State Immigration Project Update

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

http://www.progressivestates.org/

State Immigration Project Update

Progressive States Network meets with Minnesota lawmakers and immigrant advocates

Progressive States Network's Policy Director, Nathan Newman, met with Minnesota state legislators and immigrant advocates in Minneapolis-St. Paul. In addition to individual meetings, Nathan spoke at a morning-long workshop of lawmakers and advocates.  The workshop focused on countering anti-immigrant proposals, discussing pro-immigrant strategies, and merging policy with strategic messaging.
If you are interested in having Progressive States organize a meeting in your state, please contact Outreach Coordinator Marisol Thomer at mthomer@progressivestates.org or 212-680-3116 x108.

Immigrant Access to Health Care

At Families USA's Health Action 2008 conference set to take place in Washington DC from January 24-26th, Progressive States Network's Health Care Policy Specialist Adam Thompson will be presenting on a panel titled, "Down, But Not Out: Promising Practices to Cover Immigrants." 

The workshop, scheduled for Thursday, January 25th from 4:00pm to 5:30pm will focus on what initiatives the states are proposing to make health care available to this population, how to message the immigration discussion to be more proactive, and how to develop relationships with state legislators to promote pro-immigrant policies.  For more information about Health Action 2008 visit http://www.familiesusa.org/conference/health-action-2008/.

WANTED: Immigration Policy Advocate

The Progressive States Network is seeking a highly motivated individual to work in a team approach as a policy advocate working on immigration
policy in the states. We are looking for an individual to both support individual immigration policy campaigns in states and help build a national legislative network that can institutionalize a humane and strategic immigration policy as a key part of multi-issue legislative coalitions across the country.

Interested in applying, or know someone who should?  Check out the Employment Opportunities page of our website at http://www.progressivestates.org/about/60/jobs-internships#immigration  for more details, qualifications, and application instructions.

State Immigration Review

 

Citizenship Campaigns Break Records (and Encounter Red Tape)

Even as some politicians are ramping up the rhetoric against undocumented immigrants, the reality is that they may be facing an unprecedented number of new legal immigrants voters next year, as new citizenship applications nearly doubled from 731,000 in fiscal year 2006 to 1.4 million in 2007.  In July and August 2007 alone, the agency received more than 500,000 applications for naturalization -- three times what it normally receives in a two-month period.

Some credit the rocketing number of applications to a rush to avoid the fee increase (from $400 to $675) that took place at the end of July 2007.  Others say the rise in anti-immigrant sentiment and laws encourage new-comers to file.  But no doubt much of the credit must be handed to the massive citizenship drive "Ya es hora - Ciudadania " - "Citizenship, it's time!" - launched by immigrant rights groups and Spanish-language media. The Ya es Hora campaign recently announced that it surpassed its goal of mobilizing more than one million eligible immigrants to apply for U.S. citizenship in 2007 . Applications are still being processed, but the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) confirmed receipt of 1,029,951 citizenship applications from January to October, 2007 -- nearly double the number of citizenship applications received in 2006.  Locally, similar campaigns are also reporting success.  In Waukegan, Illinois, after local law enforcement applied for deportation powers, a group of church, business and organization leaders formed under the name the Waukegan Leadership Council to register local Latino voters .

A Federal Roadblock on New Citizens: There's only one problem -- the federal government isn't keeping up. USCIS recently that those who applied for citizenship after June 1, 2007 may have to wait 16 to 18 months for their applications to be processed.  The average processing time before the surge in applications was six to seven months.  Beyond more than doubling the wait time, the processing backlog means hundreds of thousands of would-be new citizens won't be eligible to vote in November's presidential elections -- and that has many crying foul. Of course, USCIS has denied that the delays are political. 

Ya es Hora partners are working with USCIS and Congress to reduce the backlog . Cecilia Munoz, Senior Vice President of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), said:

"These applicants have played by all the rules -- waited patiently in line, paid their taxes, and contributed to their communities. We can all agree that they should not face yet another lengthy barrier to becoming full, active citizens. They deserve the opportunity to have their voices heard on Election Day."

