Immigration

[Legacy]

Cubans stranded in Mexico after US 'slams door shut' (BBC)

President Barack Obama's decision to end a long-standing policy granting temporary residency rights to Cubans arriving in the US without a visa has left many would-be migrants stranded. BBC Mundo's Valeria Perasso has been speaking to one Cuban father and daughter waiting in Mexico and now facing an uncertain future.

Jose Enrique Manresa and his daughter Arianne were hoping finally to reach the US this week after a 48-day journey from their home in Cuba through South and Central America.

"We've lost everything." says Mr Manresa. "We risked everything on our journey and if we don't have the right to live in the US after all that, then there's no hope for us."

 

[BGIF]

We risked everything on our journey and if we don't have the right to live in the US after all that, then there's no hope for us.

When did they ever have "the right".

 

[Legacy]

I guess this belongs best here.

Wealthy Chinese buyers are a growing force in U.S. real estate markets (WSJ)

After a long and painful slide following the real estate collapse in 2008, Seattle’s property market is enjoying one of the sharpest rises anywhere in the United States. Buoyed by a rapidly expanding economy that has brought tens of thousands of high-paying jobs to the city, real estate values have nearly doubled since 2009, according to the online real estate database Zillow.

Yet while technology billionaires gobble up estates from Puget Sound to Lake Washington, Jim Conlan, a real estate broker with Century 21 North Homes Realty in Seattle, says the real catalyst for the dramatic upswing can be found in China.

“To be honest, Chinese buyers have been flooding this market the past few years,” says Conlan, who has been selling homes in Seattle for more than 30 years. “Some of them buy homes sight unseen, while others travel here for a kind of real estate tourism and buy real estate after only one viewing.”

Seattle is not alone. For the fourth year in a row, buyers from China ranked first among foreign nationals purchasing property in the United States, according to a survey by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). U.S. home sales to Chinese nationals totaled $27.3 billion — exceeding the total dollar sales figure of the next four countries in the rankings combined, the survey showed.

Chinese nationals started buying U.S. property in large numbers in the years after the real estate crash, when home prices plummeted in many U.S. markets.

Driven by expanding wealth in China and a desire for a haven against political instability, busloads of Chinese buyers began popping up in markets from California to New York.

Vanessa Chan says she viewed the U.S. market as a solid real estate investment when she bought a Manhattan apartment two years ago. The Hong Kong-based technology executive paid $1.25 million for a condo in a new tower in Midtown. “New York is a lot like Hong Kong in terms of prices, but the housing quality is a lot better,” says Chan, 37. “I also knew Manhattan property would appreciate much faster than some real estate investments in Asia.”

Chan’s broker, Elizabeth Schwartz of Compass, has worked with dozens of buyers from China. Although Chinese billionaires receive a lot of attention for purchasing trophy properties, she says that most Chinese buyers are looking for more moderately priced homes that give them a better return on their money.

“There’s a huge population of hardworking, educated Chinese who look to the U.S. for real estate investment,” Schwartz says. “But they come to this market not with money to just throw around, but rather to make informed, well-reasoned investment choices.”

The Housing Bubble Comes to Seattle

Chinese Moving from Vancouver to Seattle
In addition to rising demand from tech firms, Chinese investors have become more interested in Seattle as well. And a new tax on foreign buyers in close by Vancouver is expected to support this trend, moving Chinese investors south of the Canadian border.

Vancouver started taxing foreign buyers on Aug. 2. An additional property-transfer tax of 15 percent is applied to foreign nationals and corporates to reduce the pressure on Vancouver’s overheated housing market.

An additional 15% tax on foreign nationals buying real estate in the U.S.?

 

[Legacy]

Consider Greece

Consider Greece

While Greece is suffering through economic collapse with its debt burden and restructuring, they are getting squeezed in a migrant crisis. The EU made a deal with Turkey to stop Mid-Eastern immigrants from getting to Greece in exchange for millions. That has slowed migration, but Turkey's dictator will threaten opening the flood gates on a regular basis, lately because eight soldiers who may have participated in the coup were not sent back to Turkey. Almost all of those migrants lately making their way to Greece anyway are Syrians, fleeing the Middle Eastern wars. (In 2015, Greece saw the arrival of 856,723 migrants to their shores.)

