US needs more immigrants, says Biden's economic advisors

Immigrants could be the answer to America's labor shortage.

Immigrants could be the solution to the labor shortage facing the United States. There is a shortage of health professionals, K-12 teachers, tech workers, farm workers and a workers in other professions.  President Biden's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) believe more immigrants could alleviate the country's labor shortage.

In the newly released annual Economic Report of the President, the White House Council of Economic Advisors includes an unequivocal set of facts that immigrants and immigration reform are key to growing and strengthening the American economy.

The "silver tsunami" of Baby Boomer retirements coupled with the US lower birth rate creates a labor shortage, the annual report says. The US needs to reform its immigration system to allow more people to come into the country and transform workplace practices.

“Necessity is the mother of invention," CEA Chair Cecilia Rouse told Reuters. Besides immigration, the US also needs to change workplace traditions -- such as creating a work/nonwork balance, employer sponsored childcare, a shorter work week and allowing more working from home -- to increase incentives for employees.

Rouse said changes were imperative to ensure US growth: "These are not political issues; these are economic issues. If we want to continue the kinds of economic prosperity that we count on … we have to have all hands on deck."

"For much of the last year, there were two job openings for every unemployed person—an unprecedented gap between labor demand and supply that has shifted the balance of power between workers and businesses," the CEA report states.

"Slowing population growth and declining labor force participation are significant headwinds for U.S. labor supply," the report continues.

Presently, while the majority of immigrants are from Latin America, the fastest growing group of immigrants are coming from Asia with the vast majority coming from China, India and the Philippines. Immigrants from Asia are projected to be the largest immigrant group by 2065, according to the Pew Research Center.

The workers provided by the undocumented and immigration would offset the aging demographics and boost innovation, without a big impact on the wages and employment of the American-born population, says the CEA report.

Immigration reform that provides a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented individuals would also help increase the labor supply, the report says. Additional immigration reforms suggested by the report could include removing per-country caps on employment, expanding diversity lottery visas, and expanding the J-1 exchange visa program, which would bring additional faculty, scientists, and students to the United States for training and sharing knowledge and methods.

Immigrants from Asia also start their own businesses, from modest salons and restaurants to high tech companies such as YouTube, Snap, Yahoo, LinkedIn and Zoom. According to the US Census, in 2020, there were 612,194 Asian-owned businesses employing about 5.2 million in the United States, the highest among all minority groups, thus injecting vital energy into the US economy.

Meanwhile, new research released Wednesday by the CATO Institute on the fiscal impact of immigrants and immigration finds, “the net fiscal impact of immigrants is more positive than it is for native‐​born Americans and positive overall for the federal and state/​local governments.”

These studies are just the latest in an overwhelming and consistent body of research that shows why modernizing our immigration system, including legalizing long-settled undocumented immigrants, is both the right thing to do and the smart thing to do.

Farmers are having a hard time finding workers to harvest their produce.

“The economic consensus remains clear and overwhelming: getting our economy right today and in the future requires immigrants and immigration. Despite this reality, Republicans are blocking the legislative fixes we sorely need to keep our economy humming and workers operating on a level playing field, which would benefit all workers, consumers and producers in our economy, said Douglas Rivlin, Director of Communication for America’s Voice.

"Every American pays a daily price for the nativism that grips the Republican Party."

"The worst part of the GOP obstruction may just be the reality that they know the importance of immigrants yet continue to block a legislative overhaul. Republicans know full well that immigrants help make the American economy great while at the same time bashing immigrants as a threat.

"Top GOP politicians in particular understand – whether it’s Donald Trump employing and exploiting undocumented workers in his family businesses, Gov. Ron Desantis’ Florida, which relies on immigrant service and agricultural workers up and down the state or Kevin McCarthy representing the Central Valley of California and its agriculture sector that relies on immigrant labor," says Rivlin. "The GOP’s opposition to immigration is political, hypocritical, and self-defeating for our country.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Biden will reverse most of Trump's anti-immigration policies and provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants

On Day One of President Joe Biden's administration, he will seek to overhaul Donald Trump's immigration policies based on xenophobia and racism.

Biden’s incoming chief of staff, Ron Klain, said Saturday that Biden will send an immigration bill to Congress “on his first day in office.” He didn’t elaborate and Biden’s office declined to comment on specifics but other sources who heard the plans Saturday said the proposed legislation would provide a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants, including 1.7 million from Asia.

In an earlier Univision interview, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris said DACA and TPS recipients will “automatically get green cards” while others would be on an eight-year path to citizenship.

In his campaign website, Biden outlined his immigration plan, which is almost the polar opposite of Trump's immigration proposals and executive orders. 

Among Biden's Immigration proposals are:

• Biden said he will rescind Trump’s “Muslim ban” on Day One and reverse the detrimental asylum policies that are causing chaos and a humanitarian crisis at our border. 

• He will support family-based immigration and preserve family unification as a core principle of our immigration system, which includes reducing the family visa backlog.

• He will reinstate strengthen the protections for those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program affecting.

• He will increase the number of visas offered for permanent, work-based immigration based on macroeconomic conditions and exempt from any cap recent graduates of PhD programs in STEM fields. 

• He will support first reforming the temporary visa system for high-skill, specialty workers to protect wages, then expanding the number of visas offered and eliminating the limits on employment-based visas by country.

