A public policy blog on America's dysfunctional immigration system
With Republicans salivating at the prospect of capturing at least one chamber in Congress, and President Obama and the Democrats in (perhaps temporary) retreat, the time seems right to reflect on how much trouble our broken immigration system has caused both parties and the country.
Repeatedly, on both sides of the partisan aisle, the hiring…
Trouble, we got trouble, right here in Immigration Country (apologies to Meredith Wilson, lyricist for The Music Man). As the song goes, “either you’re closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated.” I refer not to the ersatz “professor”…
A recent article in the Dallas Morning News by Los Angeles Times writer Gregory Rodriguez (“We’re All Hypocrites on Illegal Immigration”), brought to mind a biblical quote:
Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.
Prognosticators, pontificators and pundits across the political spectrum predict that, no matter the outcome of the November elections, grinding out any new laws in the next Congress will be especially difficult. The 24/7 news cycle, the “gotcha” politics of personal destruction, and the collective eyes on the big prize in 2012 will all make bipartisan…
What happens when the laws of America clash with the laws of physics? In the Never-Never Land of Immigration, the natural laws of physics must defer to human-made law. This is the absurd answer of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Status (USCIS), the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) and the Court of Appeals for the Fifth…
Dear Stephen,
I’ve been letter-writing lately on immigration — to Glenn Beck and to the Editor of The New York Times. As a loyal American and a citizen of ColbertNation, it’s high time I correspond with you.
I’m writing to applaud your appearance before the House Judiciary Committee during “Protect Our Harvest…
Dear Glenn:
I’ve never communicated with you before, but something you said recently prompts me to write.
I saw you on C-SPAN during your August 28 Restoring Honor event at the National Mall in Washington. Like many others, I was pleasantly surprised that you turned away from politics and focused instead on time-honored moral and…
James Carville’s famous snowclone on how to win an election — “It’s the economy, stupid!”— has new, very buff legs. With the traditional Labor Day launch of campaign season just six days ago, the American people have already witnessed the fur of political charges and countercharges flying. The 24/7 news cycle and the ocean…
Let’s resume our journey along the road where the arts intersect with America’s dysfunctional immigration system. (Previous blog stops en route are posted here and here.) Two weeks ago, USCIS made news when it reportedly held up the approval of a visa petition for America’s Got Talent judge, Piers Morgan, thus requiring Larry King…
For someone whose career had seemed in rocket-vectored ascendancy, Piers Morgan — famed British journalist, TV host, 2008 winner of Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice, and 2006 season judge of America’s Got Talent — has encountered an implacable obstacle. The object reportedly in his way is so impenetrable that, even with help from CNN…