Immigration News

The union that represents the agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) maintains that holdovers in ICE from the Obama Administration are still undermining effective enforcement. The head of the union, the National ICE Council, stated, "While officers view the president's position on enforcement as courageous, the Trump Administration has left all of the Obama managers and leadership in place, a group that ICE officers know after the last eight years to be completely incompetent, corrupt, and anti-enforcement. . . . [These] holdovers continue to undermine law enforcement operations, and wage war against their own law enforcement officers."

Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA) said that Republican leaders are considering compromise legislation that would allow for illegal aliens in the DACA category to get legal status. In exchange for that, they would require curtailment of family-chain legal immigration, an end to the diversity visa program, and making it mandatory for businesses to use E-Verify system, which helps prevent hiring of illegal aliens. "If we get these three," said Brat, "DACA could be a part of that. I'm open to that compromise, but it can't be any weaker than that." 

Breitbart News Executive Stephen Bannon says the time has come to challenge the cliche that America is "a nation of immigrants." Says Bannon, who formerly served as policy adviser to President Trump, "We're a nation of citizens; we're not a nation of immigrants. So now are we to start act like citizens first. All policy should be oriented to making the working people in this country and the middle class in this country have a better shot at success. And we've gotten away from that. What we're done is brought in huge global competition for their jobs, for their schools."

President Trump's nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielson, has strong support from amnesty supporters who served in the administration of former President George W. Bush. Endorsing her at the Senate confirmation hearing was Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), a leading supporter of the 2013 amnesty bill. Nielson once chaired a committee at the World Economic Forum which promoted mass immigration to the U.S. and Europe.  Many immigration reform advocates question President Trump's decision to nominate Kirstjen to head the agency charged with enforcing immigration law.  

Californians who oppose their state's law granting sanctuary to illegal aliens are seeking a referendum to overturn that statute.  A spokesman for this campaign, Ben Bergquam, said sanctuary is "lawless." He further stated that "It's politicians protecting criminal illegals at the expense of law-abiding citizens. It's a slap in the face of American sovereignty and the citizens of our country." The proponents of the referendum will need to gather signatures of at least 365,880 registered voters by Jan. 3, 2018, in order for it to appear on the November 2018 ballot. 

Former White House Chief strategist Steve Bannon addressed the Remembrance Project, an organization of American families who have lost loved ones because of crimes committed by illegal aliens. During his speech he expressed his view as to why illegal immigration goes on and on. Said Bannon, "[It] is not some random law of the universe . . . this not physics, okay. This is an act of commission. The elites in this country, the economic, political, and the media elites allow this to happen because they want it to happen. "The multicultural globalist corporations want cheap labor, and the progressive Left wants cheap votes. This is not a conspiracy. And you are not wing-nuts. This is broad daylight."

The so-called Diversity Visa Lottery has come under public scrutiny following the truck attack in New York City allegedly by a suspect who came to the U.S. under this program.  Each year the Diversity Visa Lottery randomly admits fifty thousand people to the U.S. as immigrants based only on their luck to win the lottery selection. During the past five years about 30 percent of Visa Lottery recipients have come from countries that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has listed as terrorist sponsors.

President Trump in an interview with Fox News said that chain migration must end. Essentially it is the system by which immigrants are allowed to petition for their extended families to come to the U.S., and those family members in turn can petition for their relatives to come in a seemingly endless chain of immigration. Chain migration helps to drive our current high level of legal immigration, more than a million immigrants a year. It also places the family connections of immigrants above other concerns of national interest in setting immigration policy. The president said that if Democrats want passage of an amnesty for illegal aliens in the DACA category, they must accept an end to chain migration. Said Trump, "Yes it will be part of a DACA deal. I don't think any Republican would vote for anything having to do with leaving chain migration. Chain migration is a disaster for this country, and it's horrible."

Terrorist suspect Sayfullo Saipov allegedly rammed his truck into pedestrians in New York City, killing eight and injuring 11 more. Witness said he shouted...

The House Judiciary Committee passed legislation to make the E-Verify system mandatory, by a margin of 20 to 10, with all Republicans on the committee voting for it and all Democrats against it. This vote clears the way for the full House to consider the measure.  House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) affirmed that "one way to make sure sure we discourage illegal immigration in the future is to prevent unlawful immigrants from getting jobs in the U.S. Requiring the use of E-Verify by all employers across the country will help do just that. The web-based program is reliable and fast way for employers to electronically check the work eligibility of newly-hired employees. "