1. Backgrounder: Birthright Citizenship in the United States: A Global Comparison
2. Video: Mark Krikorian Discusses Illegal Immigration on FOX News
3. Blog: The Uses and Abuses of the Asylum System
4. Blog: Behind the Pew Study on Illegal Immigration, Part II: How Many Illegals?
5. Blog: ‘Machete’ Splashing Its Gore on a Movie Screen Near You
6. Blog: A Right to Immigrate?
7. Blog: Behind the Pew Study on Illegal Immigration, Part I: First the ‘Good’ News
8. Blog: ICE Caving on Secure Communities
9. Blog: TRAC Study Mirrors Pew’s – Aliens Less Interested in the U.S. Than Before
10. Blog: Jorge Castaneda Blames U.S. for Migrant Massacre
11. Blog: If Pew Says It, It Must Be True!
12. Blog: DHS Issues Dark, Mixed Message to Pregnant Foreign Visitors
13. Blog: From Sanctuary to Safer City
14. Blog: Mexico’s Elite Emigration
15. Blog: Abuse of Migrants Gets More Attention in Mexico
— Mark Krikorian]
1.
Birthright Citizenship in the United States: A Global Comparison
By Jon Feere
CIS Backgrounder, August 2010
http://www.cis.org/birthright-citizenship
Excerpt: This Backgrounder briefly explains some policy concerns that result from an expansive application of the Citizenship Clause, highlights recent legislative efforts to change the policy, provides a historical overview of the development of the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, and includes a discussion of how other countries approach birthright citizenship. The paper concludes that Congress should clarify the scope of the Citizenship Clause and promote a serious discussion on whether the United States should automatically confer the benefits and burdens of U.S. citizenship on the children of aliens whose presence is temporary or illegal.
2.
Mark Krikorian Discusses Declining Illegal Population
FOX News, September 3, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/user/CISORG#p/u/0/SYcGxYLz5Vk
3.
The Uses and Abuses of the Asylum System
By David North
CIS Blog, September 6, 2010
http://www.cis.org/North/AsylumUsesandAbuses
Excerpt: The recent release of data on the immigration judges’ asylum decisions by the TRAC system reminded me of the uses and abuses of the asylum process, an interesting but relatively minor part of the immigration system.
These data also cast some light on our role in Iraq, as noted below.
4.
Behind the Pew Study on Illegal Immigration, Part II: How Many Illegals?
By Stanley Renshon
CIS Blog, September 5, 2010
http://www.cis.org/renshon/behind-pew-study-2
Excerpt: The recently released Pew report on the decline of the illegal population in the United States has garnered a lot of attention, though a great deal of it for the wrong reasons. Obama administration officials are already touting their policies to account for the decline. A DHS spokesman went even further, saying that ‘the downward trend in border crossings has continued since Obama took office in January 2009, citing Homeland Security statistics that show decreases in illegal-immigrant apprehensions during the past two years’ (emphasis mine).
5.
‘Machete’ Splashing Its Gore on a Movie Screen Near You
By Jerry Kammer
CIS Blog, September 3, 2010
http://www.cis.org/kammer/machete-reviews
Excerpt: The New York Times says it’s ‘conveniently timed to sprinkle gasoline on the fires of the immigration debate.’ Get ready for some talk-show rumbling as ‘Machete’ splashes its gore across movie screens starting this weekend. Here are excerpts from five reviews:
6.
A Right to Immigrate?
By Steven Camarota
CIS Blog, September 3, 2010
http://www.cis.org/Camarota/a-right-to-immigrate
Excerpt: I recently came across a paper by University of Colorado philosophy professor Michael Huemer entitled ‘Is There a Right to Immigrate?’ Huemer’s answer is clearly ‘yes,’ there is such a right. By a ‘right to immigrate’ he means the right to enter another country of one’s choosing, rather than just a right to leave one’s country. While only a tiny share of the American people would agree with Mr. Huemer, such people constitute a large share of immigration thinkers on the far left and the libertarian right. Although generally not part of the public immigration debate – few if any actual elected office holders imagine a ‘right’ to enter our country – many advocates of high immigration seem to either privately agree with Huemer or at least strongly sympathize with his position. Thus, his perspective is important, even if it is not currently discussed openly outside of academia circles. Below I list some of my objections to his formation, in no particular ! order.
7.
Behind the Pew Study on Illegal Immigration, Part I: First the ‘Good’ News
By Stanley Renshon
CIS Blog, September 3, 2010
http://www.cis.org/renshon/behind-pew-study-1
Excerpt: The new report from the Pew Hispanic Center is certain to be widely discussed and widely misunderstood. The report delivers the conclusion most likely to be quoted in its title, ‘U.S. Unauthorized Immigration Flows Are Down Sharply Since Mid-Decade.’
8.