• He will restore the naturalization process for green card holders. 

• He will increase the number of refugees welcomed into this country by setting the annual global refugee admissions target to 125,000 and seek to raise it over time commensurate with America's responsibility, values, and the unprecedented global need. 

Trump's visit to the Mexican border last week failed to take attention away from the Jan. 6 attempted coup and his role in inciting the  insurrectionists who forcibly occupied the Capitol for four hours ostensibly to protest the outcome of the Nov. 3 election but was also an alarming display of racism by white supremacists.

But the trip to the border was a harsh reminder of how inhumane and nonsensical Trump's policies have been in trying to limit immigration to the United States and how important it is to begin repairing the damage that has been done over the last four years. 

It was the separation of crying children from their parents that turned many voters away from Trump. Support for more immigration and family reunification actually grew during Trump's term.

A 2020 Gallup poll found that 34% of those surveyed favored more immigration, up from 21% in 2016 and higher than any time since it began asking the question in 1965. The survey found 77% felt immigration was good for the country on the whole, up slightly from 72% in 2016.

Mourn, pray, honor, the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, but get ready to fight

SCREEN CAPTURE / ABC

Ruth Bader Ginsberg, 1933-2020

OPINION

With the pandemic, the sour economy, the divisive elections, can 2020 get any worse? The answer, I'm afraid, is "Yes, much worse."

The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg Friday (Sept. 18) at the age of 87 has turned the heat up by several notches in one of the most contentious and important Presidential elections in America's history. 

“The stakes of this election couldn’t be higher,” Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris tweeted after offering prayers for Ginsburg and her grieving family. “Millions of Americans are counting on us to win and protect the Supreme Court—for their health, for their families, and for their rights.”

We should celebrate that we lived in an age when Justice Ginsberg was possible. We should work so that there can be even more Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

RELATED: AAPI community pays tribute to an American hero

Many people would like to honor the late champion of civil rights, women's rights with quiet respect to mourn her passing; others would like to wallow in despair for the future of our country. To truly honor RBG's memory, we should redouble our efforts to turn this country around. 

It may be proper to offer a quiet prayer for the soul of RBG, but you would be totally wrong if you think Republicans are going to sit on their hands quietly during this period of mlourning. Conservatives have been waiting for Ginsberg's death for years to solidify their grip on the Supreme Court. 

Don't expect Senate Leader Mitch McConnell to stick to his words that he used to rationalize go against centuries-old tradition by turning down President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court four years ago.

When Justice Antonin Scalia died in February of 2016, McConnell said: 

"Given that we are in the midst of the presidential election process, we believe that the American people should seize the opportunity to weigh in on whom they trust to nominate the next person for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court," they conclude. "It is today the American people, rather than a lame-duck president whose priorities and policies they just rejected in the most-recent national election, who should be afforded the opportunity to replace Justice Scalia."

With those words, the GOP-dominated Senate pushed through the nomination and vote for Neal Gorsuch, who has been a steady vote for conservatives since he took his place on the bench.

“A basic principle of the law – and of everyday fairness – is that we apply rules with consistency, and not based on what’s convenient or advantageous in the moment,: wrote President Obama in Medium. "The rule of law, the legitimacy of our courts, the fundamental workings of our democracy all depend on that basic principle. As votes are already being cast in this election, Republican senators are now called to apply that standard.”

"I have a very simple message for Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell tonight," said Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-HI, who sits on the Senate Judicial Committee, "The best and only way to honor the life’s work of Justice Ginsburg, a giant of a jurist, is to honor her fervent final wish that she not be replaced until a new president is installed.

On Friday night, Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, declared: “President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.” Hypocrisy be damned! 

Ginsberg was fully aware what was at stake and fought to stay healthy until just a few weeks ago. And ... she fought to the end. On her deathbed, she uttered her dying wish to one of her granddaughters:

“My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”

The Senate and McConnell should honor that wish, but I'm afraid "honor" has no meaning in Trump's Republican Party. 

Make no mistake what's at stake here. They are enormous. The selection of the new Justice could determine what kind of America we, our children, our grandchildren and their children will live in, given the key role the court plays in guiding our society on cultural, social and political issues.

The highest court in the land  already has four steady right-wing votes in  Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. Chief Justice John Roberts might sometimes side with the more liberal wing of justices but for the majority of his votes, he has voted conservative. That's a majority of five. 

With the possible appointment of another conservative, that would give conservative-leaning SCOTUS and decided rightward tilt. The more ideologically liberal justices, Steven Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor would be reduced to writing dissenting views --  which boil down to nice thoughts but totally powerless in implementation.

MSNBC host Ari Berman tweeted: "It’s truly shocking that 4 of 5 conservative justices on Supreme Court (Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch & Kavanaugh) were nominated by Republican presidents who lost (the) popular vote.

Indeed, both Presidents Bush and current White House occupant Donald Trump lost the popular vote but won the electoral college votes.

Diving down even further, the U.S. Senate Republicans represent 15 million less voters than their Democratic counterparts. In the 2018 elections, Senate Democrats garnered 18 million more votes than Republicans.

It is unlikely that Ginsberg's replacement would be appointed before the first Monday of October, when the Supreme Court traditionally opens a new term and decides which cases it would accept for their judgement.

Trump has been using the conservative-leaning High Court as his backstop to controversial measures that have been rejected by lower courts.

