Archive for the ‘Illegal Immigration’ Category

French Immigration Reform Bill Faces Conflict on Three Major Points – The European Conservative

Frances immigration reform legislation, which was approved by the French senate earlier this month with added amendments even tougher on immigration than the original bill, faces at least three major challenges as French President Emmanuel Macron seeks to pass it through the Chamber of Deputies.

Discussions on the bill began this week on Monday, November 27th.

MP Ccile Rilhac, a member of En Commun and an ally of President Macron, told broadcaster Franceinfo, that there were two red lines, which, if crossed, would mean she and her allies would not be able to vote for the bill.

The first red line related to the regularisation of illegal undocumented workers, with Rilhac stating,

There must be the possibility of regularisation of foreign workers. Thats for sure. The fact that it is related to jobs in short supply always raises the question, in this case, of the regular rewriting of this list of jobs in short supply.

We want there to be a basic right, that is, undocumented workers can, at their request, be regularised.

The second red line involves a proposal to take away state medical aid (AME) from illegal immigrants. The AME currently covers all of their medical costs, rather than just emergency care.

According to a 2021 report, the French taxpayer was paying around a billion euros per year to cover the healthcare of illegal immigrants due to the fact that hundreds of thousands were benefitting from the scheme.

Rilhac added that she and her allies would not vote for any bill that scrapped the AME for illegal immigrants and that some of her allies would go further and vote against the bill. The French Senate already voted to scrap AME for illegal migrants entirely and only cover emergency care.

A third red line involves labour market access to asylum seekers from countries likely to receive refugee status. This was rejected by the French senate, which is largely controlled by right-wing parties such as the centre-right Les Republicains.

Sacha Houli, a member of President Macrons party Renaissance, stated that the Macron-allied parties and the Left would seek to restore the proposal to allow asylum seekers immediate access to the French labour market if it was likely they would receive asylum.

A group of 17 Les Republicains MPs, meanwhile, stated they would vote for the bill if the spirit of the Senates project prevails. This could open the door for some changes to the bill supported by the Macron faction and the Left, as the rest of the right-wing parties have stood firm on their support for the Senate version.

The openness of Les Republicains MPs could also allow the Macron government to avoid having to enact Article 49.3, which grants the French executive power to force bills into law even if they do not have a majority of votes in the French parliament.

The article was used earlier this year in March to force through a controversial retirement reform which raised the age of retirement from 62 to 64 and led to widespread protests and strikes.

In a 2021 survey, 71% of French said that there has been enough immigration to France and that they had little desire for more, while 64% said they did not wish France to take in any more refugees due to concerns regarding terrorism. A survey from April 2023 showed that 82% of French citizens favoured an immigration law that would facilitate easier deportations of illegal immigrants.

Another poll from 2021 found nearly 7 in 10 French people believed in the theory of the Great Replacement coined by writer Renaud Camus, which asserts that elites in government and business are driving the demographic replacement of native peoples in Europe and elsewhere through mass immigration policies.

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French Immigration Reform Bill Faces Conflict on Three Major Points - The European Conservative

Croatia: Sharp rise in illegal immigration since Schengen entry last year – Euronews

The Balkan nation has recorded the jump nine months after it joined the Schengen area, the world's largest visa-free zone.

Croatia has recorded a 140% year-on-year increase in illegal immigration, according to new figures released by authorities.

On Thursday, Border Police Chief Zoran Niceno announced that the sharp rise has seen more than 54,500 people crossing the Croatian border illegally this year so far.

Croatia, which is home to nearly 3.9 million inhabitants, joined the Schengen area in 2023.It also has the European Union's longest external land border some 1,350 kilometres in total.

It applies strict checks on arrivals crossing from its non-EU neighbours in the Balkans, but is nonethelesswell known as one of the preferred passages on the Balkan route used by hundreds of thousands of men, women and children fleeing conflict in 2015 and 2016.

Several associations across Europe have warned Croatia against illegal expulsions of migrants especially children and have raised concerns at the country's stark lack of reception facilities for asylum seekers.

Among the 1,700 cases of illegal expulsions documented this year, more than half of the migrants surveyed say they have suffered "physical violence, humiliation or theft", according to the Centre for Peace Studies, a local organisation.

NGOs and some media outlets frequently accuse Croatia of forcibly pushing back migrants at the border, often using force.The government in Zagreb has always denied such behaviour.

Across the border in Slovenia - also an EU member - the number of migrants has increased too, almost tripling in the first 8 months of 2023, compared to the same period in 2022.

While the Slovenian Minister of the Interior, Bostjan Poklukar, says there are no immediate plans to toughen up border controls in many areas, he has indicated that they have been strengthened in the most critical places.

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Croatia: Sharp rise in illegal immigration since Schengen entry last year - Euronews

Ramaswamy says he will end birthright citizenship for kids of illegal immigrants if elected US president – Times of India

