Inside the House GOP's immigration push. "House Republican leaders are within weeks of releasing their principles for immigration reform -- a blueprint that will detail positions on everything from border security to legal status. The document, which has been kept under wraps until now, will call for beefed-up border security and interior enforcement, a worker verification system for employers and earned legal status for the nation's undocumented immigrants, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions. It will also call for reforms to visa programs and a system to track those in the country legally. The draft principles will also include a promise that immigration reform will be done on a step-by-step basis and will foreclose the possibility of entering into conference negotiations using the Senate's comprehensive package -- pledges that could soothe some Republicans." Jake Sherman and Seung Min Kim in Politico.
Republican ideas could legalize 4.4 million to 6.5 million, a study says. "Between 4.4 million and 6.5 million immigrants illegally in the United States could gain an eventual pathway to citizenship under proposals being discussed by Republicans in the House of Representatives, according to an estimate published Tuesday by the National Foundation for American Policy, a nonpartisan research group in Washington. The estimate is based on policy ideas that have been put forward by Representative Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia, a Republican who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee...The foundation's report, prepared by Stuart Anderson, its executive director, finds that even without major changes to current immigration law, 3.1 million to 4.4 million immigrants now illegally in the United States would be eligible for green cards because they are parents of American citizens. As many as 600,000 could gain green cards as spouses of citizens and legal residents, and up to 45,000 could receive green cards within two decades as low-skilled workers." Julia Preston in The New York Times.
Prosecutorial discretion on the rise in immigration courts. "Immigrants facing deportation are increasingly likely to have their cases dismissed because of mitigating factors such as having U.S. citizen children, according to an analysis by researchers at Syracuse University. In some courts, at least 20% of case closures involved prosecutorial discretion. Of the roughly 35,000 cases closed in Los Angeles over the last two years, nearly 24% were prosecutorial discretion cases. In Houston, however, only 1.7 % of immigration case closures were due to prosecutorial discretion. In New York City, the rate was 3.7%." Cindy Chang inThe Los Angeles Times.