Immigration News

The U.S. foreign-born population (legal and illegal immigrants) is now 13.5 percent of the total population. If the current level of immigration continues, it will reach 15 percent in just six years, or approximately one in every seven U.S. residents. This percentage, as the Center for Immigration Studies notes, "will surpass the all time high in the United States reached in 1890" and will continue to increase.

A New York City official vowed to defy efforts by the Trump Administration to end that city's sanctuary policies which protect illegal aliens from federal law enforcement. "We are going to be this administration's worst nightmare," declared New York City council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. She promised the city would prevent federal agents from entering certain areas of city property, limit their access to schools and school records, and provide legal services to illegal aliens. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has called on sanctuary jurisdictions "to carefully consider the harm they are doing to their citizens by refusing to enforce our immigration laws."

A Rasmussen Poll found that 52 percent of likely American votes would not want to live in a sanctuary city. A city in this kind refuses to cooperate with federal immigration law enforcement to remove illegal aliens. Thirty-five percent said they would like to live in one of these cities, and 14 percent were not sure. Wealthy Americans tend to support sanctuary cities much more than working-class Americans.

Critics of President Trump's border wall proposal often maintain that it would be very expensive to build a wall along the full 2,000 mile length of the Mexican border. But a number of authorities maintain that a wall need not be that long. One is Brandon Judd, the head of the union that represents Border Patrol agents. He observed that "We do not need a great wall of the United States. We do not need 2,000 miles of border wall. I will tell you, however, that a wall in strategic locations is absolutely necessary.

A common argument of mass immigration advocates is that we need immigrants to do jobs that Americans refuse to do. This implies that there are large segments of the U.S. economy where immigrants are the majority of workers. But a recent study by the Pew Research Center found that native-born citizens comprise the majority of workers in all U.S. industries.

The CBS show 60 Minutes did an investigative report on how some U.S. companies are abusing the H-1B visa program by replacing their American workers with foreign workers admitted under the program. The reason is that they can pay the foreigners lower wages. As part of the report, 60 Minutes interviewed former Congressman Bruce Morrison, the author of the H-1B legislation. He stated, "I'm outraged. the H-B program has been hijacked, as the main highway to bring people from abroad and displace Americans."

President Trump and the state of California may be on a collision course over the issue of sanctuary policy, i.e., the policy of states and localities to refuse to cooperate with federal efforts to enforce immigration law against illegal aliens. The president has issued an executive order to cut federal funding to those jurisdictions. Meanwhile the California Senate is considering legislation by Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon (D-LA) to make California a sanctuary state.

Mexico's Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray affirmed the right of his country to control entry across its borders. His statement in Spanish was reported in the Mexican newspaper Excelsior. The following is the English translation: “It is very clear. The policy of the admission to Mexico of persons of any country—Central Americans or of any other nationality—is defined by Mexico. “That is the sovereign power of a country, and we are a sovereign country and we exercise our full sovereignty. Who decides who enters Mexico is Mexico and thus we will have to confront the problem.” Unfortunately, the Mexican government doesn't seem to think that the United States has the same right as a sovereign self-governing country.

Nearly one in four students in U.S. public schools in 2015 were from immigrant households, according to government data.  In 1980, that share was one...

A report by the left-wing Center for American Progress found that 600 sanctuary cities, counties, and states could lose as much as $879 million in federal law enforcement grants if President Trump follows through with his intention to defund them because of their refusal to cooperate with federal efforts to enforce immigration law. The funding involves five major programs.