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2/15/2010	New H2A Rule President Obama, what are you thinking? Texans for Sensible Immigration Policy, you will not believe what the president had just done!
8/25/2009	The Fiscal Impact of Immigration Reform: The Real Story Opponents to comprehensive immigration reform often talk about the burden it will cause taxpayers. Daniel Griswold director, Center for Trade Policy Studies, Cato Institute gives us the real story.
8/25/2009	Restriction or Legalization? Measuring the Economic Benefits of Immigration Reform By the latest estimates, 8.3 million workers in the United States are illegal immigrants. Proposed policy responses range from more restrictive border and workplace enforcement to legalization of workers who are already here and the admission of new workers through a temporary visa program. Policy choices made by Congress and the president could have a major economic impact on the welfare of U.S. households. This study uses the U.S. Applied General Equilibrium model that has been developed for the U.S. International Trade Commission and other U.S.
8/25/2009	Do illegal immigrants contribute more to the economy than the cost attributable to them? Americans for Immigration Refrom (AIR) asks this question: Do illegal immigrants contribute more to the economy than the cost attributable to them associated with public education and health care for their families? Fact: Undocumented workers contribute to the US economy.
8/10/2009	Charles Foster mentioned in Newsweek print edition A quote from Immigration Attorney Charles Foster was recently featured in the August 3rd print edition of Newsweek magazine. Mr. Foster squares off against Mark Krikorian on the recent government pressure on employers to prove the legal status of their workforces. Newsweek asks the question "is this good or bad for the economy?" Mr. Foster, chair of Americans for Immigration Reform (AIR), says that this government pressure is a bad thing:
7/27/2009	As Immigrants Move In, Americans Move Up Critics warn that immigration reform would bring in its wake rising rates of poverty, higher government welfare expenditures, and a rise in crime. A new Cato paper says that Congress should not reject market-oriented immigration reform because of misguided fears about "importing poverty."
6/4/2008	Federal Judge Grants Injunction on Immigration Law Court Delays Enforcement of Oklahoma Immigration Law Judge says "substantially likely" immigration law is unconstitutional U.S. Chamber of Commerce News - June 4, 2008 A U.S. District Court judge postponed enforcement of employer-related portions of an Oklahoma immigration law because it is "substantially likely" that the provisions of the law unconstitutionally interfere with federal regulation of the employment of unauthorized workers.
6/3/2008	The Great Immigration Panic Someday, the country will recognize the true cost of its war on illegal immigration. We don't mean dollars, though those are being squandered by the billions. The true cost is to the national identity: the sense of who we are and what we value. It will hit us once the enforcement fever breaks, when we look at what has been done and no longer recognize the country that did it.
5/21/2008	Enforcement-without-Reform: Success or Failure? 12 Million Reasons to be Skeptical of Deportation-Only Policies On Thursday, May 22, the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border, Maritime, and Global Counterterrorism will hold a hearing on "The Border Security Challenge: Recent Developments and Legislative Proposals."
5/20/2008	They May Be Illegal But We Still Need Them The market is telling us something that many of us don't want to hear. It whispers it in the numbers that filter, largely overlooked, through the immigration debate. Consider the most basic: In Texas, we have an estimated 1.1 million undocumented workers, compared with 450,000 people listed as unemployed.
5/15/2008	The “10 for 10” Plan – A Solution to the U.S. Immigration Problem In 2007 the U.S. Senate failed to adopt a proposed comprehensive solution to the problem of illegal immigration because of the heated outcry of many citizens. Although businessmen and economists understand that the U.S. economy needs immigrants to satisfy labor requirements, many citizens object vehemently to the presence of unauthorized immigrants. They assert generally that the U.S. should not allow anyone to benefit from unlawfully entering this country and, more specifically, that unauthoriz
5/11/2008	Jacoby sets up ImmigrationWorks USA to educate public on benefits of immigration A former fellow of the Manhattan Institute who has advised the Texas Border Coalition on immigration issues in the past has set up a new national organization to promote comprehensive immigration reform.
5/11/2008	Business of Reform The failure to pass a comprehensive immigration reform package last year was a bad piece of business. It left more than 12 million illegal workers in limbo; continued a ludicrous visa system that leaves out low-skilled workers; and showed that a noisy minority could drown out the majority of Americans, who consistently backed the reform bill's main goals.
5/8/2008	Stop Making Employers the Immigration Enemy The recent raid of the Shipley Donut factory here has brought the immigration debate back to our doorstep. During the first six months of this fiscal year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained more than 2,700 illegal immigrants in its work-site operations, putting it on pace to significantly top the more than 3,600 apprehensions made for all of fiscal 2006.
