Immigration Policy

In the contentious debate over immigration policy, three groups have dominated public and political attention: the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants seeking to become legal, the skilled foreign workers bound for high-tech jobs and relatives waiting to be reunited with their families. Then there are those who won the green card lottery. This tiny visa program, aimed at diversifying the pool of immigrants to the United States, selects 55,000 applicants at random each year.

WASHINGTON — Without increased immigration, whites would lose their U.S. majority in 2046, three years beyond official projections, and the nation's population would not reach 400 million until after 2060, a decade or more later than forecast, according to census estimates Wednesday. In all, immigration will surpass natural increase — births minus deaths — as the main driver of population growth by midcentury, the Census Bureau said. The new numbers show how projections could...

The Obama administration will kick off one of the most sweeping changes in immigration policy in decades Wednesday, allowing an estimated 1.7 million young undocumented immigrants to apply for the temporary right to live and work openly in the United States without fear of deportation. Immigrants have waited for final details of the plan in the two months since President Obama pledged to brush aside years of congressional stalemate over the Dream Act and grant de facto residency to qualified...

In the contentious debate over immigration policy, three groups have dominated public and political attention: the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants seeking to become legal, the skilled foreign workers bound for high-tech jobs and relatives waiting to be reunited with their families. Then there are those who won the green card lottery. This tiny visa program, aimed at diversifying the pool of immigrants to the United States, selects 55,000 applicants at random each year.

Mark Zuckerberg is founder and chief executive of Facebook and co-founder of Fwd.us . Earlier this year I started teaching a class on entrepreneurship at an after-school program in my community. The middle-school students put together business plans, made their products and even got an opportunity to sell them. One day I asked my students what they thought about going to college. One of my top aspiring entrepreneurs told me he wasn't sure that he'd be able to go to college because he's...

WASHINGTON — Without increased immigration, whites would lose their U.S. majority in 2046, three years beyond official projections, and the nation's population would not reach 400 million until after 2060, a decade or more later than forecast, according to census estimates Wednesday. In all, immigration will surpass natural increase — births minus deaths — as the main driver of population growth by midcentury, the Census Bureau said. The new numbers show how...

President Obama's immigration initiatives thus far have tried to show both toughness and compassion. The administration has cracked down on illegal hiring by federal contractors, while de-emphasizing raids that sweep up illegal workers. It also launched a review of immigration detention practices. The enforcement measures have not required congressional action. But the next big test is legislation. Obama promised immigration reform, but he now says action is unlikely until 2010. If a bill goes forward, most likely in the Senate...

It is unfortunate, though not surprising, that a group advocating high levels of immigration and claiming to speak for conservative principles has resorted to character attacks in an attempt to discredit the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and other influential organizations. In the Feb. 15 front-page article " Immigrant policy stirs new battle in the GOP ," Alfonso Aguilar of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles criticizes us but does not offer any actual critique of our research.

A Prince William County supervisor said yesterday that he will seek to repeal a key part of the county's illegal immigration policy that directs police officers to check the citizenship or immigration status of criminal suspects they believe might be in the country unlawfully. Frank J. Principi (D-Woodbridge), the only supervisor who was not on the board when it approved the crackdown in October, said he will offer a resolution Tuesday to rescind police enforcement. It is the first time that a county board member has challenged...

PARIS, June 18 -- The European Parliament approved new rules Wednesday designed to standardize the dramatic differences in member countries' treatment of illegal immigrants, whose presence is one of the most heated political issues in Europe today. The measure, which would allow countries to jail illegal immigrants for as long as 18 months pending deportation, was decried by human rights organizations as promoting excessive detention. Supporters defended it as providing greater protections for the foreigners in...

For Southern Baptist Pastor David Uth, immigration reform became a priority after a family in his Orlando, Fla., megachurch faced deportation. Bishop Ricardo McClin says it was time to speak up when members of a Church of God congregation he oversaw stopped worshipping in Jacksonville, Fla., because they feared detention. As Congress appears close to hammering out new immigration policy, religious leaders — and especially evangelicals — say personal encounters with the current system have prompted them to advocate...

Mark Zuckerberg is founder and chief executive of Facebook and co-founder of Fwd.us . Earlier this year I started teaching a class on entrepreneurship at an after-school program in my community. The middle-school students put together business plans, made their products and even got an opportunity to sell them. One day I asked my students what they thought about going to college. One of my top aspiring entrepreneurs told me he wasn't sure that he'd be...

Political philosopher John Rawls famously argued that democratic deliberation should aspire not just to political deals based on expediency and short-term self-interest (what he called a modus vivendi), but rather to policy agreements based on affirmations of shared values and goals. In our polarized and often paralyzed political environment, this higher aspiration has seemed fully out of reach, especially on important major policy issues. Against all odds, immigration reform is poised to...

VIRGINIA ATTORNEY General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) casts himself as a no-apologies conservative. But when it comes to his campaign for governor, Mr. Cuccinelli isn't beyond a little airbrushing. As recently as November, Mr. Cuccinelli's campaign Web site boasted of his uncompromising positions on illegal immigration, including opposing tuition subsidies for undocumented students (even if they grew up in Virginia), firing state contractors who employ illegal immigrants and stepping up deportations and employment...

If this week's Conservative Political Action Conference were a papal conclave, black smoke would be billowing from the chimney at the Gaylord Convention Center. The cardinals of the conservative movement, assembling for their annual confab, skipped the usual recitations of their common creed in favor of an emotional and inconclusive argument over what had gone wrong with their movement, how it could be fixed, and who, in a puff of white smoke, could lead them to spiritual renewal.

It is unfortunate, though not surprising, that a group advocating high levels of immigration and claiming to speak for conservative principles has resorted to character attacks in an attempt to discredit the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and other influential organizations. In the Feb. 15 front-page article " Immigrant policy stirs new battle in the GOP ," Alfonso Aguilar of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles criticizes us but does not offer any actual critique of our research.

Dave Kumar, a District lawyer whose parents immigrated from India before he was born, and Mauricio Martinez, a Salvadoran refugee who cooks for a catering service in Virginia, have one important thing in common. Both are part of the historic surge in electoral participation and activism by immigrant groups, who turned out for President Obama in record numbers last year and put the country on notice that their votes and voices count. This weekend, Kumar and Martinez are among...

Rilla Askew's new novel, " Kind of Kin ," sneaks over the border of literary fiction to make a case for more compassion in the immigration debate. It's a timely argument, of course. Even while Mitt Romney was blaming his loss on President Obama's "gifts," Republicans agreed that their party must develop a better attitude toward Hispanic voters — current and future. As if to show the way, "Kind of Kin" spotlights a single American...