American Immigrant Policy Portal
Newsletter 
Click here to visit the Portal May/2018
In This Issue

   
Research to Inform Policy and Practice   
on Migration-Related Issues
  
Policy-related reports, studies, and information about the challenge and promise of immigrant integration. Materials organized by collection topic.

Legal scholar makes the case for civil disobedience by employers, i.e. continuing to employ Dreamers, if and when the federal government ends work authorization for DACA recipients.

University of San Francisco Law Research Paper
No. 2018-02
Author: Bill Ong Hing

Described as a working draft, this paper lays out the case for employers to engage in civil disobedience by continuing to employ Dreamers, i.e. recipients of DACA, if and when their employment authorization expires (either because legal challenges to the revocation of DACA fail and/or Congress fails to find a legislative solution to the problem). The author is Bill Ong Hing, Professor of Law and Migration Studies at the University of San Francisco. Hing notes that hundreds of companies have already gone on record in support of the Dreamer cause. Whether they will stand by their Dreamer employees in any future moment of reckoning remains to be seen. The paper reviews the fines and penalties facing companies found in violation of the law and discusses the moral and philosophical case for civil disobedience, especially as found in a 2010 book by legal scholar Daniel T. Ostas. The author concludes that the impact of such a massive show of support for Dreamers could "prove vital to bringing about a permanent, fair outcome for Dreamers.



Researchers find that deportations substantially increase the likelihood that children of undocumented parents will end up living in single-parent families or be sent to live with friends or other relatives in the U.S.


IZA Institute of Labor Economics, November 2017, 46 pp.
Authors: Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes & Esther Arenas-Arroyo

During the period from 2009 to 2013, the U.S. carried out 1.8 million deportations, most of them involving fathers and heads of households. This paper examines the impact of these deportations on U.S.-born children, specifically the likelihood that they are now living in single-parent households or with friends or other family members. The authors cite literature showing that the absence of a parent increases school drop-out rates, raises teen pregnancy rates, and limits future earnings. Thus, they write, "gaining a better understanding of the impacts of intensified immigration enforcement on the families in which they grow up is well warranted." The researchers use a control group of foreign-born families with similar demographic characteristics but without the burden of undocumented status. They find "that a one standard deviation in the enforcement index (equal to the average level of immigration enforcement for the period under consideration) raises the children's propensity to reside without their parents in a household headed by naturalized relatives or friends by 18.8 percent."   The same set of circumstances increases the likelihood of living with their remaining undocumented parent (most often mothers) with absentee spouses by 20 percent. These findings, according to the authors, are important to consider as the nation responds to the intensified immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.
 
NewResearchNew Public Policy Research and Reports

Cultural and Linguistic Competency (Health Care)
a
a
Employment and Labor Issues


Immigrant Communities


Law Enforcement





National Perspectives/Immigration Policy




 
NewVideosNew Videos uploaded to the Portal YouTube Channel
Three videos from "Rationale Middle Immigration" sponsored by the Center for Houston's Future and designed to promote a "civil, solutions-based conversation" about immigration




EPISODE 1 THE IMMIGRANT'S PROMISE

Discussing the role that immigration has played in U.S. history, identity, and economy

EPISODE 2 THE BURDEN OF A BROKEN SYSTEM

Examining the costs and benefits of undocumented immigration and ways to resolve the problem to the advantage of all Americans




EPISODE 3 IMMIGRATION'S CROSSROAD: REBUILDING AFTER HURRICANE HARVEY

Looking at the vital role played by Houston's undocumented immigrants in helping the city rebuild after the hurricane


 
lcLatest Commentary
 
 
A selection of recent OpEds from immigration researchers and major opinion leaders




 
May 10, 2018
Sessions is criminalizing immigration violations. That upends centuries of history.
Liam Brennan, The Washington Post

May 9, 2018
The Eroding GOP Resistance to Trump's Immigration Agenda
Ronald Brownstein, The Atlantic

May 7, 2018
Yes, Donald Trump is Making White People More Hateful
Joshua Holland, The Nation
Read More

May 5, 2018
DHS Decision on Hondurans Fits Disturbing Pattern on Immigration
Stuart Anderson, Forbes

May 1, 2018
The Trump Administration's Hard Line on Refugees Comes Under Fire
Jonathan Blitzer, The New Yorker

May 1, 2018
Trump's hubris is costing him big on immigration
Maria Cardona, The Hill

May 1, 2018
National-Security Experts Outline the Strategic Case for Refugee Resettlement
Matthew La Corte, Niskanen Center Blog

April 11, 2018
Migrants and refugees: The unlikely key for economic development
Dany Bahar, Brookings


Like us on Facebook
View our videos on YouTube
The Portal is a project of Diversity Dynamics, LLC, in association with the Center for International Social Work, School of Social Work, Rutgers University, and the Immigrant Learning Center, Inc., Public Education Institute, Malden, MA. Please send content suggestions for the Portal, including events of interest, to: mail@usdiversitydynamics.com. No endorsements implied for research, opinions, resources or events featured on the Portal.