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Opinion contributors Published 6:00 a.m. ET Aug. 14, 2020

Acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Mark Morgan described efforts of the agency's task during the coronavirus pandemic saying, "illegal immigration, it continues -- putting American lives at risk." (August 6) AP Domestic

We cannot let divisive rhetoric prevent us from working toward a compassionate immigration policy that lives up to the ideals of the American Dream.

What one reform if adopted by the federalgovernment would move the nation forward in addressing the challenges and opportunities of immigration to the United States?

Rep. Fred Upton: America has long been the land of opportunity for millions of immigrants who have enriched our communities and contributed to our economy. As a nation of immigrants, Democrats and Republicans must come together on bipartisan reforms to fix our broken immigration system.

One thing is certain we cannot let divisive rhetoric prevent us from working toward a compassionate immigration policy that enforces our laws, supports our agricultural community and farm laborers, and lives up to the ideals of the American dream.

The president has said that Congress needs to do our job and get a bill to his desk. Congress has failed to do such. Weve made some progress like when the House passed the Farm Workforce Modernization Act last year but more is needed. Partisan bickering only delays progress. Lets focus on areas of agreement rather than letting politics get in the way.

Fred Upton, a Republican, represents Michigan's 6th Congressional District.

Rep. Dean Phillips: We need a commitment to good old-fashioned respect, commitment to action and collaboration to solve the partisan deadlock on immigration.

Why do I seem so upbeat? Because we achieved a bipartisan compromise on immigration just last year. I was among a group of members from both parties who came together to pass a pathway to citizenship for Liberian families who sought refuge from civil war through the Deferred Enforced Departure program.

Greater Minneapolis has an extraordinary Liberian population, and after listening to leaders from that community, I worked with Republicans and Democrats to finally pass a pathway to citizenship, which was signed by the president. Weve provedthat bipartisan immigration reform can be done, but early reports suggest that the Trump administration has yet to approve a single green card application from that program ninemonths after its passage.

People take part in a protest near a U.S. Immigration building on May 13, 2020, in New York City. Protesters were demanding an end to the continued detention and deportation of non-U.S. Citizens. Conditions within detention centers guarantee exposure to COVID-19 and detainees who have tested positive for COVID-19 are still being deported.(Photo: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, Getty Images)

So while collaboration is key, we cannot fix our countrys immigration problems until we have a president who is willing to enforce in good faith the laws set forth by Congress. Optimism is empty without action, after all.

Dean Phillips, a Democrat, represents Minnesota's 3rd Congressional District.

Peter Boogaard: Our immigration system has been broken for decades, leaving millions of people contributing to our families and economy, and helping our communities survive the ongoing pandemic, with no opportunity to earn legal status.

These nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants should be able to become citizens. Taking this vital step while reforming laws that trap people in undocumented status would immediately improve our immigration system.

We spend billions trying to deport hardworking immigrants, often separating parents from their U.S. citizen children and breaking apart families. We lose billions in economic growth and tax revenue by limiting their ability to fully contribute. And we sacrifice ingenuity, dynamism and cultural cohesion by systematically perpetuating an underclass who are essential to our society, but who are denied the most basic freedoms and dignity. This further fuels the demagoguery of immigrants we see far too often.

Legalization wont fix every problem with our immigration system, but the overwhelming success of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allowed young undocumented immigrants to legally live and work in the United States, has proved that creating more opportunities for immigrants to fully contribute is good for the country. Its long past time for Congress to act and unlock our nations true potential.

Peter Boogaard is the communications director forFWD.us. He previously wasdeputy assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security and workedon the National Security Council and in White House communications in the Obama administration.

Mike Howell: For conservatives, one unfulfilled promise really stands outending birthright citizenship forchildren of illegal immigrants. President Donald Trump promised this during the 2016 campaign and on multiple occasions since then.

Birthright citizenship automatically grants U.S. citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants. At least 5million individuals in the USAhave received birthright citizenshipbut should not have. This practice is due to a misapplication of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the interpretation of the language subject to the jurisdiction.

Legislative history makes no mention of illegal immigrants being subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.Proponents of birthright citizenship often point to the 1898 Supreme Court caseU.S. v. Wong Kim Ark,but that case dealt with the children oflawful permanent residents, notillegal immigrants.

The president doesnt need Congress to end this practice. He could issue an executive order instructing federalagencies to issue passports and other government documents and benefits only to those individuals whose status as U.S. citizens meets this requirement.

Trumps 2016 campaign put out a policy paper saying that birthright citizenship remains the biggest magnet for illegal immigration. He was right then and would be right now to end it.

Mike Howell issenior adviser for Executive Branch Relations at The Heritage Foundation. He previously was the chief legal point of contact inthe Department of Homeland Security's Office of the General Counsel.

