Immigrants

In her April 18 Times Op-Ed article, " How Romney could win over Latinos ," Tamar Jacoby urges Mitt Romney to support Sen. Marco Rubio's (R-Fla.) immigration bill, which she dubs "Dream 2.0," saying it would be "good for Romney, good for Republicans, good for many hopeful young immigrants and good for America. " Yet she presents a misleading picture of this proposal, which would present a dead end for undocumented youth and betray the American values of assimilation and equality.    The original federal Dream Act was designed to allow undocumented youth who were brought here as children a path to citizenship, provided they either served in the military or attended college.

More than three decades of rapid growth in the country's foreign-born population came to a halt last year, census data show, as surging unemployment made the U.S. economy less attractive to outsiders. In California, which has a long history of attracting immigrants, the number of foreign-born residents actually declined, shrinking 1.6%. "This is clearly a consequence of the economy, with the biggest impact on Mexican and low-skilled immigrants," said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution who analyzed the census figures, which are to be officially released today.

U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. last week ordered the Obama administration to provide bail hearings for certain immigrants who have been detained in Southern California for more than six months to determine whether their continued detention is warranted. Hatter's decision is a welcome development that could help restore some much-needed fairness to the troubled detention system. We hope the administration accepts the court's ruling. Clearly the federal government has the authority to detain and deport immigrants who violate the law, but it also has a responsibility to ensure that those immigrants are not subject to excessive, prolonged incarceration; they deserve the opportunity to be considered for bail.

In recent weeks, Republican lawmakers have slammed the Department of Homeland Security for releasing 2,228 immigrants from detention centers around the country, questioning, among other things, whether murderers, rapists and drug traffickers were among those set free. But while it is unclear whether Homeland Security's decision to release the detainees was prompted by the austerity requirements of sequestration or by political theatrics, what is certain is that those who were released didn't pose an egregious threat to public safety.

After completing a freshman seminar about immigration in New York, Anita Sonawane, a brainy undergraduate who happens to be a New York immigrant, had a transformative aha moment. It was something the professor said. "Oh, come on, Anita, you know you're not going to be a doctor," Jeff Maskovsky, an urban studies professor at Queens College, told her, hoping to challenge the idea that the only way to succeed in America was to practice medicine.

When the Obama administration announced in August a plan to grant two-year deportation deferrals to young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, it sparked anger among some critics who said it was little more than a free pass. Hopefully, those critics can rest a bit easier now. As it turns out, the most recent data provided by the Department of Homeland Security indicate far fewer undocumented immigrants have applied for the program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, than expected.

There are about 11.1 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States, a figure that has remained relatively constant over the last two years, according to the latest estimates released Thursday by the Pew Hispanic Center. The numbers come as President Obama prepares to push immigration reform as a key part of his second-term agenda. They also come as  analyses highlight the greater role Latinos played in the recent presidential election. The 11.1-million figure compares with 11.2 million in 2010 and 11.1 million in 2009.

The Department of Homeland Security began releasing immigrants from detention centers across the country this week, in anticipation of looming budget cuts. Contrary to what some Republicans in Congress have said, those released are not criminals but rather low-risk detainees, such as asylum-seekers, foreign nationals who overstayed visas and undocumented immigrants arrested for minor offenses who were granted bail but were unable to post the money. In other words, immigrants who pose no risk to public safety but are still facing deportation trials.