The rise of the far right groups in Europe is reminding Greeks of the Nazis, who, when they occupied northern Greece would execute whole villages. As the door to immigration to other EU countries has been slammed shut for migrants in Greece, In fact, northern European countries are insisting that migrants who meet the "Dublin rules" the EU instituted be sent back to Greece. The Dublin Rules stipulate that migrants must apply for asylum in the first EU member-state they enter. It also calls for migrants who have traveled further to be returned to the first EU country they entered, a practice that most countries suspended due to the inordinate pressure on Greece. In short, when these are re-instituted, Greece will see an influx of migrants back to Greece.

With winter's arrival, the 60,000 migrants in Greece in camps are seeing a worsening of already bad condition and the UN High Commission on Refugees wants Greece to do more for the conditions in the camps.

Put all of that within the context of this:
- From 2008-16, Greek households saw a decrease in their wealth by 37.5%
- Investments in Greek homes (home buying) over the same period has fallen 85%
- the Greek government, to meet debt requirements, is selling off their publicly-owned resources. The Greek rail system was recently acquired by an Italy company
- Greeks have recently been hit with another increase in taxes and another decrease in retirement checks.
- in a total population of 11 million, 1 million are documented immigrants and another 1 million are undocumented, not in camps
- the total unemployment rate in Greece is 27%
- total youth unemployment rate is 50%
- Greek debt will not be repaid at least until 2028

Worsening wars in the Middle East, Turkey reneging on their agreement and releasing migrants in their camps, and border closings and the refusal of other EU countries to take any more migrants as well as repopulating some existing migrants back to Greece are the main factors that are dragging down Greece's attempts to deal with immigration.

Obviously, the biggest factor in immigration in Greece is the Middle Eastern wars, which threaten to create more migrants and prevents repopulating migrants back into their homelands.

 

[kmoose]

I guess this belongs best here.

Wealthy Chinese buyers are a growing force in U.S. real estate markets (WSJ)






The Housing Bubble Comes to Seattle

An additional 15% tax on foreign nationals buying real estate in the U.S.?

You know what else causes artificially high housing prices in Portland (and maybe Seattle, but I don't know)? Urban growth boundaries!! Portland has an Urban Growth Boundary because, as they put it, "We don't want to become another LA!" "Well, Mr. Wannabe-Hippie Portand resident; there's a reason that 10 million people live in Los Angeles, and it's not because it rains 250 days a year there. So I think you are safe!"

 

[Legacy]

ND advises students from seven countries to remain in US following executive order

“If [the order] stands, it will over time diminish the scope and strength of the educational and research efforts of American universities, … and, above all, it will demean our nation, whose true greatness has been its guiding ideals of fairness, welcome to immigrants, compassion for refugees, respect for religious faith and the courageous refusal to compromise its principles in the face of threats,” Jenkins said in the statement.

“We respectfully urge the president to rescind this order.”

I hope the University does invite Trump to give the Commencement address.

 

[Buster Bluth]

You know what else causes artificially high housing prices in Portland (and maybe Seattle, but I don't know)? Urban growth boundaries!! Portland has an Urban Growth Boundary because, as they put it, "We don't want to become another LA!" "Well, Mr. Wannabe-Hippie Portand resident; there's a reason that 10 million people live in Los Angeles, and it's not because it rains 250 days a year there. So I think you are safe!"

It is not the UGB per se but the UGB paired with a lack of development within the UGB. The UGB has a meaningless effect on prices if there are available units. Portland wants density, not sprawl. And it's been that way for 44 years, so it doesn't explain the spike fully.

Part of what has happened is a cultural shift to favor walkable communities (among Millennials and others) which made Portland an extremely popular destination. Demand has skyrocketed and the developers haven't responded fast enough. There are plenty of cranes south of downtown though, or at least there were last May when I was there.

Part of the problem is the power neighborhoods have with stopping development. Far worse than a UGB is the NIMBY attitude many have towards any sort of density in their neighborhood, which is at odds with the UGB. So while Portland as a whole wants density, no one wants their neighborhood to change. San Francisco doesn't have a UGB (that I know of), as it's fully developed, but their prices are skyrocketing because it is very hard to add units with density. Plop a Streetview dealio down on Google around San Francisco, the density is a joke outside of downtown.

