| Nhuchche |
Posted
on 05-Sep-02 10:21 AM
From www.immigration.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.The U.S. takes more than one million immigrants annually, including illegals. That is one key reason economic growth has averaged 3.7 percent a year for the past decade. Immigrants have supplied crucial technical and scientific talent, founded thousands of Silicon Valley startups, and helped hold down prices by filling low-wage jobs.
--Business Week, August 26, 2002
2.Some 30 million people enter the United States each year, almost all of them on temporary student, tourist, or business visas; about a million seek to settle here and build new lives.
--Village Voice , July 30, 2002, edition.
3.In a report published last week (July 2), the Christian Science Monitor reported that the Immigration and Naturalization Service has experienced a 61 percent increase in the number of naturalization applications filed since the events of September 11.
4.Canada and Mexico are the U.S.’s two largest trading partners. In 2000, total merchandise trade between the U.S. and Canada was $411 billion. Mexico is the U.S.’s second largest trading partner and is one of the fastest growing major export markets for U.S. goods and services. Two-way trade between Mexico and the U.S. was estimated at $261.7 billion in 2000. (Sources: U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration; U.S. Embassy in Mexico.)
5.According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics’ occupational employment projections for 2010, “employment is projected to grow in occupations in every education and training category. Nearly 8 million new jobs are expected in occupations usually requiring short-term on-the-job training; another 4 million will be in occupations that usually require a bachelor’s degree. The remaining 10 million jobs are spread among other education and training categories, but most are in occupations that usually require less than a bachelor’s degree for entry.”
--from U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Charting the Projections: 2000–10,” Occupational Outlook Quarterly November 2001.
6.In a letter dated May 2, 2002, the National Conference of State Legislators came out strongly against HR 4043, a bill that would restrict immigrants’ access to driver’s licenses. According to the letter, NCSL is opposed to the bill because, “The legislation represents an unfounded federal mandate on states, would essentially force states to adopt a burdensome and ineffective law and would penalize lawful citizens of states that fail to adopt such legislation.”
7.Senator Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Narcotics Affairs, at an April 16 hearing on the subject of “U.S.-Mexico Relations: Unfinished Agenda,” called the United States’ relations with Mexico and the Fox Administration “the most important and promising of our hemispheric relations….[and] an important cornerstone in fashioning a successful partnership with countries throughout the Americas.” “It is so important that we work at that relationship—until we get it right,” he stated.
8.In 1997, local authorities in Chandler Arizona conducted a series of roundups to help Border Patrol agents find violators of federal immigration laws. Widespread complaints by local residents, including U.S. citizens and at least one local elected official who were stopped during the operations, led to an investigation by the Arizona Attorney General. The official report on the investigation concluded that police stopped Hispanics without probable cause, bullied women and children suspected of being illegal immigrants and made late-night entries into homes of suspected illegal immigrants, among other violations. In 1999, the Chandler City Council unanimously approved a $ 400,000 settlement of a lawsuit stemming from police roles in the roundup.
9.A new University of Florida study suggests that immigrants in Florida tend to assimilate into mainstream society, learn English, become citizens, and pay their share of taxes. The study, which examined U.S. Census data for Florida, was reported in The Orland0 Sentinel, March 16, 2002.
10.African immigrants have the highest high school completion rate—95 percent.
11.Households headed by immigrants from Asia tend to have higher annual household incomes than those headed by U.S. natives.
12.Mexican immigrants have a higher participation in the labor force than other immigrants.
13."We want to work together to improve homeland security and protect our borders, to keep out those people who want to bring us harm-but also to celebrate our nation's diversity and welcome those hardworking immigrants who pay taxes and keep our country strong."
-House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri, during his delivery of the Democratic response to the State of the Union address, January 29, 2002.
14.“In strengthening the security of our borders, we must also safeguard the unobstructed entry of more than 31 million persons who enter the U.S. legally each year as visitors, students and temporary workers and over 500 million that cross the Canadian and Mexican borders and other borders to conduct daily business or visit close family members.” -- Senator Kennedy (D-MA) November 5 press conference.
15.“The states where the number of new immigrants were highest tended to benefit from the decades economic upswing.”
--William H. Frey, a demographer at the University of Michigan, speaking about the recent census survey (New York Times, August 5, 2001).
16.Allen Greenspan, in his recent testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, said, "I would be very distressed if we were to try to shut our doors to immigration in this country. I frankly don't envisage that happening, but I understand that there's always that tendency on the part of people who are here who, having come here four generations earlier, want to shut the door. And I don't think that's a good idea."
17. According to INS estimates that there are approximately 2,700 “lifers” in INS detention facilities around the country. Others estimate that the numbers are even higher. These “lifers” are immigrants who face indefinite detention because they cannot be removed from the United States.As a result of the Supreme Court’s decision in Zadvydas and Ma many of these lifers will now be eligible for release from custody while awaiting their removal.
|
