WASHINGTON — While sweeping reform to fix a U.S. immigration system widely acknowledged as broken has taken a backseat politically, opportunities exist within the executive branch to improve the ways in which the nation’s existing immigration laws and policies are administered.
A new report by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), Executive Action on Immigration: Six Ways to Make the System Work Better, offers six proposals that the Obama administration could implement to improve the functioning and advance the core goals of the nation’s immigration system. They include establishing uniform enforcement priorities and defining what constitutes effective border control, strengthening immigrant integration policy creation and implementation, allowing applicants for immigrant visas to file in the United States and making use of prosecutorial discretion in removal proceeding filings.
None of the actions require new legislation and they all could be implemented by the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Justice (DOJ) and the White House.
The report recommends:
“These actions would create more effective and efficient immigration enforcement policies and make it possible for persons eligible for family-based visas to secure them,” said report co-author Donald M. Kerwin, Vice President for Programs at MPI. “The establishment of clear criteria for assessing the effectiveness of border enforcement would strengthen public confidence in border control and opportunities for future legislative proposals.”
While enforcement and immigrant admission policies have garnered a significant amount of public and policymaker attention, the report notes that issues related to immigrant integration — the impacts and prospects for successful integration of immigrants and their children into local communities and economies — have received far less discussion. Yet issues of immigrant integration are precisely the medium through which most Americans experience the impact of immigration policies in their day-to-day lives.
“Federal integration programs are currently scattered throughout the government and beg for a more coordinated effort and greater visibility,” said Margie McHugh, Co-Director of MPI’s National Center on Immigrant Integration and a report co-author. “As state, local and community programs face increasing budget pressure and cuts, now is the time to create a coordinated, long-term effort to promote the successful integration of the historically high U.S. foreign-born population.”
The report, also co-authored by MPI Senior Fellow Doris Meissner, is based on a roundtable that MPI convened in early 2010 with government officials, policy experts, practitioners and immigrant-service providers on ways to improve the administration of current immigration laws.
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The Migration Policy Institute is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank in Washington, D.C. dedicated to analysis of the movement of people worldwide. MPI provides analysis, development and evaluation of migration and refugee policies at the local, national and international levels. For more on MPI, please visit www.migrationpolicy.org.