Some of the life-changing decisions the 2020-2021 SCOTUS will likely face: Affirmative action, what's left of President Obama's Affordable Care Act which has been whittled down since Trump took office; Roe v. Wade, the ruling that allows a woman to choose, has been chipped away at the last few years; the future of the participants in the Deferred Action on Delayed Arrivals (DACA) that similarly has been upheld by lower courts, in fact, Trump's entire anti-immigrant agenda from the issuance of visas and green cards to the detention and deportation of refugees. 

Looking further down the road, in keeping with their anti-big government pillar, Republicans would also like a conservative Supreme Court to eventually review and perhaps end New Deal institutions of Social Security and Medicare, which have long been targets of the ultra-rich who don't believe in sharing their good fortune; doing away with estate taxes benefiting the ultra-rich; and just about any government assistance program from unemployment to food supplements would be vulnerable.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg through the years, as an advocate, and later as a Supreme Court Justice,  fought for the rights of men and women.

So mourn, pray RBG's passing, but also start planning and girding yourselves for a battle -- and we're not exaggerrating -- that could determine how we and our descendants live our lives in our country -- with rights equal to all -- or as second-class citizens who have to claw our way to the upper tiers of society in order to have the rights we enjoy today.

The first step, is to make sure Justice Ginsberg's replacement is not nominated until after the November elections when voters can give Democrats the edge in the Senate and remove McConnell, who represents Kentucky. In states where a Senate seat is up -- yes, that means Arizona, Maine, Kansas, Kentucky, Colorado, Iowa, Montana, North Carolina, Alabama -- vote for Democrats in the Senate races.

The second step in that battle is to kick out Trump and his minions from the White House and the power that office holds.

“We cannot let them win this fight,” said Harris, the first Asian American nominated for national office, in a prepared statement to supporters today (Saturday, Sept. 19). "Millions of Americans are counting on us to stand up, right now, and fight like hell to protect the Supreme Court -- not just for today, but for generations to come.“

"The work of holding Senate Republicans accountable to the standard they set in 2016 starts now," she said. "To Joe (Biden) and me, it is clear: The voters should pick a President, and that President should select a successor to Justice Ginsburg.”

RBG has died. We must pick up her banner. Her fight, is now our fight.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A word of caution, this is news laced with opinion. Readers are encouraged to seek multiple news sources to formulate their own positions. 

Immigration advocates use courts to stymie Trump's immigration restrictions

The Donald Trump administration continues to create barriers to make it difficult for people to immigrate to the US to become citizens. And immigration advocates find themselves scrambling to counter to Trump's xenophobic and racist policies.

A coalition of immigration advocacy groups and legal organizations on Wednesday (Oct. 30) mounted the first legal challenge against a sweeping proclamation Trump issued earlier this month, reports CBS News. The new rule would allow the immigration authorities to reject visa applications from immigrants it determines will not be able to afford health insurance or pay for medical costs.

If visa applicants are unable to show some proof of their ability to pay for insurance or medical costs, overseas consular offices can deny their applications. According to an estimate from the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, the new requirements could deny entry to approximately 375,000 would-be immigrants each year.

“It is terrifying for US citizens to think that they may never be able to reunite in person with their loved ones because of this proclamation," said AILA Federal Litigation Director Jesse Bless. "The proclamation represents the latest attempt to separate families and undermine due process solely on the basis of cultural and national origin-based bias. It’s as unAmerican as the public charge rule,” he said in a statement.

The US District Court in Oregon was asked to block the Trump administration from implementing the new policy, which is slated to take effect Sunday. 

Another barrier faces the possibility of a lawsuit. On Friday (Oct. 25), the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced changes to the naturalization process that could prevent citizenship for tens of thousands of non-wealthy applicants each year.

Under current policy, there is a $725 application fee. US Citizenship and Immigration Services currently waives the fee for those who cannot afford to pay it, which is approximately 40% of applicants. Under rules in place since 2010, lawful permanent residents (also called green card holders) who receive benefits from another government agency are automatically entitled to a fee waiver, making the process easy for USCIS to administer and for applicants and service providers to complete.

The new rules will make it much harder to qualify for a fee waiver, and will severely curtail naturalization applications, particularly from low-income applicants. Recent research from Stanford University’s Immigration Policy Lab suggests that the new rules could reduce the number of naturalization applications filed each year by as much as 10 percent.

“This rule change is about changing the complexion of future immigrants from black and brown to white and furthers a class-based society that is discriminatory and unwelcoming," said John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice. 

"We cannot allow our government policies to reject the time-tested promise on the Statue of Liberty of a country that is accepting of the potential of the tired, poor, and huddled masses who yearn to breathe free in America,” said Yang. 

Advancing Justice-AAJC, Protect Democracy, the Seattle City Attorney’s Office, and Mayer Brown LLP are preparing to file suit in California on behalf of organizations and communities who will be harmed by these changes.

The lawsuit on the health care requirement and the pending lawsuit limiting the citizenship fee waiver are the latest barriers being challenged. Last summer, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) tried to implement the so-called "public charge" rule that would allow the denial of visas and green cards to people who use or might use certain public benefits like food stamps and government-subsidized housing. That rule is currently held up in court, while a companion State Department regulation has not been implemented because the agency has yet to clear a new form to be used by visa applicants.

