This Week in Immigration Reform — Week Ending February 24

Week Ending February 24

This week in immigration: NCLR responds to immigration enforcement memos.

NCLR responds to immigration enforcement memos: This week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued new memos outlining how the administration would implement the Executive Orders signed by President Trump on January 25. The implementation memos serve as a mass deportation blueprint. NCLR condemned this unnecessary and wasteful plan. “It opens the floodgates to terrorizing millions of people in this country—citizens and noncitizens alike—to combat a nonexistent immigrant crime wave. Or, to put in the words of this administration, based on ‘fake news,” stated NCLR President and CEO Janet Murguía. “We will do everything in our power to protect and defend our community in the face of this unconscionable assault on our civil rights,” Murguía added.

In addition to the press statement, below are additional NCLR media efforts:

Seattle Times Op-Ed—The economic cost to our nation of ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program would be enormous

Huffington Post Blog—The Trump Administration Is Targeting the Entire Latino Community

NCLR and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund Joint Press Statement— 100,000 National Guard Troops Would Turn Our Country into a Police State

NCLR staff were also quoted in stories in the Washington Post, Cronkite News-Arizona PBS, and the Redding Record Searchlight.

People can find an immigration legal service provider near them by going to immigrationlawhelp.org – a directory of nonprofit immigration legal service providers.

Know Your Rights information can be found here.

News you can use: The chaos being created by these orders and by President Trump’s mass deportation plans are being felt across multiple sectors in the country. These reports are good advocacy tools to demonstrate that immigrants are vital to the fabric of our country and play a role in building and strengthening the country. A new Wall Street Journal piece entitled, “Immigrant Crackdown Worries Food and Construction Industries” reports that the Trump Administration’s decision to crack down on immigrants could put American farmers, food companies, and builders at an employee deficit. This piece corroborates the claims made in a New York Times article earlier this month stating that pro-Trump farmers are now facing fears of losing farm workers. It is no wonder that as our colleagues at America’s Voice point out, new polling shows Trump’s approach to immigration is extremely unpopular. A new CBS News poll finds that President Trump’s approach to immigration is extremely unpopular. Among four issues tested, Trump’s highest disapproval rating is on immigration, where his favorability is underwater at 39% approve and 55% disapprove. The CBS poll also finds that 73% of Americans support a form of legalization for undocumented immigrants (60% citizenship and 13% legalization without citizenship) while only 23% support requiring undocumented immigrants to leave the country.

Tools you can use: The Partnership for a New American Economy has created an interactive map with data at the state and congressional district level demonstrating how immigrants strengthen local economies. Data includes demographic snapshots as well as information on workforce contributions, home ownership, taxes paid, entrepreneurship rates, and eligible voters.