The forces driving the unprecedented surge in family units and minors at the southern border were in the spotlight last week, as many of the nation’s leading newspapers published reports within days of each other that paint a clearer picture of how loose “credible fear” standards, the “Flores” settlement, and lack of detention space and … Continued

Immigration expansionists often say that struggling American towns and cities would benefit from increased immigration that would “grow the economy.” But adding people only guarantees that an economy will be bigger, not necessarily better. In Columbus, Ohio, for instance, tax revenues are not keeping up with population growth: “More people are calling Columbus home every … Continued

Immigration and the Rat Race A memo from the Center for American Progress warns vulnerable Democrats to spend “as little time as possible” talking about immigration. The websites of at least five vulnerable Senate Democrats make no mention of immigration (although one of them – Joe Donnelly of Indiana – is running ads saying he … Continued

A record number of migrants traveling with children have been apprehended at the border with a month to go in the fiscal year. Alfredo Corchado and Diane Solis of the Dallas Morning News report that the “renewed surge in Central American family migration is overwhelming private shelters and U.S. immigration holding centers.” Eric Olson of … Continued

NPR’s Ailsa Chang has a wild story about a man who found his American dream writing fictional stories for asylum applicants. Years after being caught, he is in hiding from the FBI but sharing some of his best work with NPR over Skype. Chang’s story acts as a sequel to “Asylum Fraud in Chinatown: An … Continued

Presidents Trump and Obama’s rhetoric on immigration are strikingly similar in at least one respect: they both promise(d) to be tough on bad guys and welcoming of good guys. Obama vowed an enforcement regime that focused on “felons, not families.” Trump promised to go after the “bad hombres” while letting in the “wonderful people.” Every … Continued

The New York Times provides an example of chain migration this week. The young engineer arrived in America when he was 23 with a good education and little else. He landed a job at a nuclear test site, and built a home in Nevada. Between the 1970s and the mid-1980s, he brought his wife, mother, … Continued

Big U.S. tech firms received significantly more H-1B visas In fiscal year 2017 (which covers the end of the Obama administration and the first eight months of Trump’s) than they did the year before, and that’s bad news for American workers. Foreign companies, particularly from India, are often scapegoated as the primary “abusers” of H-1B … Continued

Ecology and commerce are once again butting heads in California. And immigration is the elephant in the room. In “California water wars: State plans to cut SF’s Sierra supply to save delta,” Kurt Alexander reports: The West Coast’s largest estuary and a vital water source for much of the state has become short on water … Continued