Other anti-immigrant attempts include the Muslim ban, severely limiting refugees or those seeking asylum, the continuing deportation of Southeast Asians who had run afoul of the law, new limits on the family reunification guidelines, by slowing to a trickle those seeking asylum at the US southern border that includes separating children from their parents to dissuade those same asylum seekers and the obsessive push for a wall on the US-Mexico border.

Judge rules that DACA start accepting new applications

ASPIRE

Members of Asians Students Promoting Immigrant Rights through Education
(ASPIRE) demonstrate in support of undocumented students.

A THIRD FEDERAL JUDGE has determined that Donald Trump's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is "arbitrary" and "capricious." 

The decision this week from Judge John Bates goes a step beyond than either of the earlier injunctions in California and New York. In addition to continue renewing existing DACA participants, the Washington D.C. judge orders the program to invite and approve new applications from so-called Dreamers who have yet to register for DACA,

However, before accepting new application, Bates has given the administration 90 days to issue a better and legally justified argument for ending the program, which was instigated by President Barack Obama through an Executive Order after the GOP-dominated Congress refused to act on immigration reform.DACA protects undocumented immigrants brought to America as children from deportation. The vast majority of the 700,000 to 800,000 DACA recipients are from Mexico. But there are also thousands of people from Asian countries like China, India, South Korea and the Philippines who would lose their protection and face deportation.

“The decision is only a temporary victory that still allows the administration 90 days to present additional grounds for dismantling this essential program for immigrant youth and families, stated Asian Americans Advancing Justice, a coalition of civil rights organizations.

"We believe in a just and humane immigration system that protects immigrants and our families and allows them to thrive in the United States. As such, Advancing Justice affiliates have joined amicus briefs in the multiple cases across the country challenging the administration’s efforts to end the DACA program." 

The statement went on to urge Congress to pass an immigration reform package that includes a permanent solution for undocumented youth, reinstatement of Temporary Protective Status, support refugee programs, and would not sacrifice family unification. 

Bates, who was appointed by President Geoerge W. Bush, said in his ruling that just calling DACA unconstitutional doesn't make it so. He said that accusation is "erroneous" and based on “scant legal reasoning.”

The government also, said Bates, “made no mention of the fact that DACA had been in place for five years and had engendered the reliance of hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries, many of whom had structured their education, employment, and other life activities on the assumption that they would be able to renew their DACA benefits.”
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Big Brother wants to track immigrants' social media and public assistance

IT'S A SCARY TIME to be an immigrant in the U.S.

America's welcome mat is starting to fray: Anti-immigrant vitriol spews forth from the White House, a GOP-dominated, spineless Congress not willing to defend America's tradition as a land of immigrants, white supremacists feel emboldened and immigrants are easy scapegoats. 

Imagine a country with two sets of rules for its people:  one with the rights and responsibilities endowed by the Constitution; the other living under the rule of Big Brother.

Two recent proposals of the Trump administration would move the United States towards a  two-tiered society where most of us -- U.S. citizens -- would live under the rule of law as outlined by the U.S. Constitution. On the other hand, immigrants woiuld live under the watchful eye -- some say, invasive scrutiny -- of government.

Millions of immigrant and non-immigrant visa applicants reportedly may have to hand over information from their social media accounts should a new State Department proposal be approved.

Most immigrant and non-immigrant visa applicants, about 14.7 million people, will be asked to list on a federal application form all of the social media identities that they have used in the past five years — information that will be used to vet and identify them, according to the proposals.

Another proposal being considered by the Department of Homeland Security would follow the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who apply for citizenship to determine if they receive public benefits, reports Jezebel.

The radical proposals are the first steps of implementing Trump's campaign promise of "extreme vetting," of immigrants.

If approved, immigrant social media users -- and who doesn't have a Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat or Twitter account, these days? -- will be required to submit five years of previously used telephone numbers, email addresses and their international travel history.

The other proposed rule regarding public assistance is a bit less defined but in its nebulousness, is just as far-reaching. Current regulations which have been in place since 1999 specifically bar authorities from considering non-cash benefits.

As outlined by Reuters, among the benefits singled out in the draft rule for consideration are: health insurance subsidies such as those provided by the Affordable Care Act; the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP); WIC, a federal program that feeds poor pregnant or nursing women and their children; transportation and housing vouchers; programs that help the poor pay their heating bills; and programs such as Head Start, which provides early education to low-income children.

Some benefits would not be considered in making the “public charge” determination under the draft regulations, including emergency or disaster relief, public health assistance for immunizations, attending public school, receiving free or reduced-price school lunches, and earned benefits such as disability insurance, Medicare and unemployment payments.

In the new proposal, DHS outlines that individuals applying for residency must prove they are “not likely at any time to become a public charge”:

"The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposes to change how it determine whether an alien is inadmissible to the United States because he or she is likely at any time to become a public charge consistent with section 212(a)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Aliens who are seeking adjustment of status or an immigrant visa, or who are applicants for admission, must all establish that they are not likely at any time to become a public charge. Moreover, DHS will require aliens seeking an extension of stay or change of status demonstrate that they are not using or receiving, nor likely to use or receive, public benefits."

Some people have interpreted to include tax credits. If you are a law-abiding immigrant and you pay your taxes like the rest of ordinary folk, and you take advantage of Earned Income Tax Credit—claimed by an estimated 20 percent of all Americans—and other “non-cash public benefits,” you would fall under this proposal.

