By Matthew Vadum ——Bio and Archives--September 1, 2016
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We have seen the results of a stronger immigrant rights movement since 2013. The movement ultimately united around enforcement issues, which has led to a steady decline of removals with the Obama administration deporting 235,000 immigrants last year, the lowest level since 2006; total deportations dropped 42 percent from 2012. Groups have shifted from divisive language, such as "families, not felons" or DREAMers' "not our fault" messaging, to narratives that are more inclusive of the entire immigrant population. Grantee United We Dream, for instance, was founded to address the inequities and obstacles faced by immigrant youth and other DREAMers18, but it has since expanded its work to include not only CIR [comprehensive immigration reform] but also working against deportation and justice for all immigrants. Groups mobilized against the administration's Secure Communities (S-Comm). After California passed its Trust Act in October 2013, a number of other jurisdictions started passing community trust ("sanctuary city") policies. By July 2015, more than 320 jurisdictions had passed community trust policies across the country. The mounting opposition to the federal government's detainer policies ultimately led to the administration announcing the end of S-Comm in November 2014.
By 2013, states and cities started passing pro-immigrant policies that included community trust policies, driver's licenses for DACA recipients, driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants, municipal identification, tuition equity, financial aid, public assistance, limits on E-Verify, and professional licensing and credentialing. The following year, states enacted almost 300 pro-immigration-related laws and resolutions. In the first half of last year, 46 states and Puerto Rico enacted almost 400 laws and resolutions related to immigration. Currently, 40 percent of immigrants live in a state that gives authorization to undocumented immigrants to drive, up from four percent at the beginning of 2013, and more than 75 percent of immigrants live in a state with a tuition equity law or policy.Here is a link to the document "Open Society U.S. Programs Board Meeting, Montgomery, Alabama, May 4-6, 2016": -final may 4 6 2016 usp board book3
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Matthew Vadum, matthewvadum.blogspot.com, is an investigative reporter.
His new book Subversion Inc. can be bought at Amazon.com (US), Amazon.ca (Canada)
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