#4 of 5 – Five Things the Republican Congress Must Do in 2015 (with Resources)

This Blog is taken from Five Things the Republican Congress Must Do in 2015.

Visit FAIR’s State and Local Issues website – The State and Local staff executes FAIR’s state and local legislative strategy and develop FAIR’s position on proposed state and local legislation. State and Local staff work closely with the Field Team and other FAIR staff to closely monitor legislative activity around the United States regarding immigration issues.

Local Immigration Enforcement – Overview: In most cases, federal laws that bar illegal aliens from the United States and punish persons who smuggle, shelter, or employ or otherwise assist illegal aliens can be enforced by local and state police.

State and local law enforcement officials have the general power to investigate and arrest violators of federal immigration statutes without prior Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) knowledge or approval, as long as they are authorized to enforce federal law in general. Although immigration is a federal matter, local law enforcement departments and personnel are not required to turn a blind eye to any illegal activity including violations of immigration law. It is illegal for local governments to prohibit police cooperation with the INS, and individual officers who report violations are protected by law. Read more…

President Obama’s Record of Dismantling Immigration Enforcement – Forward: President Barack Obama came to office in 2009 and pledged that during his first year of office he would enact amnesty legislation for illegal aliens living in the United States. That, of course, did not happen — not because of any lack of ideological commitment on the part of the President, but because of pragmatic considerations. Only two years earlier, President Obama, then Senator Obama, watched as President George W. Bush tried to toss the American people into the boiling cauldron of comprehensive amnesty in 2007. It didn’t work. Voters angrily crashed the Capitol switchboard on the day the Senate was set to vote and as a result, fourteen Democrats joined thirty-nine Republicans to vote down the amnesty legislation. The President concluded, correctly, that there just is not an appetite in Congress for another politically bruising fight over comprehensive amnesty. Read More…

Sheriffs from Around U.S. Say President Does Not Have Their Support – Sheriffs from across the nation traveled to Washington, D.C. this week to refute Obama’s remarks that his amnesty plan had the support of law enforcement. Instead, the group of officers hammered down on the Department of Homeland Security’s 10-point plan and added that the executive plot would further threaten public safety in their communities. Read more…

Interior Immigration Enforcement – Musical Chairs (2009) – The Obama Administration has launched a new worksite enforcement policy that ostensibly is aimed at employers and avoids the arrests of illegal workers that was an integral aspect of previous enforcement efforts. As Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Napolitano described it in a November 13, 2009 policy address, “[W]e’ve transformed worksite enforcement to truly address the demand side of illegal immigration. We are auditing the books of thousands of employers suspected of relying on illegal labor to achieve an unfair advantage in the marketplace.”

“Addressing the demand side” presumably means going after the employers who supply the jobs rather than the supply side, meaning the illegal workers. But, does the new policy really go after the employers? How does it differ from the interior enforcement policy inherited from the Bush Administration?… Read more…