* With apologies to the late Ralph Chaplin, the I.W.W. organizer who wrote the words to "Solidarity Forever"

Here's a thought: Maybe before we consider another amnesty for illegal aliens, we should complete the last amnesty – the one voted by the Congress a generation ago, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. Read more...

One of the perpetual problems with America's efforts to manage international migration is that they are always underfunded.

The State Department has proposed about $84 million a year in increases in its nonimmigrant (i.e., temporary) visa fees, and has asked for public comment. (See the second page in this notice from the Federal Register).

We should all rally around and encourage the State Department in this venture. Read more...

Please visit our YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter pages.

1. TPS is practically permanent
2. Restrictions on Haitians
3. Election hurts amnesty chances
4. Report: failure of 1986 law
5. Leaders call for amnesty Read more...

During the past several months, I have commented on the failure of law enforcement officials to enforce the nation's immigration laws, thereby giving illegal alien criminals an advantage that they should not have.

Law enforcement officials argue that they have to give illegal aliens a pass for violating immigration laws in order to gain their confidence and support. While this may work in some cases, it also leaves violent, criminal illegal aliens free to go about their business. Read more...

For the second time to three days, the Washington Post has an op-ed calling on us to help Haiti by reducing the number of Haitians living there. Elliott Abrams' piece, which I critiqued here on Friday, was wrongheaded in calling for substantial increases in Haitian immigration but at least it didn't reject American sovereignty. Read more...

A funny thing happened on the way to the coliseum, where open-borders advocates and other strident ethnic activists thought the lions would deal a final blow to state and local immigration enforcement. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement official — from the Obama administration, no less — actually defended the program. ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton praised the 287(g) program in comments reported by the Arizona Republic. Read more...

Please visit our YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter pages.

1. TPS Applications being accepted
2. Figures indicate changing views
3. UT congressman seeks resolution
4. Sen lobbied to endorse amnesty
5. Strategist expects resistance Read more...

Elliott Abrams has a piece in today's Washington Post calling on the United States to substantially increase Haitian immigration, so as to reduce the population of Haiti and increase the amount of remittances sent there from abroad. It's so wrong-headed I'm not sure where to start. Read more...

One of the ironies of the new Temporary Protected Status program for Haitians illegally in the country on the date of the earthquake is that they can use illegally obtained welfare benefits to support an application to waive the $470 application fee for the TPS program.

I doubt that there will be much utilization of this quirk – there are some useful bars to the award of such benefits to illegal aliens in these programs – but the Department of Homeland Security seems to be unaware of the possibility of the illicit use of programs such as Food Stamps and TANF (the old AFDC). Read more...

Please visit our YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter pages.

1. 200K TPS applications expected
2. Agents break down hunger strike
3. 'Ellis Isl. of the West' celebrates
4. NM state senator calls for amnesty
5. USBP agents fire at assailants Read more...

A couple of news items have converged with research. Recently, I have been reading the legislative history of the H-1B program. It is interesting to see how some things have changed and other things keep repeating. The H-1B visa was created in the Immigration Act of 1990. From the House Judiciary Committee we have the findings that: Read more...

The Miami Herald tells us that something like 200,000 Haitians, now in the U.S., illegally, are going to be given temporary legal status in the U.S. through grants of Temporary Protected Status. The number is much larger than earlier estimates issued by the government, and might be an over statement. Read more...

Please visit our YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter pages.

1. Obama TSA pick withdraws
2. Officials warn of ex-cons
3. Officials to expedite TPS
4. Victory shifts paradigm
5. Catholic leaders applaud Read more...

Please visit our YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter pages.

1. Critics fret permanent TPS
2. Evacuees stream to FL
3. Deportation preempting trials
4. Enlistees' get citizenship
5. Officials warn U.K. Read more...

Under the pressure of constant questioning from the Spanish-language media, the White House continues to insist that it wants to move quickly on "comprehensive immigration reform," even as congressional Democrats indicate that they have no desire to deal with the issue this year.

