In this election season, discussions of immigration reform have been light on serious policy talk and heavy on partisan posturing. In his State of the Union Address, President Obama reiterated his commitment to getting immigration reform done, using strikingly similar language to what he said in past addresses....

New York is home to an estimated 10,000 street vendors, the vast majority of whom are immigrants from destinations like Bangladesh, Senegal and China. Life on the job for these workers is inherently tough; most vendors work grueling hours, rain or shine, and earn incredibly low wages that they use...

In a recent White House meeting, President Obama and an eclectic group of administration officials, business and law enforcement leaders, former and current elected officials and other "stakeholders" discussed current prospects for comprehensive immigration reform, one of Obama's notable and still unfulfilled campaign promises.

According to official records of...

New York’s official 2010 Census results came in yesterday far below expectations, stumping politicians and city planners alike. While the Census Bureau estimate puts New York’s population at 8.175 million, city officials expected the number to be closer to 8.4 million.

Mayor Bloomberg told the Daily News, "We...

On the campaign trail, Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel faced tough criticism from opponents for his inaction on immigration policy issues. Immigration advocates, on the ground and in Congress, claimed that he stood in the way of progress on comprehensive immigration reform during his time as White House chief of staff....

Last week, Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) made a compelling case for comprehensive immigration reform in Politico, pointing out the various economic benefits of a legalization program. In response, Heritage Foundation analyst Jena McNeill fired off a sharp rebuttal which advanced several common immigration myths.

McNeill starts by saying...

In legislative houses across the country, newly-elected lawmakers are getting down to the business of fulfilling their campaign promises. Those elected vowing to crackdown on immigration have proposed various restrictionist and enforcement-oriented policies, which seem poised to satisfy voters rather than solve actual problems.

In Texas, Governor Rick Perry proclaimed...

For day laborers, finding work too often means accepting less than minimum wage, forgoing safety equipment, or enduring abuse by crooked employers. A new study by the Seton Hall Law School Center for Social Justice highlights the harsh realities for these workers in the New Jersey day labor market,...

If you've been paying attention, there’s no denying that our immigration system needs fixing. For those of you who still need convincing, look no further than The New York Times. An article in today’s paper finds that most of the estimated 4.5 million undocumented immigrants driving regularly in the...

"The Hispanic businesses and malls are empty. You used to see 100 people at the shopping center, and after the resolution, you'd see five. You noticed the difference."

This quote describes the fallout from Prince William County's polarizing local immigration law which was passed in 2007 and modified...

San Francisco may soon become a national model for election reform. Voters tomorrow will decide on the Saturday Voting Act, a proposition that would require San Francisco to open all polling places on the Saturday before Election Day in the November 2011 city election.

Alex Tourk, organizer of San Francisco's...

In recent weeks, Reps. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and Lamar Smith (R-TX) have been engaged in an all out op-ed war, going back and forth on immigration reform. Guess which one has a plan worth getting behind?

In a Huffington Post article, Rep. Gutierrez asks voters to help maintain momentum...

It's official: Cities have no way to get out of Secure Communities, the Obama administration's fastest growing local immigration enforcement program. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano confirmed this at a recent press conference, where she also announced that the program contributed to the deportations of a record 392,000 immigrants...

Last week, the New York Times took a peek inside the lives and livelihoods of Mexican immigrants, the city's fastest-growing group of newcomers. The article focuses on a Brooklyn apartment building mostly occupied by Mexican workers and finds a group of immigrants facing constant and commonplace workplace exploitation....

As Immigration and Customs Enforcement continues to aggressively expand its newest local immigration enforcement program, some localities are looking to put on the brakes. Secure Communities is touted as a voluntary partnership between federal, state and local agencies that "supports public safety by strengthening efforts to remove the most...

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Gov. Jan Brewer (R-AZ) are well-known for their regressive positions on immigration. Just in the past few months, Smith has helped lead the right-wing campaign against birthright citizenship, while Brewer has gained national attention for signing one of the harshest immigration laws in recent...

Children of undocumented immigrants seem to be the newest target in our ongoing immigration debate, as politicians and pundits rush to take sides on the merits of birthright citizenship. A leading argument against this practice centers on the costs to taxpayers of educating these U.S. citizen children. A recent...

The immigration debate goes local this week, following our Legislative Scorecard examining the Suffolk County Legislature's record on key middle class issues. The Scorecard, released by Long Island Wins and the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, analyzed nine bills passed during the 2008-9 session and graded...

Opponents of Arizona's immigration law celebrated a victory last Wednesday when a federal judge blocked its most notably controversial provisions, including a mandate compelling police to check the immigration status of residents stopped, detained or arrested. But the bill's chief sponsor, Arizona Sen. Russell Pearce, also declared the...

A critical, if overlooked, element of immigrant integration is the ability of newcomers to engage with their communities and take part in upholding our laws. Make no mistake: it benefits us all when immigrants and their families begin this process. As such, receiving communities have a distinct obligation to educate...