Staff Blog

Read our staff op-eds, articles, and opinions

Do Your Part, Support Mississippi Workers

In 2019, over 680 factory workers in Central Mississippi were targeted during ICE raids conducted by former President Trump. To this day, these workers remain in limbo—in fear of deportation with some still detained—and many have been deported. Today, President Biden has the power to undo this harm by providing work authorizations to those workers…

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Opinion: Time to Exert Executive Power Over Deportations

During his State of the Union address this year, President Obama said, “It is time to heed the call of business leaders, labor leaders, faith leaders, law enforcement–and fix our broken immigration system.” In the same speech, the president emphasized his executive power to take action when Congress will not. But Congress is threatening another impasse on immigration. And while Capitol Hill plays politics, Obama refuses to use his executive authority to halt the deportation of more than 1,100 immigrants per day.

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Is Jeh Johnson Anti-Immigrant?

Is the President’s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security anti-immigrant? The truth is that nobody knows.  Nobody has bothered to ask. Here’s what we do know: Jeh Johnson comes from the Pentagon; he has little experience with the issue of immigration; and he favors legislative (as opposed to administrative) changes to the immigration…

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The President of Arizonification

As President Obama reflects on his trip to Arizona on Jan. 25, he has some soul searching to do. In recent months, the President has displayed a schizophrenic approach to immigration as he attempts to straddle impossible opposites. He gives lip service to legalization but doubles down behind policies that criminalize. The Department of Homeland Security, headed by Arizona’s former Governor, has made conscripting states into immigration enforcement a centerpiece strategy while the Department of Justice sues states for usurping federal authority. Within the white house, it would seem that constitutional rights and discriminatory deportation programs are in a tug of war.

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