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43% of US immigrants still on welfare after twenty years

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Photo credit: pamhule

Immigrants lag behind native-born Americans on most measures of economic well-being — even those who have been in the U.S. the longest, according to a report from the Center for Immigration Studies, which argues that full assimilation is a more complex task than overcoming language or cultural differences.

The study, which covers all immigrants, legal and illegal, and their U.S.-born children younger than 18, found that immigrants tend to make economic progress by most measures the longer they live in the U.S. but lag well behind native-born Americans on factors such as poverty, health insurance coverage and homeownership.

The study, based on 2010 and 2011 census data, found that 43 percent of immigrants who have been in the U.S. at least 20 years were using welfare benefits, a rate that is nearly twice as high as native-born Americans and nearly 50 percent higher than recent immigrants.

The report was released at a time when both major presidential candidates have backed policies that would make it easier to immigrate legally and would boost the numbers of people coming to the U.S.

Steven A. Camarota, the center’s research director and author of the 96-page study, said it shows that questions about the pros and cons of immigration extend well beyond the sheer numbers and touch on the broader consequences of assimilating a population defined by tougher socioeconomic challenges.

Read more from this story HERE.

“Capitulation to Lawlessness”: Obama’s new plan to protect illegal alien criminals

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Photo credit: Kevin Coles

President Obama’s new immigration plan will provide safe harbor to criminal illegal immigrants and will lead to a “capitulation to lawlessness” that could threaten public safety, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said.

Fox News has obtained an internal document detailing how the Department of Homeland Security plans to implement what critics say amounts to an amnesty policy for what could be more than one million illegal immigrants.

According to the documents, illegal immigrants convicted of felonies or misdemeanors under “state immigration laws” may be granted deferred action. Those who have repeatedly entered the United States illegally will also be eligible. And traffic violations would not be considered a misdemeanor.

“It is a direct threat to the rule of law and to the demonstrated desire of the American people for a lawful system of immigration,” Sessions said. “I believe this administration has utilized this policy to basically undermine and negate the ability of the law officers to do what they have been hired and paid to do.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Illegal alien students: pay $465, stay in the U.S.

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Photo credit: Fibonacci Blue

The Homeland Security Department said Friday that illegal immigrants will have to pay $465 to apply for legal status in the U.S. under President Obama’s administration Dream Act, with the fees going to make sure no taxpayer funds are used.

Illegal immigrants will be able to begin applying Aug. 15 under the program announced in June by President Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, which will apply to illegal immigrants age 30 and under who were brought here before age 16.

In another key decision, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas said the agency will generally not use the information from the applications to try to deport illegal immigrants who don’t qualify unless they lie on their application, have serious criminal records or are otherwise deemed threats to the country.

That move is likely to draw fire from critics who say the Obama administration is knowingly turning its back on illegal immigration, but an administration official, who briefed reporters on condition that he not be named, said they made that decision in order to try to convince illegal immigrants to come forward.

“Information contained in the request will not be used for immigration enforcement purposes,” the official said.

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Obama administration released illegal aliens who went on to commit thousands of crimes

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By Stephen Dinan.  The Obama administration released illegal immigrants who went on to commit more crimes, including charges of 19 murders, 3 attempted murders and 142 sex crimes, the House Judiciary Committee said in a report Tuesday.

All told, 16 percent of the nearly 47,000 illegal immigrants the administration was notified of but declined to deport between 2008 and 2011 under its Secure Communities program have gone on to be charged with other crimes, the committee said.

They were part of the nearly 160,000 immigrants — most of them here legally — who were flagged by Secure Communities during the three-year period and who were later charged in nearly 60,000 more crimes, according to the committee and the Congressional Research Service, which looked at data the committee subpoenaed from the Homeland Security Department.

The Secure Communities program was designed to identify immigrants who end up in state and local prisons and jails who the administration decides it wants to deport.

While hundreds of thousands of aliens have been sent back home under the program, 159,286 were not put in deportation proceedings during the period under review, CRS said.  Read more from this story HERE.

This story comes on the heels of DHS’s Janet Napolitano’s admission that terrorists are entering the US through the Mexican border.

Study: Obama dismantling immigration enforcement

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A detailed timeline being released this week by a leading anti-illegal immigration group documents what the organization describes as a pattern by the Obama administration of looking the other way on immigration enforcement.

While the charges are not necessarily new, the detailed list of grievances regarding the administration’s immigration policy could provide fodder for those trying to paint President Obama as weak on enforcement in advance of the November election.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, which provided an advance copy of the election-year study to FoxNews.com, catalogued dozens of statements and policy decisions since 2009. The group claims the “unilateral actions” all bend toward the same goal — “to render enforcement of U.S. immigration laws ineffective.”

The study follows on the heels of the administration’s decision in June to, through the Department of Homeland Security, allow thousands of illegal immigrants who came here as children to stay and seek work permits.

FAIR describes that announcement as the culmination of a string of other decisions designed to weaken enforcement, including: filing suit against states, like Arizona, that passed their own anti-illegal immigration laws; announcing changes via memo in the way the government decides whom to deport, and most recently moving to close down nine Border Patrol stations.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: surrelmar

Video: Pastor Defies Border Patrol Checkpoint, Evades Arrest

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If you’ve driven to San Diego or Los Angeles, you’ve no doubt encountered Border Patrol checkpoints on the highways.

Most people just answer the agents’ questions and they’re on their way.

Not one valley man.  He openly defies them and refuses to answer their questions — and he’s caught the tense encounters on tape.

Steven Anderson is a Tempe preacher who also travels to California for his other business.  He says all but once, Border Patrol agents have let him through checkpoints, even though he refuses to comply with their requests.

Anderson sets up a camera in his car for when he travels between Arizona and California.  He presses record only when he comes to a Border Patrol checkpoint along Interstate 8 to capture what he calls an overreach of government.


Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit:  CBP Photography