including the U.S. Department of Justice, America Civil Liberties Union, National Immigration Law Center and Southern Poverty Law Center. The order says the injunction will “remain in effect until September 29, 2011 or until the court enters its’ rulings, whichever comes first.”
Some Hopeful, Early Signs That Prosecutorial Discretion Is Being Exercised
05 months ago
While the prospect of temporary immigration reprieves—made possible by DHS’s recent announcement that it will standardize its use of prosecutorial discretion—has excited many people, the devil remains in the details. Attorneys and community groups continue to caution that no one knows how fast or how wide spread this relief will be. Part of the confusion comes from the manner of the announcement which was made by Secretary Napolitano through a letter to Senator Durbin and others. Consequently, there have been no public fact sheets or uniform guidance issued by DHS to reassure the public or to explain the process to the department’s agencies or numerous employees. Although no one should expect DHS to drastically change its policies overnight, evidence that change is in the air is breaking through in the first reports of cases closed as a result of the announcement.
This week, the Huffington Post reported on the success of the new policy in the case of two Georgia teenagers: Pedro Morales and Luis Enrique Hernandez.
Morales has lived in the country from the age of seven, graduated from Gordon Central high school in Calhoun, and says he will be attending the Georgia Northwestern Technical College in the coming months. ‘I feel great being able to stay here, I grew up in this country. I don’t know anything about Mexico. This is my home.’
Hernandez was brought to the United States by his parents when he was two years old, and is currently a high school student and two-sport athlete. Like Morales, Hernandez was stopped while driving, and waited trial for over two months in the Stewart detention center. During this time, his coaches and teachers wrote letters to the authorities describing Hernandez’s moral character and benefit to the community and pleading for his release.
Morales and Hernandez’s cases were closed because of quick action on their attorneys’ part. CNN reports:
A day after the guidelines were announced, Georgia attorney Charles Kuck argued in court that his clients’ cases should be dropped under the new guidelines.
The clients—two teens with no criminal records who police arrested during traffic stops—were released from a detention center on Tuesday, Kuck said.
‘These kids were detained for months. We had previously asked for their release numerous times,’ he said. ‘It was only after the memo came out that they were released.’
It’s important to note that these young men were already in the immigration system, and represented by counsel. They did not seek out immigration officials, but were picked up through traffic stops. There is no guarantee that any case will turn out as well as Morales and Hernandez, and immigration attorneys are warning against anyone rushing out on their own. According to Eleanor Pelta, President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, caution is still the word:
Some attorneys say they’re seeing more cases administratively closed, Pelta said, but others say local immigration officers have told them they need more guidance from the federal government before they can change course.
We hope that there will be more stories like those of the Georgia teenagers, but even their story only has a temporary happy ending. Slowing down the deportation machine is important, but the long term consequence will never change until we go further and fix our broken immigration system.
Photo by Lane V. Erickson.
50 States Work on Immigration Legislation While Congress Refuses to Act
05 months ago
The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) recently released an analysis of the number of immigration-related proposals introduced at the state level between January and June of 2011. NCSL found that more immigration-related bills (1,592) were introduced in the first half of 2011 than in the same time period in 2010 (1,374). While the bills weren’t all bad—representing both a mixed bag of punitive and progressive proposals—they tell a bigger story of 50 states grappling with a broken immigration system while Congress sits back and watches.
This uptick in state immigration legislation is likely to continue, as is the legal and economic fallout resulting from introduction of extreme anti-immigrant legislation. For example, in five of the six states that passed Arizona-style SB1070 legislation (South Carolina excluded), immigrant and civil rights groups have filed lawsuits contesting the laws. The South Carolina bill is expected to be challenged before its 2012 effective date. The U.S. Department of Justice has also responded with lawsuits in Arizona and Alabama in an attempt to defend the federal government’s authority to regulate immigration.