Additionally, building affordable housing is a different matter and a different problem. The reality is that cheap housing is usually older. But since we took decades off from building dense neighborhoods--really we sorta just forgot how to, or you could argue we were ordered not to by big government--there isn't enough affordable housing in these cities to cover the new demand by this urban renaissance. New units are more expensive, so when developers add new units to get at that demand, they usually have less of an impact on price than we'd like to see.

It's also worth admitting that a UGB in practice does have an artificial impact on housing prices, but so does the highway down in Los Angeles. If the development isn't paying for the cost of the billion-dollar freeway extension/widening and it's left to the federal government, that is artificially cheap. The whole is subsidizing the periphery, a periphery that will suck the life out of the central city if left unmitigated. I'd rather be Portland than most American cities.

 

[Bluto]

It is not the UGB per se but the UGB paired with a lack of development within the UGB. The UGB has a meaningless effect on prices if there are available units. Portland wants density, not sprawl. And it's been that way for 44 years, so it doesn't explain the spike fully.

Part of what has happened is a cultural shift to favor walkable communities (among Millennials and others) which made Portland an extremely popular destination. Demand has skyrocketed and the developers haven't responded fast enough. There are plenty of cranes south of downtown though, or at least there were last May when I was there.

Part of the problem is the power neighborhoods have with stopping development. Far worse than a UGB is the NIMBY attitude many have towards any sort of density in their neighborhood, which is at odds with the UGB. So while Portland as a whole wants density, no one wants their neighborhood to change. San Francisco doesn't have a UGB (that I know of), as it's fully developed, but their prices are skyrocketing because it is very hard to add units with density. Plop a Streetview dealio down on Google around San Francisco, the density is a joke outside of downtown.

Additionally, building affordable housing is a different matter and a different problem. The reality is that cheap housing is usually older. But since we took decades off from building dense neighborhoods--really we sorta just forgot how to, or you could argue we were ordered not to by big government--there isn't enough affordable housing in these cities to cover the new demand by this urban renaissance. New units are more expensive, so when developers add new units to get at that demand, they usually have less of an impact on price than we'd like to see.

It's also worth admitting that a UGB in practice does have an artificial impact on housing prices, but so does the highway down in Los Angeles. If the development isn't paying for the cost of the billion-dollar freeway extension/widening and it's left to the federal government, that is artificially cheap. The whole is subsidizing the periphery, a periphery that will suck the life out of the central city if left unmitigated. I'd rather be Portland than most American cities.

San Francisco has natural boundaries on three side and is built out to its southern border so in a sense it has a natural UGB. To whit, you are absolutely right about San Francisco. It's major problem is everyone wants to live in a 3 story Victorian flat circa 1968. If done correctly UGB's are a great idea particularly when coupled with things like Ag preservation and open space districts/land trusts.

 

[Legacy]

Statement of Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, on the Executive Order on Refugees and Migrants

This weekend proved to be a dark moment in U.S. history. The executive order to turn away refugees and to close our nation to those, particularly Muslims, fleeing violence, oppression and persecution is contrary to both Catholic and American values. Have we not repeated the disastrous decisions of those in the past who turned away other people fleeing violence, leaving certain ethnicities and religions marginalized and excluded? We Catholics know that history well, for, like others, we have been on the other side of such decisions.

These actions impose a sweeping and immediate halt on migrants and refugees from several countries, people who are suffering, fleeing for their lives. Their design and implementation have been rushed, chaotic, cruel and oblivious to the realities that will produce enduring security for the United States. They have left people holding valid visas and other proper documents detained in our airports, sent back to the places some were fleeing or not allowed to board planes headed here. Only at the eleventh hour did a federal judge intervene to suspend this unjust action.....

 

[Legacy]

Donald Trump to uphold asylum deal, Australia says (BBC) (Jan 30,2017)

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has thanked US President Donald Trump for upholding an agreement to resettle asylum seekers in the US.

The deal, struck with the Obama administration, applies to people held in Australia's offshore detention centres in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

The Australian leader on Monday confirmed he had spoken to Mr Trump, and the agreement would go ahead.

(after the executive order travel ban)

Donald Trump, Malcolm Turnbull phone call: What now for US-Australia relations, refugees? (news.com.au)

DONALD Trump reportedly blasting Malcolm Turnbull before abruptly hanging up on him showed there would be no more “mates rates” between the two countries.
Mr Turnbull later denied the exchange ended in a bad way: “The report that the President hung up is not correct, the call ended courteously.”