WASHINGTON: Republican presidential aspirant Vivek Ramaswamy has re-ignited a controversial proposal by former president Donald Trump among others "MAGA" proponents by pledging -- if elected to the White House -- to end birthright citizenship" for children of illegal immigrants in the United States. Son of Indian immigrants to the US, Ramaswamy took a strong position on the issue at the Second Republican presidential debate on Wednesday by challenging the interpretation of the US Constitution's 14th Amendment, which says all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the laws and jurisdiction thereof, are citizens." But Ramaswamy is challenging that interpretation, arguing that it does not bestow the right of birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants. Nobody believes that the kid of a Mexican diplomat in this country enjoys birthright citizenship. Not a judge or legal scholar in this country will disagree with me on that. Well, if the kid of a Mexican diplomat doesnt enjoy birthright citizenship, then neither does the kid of an illegal immigrant who broke the law to come here," he argued. Ramaswamy's pledge came when he was asked by Univision host Ilia Caldern what legal premise he would use to expel undocumented immigrants and their American-born children from the country. He began by noting that his opponents onstage are on the right side of this issue by supporting the militarization of the southern border, defunding sanctuary cities, and ending foreign aid to Mexico and Central America. But he would go a step further by ending birthright citizenship for the kids of illegal immigrants in this country. The 14th Amendment's interpretation has long been questioned by hardline Republicans who argue that the phrase and subject to the jurisdiction thereof referred to slaves/slavery, not illegal immigrants/illegal immigration. Because of this, Ramaswamy argued, children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States should not be granted citizenship, "because their parents broke the law in entering the country illegally.

As the father of two sons, it is hard for me to look them in the eye and say, You have to follow the law, when our own government fails to follow its own laws, Ramaswamy, whose parents immigrated legally, said. Former president Donald Trump had taken a similar line when he first ran for the White House in 2015 and had threatened to issue an executive order that would end automatic citizenship to those born in this country to noncitizens. But he never carried out his threat because there is a broad consensus in the US to hew to the 1898 Supreme Court interpretation.

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Ramaswamy says he will end birthright citizenship for kids of illegal immigrants if elected US president - Times of India

Work Authorization Expansion: Attracts and Embeds Illegal Immigration Population in U.S. Society – Immigration Blog

Listen to "Work Authorization Expansion: Attracts and Embeds Illegal Immigration Population in U.S. Society" on Spreaker.

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In this weeks podcast, the Center for Immigration Studies highlights the expansion of work authorization for newly arrived migrants and those who have entered the country illegally. Work permits are an often-ignored part of the discussion on immigration policy but are a major pull factor for immigrants looking to come to the United States illegally.

In this episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, Elizabeth Jacobs, the Centers Director of Regulatory Affairs and Policy, explains the importance of Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) and sheds light on how the Biden administration has exploited loopholes in immigration law to prioritize the issuances of EADs to migrants over visa holders.

Jacobs also breaks down the recent Biden administration reforms which are aimed to expand work authorization eligibility even further, strengthening the job magnet that attracts illegal immigration. DHS has announced it will:

Mark Krikorian, the Centers Executive Director and host of the podcast, points out, Work permits root individuals into American society in a way that working illegally does not. It provides access to Social Security numbers and drivers licenses, serving as a significant step toward a full amnesty. The Biden administrations large-scale expansion of work authorization for those who enter the country illegally deserves more attention from the media and Congress.

Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies.

Elizabeth Jacobs is the Director of Regulatory Affairs at the Center for Immigration Studies.

Work Authorization Expansion Is the Problem Not the Solution to Cities Migrant Issues

USCIS Ombudsman Confirms: Biden Policies Hobble Legal Immigration System

Citizenship and Immigration Services Annual Report 2023

DHS Creates Yet Another Parole Program for Aliens to Cut in Line

Follow Parsing Immigration Policy on Ricochet, ApplePodcasts, Amazon Music,Spotify, Stitcher,Google Podcasts.

Voices in the opening montage:

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Work Authorization Expansion: Attracts and Embeds Illegal Immigration Population in U.S. Society - Immigration Blog

Former agent admits to scheme to illegally employ non-immigrants … – Department of Justice

LAREDO, Texas A former Border Patrol (BP) agent and another individual have entered a guilty plea to employing illegal aliens by fraudulently obtaining immigration permits, announced U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani.

Ricardo Gonzalez, 40, and Alex Lopez, 33, Laredo, entered a guilty plea to conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Gonzalez operated a company known as Gonmor Transportation. Lopez was the office manager. Gonzalez was also an active BP agent.

The multi-year scheme involved the company recruiting and hiring non-immigrants to work as commercial truck drivers, but then paid them less due to their citizenship status. As part of the scheme, Gonzalezs company would provide these new hires with a letter to take to one of the ports of entry in Laredo. The letter had information claiming the driver was working for a Mexican trucking company and was requesting an I-94 travel permit so he could enter the United States, pick up cargo and return to Mexico.

As part of their respective pleas, each admitted to knowing the drivers were not working for this Mexican company, yet still providing the letter to assist in obtaining the I-94 permit. Once these drivers obtained the permit, Gonmor paid them to transport cargo within the United States, in violation of the permit terms.

A Mexican driver with a valid non-immigrant visa who works for a Mexican transportation company and is paid by them in Mexico may obtain an I-94 at one of the ports of entry. With it, the driver can travel with a load into the United States, go beyond the checkpoints to his or her final destination then return to Mexico. An I-94 does not allow the holder to work in the United States or for a U.S.-based company.

Gonzalez and Lopez admitted to knowing the people they were hiring to drive trucks for the company were not allowed to work in the United States, that the company paid these people less because of their status and that the I-94 permit did not authorize these individuals to work in the United States.

U.S. District Judge Diana Saldaa will impose sentencing at a later date. At that time, each faces up to five years in federal prison and a possible $250,000 maximum fine.

Gonzalez and Lopez were permitted to remain on bond pending sentencing.

Customs and Border Protection - Office of Professional Responsibility conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Bajew is prosecuting the case.

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Former agent admits to scheme to illegally employ non-immigrants ... - Department of Justice