Supreme Court Solicits Administration's Stance on Arizona Law Aimed at Companies that Hire Undocumented Workers

Posted on November 9, 2009 by Immigration/Global Migration Group

The U.S. Supreme Court has asked the Solicitor General to submit a brief outlining the Obama administration’s stance on an Arizona law that punishes companies for hiring illegal immigrants, the Miami Herald reports. The justices will review this brief before deciding whether to hear a challenge to the law.

The law, enacted in 2006, allows private complaints to be filed against companies. Any company found to have “knowingly or intentionally” hired illegal immigrants can have its business license suspended or revoked.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, along with other corporate, labor and immigrant groups, is challenging the Arizona law, claiming that it interferes with Congress’s ability to set immigration policy. The Immigration Reform and Control Act explicitly preempts state action on immigration, except for regulations regarding business licensing. Although the Arizona law has yet to be executed, opponents argue that enforcement would violate federal law.

A Supreme Court ruling on the case could have a broad impact on immigration legislation: In the first three months of 2009, state and local governments introduced more than 1,000 immigration-related bills, 150 of which are specifically related to employment.
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European Union: Member States Adopt "Blue Card" Immigration Program

Posted on May 29, 2009 by Immigration/Global Migration Group

The European Union has formally adopted a work authorization program intended to attract highly skilled foreign workers and modeled after the United States’ Green Card program. The “Blue Card” will allow immigrants to work in any EU member state (except Great Britain, Ireland and Denmark) and will entitle card holders to limited social and welfare rights, for a renewable period of one to four years, EUobserver.com reported. Blue Card holders will receive equal treatment with nationals as to working conditions, including pay and dismissal, and will have some ability to move between EU member states. The program also includes penalties for employers who hire illegal immigrants.

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Jobless Rate Increasing More Sharply for Immigrants Than for Native-Born Americans

Posted on May 11, 2009 by Immigration/Global Migration Group

According to a new report by the Center for Immigration Studies, immigrants to the United States have been hit harder by the recession as compared to native-born Americans, with larger increases in unemployment among both educated and uneducated workers. The report, which was based on U.S. Census statistics, found that immigrants (legal and illegal) now have significantly higher unemployment than natives, which represents a departure from the recent past, when native-born Americans typically had higher unemployment rates. Immigrant unemployment in the first quarter of 2009 was 9.7%, the highest level since 1994 (when data began to be collected for immigrants). The current unemployment rate for natives is 8.6%, also the highest since 1994.

Other key findings of the study include:

  • The immigrant unemployment rate is now 5.6 percentage points higher than in the third quarter of 2007, before the recession began. Native unemployment has increased 3.8 percentage points over the same period.
  • Among immigrants who arrived in 2006 or later, unemployment is 13.3%.
  • The number of unemployed immigrants increased 1.3 million (130%) since the third quarter of 2007.  Among natives the increase was five million (81%).

As reported in The Los Angeles Times, Steven Camarota, the study's coauthor, commented that many of the immigrant job losses came in low-skill occupations. In construction, for instance, the immigrant jobless rate climbed to 20% in the first quarter of 2009, from 4.7% 18 months earlier.

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Illegal Immigrant Population Shifting to Different States

Posted on April 16, 2009 by Immigration/Global Migration Group

As reported at Stateline.org, a new report  finds that the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States are settling in states such as Georgia and North Carolina, where relatively few lived 20 years ago. The findings could have financial implications for already stressed state and local governments.

Highlights of the report, conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center, include:

  • California leads the nation with 2.7 million illegal immigrants, but its share of the national total has dropped from 42% in 1990 to 22% in 2008. Instead, larger numbers of illegal immigrants are moving to states in the Southeast, Southwest, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest and Mountain regions.
  • Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Texas have retained their appeal to illegal immigrants.
  • The children of illegal immigrants comprise 6.8% of K-12 students in the U.S., up from 5.4% in 2003.
  • Six in 10 illegal immigrants lack health insurance, more than double the uninsured share among legal immigrants and four times the uninsured share among U.S.-born adults.
  • An estimated 8.3 million of the nation’s 154 million people in the labor force are illegal immigrants, according to 2008 estimates. That is a share of about 5.4%, up from 4.3% in 2003.

The Pew Hispanic Center periodically examines trends in the unauthorized immigrant population. State and local officials watch such trends carefully because state and local governments pay for the services provided to illegal immigrants, especially education, health care and public safety.

 

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