Under pressure, USCIS has pledged to hire 1,500 new employees to address the workload and hire back about 700 retired government employees. Some offices have extended hours or opened Saturdays to try to catch up.  But USCIS Director Emilio T. Gonzalez said in a House subcommittee hearing on Thursday that this response plan won't reduce processing times to six months until the third quarter of Fiscal 2010 -- two years!?

Elderly and Disabled Refugees Facing Crisis:   The backlog isn't just affecting green card holders applying to become citizens, but also thousands of elderly and disabled refugees in the U.S.  A federal law that cuts off disability benefits if these vulnerable newcomers don't become citizens within seven years has many on the verge of destitution or worse. Those that have applied, despite infirmity or disability, are poised to be victims of USCIS' application backlog.  Worse yet, a bill to extend the limit to nine years passed the U.S. House last July by voice vote, with no objections.  But before it was offered for unanimous consent in the Senate, Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina placed a "hold" on the bill, sending it into limbo, where it remains.  As The New York Times editorial board recently noted , the Social Security Administration estimates that more than 21,000 immigrants since 2003 have been cut off from disability checks for missing the seven-year deadline, and that about 35,000 more will be pushed off that cliff in the next five years unless something is done.

Minnesota Leaders Reject Governor's Anti-Immigrant Initiatives

If one wants a model example of how to respond to anti-immigrant policy announcements, there are good lessons from the response to Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty's recent announcement of a slew of executive actions and legislative proposals to "counter illegal immigration" through local enforcement of federal immigration laws and barring state contractors who don't use the E-Verify system  to screen employees. They emphasized the political cynicism of the proposals, the likely budget costs, and the likely damage to public safety:

  • A Political Play by Pawlenty: As soon as the proposals were announced, State Senator Patricia Torres Ray noted that " this is the same proposal from two years ago and once again it's an election year ," highlighting the political cynicism of those manipulating the immigration issue.    Javier Morillo-Alicea, president of SEIU Local 26, stated that " this has everything to do with the presidential race ," since Pawlenty is angling for a slot as Vice-President nominee.   Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller echoed Morillo's conjecture , saying, " Perhaps the governor is sharpening his message for the national stage."
  • The Budget Cost: Sen. Leo Foley, a member of the Senate Public Safety Budget Committee, highlighted the financial costs of states trying to shoulder enforcement costs that should be handled by the federal government. " What it's going to do is bring down the Minnesota treasury ."
  • Undermining Public Safety: Robin Phillips, executive director of Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, highlighted the likely damage to public safety found the Governor's plan:  "The governor's actions stand to damage community policing efforts, create significant fear in immigrant communities, and prevent victims from coming forward."   Phillips also noted that representatives from the Sheriff's Association, the Police and Peace Officers Association, labor, business, immigrant groups, faith-based organizations, human rights advocates, and community organizations all testified against the proposed legislation in 2006.

Even the Minnesota Chicano Latino Affairs Council (CLAC) -- 11 of whose 15 members where appointed by the governor -- issued a statement sharply at odds with Pawlenty's proposals . 

Pawlenty himself acknowledged that, aside from his unilateral executive orders, only the less controversial measures, like strengthening human trafficking laws and tougher penalties for identity theft, would likely move in the legislature .

Cited Resources

Executive Order 08-01 : Requiring use of e-verify for newly hired employees in the executive branch and requiring certification of compliance with federal immigration laws for state contract vendors and employers receiving business subsidies 

Executive Order 08-02 : Directing cooperation with federal immigration authorities

Press Release: Governor Pawlenty Unveils Actions to Combat Illegal Immigration - January 7, 2008

Survey Says - The Failure of Anti-Immigrant Politics as Political Issue

Recently Tamar Jacoby, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, reported that according to recent polls, the majority of voters -- the 60 percent in the middle -- are prepared to come to terms pragmatically with the 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. despite their anxiety or certainty about what needs to be done.  Similarly,  a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll from the end of November 2007 shows that 63 percent of Democrats, 64 percent of Republicans and 57 percent of independents favor allowing undocumented immigrants who meet certain conditions -- registering, being fingerprinted, paying a fine and learning English -- to become citizens over time.