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/08/14/immigration-reform-4-ideas-fixing-broken-system-column/3318099001/

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What's the big idea? 4 proposals to reform America's immigration system - USA TODAY

For the last two months, the roiling immigration debate has centered around President Trumps executive orders, which have slowed some legal migration and suspended most employment-based visas until the end of 2020. During the period, President Trump scored a major victory over globalists when he forced Tennessee Valley Authority executives to turn back their outsourcing commitment that would cost high-skilled American workers their jobs.

However, down on the still-porous Southwest border, illegal immigration the contentious issue that propelled President Trump into the White House is worsening. Since April, and despite President Trumps efforts to curb illegal immigration in light of the coronavirus pandemic, unlawful entry arrests have soared 237 percent, according to Customs and Border Protection.

In March, pursuant to the urging from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, border officials turned back migrants, including those who claimed asylum. For more than 90 percent of the migrants, the normal timeline for returning unlawful border crossers dropped from a period of several weeks to a mere hour and a half.

In his compelling documentary, They Come to America: the Politics of Immigration, filmmaker Dennis Michael Lynch, in interviews with experts, gives an overview of the challenges that decades-long ineffective methods of slowing illegal entry present to the nation. Among them are drug smuggling, national security, environmental degradation and population growth.

But Lynch also focuses on illegal immigration as a labor variable that is especially harmful to low-skilled U.S. workers who have less than a college education. CBP acting Commissioner Mark A. Morgan acknowledged that, during the spring-time, surge jobs are illegal immigrations biggest pull factor.

Single adult Mexican nationals, who are generally seeking economic opportunities, accounted for almost 80 percent of the encounters, Morgan said.

Based on the latest available federal statistics, Pew Research estimated that 8 million immigrants are in the labor force illegally, mostly employed in agriculture but also in sectors that would present hiring possibilities for Americas under-employed, like construction, hospitality, business services and manufacturing.

While theres been much fanfare, both positive and negative, about President Trumps big beautiful wall, Lynch makes clear that no structure can protect the nations waterways from illegal entrants. As an example, Lynch cites the CBPs Miami sector thats assigned to cover Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

The Miami sector consists of approximately 187,000 square miles and has 1,203 miles of Floridas coastal borders along the Atlantic and Gulf shores. In his statement, Morgan advocated for President Trumps wall. But as Lynch pointed out, a wall is meaningless with such a vast expanse of unprotected shores and waterways that migrant smugglers can easily penetrate. At the time Lynchs documentary went into production, a mere 111 CBP agents, and only two with boats, were assigned to the Miami sector.

President Trumps wall-blustering is empty talk. Even if a wall were erected, the effect of deterring illegal immigration would be minor at best, and a flat zero for water arrivals. While talking about migrants in search of economic opportunities, Morgan missed a chance to promote E-Verify which, since the program confirms individuals lawful authorization to work, is a proven illegal immigration deterrent.

U.S. ineptitude at immigration enforcement is known to prospective migrants worldwide. Lynchs documentary featured a local CBS broadcaster who reported that the Miami sector alone had apprehended aliens from 64 nations.

Labor Day will mark the official kickoff for the 2020 presidential campaign. Voters will be subjected to a nearly unbearable torrent of speeches that promise more jobs for Americans. But just as reporters asked Democratic primary candidates if they supported open borders and Medicare for illegal immigrants, President Trump and challenger Joe Biden should face an equally probing question: Would you, if elected, demand that Congress pass mandatory E-Verify?

Joe Guzzardi writes for the Washington, D.C.-based Progressives for Immigration Reform. A newspaper columnist for 30 years, Joe writes about immigration and related social issues. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.

Excerpt from:
Meanwhile, down on the border ... | Columnists | griffindailynews.com - Griffin Daily News

Topic Page: Covid-19 and Immigration

The evidence is now clear and convincing that significant numbers of ill Covid-19 patients in Mexico are legally and illegally crossing the southern border for treatment in U.S. hospitals and contributing tospikes in hospitalizations and deathsin the border states.

But information remains stubbornly missing in action as to the phenomenon's extent, information that is urgently needed to adjustU.S. policy responses. The information also is needed to tell us why Covid-19 can be jumping the border like this when the Trump administration declared the border closed to "non-essential travel" and invoked the tough "Title 42" quick-expulsion policy for all illegally entering Mexicans.

Few in media or government seem eager to brave the charges of xenophobia and racism that inevitably follow when anyone suggests migrants may carry in diseases.

But not everyone is frightened or cowed, not in critical pandemic circumstances when hospital beds all along the border, on both sides, are dangerously overwhelmed and threatening lives.

