Many people in Asbury Park heard about the program President Obama started last year after Congress's failure to pass the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act. By using an executive order, President Obama was able to stop the deportation of youth in New Jersey and elsewhere who would have been eligible under the Dream Act. Although many immigration lawyers and immigrant groups praised the president for the program, many are now asking the president to expand the program to anyone at risk of deportation, at least until Congress passes an immigration reform bill.
2/3 of asylum seekers running from Central American violence
It is no surprise to many people in Camden County that drug violence in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador has increased in the past five years, but they may be shocked that an estimated two-thirds of all applicants seeking asylum come from these three countries. With an estimated 48,000 people filing for asylum by the end of the year, that could make for approximately 32,000 people from these three countries looking to become permanent residents of the United States.
Immigration bill hits snag in the U.S. House of Representatives
Our blog has talked extensively about the immigration reform that President Barack Obama and the Senate have spearheaded, but it seems that momentum and bipartisan support was lost when it went to the Senate. Even though the Senate passed a bill that was largely acceptable to both sides of the aisle, when the bill was sent to the U.S. House, it refused to take it up. This could mean many different things for the millions of immigrants who are waiting to file their applications for citizenship.
How will the immigration debate affect highly skilled workers?
We have previously talked about how some of New Jersey's top graduates in science, technology, engineerig and mathematics are being driven out of the country because of a complex and difficult immigration system. There are some moves to change how these employment-based immigrant visas are issued, especially to American-trained graduates. After all, the state and federal governments both pay a lot to educate some of these top performers, wouldn't it make sense to keep them in New Jersey?