Even the Republican primaries are showing that immigration is less important than the media hype has made it out to be. As conservative columnist Bob Novak recently wrote :

There is a growing body of evidence that making immigration the No. 1 issue is a political mistake. Romney based his New Hampshire campaign on attacking McCain's liberal immigration policy, and it failed there -- as it did in Iowa. " 

Miami Herald columnist Andres Oppenheimer agrees: "According to exit polls, immigration was not among the three most important issues for Democrats, and was tied for third place among Republicans."

In Arizona, a Rocky Mountain Poll of Maricopa County residents conducted late last year found that 66 percent think politicians are turning illegal immigration into "an ugly racial issue."  And people weren't just upset at politicians -- no news there, really -- they were sympathetic to fair treatment of immigrants. That same poll showed 76 percent thought federal law should provide a way for foreign workers to come and go across the border legally (up from 73 percent in May 2006) and 83 percent agreed that "securing our borders should be our top priority, but fair and humane treatment of foreign workers is also very important."   64 percent surveyed disagreed with the statement that "people who enter the United States illegally to seek work are no better than common criminals."

Immigration Issue Does Resonate in Some States: Yet the issue still seems to register in some state polls, although it remains an open question if this will matter at the ballot box.  A new poll by Arizona State University's Institute for Social Science Research found that undocumented immigration was a serious problem for a strong majority of people living in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico , and Nevada, with 58 percent saying undocumented immigration is a very serious problem and another 27 percent believing it's a "somewhat" serious problem.  A  recent Tulsa World and KOTV channel 6 poll found that almost half of those surveyed said that Oklahoma's new law cracking down on undocumented immigrants by denying benefits and increasing enforcement needs to be strengthened. Only 31 percent said they would like to see it repealed. The poll found that illegal immigration tied with education as Oklahoma's most pressing problem.

Why the Mixed Polling? High Immigration States Doing Better than Low Immigration Ones : One reason for the mixed polling on the issue is that the arguments of opponents don't add up -- states with high immigration are actually doing better than those without.  Conservative think-tank America's Majority Foundation, in a new study titled Immigration and the Wealth of States , finds that states with high numbers of immigrants have lower rates of unemployment, individual poverty and total crime than other states.

Among the startling findings from America's Majority is that the median per capita income -- the earnings of the 'man in the middle' -- is $3,469 greater in the 19 high immigration jurisdictions than in the 32 other states.  Also, f rom 1999-to-2006, unemployment declined in the high immigration states, even while increasing nationwide, and t he percentage of individuals in poverty decreased in the 10 states with the highest percentage of immigrants, while increasing elsewhere.  And as for crime, in 2006, the total crime rate per 100,000 residents was lower in the high immigration jurisdictions than in the 32 other states.

Research & Polling Highlights

 

Recent Research

  • "Does immigration actually cause the ills attributed to it?"   The answer is a resounding NO! according to a new study by the conservative think-tank America's Majority Foundation titled Immigration and the Wealth of States .

  • Requiring employers to check employee citizenship status through E-Verify, the federal online database, isn't the solution some lawmakers imagine it is. In a July 2007 report , the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates the price tag of making E-Verify mandatory (and thereby substantially increasing the number of employers using it) would be $70 million annually for program management plus an additional $300 to $400 million annually for compliance activities and staff. All that money and the GAO warns that the system can't even fully address fraud issues - for example,  when employees present borrowed or stolen genuine documents or when employers try to subvert the system by entering the same identity information to authorize multiple workers.

  • Originally published in Bender's Immirgation Bulletin in 2005, we thought it important to dust off a report by West Point law professor Margaret Stock's report on Driver Licenses and National Security . In that report Stock thoroughly expounds on why the denial of licenses to undocumented immigrants is a policy prescription that hampers law enforcement far more than it enhances it. 

  • Overwhelmed by the myriad of state immigration legislation passed in 2007?  Here are three helpful cheat sheets to help sort out the chaos:

    • Are there state immigration developments in your state?  Do you know about new immigration research?  Let us know by emailing us at immigration@progressivestates.org .

    Immigration News in the States

     

    Updates by Issue

    In the Workplace:  Given the justifiable concern by voters about illegal sweatshops, a number of state leaders are looking beyond the issue of punishing immigrant workers to concentrating on raising wages for all workers-- and increasing penalties for wage law violators across the board. 

