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I felt compelled to respond to the May 12 LNP | LancasterOnline letter titled Border situation is a disaster.

In response to the writers question about what has happened to our immigration laws, the answer is, sadly, nothing. The major laws regulating immigration into the United States havent seen any meaningful updates or reforms since the mid-1980s. Even then, the so-called reform titled the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 was little more than an emergency attempt to stem the tide of people coming illegally to the United States largely at the behest of U.S. companies seeking cheap labor.

Title 42, on the other hand, wasnt an immigration law at all. It was a public health law that temporarily allowed U.S. authorities to deny entry to people as a means of stopping the spread of COVID-19. When the public health emergency surrounding COVID-19 ended, so did the legal authority conferred by Title 42.

If youre concerned about the situation at our southern border, Id suggest you speak to your elected representative about supporting meaningful immigration reform. That would necessarily include expanding our immigration courts to handle the thousands of legitimate and fully legal asylum requests currently awaiting adjudication. And we might also consider helping our southern neighbors stem the tide of violence currently driving their desperate citizens northward.

James Cohen

East Lampeter Township

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Congress must pass immigration reform [letter] | Letters To The ... - LNP | LancasterOnline

With the expiration of Title 42, a public health measure that allowed board patrol agents to deny asylum-seekers (technically refugees) from gaining entry at the U.S., the issues of immigration and border security are front and center as potent political issues.

Images of hundreds and hundreds of migrants congregating at our southern border provide dramatic TV footage and inflammatory rhetoric -- "crisis" "disaster" "chaos" "state of emergency" -- paint a bleak picture.

Yet, the images and rhetoric distort as much as they clarify what is happening and what needs to be done.

House Republicans have seized the moment to pass a border security bill -- not an immigration bill -- to coincide with this latest surge at the border. It was an achievement by Speaker McCarthy to get enough of his fractious caucus to agree, but he was able to corral those votes -- particularly from Hispanic Republicans -- only because they knew that the bill has no chance to become law.

"Border security (as opposed to reforming immigration law) is the easiest part we could have done and we got it wrong," said Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican whose district covers a large chunk of the border. He voted for the bill anyway because he believes there are elements that could, ultimately, become part of a compromise.

The House bill would require that the unfinished parts of the border wall under construction when President Biden assumed office be completed. There is some money for 2,000 or so new border agents and for some technology. It directs that intending migrants remain in Mexico or in a detention facility and it criminalizes visa over-stays.

The hard-liners backed off harsher language that would have cracked down on employers who don't verify that potential employees are here legally, but there is little new money in this bill or changes that would allow more temporary work visas -- either for the highly skilled or agricultural workers.

Keep in mind that 40 percent of agricultural workers in America are undocumented and consider that if the debt ceiling bill that House Republicans passed a week ago became law, there could be a 40 percent cut in funding for border security.

The immigration problem is mind-numbingly complex, from the causes (poverty, violence, political repression) to the solutions that involve resources not only for border patrol agents and enhanced technology but also for immigration judges to reduce the backlog of cases. Most asylum-seekers are ultimately denied, but they are legally entitled to their day in court.

The Biden administration deported or turned away 1.4 million intending migrants last year and arrested some 10,000 individuals accused of being part of smuggling networks. The president presented a bill to Congress to reform the immigration system on Jan. 21, 2021. It would have provided a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented including the so-called Dreamers. It went nowhere.

There were things in the Biden bill for border security that were similar to the House bill (more agents and technology). There has always been some common ground that could act as a starting point. However, one wonders if some Republicans would rather have the issue as a political club they can use to beat Democrats.

Senators Krysten Sinema and Tom Tillis have been trying to cobble together a bipartisan bill that would be the first comprehensive immigration reform in 40 years, but most analysts don't see any hope of progress or compromise.

In his town hall this past week, former President Trump said America has gone to hell and is a Third World country. The thousands heading toward America's southern border don't appear to agree. There is a disconnect between the overheated rhetoric and the sense of urgency to do something. Congress needs to get serious

Keith Peterson, of Lake Barrington, served 29 years as a press and cultural officer for the United States Information Agency and Department of State. He was chief editorial writer of the Daily Herald 1984-86.

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In a head-spinning twist, business executives and economists who previously claimed immigration had little or no impact on Americans paychecks are now calling for more immigration in order to reducewages.

Among the converts is retired Walmart CEO Bill Simon.Complaining that the company now has to pay workers $14 an hour (gasp!), Simon says higher levels of immigration will tamp down inflation by reining insalaries.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which heretofore cavalierly dismissed the idea that immigrant workers depress wages, now says doubling immigration might be the fastest thing to do to impactinflation.

Most recently, The Wall Street Journal published a lengthy article toeing the conventional line that the U.S. and every other developed nation must import evermore low-wage workers. But one Journal source broke ranks, asserting that mass immigration slows economies in the longrun.

Labor shortages are very healthy, saidMikal Skuterud, an economics professor at University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. They force employers to use existing workers more efficiently and invest in technology, thats all goodstuff.

