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The leader of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia on Tuesday attacked Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump's call for ending automatic citizenship for children born to immigrants living illegally in the U.S., saying the idea "plays on our worst fears and resentments.""Some in public life — notably, but not only, Donald Trump — have called for an end to birthright citizenship," Archbishop Charles Chaput said in remarks prepared for a church forum that was part of the run-up of activities to a visit later this month by Pope Francis. "This is a profoundly bad idea."The archbishop said he hoped immigration...

September 2, 2015 Cheapening, Devaluing, and Diluting Citizenship By Brian T. Carter Yusef is a five-year-old United States citizen. His parents aren't U.S. citizens. He speaks no English. He doesn't dress or act like an American. He doesn’t remember America. Abdul is Yusef's brother and also a U.S. citizen. He understands very little English. He speaks, reads, and writes in Arabic. At age 14, he obsesses about football, but not American football. He has no memories of Georgia. Around 1999, their father attended Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta, Georgia on a student visa. Abdul was born while the family...

A new report by my colleague Steven Camarota finds that most immigrant households use welfare. That immigrants receive taxpayer-funded benefits at higher rates than the native-born isn’t a new finding. But previous research (including by CIS) has never found such a high rate. The reason is that Camarota used a different Census Bureau data source, the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), that is more difficult to use but, as its name suggests, provides the most comprehensive view of welfare use (a.k.a “program participation”). The study shows that 51 percent of immigrant-headed households use at least one welfare...

“I cover many issues in many countries” (Univision’s Jorge Ramos to CNN’s Brian Stelter 8/25/2015). “I’ve never ceased to be Mexican. I have two passports, and I vote in elections in both countries" (Univision’s Jorge Ramos, Time Magazine, 1/2/2013). “Then why your silence on the thousands upon thousands of Cubans that are arrested, beaten, extorted and deported by migratory officials of YOUR country, Mr. Ramos?” (Rafael Alejandro Hernández, 8/28/ 2015).  Rafael Alejandro Hernández is a young Cuban lawyer living in Mexico who knows from firsthand experience what migrants to Mexico go through. Last week he unloaded on Jorge Ramos: “Mr. Ramos,...

A long-standing refugee welcoming center in conservative Idaho has found itself at the center of a campaign by adversaries seeking to force it closed, citing fears that the immigrants it hosts could include Islamist extremists. The backlash comes amid an uptick in anti-Islamic protests and advertising campaigns in the United States, including a high profile May rally outside an Arizona mosque that saw more than 200 protesters, some armed, berate Islam and its Prophet Mohammad. The newly formed Idaho group, whose 100 members plan a door-to-door information drive in July to win support for closing the refugee center in Twin...

U.S. Ambassador Brett McGurk said that 17,000 Syrian refugees have applied to enter the U.S. and that the nation will likely take in “more” of them next year. “We took in about 1,500 last year. We think we’ll take in more next year,” McGurk, who serves as the deputy special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, said Sunday on Meet the Press with Chuck Todd. McGurk’s comments came in response to Todd’s question about whether the U.S. would increase the number of refugees it takes in from Syria. “The United States takes in more refugees than any...

51 percent of immigrant households—both legal and illegal—receive some kind of public assistance, versus just 30 percent of native households. Whether immigrants contribute more to total economic activity or public revenues greater than they receive in benefits is not addressed in this report, and remains a subject of fierce controversy. ... This study is the first in recent years to examine immigrant (legal and illegal) and native welfare use using the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). While its complexity makes it difficult to use, the survey is widely regarded as providing the most accurate picture of...

America got a first-hand look at how Mr. Trump’s deportation plan would be administered when Univision’s Jorge Ramos unwittingly volunteered to demonstrate the process at an Iowa press conference. After refusing to wait his turn in line to ask questions of the Republican presidential candidate, Mr. Trump “deported” Mr. Ramos from the press conference, then proceeded to bring him back in after he agreed to wait his turn – making Trump’s comprehensive immigration reform plan look quite feasible. For those unfamiliar with Jorge Ramos, he is the debonair host of the Hispanic news show Noticiero Univision. He’s an “anchor baby”...

Aug 26, 2015 BROWNSVILLE, Texas — A fourth soldier from Fort Hood has pleaded guilty to using her U.S. Army identification or military gear to help transport immigrants. Yashira Marie Perez-Morales, of Killeen, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Brownsville to immigrant smuggling charges. Prosecutors say Perez-Morales hid immigrants while driving through the Border Patrol checkpoint at Sarita. Christopher David Wix of Abilene was sentenced last month to a year and a day in federal prison. Two other Fort Hood soldiers, Eric Alexander Rodriguez, of Odem, and Brandon Troy Robbins, of San Antonio, await sentencing. ...... Prosecutors say Gracia last year provided...