    New York State has created a new Bureau of Immigrant Workers' Rights  which has already moved forward in cracking down on low-wage law violators , sending a van out to churches and community groups to encourage immigrant workers to come forward to report wage law violations-- an important lesson that outreach, not pushing immigrants into the shadows, is the key to raising wage standards for all.   Virginia Delegate Dwight Jones has introduced HB 1038 which would enhance enforcement of the state minimum wage law.

    On the other hand, other states still misguidedly are focusing on sanctions just for those employing undocumented immigrants, while ignoring the broader problem of wage law violations.  Some Indiana leaders have introduced a bill to penalize employers who knowingly hire undocumented immigrants and some Iowa House Democrats similarly are talking about new penalties for employers of undocumented immigrants.

    Those states are pushing the anti-immigrant employer sanctions laws despite the ongoing controversy in states where they've been enacted.  There will be no prosecutions under Arizon's employer-sanctions law until after March 1, under an agreement reached in federal court Wednesday, while a federal judge promised to rule on the landmark hiring law by early February.  Oklahoma's HB 1804 faced a new lawsuit  earlier this month as violating the state constitution.  

    Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano is proposing extensive changes in that state's law to disallow anonymous complaints by ''malicious competitors" or others and clarification that a wronful hiring decision in one location won't shut down an entire chain of businesses.  Many in the business community continue to see significant damages to the state's economy from the new law: "We are literally shutting down immigration, and as we shut down immigration, we shut down the economy," says Joe Sigg, director of government relations for the Arizona Farm Bureau, a statewide coalition of farmers and ranchers. Similarly, Oklahoma businesses are seeing hits to the local economy  from departing undocumented AND legal immigrants, while even some legislators who voted from the law admit there are problems.  State Rep. Kris Steele, a Republican who voted for the bill, has received calls from non-immigrants complaining that they had to produce a document such as an original birth certificate or certified copy to renew an expired driver's license. "I want to make sure we're not necessarily putting the general public in a quandary," he says.

    Immigrant Integration Initiatives:  A number of states are moving forward with programs to better integrate existing immigrants into their communities:

    • Virginia's HB 1174 which would establish an Office of Immigrant Assistance to aid legal immigrants in moving along the path to citizenship, while  HB 419 / HB 437 would help ease financial pressure on schools with expanded needs for english language instruction.
    • Massachusett's Governor Deval Patrick is pushing for approval of in-state tuition at state colleges and universities via approval by the 11-member Board of Higher Education.
    • In Texas, education officials revised rules this month  that had prevented some veterans who are immigrants from receiving college tuition exemptions.
    • In Wisconsin, a social justice group, Empowerment, Solidarity, Truth, Hope, Equality and Reform of Fox Valley Interfaith Organizing Group, commonly called ESTHER, is working through the local Catholic Church to expand immigrant language couses and help for naturalization efforts.

    On the other hand, many school officials in Arizona have noted the drop in school attendance by many immigrant children, as their families fear letting them even leave home to go to school due to the anti-immigrant atmosphere in that state..

    Public Safety Initiatives: Even as some states seek to enlist local law enforcement in enforcing federal immigration law, initiatives are moving forward to protect public safety through outreach and community policing in immigrant communities.  To encourage cooperation with the police, Virginia's proposed HB 307 shields crime victims and witnesses from immigration inquiries.  New York Sen. Jose Serrano also introduced a measure, S 6738 , to make it the policy of all New York State employees to keep immigration status confidential when providing essential services for law-abiding people.  Sen. Serrano noted public saefty was the primary reason he was introducing the bill , stating that, "It is simply unacceptable that so many crimes against undocumented immigrants go unreported because they are afraid to come forward to the police. This bill will go a long way in ensuring that all people within the state of New York are able to feel safe and secure."

    Hubert Williams, head of the research organization Police Foundation, has highlighted the dangers of racial profiling when local agencies bear the responsibility for immigration enforcement.  Since Alabama state troopers began training with federal ICE agents, immigrant advocates have noted that immigrants are now more hesitant to talk to police when they are victimes of crime, making them easier prey for criminals who know their crimes won't get reported to the police.