Unfortunately, that logic is lost on Joe Biden & Co. FAIR reported this month that, to the detriment of American workers, the open-borders White House is slavishly following a Goldman Sachs playbook, which advocates for U.S. wage reductions via higher rates of immigration. (Goldman is mute on whether businesses would or should pass along any savings toconsumers.)

Apparently, what was once a negligible impact on wages is now a large and desirable one, observes Steve Camarota, of the Center for ImmigrationReform.

The argument that expanding the foreign labor pool lowers inflation is a thin and contradictory one, as evidenced by an article posted at Fwd.us, an immigration advocacy group. There, a George Mason University professor recites the newly approved mantra that more immigration is essential to curbing wages and stemming inflation. Yet Fwd.us explicitly states elsewhere on its website that it is a myth that immigration drives down wages. So which isit?

Globally focused business executives, corporate-endowed think tanks and compliant media acolytes with short memories conveniently gloss over inconvenient facts, even common sense, in dogged pursuit of their overriding objective: More immigration. If the old inflation-immigration narrative needs to be turned upside down, so be it. American workers are a dispensable detail in their shiftyequations.

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Immigration Lobby's New Inflation Spiel Sticks It to U.S. Workers, Again - Federation for American Immigration Reform

Caribbean American Democratic Congresswoman Yvette D Clarke has reiterated her call for comprehensive immigration reform, as immigration advocates intensify calls for solving the migration crisis in the United States that involves Caribbean and other illegal migrants and refugees.

As a daughter of immigrants, it is not lost upon me the multitude of hardships and difficulties families experience when they come to this nation in hopes of finding the American Dream. Unfortunately, our immigration system, which has not been updated in 30 years, is broken, Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) on Friday.

At the same time, extremist MAGA Republicans are fighting tooth and nail to break it even further with H.R. 2, their Child Deportation Act, added the representative for the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, New York. This cruel legislation would force draconian restrictions and punishments on migrants and asylum seekers and set Americas immigration priorities back years. Any bill that would allow vulnerable migrant children to be inhumanely detained by Border Patrol for up to a month is an unacceptable solution.

As chair of the Immigration Task Force in the US House of Representatives, Clarke said she has seen the glaring inequities, blatant racism, vicious xenophobia, and civil rights violations immigrants face particularly in immigrant communities of African descent.

Immigrants of color experience immigration inequities more than any other community and immigrants of European origin, she said. But let me very clear, immigrantsregardless of statuscontribute billions every year in taxes and to the American economy. Thats why we need a concrete vision, equipped with compassion and equity, for comprehensive immigration reform.

In response to Mayor Adamss executive order to temporarily suspend New York Citys right-to-shelter protections, Natalia Aristizabal Betancur, deputy director of Make the Road New York, an immigration advocacy group, said it was simply outrageous for Mayor Adams to flout the law and try to suspend right-to-shelter protections that have been fundamental to New York City housing laws for decades.

Everyone, regardless of immigration status, deserves a safe roof over their heads, she said.

The City has a moral obligation to do the right thing and step up to provide supportnot put New Yorkers, including recently arrived people, at grave risk.

We urge the Adams administration to reverse course immediately and work to provide real, appropriate, and safe solutions, Betancur added. We and our allies have articulated multiple alternative stepslike expanding access to CityFHEPs vouchers to all people regardless of immigration status and eliminating the 90-day rule for eligibility that Mayor Adams should take to address the current situation and help all New Yorkers, including asylum seekers, move into permanent housing. Its time for him to listen and act on those policy recommendations.

On Thursday, the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella policy and advocacy organization that represents over 200 immigrant and refugee rights groups throughout New York, rallied, on the steps of City Hall in lower Manhattan, with elected officials, Hudson Valley-serving nonprofit organizations and immigrant New Yorkers, urging the Biden and Adams administrations to step up efforts to address the crisis.

The Adams administration needs to evolve its response from an emergency footing to a permanent one, and start investing in an infrastructure which includes coordination with local municipalities and community-based organizations to move people from NYCs shelters to permanent housing using vouchers, as well as increase funding to meet legal and social services needs, said Murad Awawdeh, NYICs executive director. This will ensure that asylum seekers, and all New Yorkers, are better able to integrate and build their lives here.

Late last week, Adams announced a new program to provide up to four months of temporary sheltering in nearby New York counties, outside of New York City, to single-adult men seeking asylum who are already in the citys care.

Many of the asylum seekers are nationals of Cuba, Haiti, and Venezuela.

In his announcement, Adams said the program will launch with two hotels located in Orange Lake and Orangeburg counties, with the potential to expand, and will provide asylum seekers with shelter for up to four months as well as the same city-funded services available at Humanitarian Emergency Relief and Response Centers.

The mayor said staff at participating hotels will also connect asylum seekers with community-based organizations and faith groups to support their transition to a new city.