The ensuing fallout from the 25-minute phone call also indicates the refugee deal between Australia and the US hangs in the balance.

That is the view of Dougal Robinson, research fellow at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, who was commenting on the implications of the tense call between the two leaders.

As revealed by the Washington Post, the US President reportedly blasted Mr Turnbull during their conversation which took place last Saturday saying “this was the worst call by far”.

 

[phgreek]

Donald Trump to uphold asylum deal, Australia says (BBC) (Jan 30,2017)

(after the executive order travel ban)

Donald Trump, Malcolm Turnbull phone call: What now for US-Australia relations, refugees? (news.com.au)

Mr. Obama, it would appear, did a lot of crop dusting at the end of his term. I presume some of it had specific Trump policies in mind...

At least he didn't go Clinton...and thieve shit, and destroy equipment. Shrug.

Why the hell does Australia think they get to be immune from all of the bullshit? Why won't they take these refugees? Regardless...I guess we have a population we can test out double secret extreme vetting on???

 

[kmoose]

It is not the UGB per se but the UGB paired with a lack of development within the UGB. The UGB has a meaningless effect on prices if there are available units. Portland wants density, not sprawl. And it's been that way for 44 years, so it doesn't explain the spike fully.

Part of what has happened is a cultural shift to favor walkable communities (among Millennials and others) which made Portland an extremely popular destination. Demand has skyrocketed and the developers haven't responded fast enough. There are plenty of cranes south of downtown though, or at least there were last May when I was there.

Part of the problem is the power neighborhoods have with stopping development. Far worse than a UGB is the NIMBY attitude many have towards any sort of density in their neighborhood, which is at odds with the UGB. So while Portland as a whole wants density, no one wants their neighborhood to change. San Francisco doesn't have a UGB (that I know of), as it's fully developed, but their prices are skyrocketing because it is very hard to add units with density. Plop a Streetview dealio down on Google around San Francisco, the density is a joke outside of downtown.

Additionally, building affordable housing is a different matter and a different problem. The reality is that cheap housing is usually older. But since we took decades off from building dense neighborhoods--really we sorta just forgot how to, or you could argue we were ordered not to by big government--there isn't enough affordable housing in these cities to cover the new demand by this urban renaissance. New units are more expensive, so when developers add new units to get at that demand, they usually have less of an impact on price than we'd like to see.

It's also worth admitting that a UGB in practice does have an artificial impact on housing prices, but so does the highway down in Los Angeles. If the development isn't paying for the cost of the billion-dollar freeway extension/widening and it's left to the federal government, that is artificially cheap. The whole is subsidizing the periphery, a periphery that will suck the life out of the central city if left unmitigated. I'd rather be Portland than most American cities.

If there are a million acres of developable land available to developers, then they can get the land for a reasonable price, reasonably price the houses, and still make a reasonable profit. If there are only 10 acres of land available to develop, the price for each of those acres goes through the roof. Supply and demand. Therefore, developers have to charge a lot more for the new homes, to make a profit on overpriced land. As the price of new homes rises, so does the price that people ask for older homes. The trickle down theory may not work in job creation, but it absolutely exists in housing prices.

 

[Legacy]

Mr. Obama, it would appear, did a lot of crop dusting at the end of his term. I presume some of it had specific Trump policies in mind...

At least he didn't go Clinton...and thieve shit, and destroy equipment. Shrug.

Why the hell does Australia think they get to be immune from all of the bullshit? Why won't they take these refugees? Regardless...I guess we have a population we can test out double secret extreme vetting on???

Australia was one of the few countries that came out in support of Trump's Islamic immigration ban and their PM spoke to Trump about immigration issues. A few days later Trump calls back to cancel the deal, terming the conversation with their PM as "the worst call ever".

As you probably know, Trump will end TPP. Australia has entered trade agreements with China, now their largest trading partner, and trade agreements with the other Pacific rim countries. I imagine we have pending contracts with the Aussies on weapons and defense systems. I see Lockheed recently got a contract with them, though Australia signed another weapons system contract with France. The Aussies have always felt they shared our values and been one of our strongest allies.

What message do you send when you talk with Putan for an hour and term your call with an ally your "worst call ever".