ICE Caving on Secure Communities
By Jessica Vaughan
CIS Blog, September 2, 2010
http://www.cis.org/vaughan/caving-on-secure-communities
Excerpt: The San Francisco Chronicle reported today that ICE is going all wobbly in defending Secure Communities, its marquee program for identifying and removing criminal aliens.
Secure Communities ought to be one of the most uncontroversial enforcement programs ever launched. It provides for the fingerprints of all those booked into county jails to be screened against immigration databases as part of the same process by which they are screened against other criminal history databases. Launched officially in 2008, so far it has found nearly 300,000 criminal aliens, including 43,000 very serious offenders. It is in more than 500 counties nationwide. Because it is based on fingerprints, criminal aliens cannot escape detection by using aliases or by claiming U.S. citizenship. It eliminates the need for local officers to make separate, manual requests to check an inmate’s immigration status, and provides for automatic notification to the local ICE office, so they can take custody of the criminal aliens and remove them at the appropriate time. There is no cost and no additional work for the local agencies. Everyone is screened, so there is no possibil! ity of discrimination
9.
TRAC Study Mirrors Pew’s – Aliens Less Interested in the U.S. Than Before
By David North
CIS Blog, September 2, 2010
http://www.cis.org/north/TRAC-asylum-data
Excerpt: It was probably a coincidence, but two quite different studies of alien populations were issued within 24 hours of each other, each showing that migrants appear to be less interested in the U.S. than formerly.
The more numerically significant of the two, the report of the Pew Hispanic Center, as noted in a posting by Mark Krikorian, estimated that the number of illegal aliens in the country had dropped to 11.1 million from 12.0 million two years earlier. That’s a decrease, over two years, of 7.5 percent.
10.
Jorge Castaneda Blames U.S. for Migrant Massacre
By Jerry Kammer
CIS Blog, September 2, 2010
http://www.cis.org/kammer/castaneda-migrant-massacre
Excerpt: That’s the provocative headline of today’s column in the Mexican daily Reforma by Jorge Castaneda, who as Mexico’s foreign secretary from 2000 to 2003 pushed the Bush administration to pass ‘comprehensive immigration reform’ legislation. He is now Global Distinguished Professor of Politics and Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University.
11.
If Pew Says It, It Must Be True!
By Mark Krikorian
CIS Blog, September 2, 2010
http://www.cis.org/krikorian/pew-illegals-estimate
Excerpt: A slew of news stories today about a new report from the Pew Hispanic Center estimating that as of March 2009, the illegal population had dropped to 11.1 million. Pew, though institutionally inclined toward amnesty and mass immigration, does honest work, and this is no exception. But many of the press reports are treating this as momentous, previously unknown news when, in fact, it’s already been reported — twice.
12.
DHS Issues Dark, Mixed Message to Pregnant Foreign Visitors
By David North
CIS Blog, September 1, 2010
http://www.cis.org/north/pregnant-visitors
Excerpt: An arm of the Department of Homeland Security is apparently paying some subdued, indirect attention to the 14th Amendment controversy – should ‘anchor babies’ be allowed, as they are now, to become citizens at birth?
It has issued a somber message to pregnant alien women thinking about coming to this country. (For more on the birthright citizenship controversy see the new Backgrounder by my colleague Jon Feere.)
13.
From Sanctuary to Safer City
By Jessica Vaughan
CIS Blog, August 31, 2010
http://www.cis.org/vaughan/from-sanctuary-to-safer-city
Excerpt: The police union in Houston, a former sanctuary city, is taking a look at the experience of Phoenix, which two years ago implemented a policy to allow its officers to call ICE to report suspected illegal aliens who were connected to other crimes. The implementation of this policy, which is similar to the one signed into law by Arizona governor Jan Brewer and later blocked by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton in response to a Justice Department lawsuit, has contributed to a steady decline in violent and property crime rates in Phoenix, without generating a single complaint of civil rights violations or racial profiling, according to officer Mark Spencer. Spencer is president of the Phoenix police union and recently gave a presentation to officers in Houston.
14.
Mexico’s Elite Emigration
By Jerry Kammer
CIS Blog, August 31, 2010
http://www.cis.org/kammer/mexicos-elite-emigration
Excerpt: ‘A new form of migration much more elitist and selective, but migration in the end, has been taking place for months in various zones in the north of the country, especially the border states,’ writes columnist Salvador Garcia Soto in today’s edition of the Mexican daily El Universal. ‘The narco violence, the lack of security, and the misgovernment in these places is pushing out entire families of Mexicans who have changed their residence and their activities to various cities of the United States.’
15.
Abuse of Migrants Gets More Attention in Mexico
By Jerry Kammer
CIS Blog, August 30, 2010
http://www.cis.org/kammer/abuse-of-migrants
Excerpt: The often brutal mistreatment suffered by Central American migrants passing through Mexico on their way to the United States is receiving increased attention in that country following the discovery last week of the bodies of 72 migrants who had been gunned down. The victims were reportedly murdered by one of the criminal gangs involved in the trafficking of both drugs and human beings.