With the number of asylum seekers arriving in New York City rapidly accelerating ahead of Title 42s lifting on Thursday, and what is expected to be an even larger influx after that day, Adams said the hotels in Orange Lake and Orangeburg will free up additional space in New York City for the hundreds of asylum seekers continuing to arrive in the five boroughs every day.

Since last spring, the mayor said over 60,800 asylum seekers have come through New York City and been offered a place to stay, adding that over 37,500 asylum seekers are currently in the citys care.CMC

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Immigration Rep. Clarke Calls For Comprehensive Reform NY ... - NYCaribNews

Anyone following the immigration debate over the last decade has seen the grim headlines: Family separation. Child exploitation. Unscrupulous smugglers. Deadly treks through the jungle.

When I accompanied a group of Boston University students to the Rio Grande Valley this spring through the Border Studies Program, led by the Center on Forced Displacement, we saw the desperation and frustration firsthand. During our 10-day trip, students volunteered at a migrant shelter and with other organizations, serving meals, distributing clothing, looking after children and helping translate documents. They got to know the families, their strength and the struggles that had brought them there.

In Reynosa, Mexico, right across the border from McAllen, Texas, thousands of migrant families are living in tents, many without running water or electricity. These families have already survived harrowing journeys from their countries of origin, which often include Haiti, Honduras, Venezuela, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. In addition to spending their life savings, some were subject to abductions or sexual assault.

Migrants have been stranded in these conditions at least in part because of a controversial program known as Title 42, which officially ended May 11,but was widely used starting in March 2020, when the Trump administration invoked the statue at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Title 42 gave the U.S. government broad emergency powers to block asylum seekers and others from entering the country under the guise of preventing the spread of disease. Under Title 42, border patrol agents had the authority to override immigration laws that protect asylum seekers and ensure due process, and expel migrants to their last port of entry, usually Mexico.

While they wait for a chance to cross into the U.S., a process that can take months, people are vulnerable to exactly the kind of violence many of them fled in the first place: criminal gangs, kidnapping, extortion. And services to help are few and far between.

A Customs and Border Patrol app known as CBPone, designed to streamline immigration hearing requests, has been plagued by setbacks. We talked to families who told us that finding a functioning smartphone, charger and wifi signal in order to fill out their information and upload photos to the app was no easy feat; some relied on volunteers to lend them their devices or assist with language barriers.

Others said they were not able to enter all of their childrens details in time before the app crashed or reset, and had to resort to splitting up. This meant that a mother (or father) and one child might be able to schedule an appointment, while the other parent had to remain behind with the rest of their children, praying to be reunited soon.

Families who had been languishing in these camps for months also competed against new arrivals for limited spots, resulting in an overwhelming atmosphere of chaos and despair. For my BU students one social work graduate and nine undergraduates from different disciplines it was an eye-opening experience. They had prepared for the trip by reading articles, biographies and first-hand accounts, and by studying the history of migration in the Rio Grande Valley. On the ground, they not only saw immigration policies in action, they observed the resilience of the families who had escaped political conflict, violent crime and economic upheaval that prompted them to make the journey with their children in search of better lives.

At the same time, I learned from my students, who demonstrated openness, humility and their own form of resilience. Some could relate to the migrants experiences because their own parents had made a similar trek as immigrants and refugees, and worked hard, so that their children had the opportunity to finish school and go to college. The trip reconnected these students with their own histories while letting them give back to other families in need.

[My students] not only saw immigration policies in action, they observed the resilience of the families who had escaped political conflict, violent crime and economic upheaval

Title 42 has given way to a new set of restrictions. But for migrants, systemic challenges and uncertainties remain, even once they settle into their host communities and start rebuilding their lives.

As a social work expert who has watched this humanitarian disaster unfold, my heart breaks for the parents and children who have spent these last three years in legal limbo, not to mention those migrants who have become pawns in anti-immigration stunts by some governors.

Title 42 was never about public health. It was about keeping out people who in many cases meet the criteria for asylum and a workaround to delay border crossings. Meanwhile Congress has refused to act on comprehensive immigration reform and cynical politicians incite racism and xenophobia.

We simply must do better. Migrant families need our support not the patchwork of resources available now, but a coordinated national response to this growing crisis.

During the trip, my students and I discussed the need for immigration reform and policies that are less punitive. They need mental health and trauma care, assistance with housing and education, and policies in place that guard against horrifying injustices like family separation. This responsibility cannot be left to border cities or states and not just because many lack the infrastructure or political will. Once migrants enter the U.S., they join family members or seek employment all across the country. We need robust services and outreach from coast to coast.

We also talked about how the Biden administrations new immigration policies will prevent many families from being granted asylum. Instead, they will be returned to unsafe conditions in their home countries, where they will be banned from reapplying for five years. This is unacceptable.

As we move forward from this shameful chapter of our history, we must dispel the myth that migrants and asylum seekers are criminals or here to steal jobs. Lets focus instead on the hardworking families who deserve a second chance at stability and safety then fund the resources and programs that will help them get it.

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I traveled with my students to the Rio Grande Valley. I hope what ... - WBUR News