Immigration Laws

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration eased the way Wednesday for illegal immigrants who are immediate relatives of American citizens to apply for permanent residency, a change that could affect as many as 1 million of the estimated 11 million immigrants unlawfully in the U.S. A new rule issued by the Department of Homeland Security aims to reduce the time illegal immigrants are separated from their American families while seeking legal status,...

This week Alabama became the first of several states that have passed draconian anti-immigrant laws to successfully defend key provisions of its law in court. U.S. District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn found that parts of Alabama's controversial law didn't conflict with the federal government's authority to regulate immigration. That means that, effective immediately, state and local police must arrest and detain anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally. Schools are required to determine the immigration status of students and provide it to district officials.

For Gerard Curran, it was "my own dirty little secret." For a dozen years, the British citizen has been an illegal immigrant, even as he went about his life and found few impediments to a normal existence. Although many view the undocumented exclusively as border-jumpers, the reality is more complex: Almost half the nation's more than 5 million illegal immigrants arrived lawfully and then violated the terms of their entry visas, typically by overstaying.

Orange County Sheriff's Department officials said Thursday they planned to train as many as 500 deputies to enforce federal immigration laws, becoming the latest Southern California police agency to become more actively involved in immigration issues. The move comes as police departments in Los Angeles and elsewhere have begun tinkering with the strict barrier between officers and immigration officials.

Support is mounting for efforts in Congress to stop granting birthright — that is, automatic — citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants. Such a measure would bring America's citizenship policies into line with those of most of the rest of the world, where even the children of legal noncitizens do not automatically become citizens of the country where they are born. It's not hard to see why many Americans would like to change the law. The Pew Hispanic Center issued a report in August indicating that one out of every 13 babies born in the United States in 2008 — about 340,000 out of a total of 4.3 million — had at least one parent who was an illegal immigrant.

A consensus has been building about the need to reform and modernize our immigration system. While I am optimistic that Republicans, including "tea party" members, will support reform, it must be done right. We must create a system for the 21st century and beyond, one that honors the rule of law, provides a fair path for those seeking to come to the United States and fixes our broken borders. We must not fall prey to the mistakes made by earlier immigration reform efforts. An estimated 11 million or more undocumented people live in our country.

This summer, as Elena Kagan quietly moved toward confirmation to the Supreme Court, three major legal disputes took shape that could define her early years. The justices soon will be called upon to decide whether states like Arizona can enforce immigration laws, whether same-sex couples have a right to marry and whether Americans can be required to buy health insurance. Kagan's record strongly suggests she will vote in favor of federal regulation of immigration and health insurance and vote to oppose discrimination against gays and lesbians.

Luis Reyes-Reyes says he fled El Salvador to escape persecution, and if immigration officials determine those fears are legitimate, he could be granted asylum in the United States under the Convention Against Torture. But Reyes-Reyes, 42, is not looking for traditional political asylum. As he and his lawyers put it, he fears returning to his homeland because, for much of his life, he has lived as a woman.

Officials in Arizona have spent an awful lot of time and effort in recent years trying to make immigrants uncomfortable. Most widely debated have been the state's efforts to empower police to enforce federal immigration laws, but the schools have become a battleground as well. Atty. Gen. Tom Horne authored a law - directed at schools in Tucson - that outlawed certain ethnic studies programs, along with banning classes that promote racial resentment, encourage ethnic identity or, for good measure, advocate the overthrow of the U.S. government.

WASHINGTON - The divide within the Republican Party over immigration reform was on full view Monday, as top party leaders made a case for overhauling the laws even as conservative senators argued that the Boston bombings showed the need to go slow. Momentum appeared to be on the side of the reformers. They have amassed an unusually robust alliance of business, labor and faith leaders that on Monday included the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who said "now is the time" to fix the immigration system.