Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees - GCIR

As the Senate prepares to debate “comprehensive” immigration reform, policymakers are mainly focused on possible expansions to lawful permanent resident admissions, a new temporary worker program, and a range of contrasting policies targeting the unauthorized population within the United States.

In this article, the authors explore the successes and failures of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) and contend that a legalization program is needed in the near future. They examine the reasons for such a program and also make specific recommendations so that it is successfully implemented.

Democracy Now looks at the issue of immigration detention, focusing on the treatment of immigrant detainees, the trend towards privatization of detention centers and the policies behind it all. Undocumented immigrants are one of the largest growing populations being detained by the U.S government.

The Immigration Policy Center makes the case that the process of North American economic integration, and development within Mexico itself, create structural conditions that encourage Mexican migration to the United States. However, multilateral agreements such as the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the 2005 Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) do not adequately deal with the issue of labor migration.

The report documents the ineffectiveness of the government's efforts to improve security after September 11 and the effect of these domestic security actions on civil liberties and national unity. It proposes an alternative framework to enhance immigration enforcement and domestic security based on mobilizing intelligence and information capabilities, protecting borders, supporting law enforcement, and engaging Arab and Muslim American communities.

This report shows how sharp restrictions of the 1996 immigration law have combined with post-September 11 law and policy changes to create a two-tiered system of justice that singles out immigrants for unequal treatment. The United States should be able to protect its borders, limit illegal immigration, and preserve national security while protecting civil rights, promoting family reunification, and respecting due process. The study combines a clear description of legal changes with stories of affected individuals, and recommends steps to restore due process and fair treatment.

This study examines the impact of post-September 11 policies on open government, personal privacy, and human rights, with a special chapter describing the impact on the rights of immigrants, refugees, and minorities.

One question that has received heightened attention from lawmakers is whether or not immigrants should be admitted to the United States less on the basis of family ties and more on the basis of the skills they can contribute to the U.S. economy. Although some of the practices associated with a point-based immigration system might benefit the U.S. economy, policymakers should be careful not to assume that such a system would be a panacea for the widespread dysfunction of U.S. immigration policies.

Between 1990 and 2005, the number of pending applications for immigration benefits swelled by more than 1,000 percent, growing from 540,688 in 1990 to a high of 6.08 million in 2003.  The increasing number of pending immigration applications impacted immigrants, their families, employers who sponsor them, and policymakers.  This situation prompted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to establish a Backlog Reducation Plan.

Analyzes how Mexico-U.S. migration functioned historically and how U.S. militarization of the border and restrictive policies of immigrant disenfranchisement adopted after 1986 have led to negative, unintended consequences for the United States and Mexico as well as the migrants themselves. Contends that U.S.

Shows how punitive immigration and border enforcement policies have backfired, resulting in higher numbers of undocumented spread across larger areas of United States. Recommends 1) regulating border on binational basis by increasing annual quotas, establishing a flexible temporary labor program, and regularizing status of migrants in U.S.; 2) reducing incentives to hire undocumented workers through enforcing tax, labor, and worker-safety laws; and 3) developing strategies to help migrants better use earnings for savings and investment in Mexican communities.

Many newcomers are settling in cities that have not received foreign-born residents recently. As a result, state and local governments are passing legislation that ranges from anti-immigrant and antagonistic to welcoming and supportive of immigrants. This report seeks to help communities encourage and create progressive policies toward immigrants.

This book discusses the major immigration policy areas - undocumented workers, the immigration selection system, deportation of aggravated felons, national security and immigration policy, and the integration of new Americans - and the author suggests his own proposals on how to address the policy challenges. The author also reviews some of the policies that have been put forth and ignored and suggests new policies that would be good for the country economically and socially.

This article unveils the harsh realities surrounding the detention and deportation of thousands of immigrants and asylum seekers each year. The issues explored include local law enforcement agencies' cooperation with ICE, post-9/11 regulations expanding the grounds for deportation, the impacts on families and society, and the opportunities for philanthropic leadership and grassroots advocacy.

The study describes the history of African migration to the United States and how significant increases in contemporary migration from Africa are helping to bring diversity to black communities and bridge the gap between native and foreign-born populations.

Although immigration is crucial to the growth of the U.S. labor force and yields a net fiscal benefit to the U.S. economy, current immigration policies fail to respond to actual labor demand. Immigration has become the key to growth in the U.S. labor force, according to the Economic Report of the President 2005 and other data sources. This study explores the importance of immigration to the U.S. economy.

This document represents the synthesis of perspectives developed during a two-year process aimed at identifying key policy and institutional changes that could help a burgeoning regional equity movement in the country become more effective. Supported by the Ford Foundation and managed by the Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community at UC Santa Cruz, the initiative brought together a core group of leading 'thinkers and doers' from a range of sectors and perspectives for a series of meetings aimed at distilling key lessons from local and state-level efforts around the country.

A new report by the Congressional Research Service suggests there are a number of concerns which must be cleared before a policy many lawmakers are considering could be enacted to expedite the removal of immigrants. Due process, rights protection, costs, and coordination of the Homeland Security Department's Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau, and its Customs and Border Protection bureau, were all cited by the report as areas to be addressed.

This report documents the crippling barriers that binational same-sex families face. In the case of a binational heterosexual couple where one partner is foreign and the other a U.S. citizen, the right to enter the U.S. can be claimed with a few strokes of a pen. They need not even marry: they need only show to a U.S. consulate abroad that they intend to do so and have met at least once before in their lives. But a lesbian or gay couple cannot even claim basic rights.

Contends that the roots of the undocumented immigrant crisis lie in policymakers' fundamental misunderstanding of the causes of migration and migrants' motivations. Uses data to rebut basic misconceptions: that migration is caused by the lack of economic development and rapid population growth in home countries; that migrants are attracted mainly by wage differentials or public benefits; and that most intend to settle permanently in the United States.