RELATED: Trump's immigration policies rooted in racism

The new rules, if adopted in their current form, would significantly change these guidelines. Under the draft rules, a person would be considered a “public charge” if they depend on “any government assistance in the form of cash, checks or other forms of money transfers, or instrument and non-cash government assistance in the form of aid, services, or other relief,” according to the document seen by Reuters.

It's worth noting that even if you are already in this country -- working hard, trying to keep you head above water, and you are in that five-year period awaiting to become eligible for U.S. citizenship, you will fall under these rules if they become law.

The ultimate aim -- if someone breaks this proposed law -- is to deport the rule-breaker.

Published last Friday (March 30) in the Federal Register, which is not on the vast majority of people's reading list, the proposals have not been widely disseminated. However, the Department will accept comments from the public up to May 29, 2018.

If you want to comment on the proposal, you have a number of ways to do so: 

1. Web: Persons with access to the internet may comment on this notice by going to www.Regulations.gov. You can search for the document by entering “Docket Number: DOS-2018-0002” in the Search field. Then click the “Comment Now” button and complete the comment form.

2. Email: PRA_BurdenComments@state.gov.

3. If you are already in this country, write or send an email to your Congressional representative.

The proposals reflect the current administration's anti-immigrant positions in contrast to the past decades of welcoming people to our "nation of immigrants."

The rules drafted by the administration would impact nearly 34 million lawful immigrants live in the United States. According to the nonpartisan Pew Resource Center, many live and work in the country after receiving lawful permanent residence (also known as a green card), while others receive temporary visas available to students and workers. In addition, roughly 1 million unauthorized immigrants have temporary permission to live and work in the U.S. through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Temporary Protected Status programs.

Contrary to the popular belief, for the past several years, immigration from Asia has surpassed immigrants coming from Latin America.

Immigrants have become the bogeyman of this short-sighted and xenophobic administration. They are being blamed for crime increases, our increasingly polarized economy, the disappearance of the middle class,

Perhaps what is most troubling to the Trump administration and the people who put him in office, immigration is redefining what an American looks like. And that new American is more than likely, not from Norway.
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Trump signs budget even though his wall didn't get fully funded

SEN. RAND PAUL

Sen. Rand Paul , who urged a veto, doubts if anyone has read the 2,232 page budget bill before voting on it.

DONALD TRUMP said today (March 23) he has signed the 2,232-page, $1.3 trillion spending bill that the House and Senate approved Wednesday (March 21), funding the government through September and preventing a government shutdown.

The announcement came hours after the president threatened to veto the bill because it did not provide enough funding for the Damn Wall on the Mexican border or a final resolution for immigrants brought to the country as children under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Let's get this straight: Trump doesn't care about the DACA immigrants. First, he was the one who rescinded DACA simply because it was initiated by President Obama and set up an artificial deadline for a Congressional fix. Trump was only using DACA as a bargaining chip to pass his harsh, radical reform of immigration policies and to build his Damn Wall.

“While this agreement includes funding for many important programs for Hawaii and the country, I am deeply disappointed that it does not protect the 1.8 million Dreamers Donald Trump unnecessarily put at risk when he canceled DACA," said Hawaii's Sen. Mazie Hirono.

"The president created this crisis, and he has sabotaged every effort we’ve made to protect Dreamers," she said.

The fate of 130,000 Asian Dreamers out of the 700,000 to 800,000 young people in the DACA program, are still in a holding pattern after a federal judge ruled that the program must continue to operate until Congress can come up with a bill to resolve their uncertain status. Besides the Dreamers, hundreds of thousands would-be DACA participants who didn't join the program, await the legislation that would settle their status.

RELATED: 

• What did Congress just pass for immigrants?
• Dreamers still in limbo

“DACA recipients have been treated extremely badly by the Democrats. We wanted to include DACA, we wanted to have them in this bill,” Trump said. “The Democrats would not do it." He neglected to say that he was the one to set an artificial deadline for the program's end and that he nexed bipartisan proposals that included relief for the DACA participants..

Trump was clearly irked by the reduced level of border security funding. While Republicans and Trump have said the bill funds Trump's "wall," it was far short of the $25 billion they initially wanted. Instead only $1.6 billion will go to the wall. After displaying the temperment of a spoiiled child that didn't get what he wanted during the bill's signing, by Wednesday night, Trump tweeted that he “Got $1.6 Billion to start Wall on Southern Border, rest will be forthcoming.”

Democrats and some Republicans sought to extend the DACA program but Trump reportedly did not want to give the undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship as part of that deal, as Democrats wanted.

At least one Democrat preferred a Trump veto. "I agree with Rep @Jim_Jordan. Republican leadership didn't just drop a 2300 page spending bill at night. They also forced a rule waiver that made rank & file Members of Congress vote for the $1.3 trillion bill in less than 24 hours. That is outrageous," said Rep. Ted Lieu, D-CA, who has opposed Trump in almost all other matters.

“This bill reflects priorities that are very different from the president’s. In many ways—and particularly on education, affordable housing, healthcare, and clean energy—it is a strong repudiation of Donald Trump’s misplaced priorities," said Hirono. "I hope this bill connotes a sustained Congressional commitment to stand up for our families and communities."

Among the other items included in the bill:

Gun violence prevention: Modest steps to address gun violence by strengthening the background check system to prevent dangerous individuals from owning a gun -- and explicit language that says that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can conduct gun violence research.

