On Immigration, Following the Data Where It Leads
Debate: The debate on immigration in America continues to rage. People who hold right-of-center political beliefs seem to think that the U.S. immigration laws should be vigorously enforced. There may be some “wiggle room” on the right. For example, some conservatives believe there should be exceptions to deportation for those illegally in the United States […]
Immigration Reform: “Redirect, Not Reduce”
President Trump last week endorsed legislation introduced by Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Representative David Perdue (R-GA) that would reform legal immigration in America through a “merit-based” system and slash immigration based on family ties – for a 41 percent reduction in legal immigration the first year alone. They’ve got it about half right. We […]
Immigrants Add to our State's Economy
Virginia is honoring our immigrants with a well-deserved “Immigrant Heritage Month” as declared by Governor Terry McAuliffe. With that in mind, I want to review some important facts and figures about the impact our immigrants have here in Virginia and then highlight a few immigrant stories. Virginia has about 900,000 people who were foreign born […]
Now is the time for immigration deal
With the election over and Republicans keeping control of Congress while also securing the White House, our nation has an opportunity to finally fix our broken immigration system, secure our borders, and deal with those living in the United States illegally. To date, both sides have refused to budge on their positions, resulting in no […]
Getting an Initial Handle On Immigration Reform
One of the issues that continues to confront our nation is what to do about those illegal residents living in our communities now and how to reform the entire immigration and naturalization system. A few ideas toward that end are outlined herein. First, we have to secure our borders. Whatever Congress decides, it is clear […]
Immigration Reform Needs to be Realistic
Our economy is in desperate need for more middle-class job creation. Recent statistics continue to show a very weak recovery – one of worst recoveries since World War II. Once Congress gets back to it, the immigration debate needs to focus on reality and not “news bites” and unrealistic concepts.A 2011 survey by the National […]
Reviving the Great Melting Pot
A century ago, Americans expected immigrants to learn English and adapt to a new culture. Would it be politically incorrect to encourage today’s immigrants to “Americanize”?