RE-THINK IMMIGRATION
A Monday-through-Friday, non-partisan blog covering the most
contentious policy issue of our time: immigration.
A study by the Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigration group, has found that immigration to the United States increases global greenhouse gas emissions.

The press release shared these bullet points (click on the link for more):
  • The estimated CO2 emissions of the average immigrant (legal or illegal) in the United States are 18 percent less than those of the average native-born American.
  • However, immigrants in the United States produce an estimated four times more CO2 in the United States as they would have in their countries of origin.
  • U.S. immigrants produce an estimated 637 million metric tons of CO2 emissions annually -- equal to Great Britain and Sweden combined.
  • The estimated 637 million tons of CO2 U.S. immigrants produce annually is 482 million tons more than they would have produced had they remained in their home countries.
  • If the 482-million-ton increase in global CO2 emissions caused by immigration to the United States were a separate country, it would rank 10th in the world in emissions.
  • The impact of immigration to the United States on global emissions is equal to approximately 5 percent of the increase in annual world-wide CO2 emissions since 1980.
  • Of the CO2 emissions caused by immigrants, 83 percent are estimated to come from legal immigrants and 17 percent from illegal immigrants.
  • Legal immigrants have a much larger impact because they are more numerous than illegal immigrants and because they have higher incomes, and thus higher emissions.

Posted By Daniela at 01:04 AM| 2 Comments


Friday, August 15, 2008

Cartoon of the day



Title: "Amigo McCain"
By Antonio Neri Licón, Milenio, Mexico.

Posted By Daniela at 01:00 AM| 1 Comments


Today's editorial selection is once again by syndicated columnist Ruben Navarrette, Jr. This time he writes about the self-deportation pilot program the ICE has set up; in his column this week, he writes that few people are taking advantage of the opportunity to self-deport.

Navarrette writes that because regular deportation is so rare, there is no real incentive to self-deport.  An excerpt—

Do-nothingism is a reputation the agency has worked hard to build. Just ask any local or state police officer who, having run across an illegal immigrant and done his duty by calling ICE to pick him up, waited and waited only to eventually realize that no one was coming. Or ask any of those who were picked up in the recent series of immigration raids -- deservedly so, I might add -- but who had to watch those who had employed them, and in some cases allegedly abused them, get off without so much as a warning.

Clearly, ICE is suffering a meltdown. It is the result of an overhaul that the Immigration and Naturalization Service got after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and now it desperately needs an overhaul of its own. (...)

The next president needs to make it clear that he's serious about immigration enforcement by finding a serious person to head what needs to once again be thought of as a serious agency. But who would want the job now? Say, why not take a page from the agency's playbook and ask for volunteers?

Posted By Daniela at 12:55 AM| 1 Comments


Elvira Arellano, who was deported from the U.S., last year, speaks to an amateur cameraman. It's in Spanish, but the gist of it is that she is working at the Tijuana border in efforts against the border wall and for immigrant families who have been separated by deportation.

Posted By Daniela at 12:41 AM| 2 Comments


Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Cartoon of the day



On the Latin American food crisis

By Nerilicon, Caglecartoons.com (Mexico City).

Posted By Daniela at 04:24 PM| 3 Comments


Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Official: Faster immigration inquiries due

The acting director of the U.S. Customs & Immigration Services (USCIS) said this week that soon people applying for visas should no longer expect a wait of more than 30 days for background check processing to be completed, UPI reports.

As we've blogged several times over the past year, background checks have bogged down the system and led to many people applying for visas, residency, or citizenship to remain in relative limbo in the meantime.

While most applications are processed swiftly, approximately 2% can take many months and even more than a year.

Posted By Daniela at 04:18 PM| 0 Comments



Posted By Daniela at 03:24 PM| 0 Comments


The WaPo’s Behind the Numbers blog scoured all the latest polls on immigration and the presidential election and distilled it for us—

Recent polls suggest neither candidate has a lock on the issue. In a Washington Post-ABC News pollGallup/USA Today poll conducted in mid-May, Obama held a five-point edge over McCain as the candidate Americans trust more to handle immigration issues, but the Gallup/USA Today poll found the two about even, 36 percent said McCain would do a better job, 34 percent Obama.

The electorate is split deeply along partisan lines, with 68 percent of Democrats supporting Obama on the issue and 74 percent of Republicans favoring McCain in the Post-ABC News survey. Independents supported Obama by a margin of 12 points.

Personal economic situation plays a large role in determining whom Americans support on this issue. Those with household incomes of $50,000 or more per year supported McCain over Obama by an eight-point margin while those with less income favored Obama by 18 points. Moreover, Americans who reported having difficulty paying their bills supported Obama by 23 points and those worried about their standard of living supported the Illinois Democrat by 11 points.

One pitfall on this issue that could prove troublesome for both candidates, 19 percent in the Gallup survey, including a quarter of independents, said they trust neither candidate to handle immigration. One safe bet on this issue, both will be aiming to fill that void.


Posted By Daniela at 04:30 PM| 2 Comments


Today's editorial selection comes from the Washington Post. Columnist Marcela Sanchez writes a piece where she says that a recent Center on Immigration Studies report -- which we've blogged about twice before -- that claims that the drop in undocumented immigrants in the country recently is due to increased enforcement is "little more than wishful thinking."

From her column—

If you were to coolly assess the economic impact of immigration, you'd think that more significant facts and figures would inform the debate. Then as a consequence, Hispanic immigrants might feel more welcome than they do today.

According to a report issued last month by the New York-based Council of the Americas, it makes economic sense to help Hispanic workers fully integrate into the U.S. economy. English-speaking immigrants earn 17 percent more than non-English speakers; the average immigrant's lifetime tax payments exceed the cost of services he or she will use by $88,000; and, in 2010, there will be 3.2 million Hispanic-owned businesses generating a total of $465 billion in revenue.

At a Capitol Hill event to launch the report, Rep. Charles A. Gonzalez, D-Texas, regretted how immigration advocates "lost our way" by allowing opponents to define immigration as something to be deterred rather than welcomed. Without the U.S. business sector becoming more outspoken, he added, it will be hard to put the issue on the right track.

Bob Merchent, vice president for New Orleans operations at Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, agreed, saying that U.S. companies should lead the charge. It "is to everyone's benefit to embrace all of the folks ... who are willing to work," he said in an interview. "If you got businesses out there doing it," the rest will follow.

Wishful thinking? Perhaps. But at least there appear to be more substantive and scientifically sound data to back it up.


Posted By Daniela at 03:35 PM| 1 Comments



Posted By Daniela at 02:32 PM| 4 Comments



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