Australia becomes the world's sixth-largest arms importer (Guardian)

Here Are Australia's Top 10 Two-Way Trading Partners (Business Insider, au)

 

[Buster Bluth]

If there are a million acres of developable land available to developers, then they can get the land for a reasonable price, reasonably price the houses, and still make a reasonable profit. If there are only 10 acres of land available to develop, the price for each of those acres goes through the roof. Supply and demand. Therefore, developers have to charge a lot more for the new homes, to make a profit on overpriced land. As the price of new homes rises, so does the price that people ask for older homes. The trickle down theory may not work in job creation, but it absolutely exists in housing prices.

I write a reasonable and informed response built on a few years of experience in the industry and you respond with the conservative answer for everything by reducing a complicated problem to abstract Econ 101 examples.

A+ post sir.

 

[kmoose]

I write a reasonable and informed response built on a few years of experience in the industry and you respond with the conservative answer for everything by reducing a complicated problem to abstract Econ 101 examples.

A+ post sir.

How long did you live in Portland, to see firsthand what was going on there? I lived there for 12 years. I SAW(not read in a book) what was going on. I know people who now have generational wealth because their ancestors were smart enough to buy up land in early 1900s. You can call my logic simplistic; it is. I never claimed that the UGB was THE cause of rising prices, or even the most important one. But I can fucking guaran-goddamn-tee you that it IS a factor; because I saw it with my own eyes, and through the eyes of friends and acquaintances who were the beneficiaries of it.

 

[ulukinatme]

Mr. Obama, it would appear, did a lot of crop dusting at the end of his term.

So are you saying here Obama was less President Bill Pullman and more...

 

[Legacy]

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol - Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States

In accordance with the judge's ruling, DHS has suspended any and all actions implementing the affected sections of the Executive Order entitled, “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States."

This includes actions to suspend passenger system rules that flag travelers for operational action subject to the Executive Order.
DHS personnel will resume inspection of travelers in accordance with standard policy and procedure.

At the earliest possible time, the Department of Justice intends to file an emergency stay of this order and defend the President's Executive Order, which is lawful and appropriate. The Order is intended to protect the homeland and the American people, and the President has no higher duty and responsibility than to do so.

Individuals who may be affected by this Executive Order may visit the CBP INFO Center website for additional information. On the webpage, travelers may also request additional guidance by clicking on the ‘Email us your Question’ button

Below are the actions taken in accordance with the Executive Order signed January 27, 2017.

CBP Executive Order Actions
Recommended Denial of Boarding 1,222
Visa holders granted waivers 87
(Statistics are valid as of February 2, 2017)

Get on board or You're Fired.

Setback for Trump: Appeals court rejects demand to resume travel ban -- for now (CNN)

Rule of Law. Has he tweeted yet on the character, values, motives, ethnicity or impugned their understanding of the separation of powers of the three judges on the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals yet?

Trump on US District Court Judge James Robart's ruling:

"The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned."

"The judge opens up our country to potential terrorists and others that do not have our best interests at heart. Bad people are very happy!"

Trump: U.S. will win appeal of judge's travel ban order (Reuters)

Trump’s tweets criticizing the judge’s decision could make it tougher for Justice Department attorneys as they seek to defend the executive order in Washington state and other courts, said Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, adding that presidents are usually circumspect about commenting on government litigation.

"It’s hard for the president to demand that courts respect his inherent authority when he is disrespecting the inherent authority of the judiciary. That certainly tends to poison the well for litigation," Turley said.

 

[Legacy]

Former top diplomats, tech giants blast immigration order as court showdown looms (Washington Post)

Fresh challenges to President Trump’s court-frozen immigration order took shape Monday with two former secretaries of state claiming the White House was undermining national security and nearly 100 Silicon Valley tech companies arguing it will keep the best minds from coming to America.

The powerful new voices were added with another legal showdown coming as early as Monday. The suspension of the order, meanwhile, has allowed those previously banned more time to try to reach the United States.

In a related case in Virginia, government lawyers said 60,000 to possibly 100,000 people have had their visas revoked as a result of the executive order.

 

[Legacy]

For those who want to post on immigration here...

For those who want to post on immigration here...

Trump administration is considering a new, narrower travel ban, officials say

Eliminating the travel ban's constitutional issues rather than dispatching bevies of attorneys to multiple courts to defend a flawed blanket one would be smart. On statutory grounds he has wide latitude.

