Category: Other Immigration

Pew Poll: Americans priorities have changed fairly dramatically

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A new public opinion poll by the Pew Research Center for People and the Press sends a pretty clear signal to the Obama Administration.  Economy, Jobs and Terrorism are the three biggies for most Americans.

As Barack Obama takes office, the public’s focus is overwhelmingly on domestic policy concerns – particularly the economy. Strengthening the nation’s economy and improving the job situation stand at the top of the public’s list of domestic priorities for 2009. Meanwhile, the priority placed on issues such as the environment, crime, illegal immigration and even reducing health care costs has fallen off from a year ago.

Check out the chart accompanying the story from Pew.   Global warming (in this frigid winter) has dropped to the bottom of the list.

And, although illegal immigration is low on people’s priority lists, I thought 41 % was still a fairly large number of people who place it as a high priority.  The number would be greater if the public better understood immigrations connection to the top three concerns:  Economy, jobs, terrorism.

Hint to groups like Numbers USA, keep educating the public about that connection!

See my post of two days ago about Obama and Immigration reform.    Rahm Emanuel gets it—-it is all about jobs!

Obama puts Comprehensive Immigration Reform (Amnesty) way down the list

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Note to readers on April 2nd:  This is an old post, so lots of things may have changed, don’t take this as the definitive word on the amnesty issue.  We now know that Obama is a wild card and he may not care if he ticks off millions of unemployed Americans.

Update Jan. 24th:  Obama immigration agenda posted at White House website here.

The pro-open borders news site ‘Immigration Daily’ reports today that unless Congress gets some gumption, President Obama will not be pushing the amnesty legislation, sometimes called Comprehensive Immigration Reform, anytime soon.    Seems that Rahm Emanuel understands really well the issue of jobs, jobs, jobs!

From Immigration Daily: 

Immigration advocates have been concerned about the priority that President Obama assigns to immigration. A New York Times report dated January 10th said “On issues like immigration and climate change, Mr. Obama may focus on narrow moves first.” A more recent report in the Arizona Daily Star dated January 18th says “the consensus is that the economic crisis will put immigration on the back burner until late this year or early 2010.” All this has led to the anti-immigrationists gleefully crowing that “The outlook for [CIR] is so bleak that even Obama’s ‘immigration transition team’ — two law professors, Tino Cuellar of Stanford University and Georgetown’s Alexander Aleinikoff — has nothing to say.”

Be sure to read our friend Joe (gleefully crowing) Guzzardi’s VDARE piece linked above.  He says immigration is number thirteen (out of thirteen!) on Obama’s priority list.

New Study: How immigration flows are effected by US economy

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Migration Policy Institute has just released a report entitled: “Immigration and the Current Economic Crisis.”

Here is what ImmigrationProf blog has to say about it.  (I’m linking their news story because I wanted you to see this blog by immigration law professors anyway).

With the United States in an economic crisis that may already be the worst since the Great Depression, a report (Download lmi_recessionjan091.pdf ) issued today by the Migration Policy Institute finds that the recession may produce differing results for legal and illegal immigration flows. The report, Immigrants and the Current Economic Crisis, cites a growing body of evidence suggesting there has been a measurable slowdown in the historic growth of immigration in the United States, largely because there has been no significant growth in the unauthorized immigrant population since 2006.

“Legal and illegal immigration flows respond differently in an economic crisis,” said Migration Policy Institute President Demetrios Papademetriou, an author of the report. “Legal permanent immigration flows are the least responsive to economic pressures, while illegal immigration flows are the most responsive.” “Still, substantial return migration of unauthorized immigrants is unlikely unless there’s a protracted and severe worsening of the U.S. economy,” Papademetriou added. The report examines the effects of the economic crisis and factors such as immigration enforcement on the immigrant population already in the United States; predicts how future immigration flows may be affected; discusses how immigrants fare in the U.S. labor market during recessions; and offers possible policy prescriptions.

For us, the gist of what is being said here is that refugees and other legal immigrants will keep coming even when there are no jobs.   Guess that just means that Americans who are working will be paying for the legal refugees to live on welfare.

The illegal flow may slow or even reverse.

521 groups lobbying on immigration — 98 percent for more immigrants or looser enforcement

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform has a report that made my eyes pop:

According to lobbying reports that are required to be filed with the House Office of the Clerk and the Senate Office of Public Records, 521 corporations, trade associations, business groups, labor organizations, government entities, and nonprofit organizations engaged in lobbying on one or more pieces of the immigration-related legislation included in this report. Only 2 percent of these organizations are known to have promoted positions in favor of enforcement of existing immigration laws, limiting the influx of foreign guest workers, and reducing overall levels of immigration.

….The remaining 98 percent of the interest groups had a direct financial or political interest in relaxing immigration enforcement, and/or expansion of existing immigration quotas — positions that are widely rejected by the public.

And look at the money involved:

Collectively, these organizations and associations reported spending $345 million dollars lobbying Congress during this time period. While it is impossible to determine how much of that considerable sum was spent lobbying on specific pieces of immigration legislation, virtually all of the lobbying money expended by these groups is directed at gaining some benefit for themselves.

FAIR comments:

If Americans are disheartened and disillusioned by what they see going on in Washington, the intense lobbying that has taken place over immigration policy provides a case study for how powerful special interests with deep pockets are able to run roughshod over the interests and concerns of ordinary Americans.

Just think how easily the refugee volags can get their way. At least most Americans know about the problems with our immigration policy, have strong feelings about it, and are willing and eager to let their representatives know what they think. In contrast, most Americans know nothing about refugee policy or any of the problems associated with refugees.

Hat tip: Mark Krikorian at the Corner.

Addendum: I didn’t have time to go to the full report when I posted, but later when I saw Ann’s comments I looked at it. Here’s the direct link and the list of lobbying organizations begins on page 18.  Here are just a few:

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — $19 million. Exxon Mobil — $6 million. Time Warner — $1.9 million.  National Association of Realtors — $6.8 million. Each of these figures is for lobbying for just one bill; some companies and unions lobbied on multiple bills.