In mid-July, three members of Congress marshaled by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas)penned a letter to Chad Wolf, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, requesting data that would indicate the extent of Mexico's contribution to U.S. hospitalizations, so that leaders can revise or create life-saving policy to counter the problem. Reps. Roy, Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), and Ted Budd (R-N.C.) also asked how often the Border Patrol transports apprehended illegal immigrants to hospitals. Rep. Roy's office told me DHS had missed both July 17 and July 24 deadlines but seemed to still be earnestly working on the request.

On Monday, August 10, Rep. Roy's quest had drawn a total of 22 congressional signatories on a new letter to Wolf asking for still more information.

To understand their latest request, it helps to know that in March, the Trump administration ordered emergency measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 to and from Mexico. It ordered an exemption-riddled "border closure" on March 20 that seems only to actually apply to travelers interested in recreation on either side. Anyone else with a visa, a border-crossing card who claims they are essential, or those with legal residency in the United States can still cross through the ports of entry for medical treatment, for instance. Hundreds of thousands have taken advantage.

Secondly, the Title 42 expulsion policy where Border Patrol agents immediately turn back almost all illegal Mexican immigrants seems to have a couple of built-in exemptions through which illegally crossing Covid-19 patients are slipping into U.S. borderland hospitals. One loophole is that Border Patrol agents have the discretion to transport sick or injured illegal immigrants to local hospitals, rather than immediately returning them to Mexico. Another Title 42 exemption seems to prevent Border Patrol from returning to Mexico Central Americans or extra-continental migrants from around the world who get apprehended. Those go to ICE detention facilities,many of them subsequently discovered to be sick with Covid-19.

Apparently through these exemptions, a kaleidoscope of sick people have been fleeing overrun Mexican hospital systems and into American ones since May, their ranks escalating in June and July in California, Arizona, and then Texas. As I've explained in multiple posts,the majority of the border-crossers seem to be Mexicans who are legal permanent residents in the United States, those withdual citizenship, holders of border-crossing cards and of different sorts of visas, and American expatriate retirees.

But last week, Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan acknowledged at a press conference that Border Patrol agents were indeed transporting apprehended illegal aliens to hospitals, too, if they exhibited Covid-19 symptoms or claimed they had Covid-19. His comments confirmed June 18 Center for Immigration Studies reporting from anonymous Border Patrol agents in the field that they were transporting illegal immigrants to hospitals and becoming sick themselves while doing it.

With all of this in mind, the new information request from the 22 members of Congress asks how CBP has defined "essential travel" and under what circumstances aliens with border-crossing cards are ever prevented from entering at the border and also when they are granted passage. The members asked what specific steps CBP is taking to prevent Covid-19-positive aliens from entering. The letter signatories also asked how many aliens with border-crossing cards have been admitted into U.S. health care facilities for Covid-19 treatment.

They provide their reasons for asking:

"Our policies are only as good as their enforcement, and we cannot afford to undermine their effectiveness especially with lives, resources, and the well-being of our nation on the line," the letter reads, in part. "We must implement and subsequently enforce common-sense measures to limit the spread of this highly contagious virus and are hopeful that your department will focus aggressively on our border states and localities."

Their request and concerns may not fall on deaf ears at the White House.

On Tuesday, August 11, news broke that President Trump was weighing a likelycontroversial set of new regulations that would sew up key loopholes in his initial border closure. Among the ideas would be to block American expatriates and Mexican legal permanent residents. It's unclear yet when or if these fixes will move forward. But whatever is implemented should come paired with a robust medical airlift of supplies and people who can repair and expand Mexico's collapsed hospitals all along its side of the border. Leaving blocked American citizens without care should not be an option.

To be continued.

Read more from the original source:
Growing Number in Congress Demanding Answers on Covid-19 at the Border - Immigration Blog

Just because Abraham Lincoln is claimed to have judged that you cant fool all the people all the time doesnt mean modern politicians have been dissuaded from trying their best anyway.

Indeed, the art of modern politics is to arm your activists with enough selective quotes from your partys spokespeople that you can deploy them in an attempt to win over people who often have diametrically opposing views from one another. Yes, they may, a few months or years down the line, be disappointed and disillusioned that the party or policy they voted for didnt quite do what it said on the tin, but such disillusion will only set in after the ballot boxes have been emptied and the polling stations close, so no harm done.

As a fine example, I present the shadow home secretary, Nick Thomas-Symmonds. At the weekend it will be entirely possible for Labour activists to head out for their campaigning activities (or they would if it werent for the pandemic) and to reassure voters who are angry about the arrival of illegal migrants on the Kent shore that the party specifically the Shadow Home Secretary shares their anger. To prove it, theres even a letter from him to the Home Secretary saying that its wrong that this is happening.

Next door, a colleague might be speaking to another voter who is disgusted by the Governments refusal to allow such migrants to settle permanently in Britain. Again, the words of Mr Thomas-Symmonds citing poverty wars and persecution can be deployed. Theres even a letter from him to the Home Secretary saying that To date your efforts have been devoid of compassion.