"This is something we take very seriously," Obama aide Cecilia Munoz told Univision newsman Jorge Ramos on Sunday's Al Punto program. "His commitment is there." Read more...

It is highly likely that there will be a flood of Haitian refugees in the next few months, no matter how heroic the Administration‘s efforts are to meet the short- and long-term needs of the people in Haiti.

It is time to make some hard-nosed suggestions about the distribution of those refugees. Read more...

Please visit our YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter pages.

1. Haitian illegals to have TPS
2. FL detention center readied
3. CO rep. presses for visas
4. TX lawmaker chosen as 'face'
5. RI early program fails Read more...

Please visit our YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter pages.

1. Feds close detention center
2. Rep. urged to back amnesty
3. AZ dubbed 'ground zero'
4. Activists seek TPS
5. Activists continue rallies Read more...

The open-borders supporters continue to push the linguistic boundaries as they seek to impose on all of us new and fuzzier ways of discussing immigration policy, a subject covered in an earlier blog of mine. Read more...

Please visit our YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter pages.

1. Haitian deportations suspended
2. Census targets MA communities
3. NY controller reports on labor
4. Activists draw from MLK
5. Amnesty activists rally Read more...

One of the reasons I came to work at CIS a year ago was that I wanted to oppose the effort by some who favor increased immigration to stifle debate by impugning the motives of those, including CIS, who make a case for reduced immigration. That smear campaign, led by the National Council of La Raza and their allies at the Southern Poverty Law Center, seeks to present us as part of an "anti-immigrant" cabal whose claims to be concerned about the economic, environmental, and social consequences of immigration are merely a mask that seeks to cover our bigotry and xenophobia. Read more...

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) was invented precisely for cases like Haiti today — when a natural disaster is so devastating that illegal immigrants from that country temporarily can't be deported. And there are already several members of Congress calling on the administration to grant TPS, and rightly so. Read more...

Please visit our YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter pages.

1. Obama still has vacancies
2. Amnesty next on Obama agenda
3. Report details struggles in NE
4. MI leaders host town hall
5. CO amnesty activists rally Read more...

In an earlier blog I said that it would cost about $100,000 each for a rich alien family of five to secure green cards through the investor visa program. I also said that the program generates jobs for Americans. I was wrong on both accounts.

The jobs can be hard to identify and the costs can be much less. Read more...

Monday's Washington Times included a piece echoing Elliott Abrams's NRO article from a couple weeks ago: The State Department needs to get out of the visa business. It managed to hold onto to the visa process after 9/11 only with oversight from DHS, but State has continually fought DHS efforts to tighten up the process and "again and again has sided with foreigners seeking access to the United States." This is why, as my Center for Immigration Studies colleague Jessica Vaughan points out, State didn't even check whether the panty-bomber had a visa after his father's warning, let alone revoke it. Read more...

The CNN segment on the Christmas Day Plot below features Janice Kephart discussing why we need to think about this plot not so much as an intelligence failing, but a successful terrorist travel operation akin to that used by the 9/11 hijackers. She also discusses the need to re-vet visas close to time of travel. Read more...

Please visit our YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter pages.

1. Sen. Grassley demands screening
2. Economic impact discussed
3. NJ in-state tuition bill fails
4. Arpaio under fire for policies
5. Religious leaders lobby Read more...

There are new indications that supporting mass amnesty and liberal immigration levels may carry political costs. Two prominent Republican lawmakers who've pushed amnesty now face political heat for those actions. U.S. Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham have become targets for their open-borders stances. Read more...

Note: This fictional account is an accurate depiction of the harm that illegal aliens are doing to millions of American children. Any resemblance in this account to any person living or dead is purely coincidental.

Please visit our YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter pages.

1. Feds accused of cover up
2. Visa program aims at investors
3. Immigrants adjust to regulations
4. Mexican ambassador pessimistic
5. Experts warn against lists Read more...