Border & Immigration News
The Daily Signal provides border and immigration news, including reporting, analysis, and commentary on policy, enforcement, and political debates.
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Obama Administration Seeks Expansion of Student Visas for Immigrants
President Obama has proposed to extend the time some immigrant students can stay and work in the United States after they graduate from college, and some in Congress are unhappy because they say these students take and keep jobs that should go to Americans. The Optional Practical Training allows students to stay in the United…Leah Jessen -
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California to Subsidize Health Care for Illegal Immigrant Children
A California budget deal announced this week would provide state-funded health care coverage to children living in the U.S. illegally, making the state the first in the nation to do so. The deal between Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders would cover about 170,000 immigrants 18 and under and is expected to easily pass the…Natalie Johnson -
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Before Skeptical Lawmakers, Officials Defend ‘Legality’ of Obama’s Immigration Actions
Top government officials were called before Congress today to answer a series of questions about illegal immigration enforcement since President Obama announced his plan to grant legal status to millions here illegally. Obama’s executive actions on immigration—introduced in November—are currently on hold due to a federal court ruling. “President Obama made far-reaching, unilateral changes to…Kate Scanlon -
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Senators Want Answers: 121 Illegal Immigrants Avoid Deportation, Now Charged With Murder
More than 100 convicted criminals who remained in the U.S. despite receiving deportation orders between 2010 and 2014 now face murder charges, according to the agency charged with carrying out such deportations of illegal immigrants. U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement reports that 121 convicted criminals who were never removed from the country face murder charges today….Diana Stancy -
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Study: US Arresting Fewer Criminally Convicted Illegal Immigrants
The Center for Immigration Studies recently released a report stating that arrests of non-citizens who have been convicted of a crime decreased by 32 percent since this time last year. However, the Center for Immigration Studies says this does not indicate there are fewer criminally convicted illegal immigrants in the United States, but rather, the government…Diana Stancy -
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Senator Pressures Government to Add ‘Freedom of Religion’ to US Immigration Exam
Marking the anniversary of when the First Amendment right to “freedom of religion” was introduced, Sen. James Lankford is pressuring the Department of Homeland Security to change language used in a U.S. citizens exam. “It is my understanding that the answer choice ‘freedom of worship’ has been used since 2008, when [the U.S. Citizen and…Kelsey Bolar -
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The Obama Administration Was Handed a Huge Immigration Defeat. Here’s Why It Matters.
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handed the Obama administration a huge defeat this week. It denied the government’s request for an emergency stay of a preliminary injunction blocking implementation of President Obama’s immigration amnesty program. This is not a decision on the merits of the lawsuit filed against the administration…Hans von Spakovsky -
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Federal Appeals Court Keeps Hold on Obama’s Immigration Actions
A federal appeals court has decided to keep a hold on President Obama’s immigration executive actions, preventing the program from at least temporarily going into effect. Two of three judges on a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled to uphold an injunction on Obama’s 2014 immigration actions. Judge Andrew…Josh Siegel -
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Can Marco Rubio Make Peace With Conservatives on Immigration?
Some conservatives wrote off Marco Rubio as a prospective candidate for president because of the Florida Republican’s work on, and advocacy for, the Gang of Eight immigration reform bill. The first-term senator began to talk about that legislation as a mistake, though, as he moved toward his April 13 announcement that he was formally entering…Ken McIntyre -
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Did Obama Administration Really Accidentally Disobey Judge’s Order on Immigration?
The Justice Department’s latest filings in the immigration lawsuit brought by 26 states in the Southern District of Texas are a little hard to believe—and somewhat comical, in a way. Back in February, Judge Andrew Hanen issued a preliminary injunction against the implementation of President Obama’s executive orders on immigration. Now, in an attempt to…Hans von Spakovsky -
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Newly Passed Human Trafficking Bill Only a Start to What US Must Do to Combat Trafficking
On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015. If signed by the president, the bill would create a domestic fund for victims of child sex trafficking from fines levied against traffickers. Fines collected from traffickers will bolster local law enforcement training and capabilities, among other capacity building…Olivia Enos -
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House Approves Defense Spending Bill After Removing Controversial Immigration Provision
The House of Representatives today passed the National Defense Authorization Act, which is annual legislation that funds the Department of Defense. The final version of the legislation stripped out language that would have asked the Pentagon to consider allowing young immigrants who came to the country illegally as children to become eligible for service in…Kate Scanlon -
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GOP-Led House Considers Bill Encouraging Illegal Immigrants to Serve in Military
The National Defense Authorization Act, currently making its way through the Republican-controlled U.S. House, includes language encouraging the secretary of defense to allow immigrants who are in the country illegally to serve in the military. The provision asks Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to consider making those who were approved for deferred deportation under President Obama’s…Kate Scanlon -
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Defense Funding Bill Shouldn’t Allow Illegal Immigrants to Enlist in the Military
Despite the fact that the U.S. House of Representatives has voted down repeated attempts to encourage the recruitment of illegal immigrants into the military, we are seeing yet another attempt to encourage such recruitment recently inserted into a must-pass defense funding bill. Even worse, the push to recruit illegal immigrants is happening at a time…Rep. Dave Brat -
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NDAA Should Be About Defense, Not Immigration
The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) narrowly voted to include a provision that supports President Obama’s harmful and unlawful immigration actions. The provision, Section 538 of the National Defense Authorization Act, does little itself but merely expresses support for what the president has already done. First, President Obama unilaterally decided to give pseudo legal status,…David Inserra -
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How Many Illegal Immigrants Have Been Deported in Your County? This Map Has the Answer.
The Center for Immigration Studies has released an interactive map by depicting the number of illegal immigrants deported from each county as part of the U.S. government’s Secure Communities program. According to the nonpartisan Center for Immigration Studies, the deportations occurred between October 2008 and February 2015. The three counties with the most deportations during this…Kate Scanlon -
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Obama Administration Admits It Violated Judge’s Order to Halt Implementation of Immigration Plan
In another midnight filing last week in the immigration lawsuit filed by 26 states against the Obama administration in the Southern District of Texas, the U.S. Justice Department admitted that the Department of Homeland Security had violated federal Judge Andrew Hanen’s Feb. 16 injunction against President Obama’s immigration amnesty plan. This was not the first…Hans von Spakovsky -
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Did Scott Walker ‘Evolve’ on Immigration?
For weeks now, Scott Walker has attracted attention from politicos and pundits with his statements on illegal and legal immigration. Whether they like or loathe what they hear the Wisconsin governor saying on processing illegal immigrants and curbing legal immigration, tuned-in activists want him to spell out his thinking if he seeks the Republican nomination…Ken McIntyre -
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Why Doesn’t the White House Want to Help Immigrants Assimilate?
When it comes to assimilating immigrants, the Obama administration appears to have drawn a line under the day the president first took office and forgotten much that came before it. That’s a pity, as the country had learned a thing or two about acculturating immigrants since the first German Mennonites and Pietists settled in colonial…Mike Gonzalez -
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Why Jeb Bush Says He’s Right About Immigration
A gathering of conservatives gave Jeb Bush a strong round of applause applause after he made a spirited defense of his call for decisive action on immigration reform, which many of them oppose. Bush apparently got credit for standing up in the lion’s den – in this case a program earlier this week associated with…Ken McIntyre