Kate Steinle's Family Files Claim Against San Francisco, ICE, Bureau of Land Management for Pier 14 ShootingThe family of a young woman gunned down along Pier 14 in San Francisco filed claims against local and federal agencies on Tuesday, saying those agencies' failings led to her death. Kate Steinle, 32, was killed on July 1 while taking a stroll with her father along the San Francisco landmark when Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, an undocumented immigrant with a criminal history, allegedly shot her. Lopez-Sanchez, who said he doesn't remember the shooting, allegedly used a large caliber handgun that belonged to a federal...

The family of Kathryn Steinle — the woman whose shooting death sparked a national outcry over illegal immigrant crime — is filing a lawsuit against local and federal officials over her murder, according to reports. Steinle family is slated to file the suit Tuesday and it will name San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, according to ABC7 News. The sheriff’s department released alleged killer Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez from custody less than three months before Steinle was shot, ignoring an immigration detainer ICE had lodged against him. Sanchez is a...

With all the stories we wind up covering which involve illegal aliens being caught, released, and left to roam around, it’s nice to see a report of ICE going out there and getting something done. That was apparently the case in Southern California this week, where agents were rude enough to identify hundreds of illegal immigrants with felony records (including murder), round them up and schedule them to exit the country. More than 240 people were taken into federal custody last week across Southern California after a four-day sweep for immigrants with criminal records in the country illegally, authorities...

The headline from Investor’s Business Daily on their own poll uses the word “shock” – “Shock Poll: 59% Back Trump On Deportation of Illegals.” But as Jared Peterson wrote on these pages yesterday, for the last two years Rasmussen polling has demonstrated a huge gap between the overwhelming majority of Americans and the political establishment of the GOP on immigration policy. The IBD polling, which mentions mandatory deportation, reinforces this stunning disconnect between politicians and the people they supposedly serve, a chasm that Donald Trump has spotted and used to his huge advantage. IBD editorializes: The latest IBD/TIPP Poll asked...

Since a 32-year-old woman was killed along Pier 14 in San Francisco, allegedly by an illegal immigrant with a criminal record, four Bay Area counties -- Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Marin -- have agreed to notify ICE when inmates flagged by the agency for possible deportation are about to be released, the Mercury News reported. And on Monday, a Santa Clara County advisory committee met to discuss whether to be more helpful to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and cooperate in a limited fashion. The committee will prepare a report which supervisors will discuss at a Sept....

Immigration: When Donald Trump proposed mandatory deportation of illegal aliens, pundits and politicians on both sides of the political aisle were appalled. But on this issue it looks like Trump has the public on his side. The fire from the right was almost as fierce as that from the left. "It's not conservative and it's not realistic and it does not embrace American values," said Jeb Bush. Sen. Lindsey Graham called it "absolute gibberish." Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer called the idea "crackpot" and "morally obscene." But the prize for overheated rhetoric goes to Hillary Clinton, who said Trump wants to...

A large part of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s stance on immigration involves building a wall along the southern U.S. border — a wall the real estate tycoon insists will be paid for by Mexico. But not so fast says GOP rival Jeb Bush. The former governor of Florida said over the weekend Trump is promising to build “a wall that can’t be built,” the Washington Examiner reported. It’s a determination Bush said he made after talking to mayors and law enforcement on the Texas-Mexico border, who he said told him a wall can’t be built because of the rugged...

Trump also isn’t kicking Bush while he’s down or “punching down” with these viral video stings. Would anyone have believed, just a few months ago, that Donald Trump would be accused of beating up on the wimpiest kid in class by going after Jeb Bush, once portrayed as the nigh-inevitable Establishment prince in waiting, his fundraising totals so incandescent that other candidacies would melt away before them? But here we are, watching Conventional Wisdom grapple with the idea that Trump seems to be picking on small fry with a viral video that, far from “ribbing” Bush, contrasts his infamous “illegal...

Germany’s top official dealing with refugees said on Monday that there was “no upper limit” to Germany’s capacity for taking in people in need of asylum. The comments from Manfred Schmidt, head of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) are certain to provoke anger in some quarters of the political spectrum. Schmidt told Der Spiegel he was “convinced” that Germany and its citizens were prepared for the task that is entailed by taking so many people into the country. …

We are becoming accustomed to the liberal way of jurisprudence. Arrest, convict, release, and repeat. For some reason, we have lost the idea of justice and punishment. So, when we hear that a man, who has been convicted of repeated sexual assault, is caught reentering the country, it should hardly rate as news. But, it should cause us to ask how we stop this repeat offender. It seems that the criminal is no longer in fear of justice. Breitbart reports A previously convicted child molester who has been deported at least three times is once again in federal custody after...

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush says his fellow 310 million Americans just can’t build a wall along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico. “What Donald Trump is proposing is a wall that can’t be built,” Bush said in a Sunday radio interview with John Catsimatidis on New York’s AM 970. -snip- Bush’s “We Can’t Do It,” mantra contrasts with Trump’s “Make American Great Again” slogan. So far, the public seems to prefer Trump’s confident vision to Bush’s passive, pessimistic vision. A new poll of Iowa voters shows that 23 percent of voters support Trump, and six percent support Bush. However, immediately...