 

[Legacy]

Illegal Irish in the US prepare for the worst under Trump (Irish Times)

 

[Legacy]

Here might be a starting point for Swedish immigration discussions sans Trump.

Finding the Way:A Discussion of the Swedish Migrant Integration System (Organization for Economic Development, July 2014)

and,
How immigration is putting Swedish schools to the test

 

[Buster Bluth]

Amid the serious business, men cracked jokes and took jabs at one another. Some seemed eager to have a guys’ night out, while others, in their silence, were harder to gauge. Saddoon and Arafeh sat side by side, chatting and laughing.

The friendship is part of a new chapter for Saddoon, who has experienced a lifetime of persecution at the hands of Muslims. In the United States, the two men have come to rely on one another for advice as they navigate the challenges of resettlement. Saddoon now counts several Muslims among his closest confidantes.

“Muslims here are different than in the Middle East,” Saddoon said. “I have so many Muslim friends in Toledo—from Syria, Sudan, Jordan. Relations among us are different here.”

Still, Saddoon appreciates the benefits of mixing with other refugees. “Here all kinds of Arabs can interact more openly,” he said. “My friendships with Muslims in Toledo would be impossible in Iraq.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/02/muslim-christian-refugees-ohio/517161/

 

[Legacy]

Required to Detain
(Inside Higher Education))

Texas legislation could force campus police departments to hold on to those they arrest until federal immigration authorities can consider their legal status.

Opponents on campuses have been steeling themselves to keep battling a proposed anti-sanctuary bill since the Texas Senate passed the controversial measure last week.

The bill seeks to compel state government officials, local government leaders and campus law enforcement officers to cooperate in the enforcement of federal immigration laws. Colleges' police forces would not be able to prevent officers from asking about arrestees' immigration status or keep them from communicating with immigration officials. Campus police would also have to comply if a federal official asked them to hold a person while officials determined whether that person was in the United States without legal authorization. This shift could significantly curtail colleges' ability to avoid helping federal authorities with deportations.

The fact that the bill would cover campus police hits home for students, said Vanessa Rodriguez, a freshman at the University of Texas at Austin.

“It puts this sense of urgency on us,” Rodriguez said. “It’s no longer just our parents, but it’s us, too, and future students who are planning to enter college."

The bill is moving through the Legislature at a time when campuses across the country are facing questions of how they will handle increased emphasis on immigration law in light of President Trump’s hard-line stances. The questions escalated this week after a 23-year-old immigrant in Seattle sued the government after being detained despite holding a permit under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which was created by President Obama to protect many students who were brought to the United States as children by their parents without going through the proper channels. Many students covered under the DACA policy attend college. ...

 

[kmoose]

Required to Detain
(Inside Higher Education))

Texas legislation could force campus police departments to hold on to those they arrest until federal immigration authorities can consider their legal status.

Opponents on campuses have been steeling themselves to keep battling a proposed anti-sanctuary bill since the Texas Senate passed the controversial measure last week.

The bill seeks to compel state government officials, local government leaders and campus law enforcement officers to cooperate in the enforcement of federal immigration laws. Colleges' police forces would not be able to prevent officers from asking about arrestees' immigration status or keep them from communicating with immigration officials. Campus police would also have to comply if a federal official asked them to hold a person while officials determined whether that person was in the United States without legal authorization. This shift could significantly curtail colleges' ability to avoid helping federal authorities with deportations.

The fact that the bill would cover campus police hits home for students, said Vanessa Rodriguez, a freshman at the University of Texas at Austin.

“It puts this sense of urgency on us,” Rodriguez said. “It’s no longer just our parents, but it’s us, too, and future students who are planning to enter college."

The bill is moving through the Legislature at a time when campuses across the country are facing questions of how they will handle increased emphasis on immigration law in light of President Trump’s hard-line stances. The questions escalated this week after a 23-year-old immigrant in Seattle sued the government after being detained despite holding a permit under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which was created by President Obama to protect many students who were brought to the United States as children by their parents without going through the proper channels. Many students covered under the DACA policy attend college. ...

So Campus Police Departments will have to follow the law? I would think that this would be GREAT news for liberals, who seem to complain a lot about the police breaking the law?

 

[Buster Bluth]

So Campus Police Departments will have to follow the law? I would think that this would be GREAT news for liberals, who seem to complain a lot about the police breaking the law?

