Immigration Reform

Less Than “Do Nothing” Congress?

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Less Than “Do Nothing” Congress?

Recently Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross interviewed New York Times congressional correspondent Jonathan Weisman about Congress’ coming summer recess and its inaction in the last term.  

Here is a description of the interview: 

Friday is the last day before the 113th Congress scatters for their summer recess. And what has it accomplished so far? Almost nothing, says New York Times congressional correspondent Jonathan Weisman. As he points out in a recent article:

“None of Congress’s 12 annual spending bills have reached Mr. Obama’s desk, and with the House and the Senate far apart on total spending levels, a government shutdown is possible on Oct. 1, when the current spending law expires.

“Once Congress returns on Sept. 9, lawmakers will have just nine legislative days until the current fiscal year ends and large swaths of the government would be forced to close.”

Weisman joins Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross to discuss why this Congress has passed so few laws, and explain some of the conflicts between Republican lawmakers and President Obama.

Undocumented Immigrants Intentionally Arrested in Protest

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Undocumented Immigrants Intentionally Arrested in Protest

As the debate about immigration reform continues to simmer, This American Life ran a story recently about a group of activists 

 from the National Immigrant Youth Alliance who intentionally got arrested for being undocumented. They believed if they could get inside the Broward Transitional Center in Florida, they could prevent lots of the immigrants there from being deported. Obama Administration policy, laid out in a series of documents called the Morton memos, states that non-violent immigrants who are not criminals are low priority for detention. Michael May also wrote a print version of this story, for The American Prospect. (27 minutes)

The Economics of Immigration Reform

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The Economics of Immigration Reform

Recently, Fareed Zakaria discussed the economics of immigration reform.  Here is a description of Fareed’s economic argument in favor of reform.  Here is a description of the video: 

The latest numbers show slow growth in the United States. That’s bad for jobs, income – it’s even bad for those worried about the deficit because it means lower tax revenues. And it has prompted a revival of the partisan debate about what to do about it.

Well, there’s one idea out there that could have support from both parties. A study out last week suggests there is one very simple way to increase tax revenue, expand GDP, and create jobs – all at the same time. What’s more, Congress is already weighing it: it’s called immigration reform.

How and why? Well, a new paper from the left-leaning Center for American Progress actually calculates the economic impact of immigration reform.

 

http://www.npr.org/2013/04/01/175938451/the-politics-of-the-guest-worker-program

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U.S. Chamber of Commerce and AFL-CIO Reach Deal on Immigration Reform

In a major breakthrough for the prospect of comprehensive immigration reform the AFL-CIO and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reached an agreement regarding the nation’s guest worker program.  The deal brings together labor unions and big business, two groups that clashed during the last immigration reform effort in 2007.  

NPR’s Talk of the Nation discussed the agreement and the problems with the broken immigration system.  This segment runs approximately 17 minutes.   

The Chamber of Commerce’s position on immigration reform is available here, while the AFL-CIO’s position is available here.