It’s easy to forget the faces behind the numbers, especially when it comes to immigration. But the migration crisis at the southern border isn’t just a matter of scope, although the Border Patrol has truly been overwhelmed by an unprecedented amount of border crossings. A humanitarian problem is at the root of this migration crisis...
What would your “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” essay look like? More to the point, what would Congress’ look like? While the House and the Senate adjourned for all of August (and had little to show for June and July), the White House was hard at work addressing the crisis at the border....
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it had finalized new federal regulations governing the detention of migrant families who enter the country illegally. These regulations replace the Flores Settlement Agreement, a court agreement that has governed national policy for the detention of minor children for more than two decades, and preserve its substantive provisions protecting the...
The Trump administration announced last week it will terminate the Flores settlement agreement, a 1997 court decree that has prevented U.S. officials from detaining migrant families and unaccompanied minors for more than 20 days. Media coverage predictably—and inaccurately—warned of “indefinite detention” for families and children caught crossing the southwest border. But ending the settlement was the right...
The economic might of the United States has been a magnet for those around the world seeking a better life for a long time. Immigrants, in turn, have helped the United States cement itself as the global hub of entrepreneurship and innovation. However, coming to work in America is a privilege — not a right....
By now it is irrefutable that there is a crisis at the border. Unfortunately, those who are suffering the most are the most vulnerable, namely children. The stories of children being separated from their parents were heartbreaking—as are the accounts of the brutal journey migrant children must undertake to reach the border, of fake family...
The Trump administration’s new asylum rule will limit the ability of Central Americans to claim asylum at the southwest border. If implemented, it might ease overcrowding at border detention facilities in the near term. But the rule, announced Monday, is at best a stopgap measure, not a permanent solution. The border crisis will never end until we overhaul...
Think of the U.S. Census Bureau as the nosiest of neighbors. When the 2020 forms arrive in mailboxes across the country, the questions will include the usual — the names and ages of all those living at a particular residence. But the questions don’t stop there. The census will also ask about sex, race, ancestry,...
An underreported news item showing that approvals for U.S. citizenship applications have reached a five-year high proves America isn’t anti-immigrant. Nor was it anti-immigrant at the beginning of my time in Congress when I represented 300 miles of the Texas-Mexico border. In 1994, a Democrat-led commission made many of the same recommendations on immigration reform the Trump administration is now making — and I included...
When President Trump announced Friday that the United States and Mexico reached a deal to avert tariffs and that Mexico would step up efforts to reduce illegal immigration from Central America, both governments hailed the deal as a big victory. Mexico agreed to allow Central Americans to wait in Mexico while their asylum claims are processed. They...
President Trump has announced a set of immigration reforms, many of which have merit. Even he acknowledges there’s little chance that Congress will act on them at least until after the 2020 elections. Yet the crisis at our border continues, as even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now acknowledges. But there’s also a crisis of trust – trust in our...
No matter what the Trump administration tries to do — shake up the leadership of federal immigration agencies, force asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico, even build a massive border wall — none of it will do much to affect the current border crisis one way or another. That’s because the border crisis is actually an...