They aren't breaking the law though. Otherwise the idea of a sanctuary city would be obliterated in court and the Texas Senate wouldn't need to act.

I think college campuses serve as a pretty perfect example of why sanctuary cities exist.

When I was at Ohio State, it was widely known that if you were partying and shit got out of hand and someone showed signs of alcohol poisoning, do the right thing and immediately call the EMS/police who agreed to not card anyone there while they are helping the patient. Additionally if you are trashed and cannot find a safe way home, instead of strolling around off-campus neighborhoods at 2:30 in the morning, just call the non-emergency number and the police will make sure you get home--without asking your age. Why do they do that? Because solving the real problems of alcohol poisoning and preventing rape, etc is more important than wasting resources fighting a problem they wouldn't put a dent in anyway: underage drinking and college.

Sanctuary cities have their policies as a crime-fighting measure. Cities, and in this case college campuses, don't have the resources to become immigration police. And in case you missed it, our jails and such are filled to the brim right now anyway. And most importantly, police units in these places care about going after murderers, thieves, rapists, etc and need people to talk to them to help them out--something that is far less likely to happen if illegal immigrants are afraid of being deported. So the cities call it a truce and say let the Feds do that, we want to keep our cities safe.

Given that the Texas Senate has no ability to remove these illegal immigrants from the whole of Texas, they would simply be alienating these people and making it harder for police to do their real jobs. In other words, they're making people less safe because of a political stunt to win points from a part of the population that doesn't really get the pros/cons of illegal immigration. Super work Texas!

 

[Legacy]

Trump's budget-busting immigration crackdown (Politico)

Most know that Trump's immigration policies were political grandstanding, aimed at stirring up hatred and getting votes with his bombastic oratory and now his executive orders. He'll build a fence at $20 billion, expand federal bureaucracy by hiring15,000 new immigration personnel, request more money from Congress for his actions and raising the debt limit, etc. This article quantifies the costs for taxpayers as our federal debt approaches $20 Trillion and the interest we pay on that debt will soar.

President Donald Trump’s border wall could cost $20 billion, and his directive to crack down on border security could increase federal government spending by $13 billion a year.

The president has some authority to move dollars around within existing budgets. But his plan could cost more than the entire 2016 combined budgets for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, which ran to $19.4 billion.

John Sandweg, who was acting director of ICE in 2013 and 2014, told POLITICO that the cost and logistics of parts of Trump’s executive orders are infeasible.
“I just view this as a political document more than anything,” Sandweg said of the orders.
A back-of-the-envelope calculation based on government figures shows how the costs could quickly add up.
A single-layer fence on the border — not even a solid wall — could run to $6.5 million per mile, according to a yet-to-be-released report by the Government Accountability Office.

Department of Homeland Security already has roughly 700 miles of fence and vehicle barriers. Covering the rest of the border expanse could cost $8.1 billion. (It’s unclear whether Trump would replace and repair existing barriers, too.) Double-layer fence would run closer to $20 billion.
His plan to stop releasing undocumented immigrants while they await deportation hearings would spark enormous growth in the nation’s already overburdened immigration detention system, too.
DHS requested $2.2 billion in its fiscal year 2017 budget, a tally that would fund 31,000 detention beds per day. Sandweg estimates Trump would need four to five times as many beds to enforce his call for mandatory detention — an increase that could raise yearly costs to $10 billion.
The costs of Trump’s executive orders will also include billions in salaries and benefits for new agents. Trump ordered the hiring of 10,000 more federal immigration agents and 5,000 Border Patrol agents, an expense that would require additional funding from Congress.
If Trump adds 10,000 additional ICE agents, it could mean a further $3.9 billion each year. DHS requested $3.1 billion for roughly 8,000 enforcement and removal agents in fiscal year 2017.
The addition of 5,000 Border Patrol agents would tack $900 million annually onto the bill, based on the $3.8 billion DHS requested for 21,070 agents in fiscal-year 2017.

 

[Legacy]

Unauthorized immigrants covered by DACA face uncertain future (Pew)

More than 750,000 young unauthorized immigrants have received work permits and deportation relief through the federal government’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program since it was created by President Barack Obama, according to the latest data released by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. But they now must wait and see what becomes of the program under the Trump administration.