Someone of a more cynical bent than I might conclude that the Shadow Home Secretarys carefully-worded statements on the issue (not that there have been many of them recently) are aimed at resolving the potentially vote-losing contradiction between his own partys instinctive support for mass migration and the general publics more sceptical approach. But it can hardly be denied that Thomas-Symmonds intervention is thoughtful and considered.

Nuance is certainly in short supply when it comes to debate on immigration. But Labour will find that refusing to take a stand, one way or the other, on the issue of illegal immigration will prove a major weakness by the time the next election campaign kicks off. Thomas-Symmonds is right (as is Diane Abbott on LabourList) to place most of the blame at the feet of the people smugglers making a fortune by exploiting vulnerable (and gullible) people. That is a safe and uncontroversial opinion that carries no risk.

Many on the liberal Left are disparaging of public concerns about the numbers arriving on our southern shores, given the relatively low (though exponentially increasing) numbers involved. Those same commentators also blame the people smugglers. And yet every dinghy that completes the journey safely, every individual not immediately returned from whence they came (and by that I mean France) is the best possible advertisement for the dubious service they provide.

If you really want to stymie a market for any particular product, ensure that it is worthless, that it provides zero return on your money. How do you convince the smugglers potential customers that their life savings will be utterly wasted on a cross-Channel adventure as long as many of those who made it to the shore have yet to be returned?

Thomas-Symmonds reluctance to take a harder line, one way or the other, is understandable given the partys record on immigration. In the first term of Tony Blairs government, there was widespread unhappiness among activists at its robust efforts to clamp down on illegal arrivals, imposing eye-watering fines on lorry drivers who had, in most cases, accepted eye-watering bribes to allow their unofficial passengers to hop aboard before travelling to Blighty.

And who can forget the controversy which, for reasons unknown, was caused by the mug featuring the meaningless slogan Controls on immigration, as if a Miliband Labour government would have been the first government ever to impose controls on who gets to arrive and live in this country.

Unlike coronavirus, illegal immigration is a subject about which the public is more likely to judge political parties. It is hardly extreme to believe that deliberately breaking UK law by arriving on our shores, having paid some of the vilest people on the planet thousands of pounds to evade the British authorities, is an unacceptable way to behave. Similarly, there is a rational, progressiveview that borders belong to a previous era and that no one should be forced to take their lives into their own hands if they want to live here.

Those views, however, are entirely contradictory and no politician seeking one of the highest offices in the land can get away for long with riding both horses. Sooner or later Labour will need to tell the British people where it stands. A deafening silence, or at best an equivocal attempt to please both sides, cannot be sustained.

Originally posted here:
Labour's refusal to take a stance on illegal immigration will cost it dear - Telegraph.co.uk

Illegal immigration is a problem in America, an expensive one. According to The Hill, though illegal immigrants pay some $19 billion in taxes, that is dwarfed by the roughly $116 billion annual drain on the economy. And about two-thirds of that bill is absorbed by local and state taxpayers.

But the way to discourage illegal immigration is to encourage legal immigration, with the goal of eventual naturalization and citizenship.

Unfortunately, the government has taken a step backward toward achieving that goal.

After a nine-month review, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency updated and finalized its fee structure this week.

According to CNN, It increased the cost of online naturalization applications from $640 to $1,160. The naturalization fee will represent the full cost to process the application, the agency says, plus a proportional share of overhead costs, a change from previous policy.

The new fees take effect Oct. 2.

Thats a pricey jump, especially for a demographic that, being new to this country, is likely to be low income. Coming up with an extra $520 is a huge burden for those just trying to get by, especially in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic.

The spike in fees could prove so onerous that people abandon the naturalization route, and join the ranks of the undocumented.

Like the rest of the country, USCIS is dealing with fiscal fallout from the coronavirus. The agency is facing a significant budget shortfall and looming furloughs. Unlike most federal agencies, USCIS receives most of its funding from fee collection.

USCIS wasnt going gangbusters before COVID-19 hit, either, losing about $4.1 million per business day before the pandemic, a spokesperson told CNN.

These overdue adjustments in fees are necessary to efficiently and fairly administer our nations lawful immigration system, secure the homeland and protect Americans, Joseph Edlow, USCIS deputy director for policy, said in a statement.

Yes, revenues and funding across the country have fallen so far thanks to the pandemic that theyre inches from the Earths core at this point but raising naturalization fees will do more than hit wallets. It will derail immigrants on the path to citizenship.

If youre losing millions a day before a pandemic hits, a funding overhaul is long overdue. But turning to those who can least afford to pay these new, increased fees will do nothing to ameliorate Americas dilemma with the undocumented.

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Spike in fees hurts legal immigration - Boston Herald