Seth Hoy: Perhaps if state lawmakers listened to their constituents and considered the economic consequences, they might realize that playing with enforcement-only immigration is a surefire way to burn down your state’s economy.
Will State Legislators Continue to Pull the Plug on Restrictive Immigration Measures?
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Seth Hoy: While some state lawmakers reject the enforcement-only approach to immigration, others—like state Sen. Russell Pearce, author of Arizona’s SB 1070—continued to sink their state in restrictionist quicksand.
Businesses Fear Restrictive Immigration Measures Will Drive Jobs to Other States
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Seth Hoy: As Arizona-style enforcement legislation continues to work its way through state legislatures, local business and industry groups are beginning to realize just how much these laws will affect the way they do business.
Some States “Just Say No” to Harmful Immigration Enforcement Laws
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Seth Hoy: Tennessee, Oklahoma, Kansas and Arizona are still pursing harmful enforcement legislation, but they do so in full light of the social and economic consequences—consequences for which Arizona and other states are still paying.
What’s in Your Wallet? Fiscal Notes Give States Pause Over Enforcement Laws
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Seth Hoy: As many states face budget deficits in 2011, lawmakers might be asking their constituents the same question as those Capitol One commercials, “What’s in your wallet?”
The Rally Against State Immigration Legislation Continues
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Seth Hoy: Until people honestly consider how these copycat laws will affect their own fiscal bottom lines—states with ailing budgets are only going to enforce themselves in the same tired and costly circle without really solving our federal immigration problems.
States Contemplating Enforcement Legislation Continue to Walk the Line
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Seth Hoy: Sadly, however, state legislators seem determined to act against their state’s best interests and move forward on restrictive immigration laws, which have been proven time and time again to hurt small businesses, law enforcement and the pocket books of the constituents they claim to represent.
State Lawmakers Conflicted Over Immigration Enforcement Measures
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Seth Hoy: While state legislators continue to consider their own versions of Arizona-style enforcement laws, the voices of dissent continue to grow. Legislators should carefully consider how the bill unfolded in Arizona—a bill that was, for the most part, gutted by a federal judge.
Legislators Intend to Burden States with Costly Immigration Litigation
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Seth Hoy: A group of state legislators, State Legislators for Legal Immigration, presented two measures intended to prevent the American-born children of undocumented immigrants from automatically becoming citizens
Inch by Inch, Hearing by Hearing: A Look Ahead at the GOP’s Immigration Agenda
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Seth Hoy: Revitalizing the economy and growing jobs are never part of the equation when it comes to ramped-up state and federal immigration enforcement measures.
Not Without a Fight: DREAM Students Refuse to Back Down
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Seth Hoy: As disappointment turns to anger, DREAM Activists are again turning up the heat with statements aimed at “political leaders who chose to obstruct progress for personal gain” and messages such as “We Won’t Forget How You Voted.”
Mayor Bloomberg: The DREAM Act Makes Dollars and Sense
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Seth Hoy: Mayor Bloomberg is one of the founders of Partnership for a New American Economy, a growing bipartisan group of mayors and business leaders who are urging others to consider the economic benefits of immigration reform.
White House Continues Drumbeat for DREAM
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Seth Hoy: Yet even with the weight of the White House and a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score that has DREAM reducing the deficit by $1.4 billion over ten years, Republican votes may be short.
Will Local Lawmakers Take the Immigration Enforcement Bait?
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Seth Hoy: As local lawmakers begin to lay the groundwork for next year’s legislative agenda, some conservative legislators are attempting to prioritize immigration enforcement ahead of efforts to jump-start flagging economies.
Pelosi, Reid to Push DREAM Act in Lame Duck
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Seth Hoy: If Reid can nudge the Dream Act through the Senate while Democrats are still in charge of the House, the bill has a real chance to become law, advocates say.
Prisonomics 101: How ALEC and the Prison Industry Got Arizona’s SB1070 onto Gov. Jan Brewer’s Desk
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Seth Hoy: private prison corporations, who stand to make hundreds of millions in profits from the detention of immigrants, not only had a hand in drafting Arizona’s controversial immigration enforcement law, SB1070, but contributed millions to the bill’s cosponsors and continue to push the legislation in other states.
U.S. Border Czar Calls on Congress to Get Serious about Immigration Reform
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Seth Hoy: While some candidates continue to make political fodder out of immigration and border security on the campaign trail, administration officials are pushing Congress to get real about overhauling our broken immigration system.
From Bad to Worse: Immigrant Smearing in a Time of Midterm Cholera
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Seth Hoy: You don’t even have to stare into the headlights of campaign politics to observe how blithely some candidates have taken aim at their opponents and managed to catch immigrants in their crosshairs.
Senators Menendez and Leahy Introduce the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2010
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While this bill provides a strong starting point for Congress to honestly debate meaningful immigration reforms, many wonder whether obstructionists in Congress will continue to use immigration as a political piñata in the name of election politics or put partisanship aside and fix our broken immigration system.
DREAM Act Delayed in the Senate, But DREAMers Continue
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Seth Hoy: Maybe Congressional promises to keep fighting for the DREAM Act are enough; maybe they aren’t. But what the DREAMers can take heart in is the energy and enthusiasm they reverberated through the Senate this week.
Colin Powell Makes a Case for the DREAM Act
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Seth Hoy: Former Secretary of State and retired General, Colin Powell, called for Republicans to stop driving the anti-immigrant bandwagon, made an economic case for immigration.
Obama Throws White House Support Behind DREAM Act
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Seth Hoy: Although the President has pledged his support for the DREAM Act, mounting GOP opposition will make it increasingly difficult for Sen. Harry Reid to find the 60 votes necessary for cloture on the amendment next week, assuming the Defense Authorization bill makes it through round one, the motion to proceed, next Tuesday.
Undocumented Immigrants Giving Social Security, Baby Boomers a Big Boost
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Seth Hoy: So as we pull out of the recession, employment rates return to normal and more and more Baby Boomers retire, who, exactly, is going to fill this gap? Enter immigration.
States Pushing Anti-Immigration Legislation Forced to Run Costly Damage Control
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Seth Hoy: As politicians continue to take a “get tough on immigration” stance in the run up to midterm elections, voters may decide that their pocketbooks trump their politics when it comes to immigration.
Florida Legislators Oppose Proposed Anti-Immigration Legislation
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Seth Hoy: Bipartisan opposition to Florida’s proposed anti-immigrant legislation is a rare example of those who actually prioritize policy over politics.
Reframing the Birthright Citizenship Debate with Facts
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Seth Hoy: The truth is that majority of immigrants come to the U.S. to work, to reunite with their families, or to flee persecution—not to have children.
The Wrong Side of History: Immigration, the GOP and the Next Generation of Voters
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Seth Hoy: Notwithstanding the fact that many GOP strategists and other leaders are arguing against using immigration as a wedge issue, politicians eager for votes gravitate toward each new anti-immigrant message like moths to a flame.
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