2/1/2008	Crime, Corrections, and California Few issues are as contentious as immigration and crime. Concern over the effects of immigration on crime is longstanding, and bans against criminal aliens constituted some of the earliest restrictions on immigration to the United States.
12/9/2007	Illegal immigration set-to is why we hold elections In retrospect, my grandparents had it easy. They sailed here in steerage from Denmark at the turn of the last century, carrying little money and a squalling infant who much later became my mother. But they were legal, welcomed by a government that had enticed them to come with exaggerated claims of Western glories and jobs, jobs, jobs. Denmark was then, as was much of Europe, in a deep depression and the high unemployment rate was staggering.
12/7/2007	Statement by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on the No-Match Appeal Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an appeal on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on the injunction against the No-Match Rule in San Francisco, California.
12/6/2007	Kidding Ourselves About Immigration What you are supposed to say about immigration--what most of the presidential candidates say, what the radio talk jocks say--is that you are not against immigration. Not at all. You salute the hard work and noble aspirations of those who are lining up at American consulates around the world. But that is legal immigration. What you oppose is illegal immigration.
11/26/2007	Businesses encourage employees to learn Spanish These days, many businessmen and women work with customers, suppliers or assistants who speak another language. Communication in frequently difficult, if not impossible.
11/26/2007	Immigrants contribute $229B to NY economy Immigrants make up more than a third of upstate New York's physicians and other physical scientists, but about 45,000 immigrants are also undocumented, according to a report released Monday.
11/26/2007	Court Stays Proceedings in No-Match Litigation The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted DHS' motion to stay proceedings until 3/1/08, pending a new rulemaking effort that DHS maintains will address the court's concerns with its regulation on SSA no-match letters.
11/19/2007	SSA Decides It Will Not Issue Employer "No-Match" Letters This Year The Social Security Administration will not be sending out no-match letters to employers this year because of the lawsuit challenging the Homeland Security Department's worksite enforcement regulations, an SSA spokesman told BNA Nov. 13.
11/1/2007	Immigrants in Arkansas: Illegal, but useful THIS week executives from some of Arkansas's principal companies—Tyson Foods, the world's largest meat processor, Alltel, a wireless company, and Stephens, one of the biggest investment firms outside Wall Street—joined ministers, civic leaders and the local American Civil Liberties Union to form the Arkansas Friendship Coalition. The group, led by Steve Copley, a Methodist minister, stresses that states should abide by federal immigration laws rather than try to make their own.
10/14/2007	Judge Suspends Key Bush Effort in Immigration A federal judge in San Francisco ordered an indefinite delay yesterday of a central measure of the Bush administration’s new strategy to curb illegal immigration. The judge, Charles R. Breyer of the Northern District of California, said the government had failed to follow proper procedures for issuing a new rule that would have forced employers to fire workers if their Social Security numbers could not be verified within three months.
10/10/2007	U.S. Chamber of Commerce Press Statement Chamber Applauds Court Ruling in DHS "Social Security No-Match" Regulation The U.S. Chamber of Commerce applauded today's ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to prevent the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from issuing the so-called 'Social Security No-Match" letters pending a final judgment on the merits.
10/10/2007	Statement by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on the No-Match Regulation Ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Although the Judge rejected many of the plaintiff's legal challenges to the department's no-match regulation, we are disappointed by the district court's decision today that temporarily continued the injunction against the regulation. We are reviewing the decision with the Justice Department and will examine all of our options, including appeal.
10/9/2007	Letter to Sen. John Cornyn Regarding Comprehensive Immigration Reform Attached is a letter from Kevin Camarata, a masonry contractor, to Senator John Cornyn.
10/5/2007	Chaos Coming HAVING FAILED at comprehensive immigration reform, the Bush administration is on its way to failing at piecemeal immigration reform. Its new get-tough approach, unveiled in the summer, aims to deter unlawful entry to the country by forcing employers to fire illegal immigrants on their payrolls. The policy is a prescription for social, economic and bureaucratic mayhem masquerading as muscular enforcement. No wonder it has succeeded in uniting labor, business and civil rights groups in opposition.
10/1/2007	Firms Brace for Crackdown on Illegal Labor As a crucial hearing looms on a planned government crackdown on illegal immigrants in the workplace, many businesses are scrambling to figure out how they will cope with an expected loss of illegal labor.
9/18/2007	Impact of the "No Match" Rule on Small Business A letter from Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy to Michael Chertoff.
9/1/2007	Judge stays rule requiring employers to fire illegal immigrants A federal judge in San Francisco blocked the Bush administration Friday from imposing a rule requiring employers to fire workers identified as illegal immigrants in government records or face possible prosecution.