It’s worth noting that even though five states joined Arizona in passing SB1070 copycats, 16 states defeated it. Even more encouraging, however, is the fact that in 2011, Maryland and Connecticut joined 11 other states who have passed instate tuition or other pro immigrant legislation bringing the total to 13—although Wisconsin’s in-state law was repealed this year and Maryland’s is currently being threatened by a referendum.
NCSL’s discussion of immigration-related legislation also extends beyond SB1070 copycats, noting that “as in previous years, law enforcement, identification/driver’s licenses and employment remained the top issues addressed in state legislation related to immigrants.” And yet, although more state-level immigration legislation was introduced this year than last, fewer proposals were actually passed into law. NCSL reports:
- In 2010, 208 laws were enacted and 138 resolutions adopted.
- As of June 30, 2011, 150 laws were enacted and 95 resolutions adopted.
So what does this all mean? It means that state governments, as a direct result of Congress’ inaction, are grappling with hundreds of pieces of legislation with the hopes of bringing some sense of order to immigration. It’s incomprehensible that as one arm of the federal government sues Arizona and Alabama to preserve its authority over immigration, another arm, Congress, refuses to exercise their authority to pass comprehensive legislation. It’s time Congress took the pressure off of states and did its job by creating a workable immigration system that serves our state’s and nation’s needs.
Photo by Hamik.
The Cost of Doing Anti-Immigrant Business: Russell Pearce to Face Recall Election
06 months ago
While the authors and proponents of state level anti-immigrant legislation received some measure of notoriety initially, one could also predict that there would be a corresponding price to pay for pursuing such costly and divisive immigration measures. Aside from the immediate lawsuits filed in nearly every state that passed Arizona copycats, there are now additional political and fiscal costs that states and supporters of these restrictive laws must pay.
Last Friday, enough signatures were certified to initiate a recall election against Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce this November. Pearce was nationally unknown until authoring Arizona’s SB 1070. While Pearce’s pursuit of this bill has cost Arizona millions in legal fees, lost business and tourism revenue, it now stands to cost him his senate seat. According to the Arizona Republic Arizona, this is “believed to be the first recall election of a state legislator in Arizona history.”
In Georgia, evidence is mounting that the state’s attempt to regulate immigration is backfiring as well. Reports from a variety of news outlets are showing the Georgia’s agriculture business is on the ropes. The growers reportedly don’t have the 11,000 workers they need to harvest their fields. Governor Nathan Deal’s plan to have probationers take to the fields also appears to be backfiring. According to CBS News:
Supporters of Georgia’s new immigration law argued legal workers should be easy to find in a state where the unemployment rate’s almost ten percent. But farmers like Paulk know most Americans want no part of picking blackberries. It’s hot, back-breaking work, for $12 an hour.
This is just the beginning, however. For Alabama, which recently passed the most aggressive copycat requiring local school administrators and clergy to act as immigration cops, the worst is yet to come. With all the mandates already placed on schools and educators, add what the Birmingham News editorial board calls “a massive amount of paperwork” in an environment of “double digit-budget cutbacks.”
School systems and the state Board of Education must generate regular, comprehensive reports to the Legislature, as must the attorney general’s office and the state Department of Homeland Security…Who, in these days of double-digit cutbacks to state agencies and schools, will do all this?
While the fall out in Alabama is yet to be seen, it’s hard to imagine how turning school principals and clergy into immigration agents will have a positive outcome. Birmingham News also reports:
Many church leaders say they will disobey the law because it is unjust. United Methodist Bishop William Willimon, head of the North Alabama Conference, wrote: “We do not check people’s immigration status before inviting them into our church vans and cars. We United Methodist clergy will continue to be in ministry to all people and we call on all United Methodists to do the same.”
While Georgia and Arizona are just beginning to feel the pain, there is no doubt that other states that pushed humane and sensible policies aside for politically expedient and shortsighted legislation will meet similar consequences. Birmingham News said it best: “the Legislature shot itself and the state in the foot. Alabamians, not just illegal immigrants, will pay a steep price.”
Photo by Gage Skidmore.