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Immigration Policy blog
A Short History of American Asylum Law, From 1948 to the Refugee Act American asylum law grew from emergency measures into a permanent system, and each dated step shows Congress answering a specific crisis. The Open-Borders Libertarians Make a Real Argument. Here Is Where It Breaks Free movement of labor has a serious case behind it, and conservatives owe it a serious answer built on welfare, law, trust and consent. What the National Academies Found on Immigration's Fiscal Costs The 2016 National Academies report says the bill depends on who comes, at what age and with what schooling. Here is why selection beats volume. Barbara Jordan's Commission Wanted Less Immigration and a Workplace Check A Texas Democrat and civil-rights icon chaired a 1990s commission urging lower numbers, tighter family categories and worksite checks. Why was it shelved? Humanitarian Parole Was Meant for Emergencies, Not Whole Nationalities The parole statute allows entry only case by case for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. Group admissions belong to Congress. The Refugee Act of 1980 Explained, and the Promise It Actually Made The 1980 law wrote the international refugee definition into American statute and set ceilings with Congress. It was built for persecution, not for poverty. A Nation of Immigrants Is Half the Sentence, and the Other Half Matters America is a nation of immigrants, and also of citizens and laws. The slogan is true but incomplete, and it is used to end arguments rather than begin them. Before Ellis Island, the States Ran Immigration and the Court Stopped Them For most of the 1800s port states screened and taxed arriving passengers until the Supreme Court held in 1876 that immigration belonged to Congress. Trump v. Hawaii and the Broad Power Congress Gave Presidents in Section 212(f) The 2018 travel-ban decision rests on a sweeping statute Congress wrote, and the power it confirms belongs to whoever holds the office, not to one president. Plyler v. Doe and the Bill States Pay for a Decision Congress Never Made A 5-4 Court in 1982 set schooling policy for children unlawfully present, and conservatives can accept the schooling while objecting to who made the rule. The Chinese Exclusion Case and How the Court Found a Sovereign Power to Exclude Chae Chan Ping v. United States rests a nation's power to exclude on sovereignty itself, a principle worth keeping even as we condemn the law that produced it.