Health care: A $3 billion increase in funding for medical research -- while not defunding Planned Parenthood.

Child care and education: A $610 million increase for Head Start, a program that helps educate kids whose families live below the poverty level.

Climate, environment: A rejection of this White House's plan to cut the EPA by 30%. This bill will increase funding by $763 million, including $300 million each for Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Funds.

2020 Census: A funding increase of $1.4 billion -- more than double what the flawed administration plan requested -- to make sure we accurately count our population, and don't leave anyone behind.

Opioids epidemic: A $3.2 billion increase in funding to fight the latest scourge.

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Federal budget battle over immigration

Border wall prototypes get no funding.

REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS neared agreement on a $1.3 trillion spending bill today (March 21) that undercuts Donald Trump’s $25 billion request for a wall along the Mexican border and turned down his administration’s request for increased funding for immigrant detention facilities and additional border patrol agents.

At the center of the debate is the huge increase sought by the Donald Trump administration for the Department of Homeland Security to build Trump's Damn Wall, expand the number of beds for immigrant detainees and to hire more federal agents to patrol U.S. borders and the increasing the ICE raids in the nation's interior.

Unfortunately, efforts to protect young immigrants known as “Dreamers” have fallen to the wayside, according to several reports, but Democrats appeared likely to sign off on $1.6 billion in border wall funding, albeit with certain conditions, The Washington Post reported, citing anonymous sources.

Congress has until Friday, March 23, to work out how to fund the government for the next six months or face another government shutdown.

Democrats, whose votes in the Republican-controlled Congress are needed to pass the spending bill, are pushing back against the $25-billion Damn Wall that they see as a waste of money.

Interestingly, there is no resolution for the DACA program in the budget debate. Trump blames the Democrats for opposing a legislative solution to the fate of 700,000 to 800,000 Dreamers.

Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, called Trump a liar said it's not true that Democrats are not helping to end the standoff over the fate of Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program recipients — undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.

“The President constantly accuses the Democrats for not supporting DACA when he's the one who created the crisis to begin with and he's the one who defeated the bipartisan bill that would have protected 1.8 million Dreamers,” said Hirono. “But you know, we all know that he lies every single day, so that's that.”

More than likely, court orders to maintain the DACA program until Congress could come up with a bipartisan solution, have reduced the urgency for legislative action. especially when its fate is linked Trump's immigration reform proposals, Trump bogged down the efforts for a DACA resolution when he linked the program's fate with his radical immigration reform proposals.

Although during the election campaign candidate Trump claimed that the wall would cost only $12 billion, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) internal report in February put the cost at $21.6 billion, but even that may be a major underestimate if you factor in the legal costs of lawsuits by civil rights groups and private landowners along the border.

A coalition of 83 Latino, African/American and Asian/American members of the House of Representatives also wrote this week to congressional leaders urging them to “reduce funding to DHS’s detention and deportation machine.”

Republicans need to weigh the cost of Trump's border war vs. the massive increases to the national debt, the latter of which most GOP congressional representatives campaign against.

Republican leaders need Democratic votes in both chambers to pass the bill so Democrats have some leverage. They have rejected calls for increased funding for detention facilities and 850 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent.

According to Roll Call sources, there wouild be a $1.6 down payment for a border barrier but it would be for “fencing” only, not a concrete wall, and would provide for just 33 miles of new barriers, not the prototypes inspected by Trump last week amidst fanfare and protests at the California-Mexico border.

Trump lost out on his bid for more money to house 10,000 more undocumented immigrants in detention facilities and to hire 850 more Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents. The measure also would not cut off federal funds for so-called sanctuary cities that do not cooperate with federal authorities on immigration law.

Additionally, the budget measure, as of Wednesday, would not cut federal funding for sanctuary cities and states, jurisdictions that limit cooperation with ICE officials despite Trump's heated rhetoric against California's status as a "sanctuary" state.

There are other major items in the budget, which is beginning to look like a bipartisan bill.  That's something Trump needs to realize, in business, the art of the deal is a  win-lose situation all the time. In politics, the art of the deal via compromise, is to reach a position where it is win-win.
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Rep. Judy Chu: 'The White House immigration proposal is an insult to our nation'

DESPITE WHAT HE SAYS, -- "Love those Dreamers," -- Donald Trump isn't serious about giving DACA participants a pathway to citizenship. Otherwise, why would he propose immigration reform measures that would be impossible for Democrats to accept?

If it was just the $25-billion Damn Wall, there might be a little give-and-take in negotiations increasing border security while allowing the Dreamers to remain in the only country they've ever known. However, the Trump proposals essentially closes that door. 

Among the key elements of Trump's plan that are stumbling blocks are:

• Cutting legal immigration -- 1.1 million annually -- by 44%
• Shutting off family-based migration for all but spouses and minor children
• Eliminating the visa lottery program, or “green card lottery,” which aims to diversify the immigrant population

That's a huge bet in a high-stakes poker game. The GOP is dangling the fate of 800,000 DACA enrolees vs. a complete overhaul of the immigration policies that have been in effect since 1965 when the Immigration & Naturalization Act removed the policies that favored immigrants from Europe by giving each country a 20,000 yearly quota.