    Drivers License Developments:   In California, State Senator Gilbert Cedillo has reintroduced legislation to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses , although the bill is likely to be vetoed again by Governor Schwarzenegger.  After Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski announced he would bar undocumented immigrants from receiving state drivers licenses by executive authority, a new legal opinion by the state legislature's legal counsel argued the governor had exceeded his legal authority , throwing the issue back into the legislature's hands.  In Maryland, after some in his administration argued for a "two-tier" drivers license system, Governor Martin O'Malley instead called for completely barring undocumented immigrants from receiving drivers licenses in that state.  And Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, who oversees the motor vehicle department, announced that the state would no longer issue drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants.

    Other Anti-Immigrant Initiatives are being introduced in many states, including Arizona , Florida , Georgia , Missouri , Nebraska , Long Island (NY) , South Carolina , Virginia ,  and West Virginia .

    Other News Clips Worth Reading

    Adman to Pitch Immigrants' Story - The Wall Street Journal - January 16, 2008
    The nation's heated debate over immigration is headed to television advertising, in the form of a business-funded campaign that will tout the benefits of legalizing illegal workers and try to counter hardening rhetoric on immigration.

    Author says U.S. should learn immigration lessons of a century ago - San Francisco Chronicle - January 14, 2008
    With the heated debate over undocumented workers poised to take center stage in the November election, a historian who researched the ethnic cleansing of Chinese Americans cautions against repeating the dark chapter of the American history.

    Filling the Void after High School - The Washington Post - January 14, 2008
    About 65,000 illegal immigrants graduate from U.S. high schools every year, unable to work legally and often unable to afford college without access to in-state tuition or government-backed financial aid, according to the Urban Institute.

    Five myths of anti-immigration talk - The Miami Herald - January 13, 2008
    Andres Oppenheimer debunks the biggest myths of the anti-immigration movement that has swept this country over the past two years.

    Changing terms and hearts seen as key to immigration debate - Catholic News Service - January 11, 2008
    Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City, as the new chairman of the U.S. bishops' migration committee, finds frustration in the shock-jock approach of talk radio that dismisses the complexities of the immigration and promotes popularly accepted misinformation. But he is optimistic that the church's faith-based position on aiding immigrants will eventually win the day.

    A need for facts and reason: Immigration in Alabama - The Anniston Star - January 10, 2008
    An Anniston Star editorial calls for facts and reasons for Alabama residents after a heated public hearing of the "Joint Interim Patriotic Immigration Commission"

    Economic inequality is key to immigration - Lawrence Journal-World & News - January 2, 2008
    Jorge Soberon, a scientist at the Natural History Museum at Kansas University writes, "I do believe that Americans are now concentrating almost single-mindedly on measures that address the symptoms, rather than the causes, of the immigration situation. The symptom is a very marked increase, beginning about 10 years ago, in the number of Mexicans coming to work in the United States. The cause is the economic inequality both between the countries and within Mexico."

    Don't fence the U.S. in - Star-Telegram - December 30, 2007
    Richard F. Cortez, Mayor of McAllen, Texas, argues that a building a fence on the U.S.-Mexico border is a "a $200 million waste of taxpayer money" that "won't stop potential terrorists or illegal immigrants from hiking across the border.'       He notes that it also won't stop visitors with legal documents from over-staying their authorized visits or stop professional smugglers and fraudulent ID.

    Need for immigrants is touted - The Richmond Times-Dispatch - January 18, 2008
    The U.S. needs immigrants a lot more than today's political discourse might lead people to believe, an economist said yesterday. "An aging native-born population needs migrants for economic reasons," said Eric R. Jensen, director of the Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy at the College of William and Mary. With baby boomers reaching retirement age, along with low U.S. birthrates, the nation needs immigrants to support the costs of Social Security and other services, he said.

    NAFTA needs to be revised and improved to fix illegal immigration - Salt Lake Tribune - January 14, 2008

    Masthead

    The State Immigration Project Update is written and edited by:

    Nathan Newman, Policy Director
    Marisol Thomer, Outreach Coordinator


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