8/17/2007	New "No Match" Rule Creates Millions of New "Independent Contractors" DHS and ICE are changing the rules and making a bad situation worse. Their new "No Match" rule is an effort to appear tough on immigration enforcement.
6/20/2007	A report by the President's Council of Economic Advisers that confirms the research report by Nestor Rodriguez and Paula Pipes "Our review of economic research finds immigrants not only help fuel the Nation's economic growth, but also have an overall positive effect on the income of native-born workers." - Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Edward P. Lazear
4/1/2007	The Myth of Immigrant Criminality and the Paradox of Assimilation: Incarceration Rates among Native and Foreign-Born Men Because many immigrants to the United States, especially Mexicans and Central Americans, are young men who arrive with very low levels of formal education, popular stereotypes tend to associate them with higher rates of crime and incarceration.
2/5/2007	ABC Fights Amendments Bringing Immigration Debate to Minimum Wage Bill In a Jan. 25 letter, ABC urged U.S. Senators to oppose amendments offered by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 (H.R. 2) that would bar federal contractors from receiving further federal government contracts if they employ undocumented workers, asserting that “the amendments would be better suited for the upcoming immigration reform debate.”
2/1/2007	Senator John Cornyn and Representative Sheila Jackson Lee Send Joint Letter On Immigration Every member of Congress will soon receive an unprecedented joint letter signed by Senator John Cornyn and Representative Sheila Jackson Lee. The letter will introduce and be sent with a video on DVD produced by a group called Texans for Sensible Immigration Policy (“TxSIP”).
1/29/2007	Labor Groups Both Target Sessions Amendment Both business and union lobbyists are angling to have an illegal immigration amendment sponsored by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., removed from a minimum wage increase bill before it goes to the president. The amendment, which was hastily and unexpectedly approved 94-0 last week, would bar employers from seeking federal contracts for seven to 10 years if they are found to have employed illegal workers.
12/15/2006	Our nation has a no-win policy on immigrant labor At dawn on Tuesday more than a thousand Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents descended on six plants owned by Swift & Co., one of the country's largest meat processors. Some 1,300 workers were arrested, and operations at all six slaughterhouses were suspended.
11/21/2006	Let Illegal Immigrants Become Citizens, U.S. Voters Tell Quinnipiac University National Poll By a 69 - 27 percent margin, American voters say illegal immigrants should be allowed into a guest worker program with the ability to work toward citizenship over a period of several years, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today.
11/15/2006	Immigration Nation The United States is far less divided on immigration than the current debate would suggest. An overwhelming majority of Americans want a combination of tougher enforcement and earned citizenship for the 12 million illegal immigrants in the country. Washington's challenge is to translate this consensus into sound legislation that will start to repair the nation's broken immigration system.
10/19/2006	Point of View: The Case for Comprehensive Immigration Reform There is little disagreement that our present immigration system doesn’t work. Efforts to tighten border control and compel employers to verify documents have had little effect.
9/25/2006	TXSIP September 2006 Legislative Summary On September 14, 2006, the House passed the Secure Fence Act of 2006 (H.R. 6061) authorizing the first in a series of border security initiatives House leaders intend to push through before the November elections.
9/22/2006	Pickers Are Few, and Growers Blame Congress The pear growers here in Lake County waited decades for a crop of shapely fruit like the one that adorned their orchards last month. Now harvest time has passed and tons of pears have ripened to mush on their branches.
9/15/2006	Immigration raid cripples Ga. town This Georgia community of about 1,000 people has become little more than a ghost town since Sept. 1, when federal agents began rounding up illegal immigrants. The sweep has had the unintended effect of underscoring just how vital the illegal immigrants were to the local economy.
9/6/2006	Support Comprehensive Immigration Reform Do Not Let Politics Trump Sound Policy, Get Your Message to Congress! This week, Congress returns to Washington, DC for the last few weeks before the November elections. Immigration reform remains a top issue and House and Senate staffers still report that for every call/letter they receive backing a comprehensive solution they receive 100 anti-immigrant calls.
9/1/2006	Undocumented Gains Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on immigration reform in July, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said his city's economy would collapse if its undocumented immigrants were deported and suggested the same holds true for the nation.
8/31/2006	Immigration politics get more brutal Called Texans for a Sensible Immigration Policy, the group had its third organizational meeting yesterday. Their message will be a practical one. Not only would mass deportation cripple key sectors of the economy, but fixing it means being able to tax it.

Texans for Sensible Immigration Policy

P.O. Box 7011 · Houston, Texas 77248-7011 · 713.869.8346 · info@txsip.com