Rep. Judy Chu, D-CA, Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), released the following statement in response to the White House’s immigration proposals:

“The White House immigration proposal is an insult to our nation. This purely partisan plan is as extreme and xenophobic as its creators: Stephen Miller and Donald Trump. It holds Dreamers hostage by demanding exorbitant border enforcement funds and proposes to decimate our legal, family-based immigration system and end diversity visas in order to enshrine DACA protections. 

"As I have said before, any cuts to our family-based immigration system in a DACA deal is absolutely unacceptable. Our current, family-based immigration system has been in existence since 1965 and has contributed greatly to America. It has strengthened our economy and has often been the only mechanism for women to reunite with their families in the United States. Contributing to America should not require individuals to abandon their loved ones, and CAPAC will not support an anti-immigrant proposal that simply trades one family’s pain for that of another.

“Trump’s extreme proposal slams the door on immigration to this country. U.S. citizens and green card holders would no longer be able to sponsor their parents, siblings, or adult children over the age of 21. Only spouses and minor children would be able to come. This would cut in half the number of legal immigrants who could come to this country.

“This proposal runs contrary to our values as a nation, and is especially harmful to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, many of whom have reunited with their families through our legal immigration system. It is clear that Donald Trump’s cruel decision to terminate the DACA program last September was made to appease his anti-immigrant base. The fact that Donald Trump would now demand that we decimate our legal, family unification system reveals his true goal: to make America white again.

“The overwhelming majority of Americans believe that Dreamers should be able to stay in the United States and continue to contribute to the only country many of them have ever known. There are multiple proposals to protect Dreamers in Congress that have strong bipartisan support. However, Donald Trump has chosen to double down on his hateful, xenophobic demands and hold Dreamers ransom in order to propagate his anti-immigrant agenda. I urge Republican leadership to prioritize governing over campaigning, and allow us to vote on a clean DREAM Act immediately.”

The vast majority of DACA recipients are from Mexico. Eighty-four percent of Mexicans and 83 percent of Salvadorans applied in 2016. Immigrants from Asian countries have some of the lowest application rates — less than 30 percent of eligible applicants applied from the Philippines, India and South Korea. Only about 20% of the eligible Korean population applied, and only 23% of eligible Filipinos and 20% of eligible Indians applied, according to the Migration Policy Institute. But 82% of eligible Mexicans applied.

"Instead of stepping up as heroes, too many members of Congress in both parties are still acting like cowards, abandoning immigrant families who are natural political allies and have the power to sway elections," said Christina Jimnez, executive director of United We Dream.

"Year after year, members of Congress count on the support of immigrants and people of color. Our communities regularly show up at the polls. But when we call on Congress to show up for us, some Democrats and moderate Republicans are reluctant to step up," she warned.

"When considering Trump’s latest plan for immigration and the Dream Act, Democrats and Republicans of conscience must hold the line, and do what is morally right and politically necessary for the protection of immigrant youth and families."
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SUNDAY READ: Trump's immigration proposals rooted in racism

AFTER A YEAR in office, it is now clear even to the most casual observer -- Donald Trump is a racist.

The White House will release a "legislative framework" for an immigration deal on Monday that it believes can earn bipartisan support, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. 

As we have seen the basis for almost all his policy proposals is to keep whites in power and to turn the tide of growing influence of people of color and to stop the demographic shift to a browner America.

There is no doubt about Trump's anti-immigrant positions after his comments Jan. 11 in the Oval Office when lawmakers proposed restoring protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal, according to two people briefed on the meeting.

“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Trump asked in that infamous meeting at the White House.

He followed up with another question, “Why do we want people from Haiti here?” Then he reportedly said, Why can't have more immigrants from Norway? In other words: Why can’t we have more white immigrants, and fewer nonwhite ones?

Trump stokes the deeply felt the fears of his mostly-white constituency by painting immigrants as a danger to our society.

"Today we face a number of serious threats—from the vicious MS-13, to the deadliest drug epidemic in American history, to radical Islamic terrorism," said Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a speech to law enforcement officers in Norfolk, VA last Jan. 26.Trump's underlying message of his campaign plays to the fear held by white people that they will lose their position of privilege propped up and perpetuated by the dominant influence of white people in almost every area of influence in our culture.

There appears to be two primary strategies to achieve that dubious objective:

1. Stop the increasing power and influence of people of color by ending the avenues  or opportunities through which POC advance their social status in the U.S., ie. education, employment and political influence. To achieve this goal might take the form of various policies: ending  affirmative action, lower the quality of public schools where most POC send their kids for an education, removing penalties for bias in the workplace and making it more difficult to vote.

2. Besides the obvious deportation of undocumented immigrants, the administration wants to stem, or more realistically slow down, the inflow of immigrants from Latin America and Asia. The long-term overall impact of this policy will hurt the U.S. economic and political standings in the world. Despite the harmful effects this policy will have, the goal of this administration is decidedly short-term: the temporary shoring up of Trump's supporters' xenophobia, the fear of the "other." 

The policies for No. 1 are numerous, complicated and ongoing. It will require a watchful eye on the current administration as they try to disguise their efforts under the guise of economic development and job creation. Views From the Edge will continue to track the policy proposals that will inevitable generate turmoil and harm to our country, no matter what race one may be.

The goals of Trump's immigration policies have a strong appeal to his base -- to those Americans who see "their" county changing and "their" status of privilege slipping away.  that we will focus on today.

