immigration reform

New Migration Policy Institute Brief Offers Demographic, Socioeconomic Data on Unauthorized Immigrants in the U.S.

/ The Old Crank

MPI BriefThe Migration Policy Institute (MPI) has just published a new brief, A Demographic, Socioeconomic, and Health Coverage Profile of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States, which provides all kinds of useful and interesting  data about unauthorized immigrants currently living in the U.S.

The final section of the brief lays out some of the policy implications of the data they have compiled, both in terms of immigration reform and implementation of the Affordable Care Act. For example, under the immigration reform bill that is currently under consideration in the Senate, unauthorized immigrants who are granted registered provisional status (which would permit them to reside and work here legally) would be ineligible for Medicaid or most other federal benefits. MPI’s data suggests that 71% of unauthorized immigrants (47% of children) are uninsured, and the vast majority of them have incomes that fall below the federal poverty level. So it appear that many RPI status holders would struggle to obtain medical insurance under the Senate bill.

The Real Conspiracy

/ The Old Crank

Maybe all of the President’s recent troubles are really part of a clever plot to get immigration reform through Congress. From Roll Call yesterday:

[I]t’s possible that such opportunities to knock Obama will actually serve immigration well. Flipping the current conventional wisdom, the IRS, DOJ and Benghazi scandals give even the most moderate Republicans the opportunity to attack the president, thereby insulating themselves from conservative attacks.

See: Obama’s Troubles Won’t Harm Immigration Bill

Immigration Reform Update

/ The Old Crank / 1 Comment

For those interested in the immigration reform legislation currently under consideration in the Senate, I co-authored a more detailed followup to my earlier quick take on the  bill for the National Coalition for Literacy. Here is the link to that post.

Migration Policy Institute Releases Analysis of Senate Immigration Reform Bill

/ The Old Crank

The Migration Policy Institute has just released a detailed review of S. 744, the immigration reform bill introduced in the Senate last week. It outlines the major provisions of the bill and compares it with the major provisions in immigration bills considered by the Senate in 2006 and 2007 (but not the 2010 Menendez-Leahy bill, S. 3932, that I wrote about here).