The program known as DACA was created through an executive action signed by Obama in August 2012.

It gives unauthorized immigrants who came to the U.S. before age 16 – a group sometimes called “Dreamers” – a chance to stay in the U.S. to study or work, provided they meet certain conditions such as being enrolled in high school or having a high school degree or GED equivalent, and not having a serious criminal conviction. Those approved for the program are given a work permit and protection from deportation for two years. Benefits can be renewed...

Shattering the Silence: Undocumented Twins Share their Story (Univ. of Notre Dame)

 

[Domina Nostra]

Most know that Trump's immigration policies were political grandstanding, aimed at stirring up hatred and getting votes with his bombastic oratory and now his executive orders. . . .

What's with the political left's obsession with "hate." What ever happened to good, old-fashioned fear-mongering?

If management sends a team of consultants to my workplace, and one of the other workers says, "they plan on laying off 25% of the workforce, and replacing us with robots, even though we're already very profitable! That's not right!" -- did he just appeal to my hatred of robots? No. He appealed to my fear of losing my job and my anxiety that management is not looking out for me. Myabe its true and maybe its not, but it has nothing to do with hate. That's how labor unions form- not from hatred of capitalism.

Fear of losing jobs because politicians and big business interests and are selling us out is not hatred of other countries or immigrants. People think immigration policy is not being driven for the American worker or out of love of immigrants, byt by Chamber-of-Commerce republicans who want cheap labor and sanctuary-city Democrats who want more constituents. That's not hate.

And fear of terrorism is also not equal to hatred of immigrants. The U.S. was very wary of Russians and Chinese during the Cold War for good reasons that had nothing to do with hating Russians or Chinese.

If there is now a sense that some immigrants are not being sufficiently or effectively screened, again, either because Chamber-of-Commerce republicans want the cheap labor, or sanctuary-city Democrats want the constituents--people are going to be suspicious of them. That's not hate.

 

[Legacy]

Notre Dame will not be a sanctuary campus, president tells faculty (Chi Trib)

The University of Notre Dame's president has decided not to declare the school a sanctuary campus despite requests from faculty, students and others to help protect students living in the U.S. illegally.

The South Bend Tribune reports that Rev. John I. Jenkins sent a letter to the faculty senate this month saying the university doesn't voluntarily provide information on any students' immigration status, but that it would comply with the law if there's a legal requirement to do so. ...

Bill to make sanctuary universities illegal moves forward in Indiana (Indy Star)

An Indiana Senate committee approved a measure Tuesday to make "sanctuary universities" illegal in Indiana — a move that would prohibit universities from admitting undocumented immigrants with some exceptions.

Those who were protected under former President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program will still be allowed at universities under Senate Bill 423. But if President Donald Trump repeals that program, Indiana universities would no longer be able to allow undocumented immigrants to attend.

The bill's passage through Corrections and Criminal Law committee on a 6-2 party-line vote came as the Department of Homeland Security issued a sweeping set of orders Tuesday to implement President Trump's plan to increase immigration enforcement. The memos instruct all agents to identify, capture and quickly deport every undocumented immigrant they encounter. ...

 

[Legacy]

Inslee signs order limiting Washington state’s help in enforcing Trump’s immigration policies (Seattle Times)

In his latest salvo against the Trump administration’s policies, Gov. Jay Inslee on Thursday signed an executive order aimed at restricting state workers and agencies from helping enforce federal immigration laws.

“This executive order makes clear that Washington will not be a willing participant in promoting or carrying out mean-spirited policies that break up families and compromise our national security and, importantly, our community safety,” Inslee said.

The order, however, will not interfere with federal law, and “if there is a federal criminal arrest warrant, we will honor it,” he said.

The order directs state agencies to refrain from inquiring about a person’s immigration status for the sole purpose of determining whether someone has complied with immigration laws, such as those related to work permits or alien registration.

The order maintains the State Patrol’s existing policy of not stopping, detaining or interrogating people solely to determine their immigration status, said Kyle Moore, State Patrol spokesman.

Likewise, state agencies under the order are not allowed to aid or enforce any federal program to register people on their basis of religion. That part takes aim at the prospect at a national Muslim registry, which some Trump supporters have suggested.

The order also bars state agencies from discriminating against people based on national origin. And it says agencies cannot refuse services to people because of their immigration status, except as required by state or federal law.