The day Trump announced his candidacy and declared immigrants from Mexico as criminals, rapists and drug dealers, should have set off alarm bells among all Americans who believe we are a land of immigrants and the pursuit of the American Dream that separates the U.S. from other countries. and it is continuing with his proposed Muslim bans that are winding their way through the courts all the way to a Trump-friendly Supreme Court.

The Trump administration has taken a hardline approach to immigration thus far, including: 

• Cracking down on undocumented immigrants, 
• Calling for harsh punishments for so-called sanctuary cities
• Executive orders executing what are essentially Muslim bans,
• Proposing to cutback on H-1B visas and the necessary visa extensions,
• Curtailment of the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program that allows family reunification,
• Despite stating his support for immigrants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Trump is instead using the program as a bargaining chip to build a $20 billion wall on the Mexican border.

RAISE Act

Trump has also endorsed the Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy (RAISE) Act introduced by GOP immigration hardliners Sens. Tom Cotton (AR) and David Perdue (GA) last August, which attempts to cut immigration to the United States in half — from approximately 1 million people to only 500,000. 

The RAISE Act also seeks to cap refugee numbers and do away with the diversity visa lottery. As he is wont to do, Trump has already branded the family reunification policy with a derisive moniker: "chain migration." It is the policy that gives priority to immediate relatives of green card holders in order to stabilize the new immigrant's emotional well-being by reuniting the family in America.

Despite a desire to move to a merit system to bring in immigrants with specific skills that would benefit the U.S. the Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen appears to be undercutting this stated objective. The DHS is considering new regulations that would prevent H-1B visa extensions, according to two U.S. sources briefed on the proposal. The measure potentially could stop hundreds of thousands of foreign workers from keeping their H-1B visas while their green card applications are pending.

The administration is also getting stricter in issuing the coveted H-1b visa given to those workers and grad students who wish to continue working or studying in the U.S. By cutting off extensions of the three-year visa, the proposed policy would drive these highly-skilled individuals back to their home countries, depriving the U.S. of their skills in technology, medicine and science.

Trump is reportedly considering a proposal to stop H1B-visa extensions to highly skilled foreign workers mostly from India, while they wait for their green cards to be granted. If the proposal passes, between 500,000 and 750,000 skilled Indian workers who hold the non-immigrant work document could be deported. if H-1B workers were no longer allowed to apply for extensions. 

The bulk of affected workers would be from India. “It would remove hundreds of thousands of tech workers from the work force, and discourage new people from coming,” said Leon Fresco, an immigration lawyer and former deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department’s Office of Immigration Litigation.

Trump recently criticized policies that stressed family reunification, the American Immigration Council says case-study evidence shows that extended immigrant families "ease the economic assimilation of new immigrants and promote investment in U.S. human capital as well as the formation of businesses."

Trump blames so-called "chain migration" for allowing one immigrant “to bring in dozens of increasingly distant relations” with “no real selection criteria.” Trump pointed to a Bangladeshi man who detonated a pipe bomb in a New York City transportation hub last month as an example of how the system can compromise national security. 

The number of visas granted to extended family members of legal immigrants dropped to the lowest level in more than a decade—and he is calling on Congress to stop such “chain migration,” claiming it presents a national security threat.

The number of approvals for family-based visas in the first nine months of 2017 fell to 406,000 from 530,000 in the same period a year prior, a drop of nearly a quarter, according to a Reuters review of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data. A similar amount of applications were submitted for both periods.

This proposal could severely impact Asian immigrants who have used this policy to bring over family members. "They're talking about your tias/tios, lolas/lolos, cousins, etc. They're talking our families," tweeted Jose Antonio Vargas, one of the most outspoken undocumented Americans who has advocated for expansion of the DACA program.

White House immigration 'framework'

The White House "framework" for immigration is so extreme that it will be almost impossible for Democrats to accept which could endanger negotiations to safeguard participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

The supposed framework reportedly will create a pathway to citizenship for DACA participants. The White House would pit DACA, which surveys show the American public has great sympathy for, against Trump's immigration reform that would contain all the elements discussed above.

“Let’s call this proposal for what it is: a white supremacist ransom note," immigrant advocacy group United We Dream said in a statement Thursday (Jan. 26). "Trump and Stephen Miller killed DACA and created the crisis that immigrant youth are facing. They have taken immigrant youth hostage, pitting us against our own parents, Black immigrants and our communities in exchange for our dignity, 

“So let us be clear: any politician who backs up this ransom note is enabling Trump and Miller’s white supremacist agenda. Members of Congress of conscience must make the moral choice to reject this white supremacist proposal and pass legislation that protects us without harming others. Dream Act now.”

Then, there's that $25 billion Wall Trump wants to build between the U.S. and Mexico. It appears he won't back down on that.

What the immigration debate is really about is the future of America. Whites see Trump's immigration policies as a way to stay on top. Whites, like most of the world, see the U.S. a white country. But the beauty of the American experiment is that it is continually changing. It has the ability to absorb new peoples, their energy, ideas and drive to create a country the world has never seen before. 

Whites and all their power structures need to accept the changes that are happening.  What they will discover is that not much will change that dramatically.

America was never just their country - ask the Native Americans whose land was stolen, ask the Chinese who built the railroads, the Filipinos and Mexicans who toiled in the fields, the millions of military personnel of color who died fighting for the America, or ask  the Asians driving the information economy. it has always been - OUR  country - all of us!

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