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Immigration Enforcement in the United States the Rise of a Formidable Machinery

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Immigration Enforcement in the United States the Rise of a Formidable Machinery IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES THE RISE OF A FORMIDABLE MACHINERY DORIS MEISSNER, DONALD M. KERWIN, MUZAFFAR CHISHTI, AND CLAIRE BERGERON REPORT IN BRIEF THE PILLARS OF ENFORCEMENT Border enforcement Workplace enforcement Visa controls & travel The intersection of the criminal justice screening system & immigration enforcement Information & interoperability of Detention & removal of data systems noncitizens US IMMIGRATION POLICY PROGRAM IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES The Rise of a Formidable Machinery REPORT IN BRIEF Doris Meissner, Donald M. Kerwin, Muzaffar Chishti, and Claire Bergeron January 2013 Acknowledgments The immigration enforcement policy landscape has been a central theme in the work of the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) since its founding in 2001. We are indebted to many individuals at MPI — past and present — who have collaborated in that work by contributing ideas, research, debate, and expertise that often draw on deep professional experience in various capacities in immigration enforcement and related fields. For this report, we want to acknowledge and thank a newer colleague, Faye Hipsman, our research assistant and a “graduate” of MPI’s intern program, for providing essential, extensive support. Faye has worked tirelessly and creatively in making numerous contributions to the text and look and feel of the report. Finally, we are especially grateful for the generosity of our funders who have supported MPI and, in particular, MPI’s Immigration Policy Program, with general operating support. The continuing encouragement and interest we receive from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Open Society Foundations have been essential to this project and so many others at MPI. © 2013 Migration Policy Institute. All Rights Reserved. Cover image: Modified version of "Gears Blueprint Vector Illustration" (#40476499) by adistock via www.shutterstock.com. Cover Design and Typsetting: April Siruno, MPI No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Migration Policy Institute. A full-text PDF of this document is available for download from: www.migrationpolicy.org. Information for reproducing excerpts from this report can be found at www.migrationpolicy.org/about/copy.php. Inquiries can also be directed to: Permissions Department, Migration Policy Institute, 1400 16th Street, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20036, or by contacting [email protected]. Suggested citation: Meissner, Doris, Donald M. Kerwin, Muzaffar Chishti, and Claire Bergeron. 2013. Immigration Enforcement in the United States: The Rise of a Formidable Machinery, Report in Brief. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute. Table of Contents Introduction ...................................................................................................................1 I. Overview: A Story of Dramatic Growth in Enforcement Resources..............................................................................3 I. Border Enforcement ........................................................................................... 4 2. Visa Controls and Travel Screening .................................................................. 6 3. Information and Interoperability of Data Systems ....................................... 7 4. Workplace Enforcement .................................................................................... 8 5. The Intersection of the Criminal Justice System and Immigration Enforcement .................................................................................. 9 6. Detention and Removal of Noncitizens ....................................................... 10 II. Findings ................................................................................................................. 12 III. Conclusions ........................................................................................................ 15 Appendices .................................................................................................................. 18 About the Authors ................................................................................................ 26 MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE Introduction From the early 1970s until the Great Recession that began in 2008, the United States problem in 1986, when it passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), which experiencedmarked the beginning high levels of of the illegal current immigration. immigration Congress enforcement first attempted era. IRCA to incorporated address the the key recommendations of a congressionally mandated commission, although it took more than six years of debate and repeated legislative attempts to enact. Characterized by its sponsors as a “three-legged stool,” IRCA made the hiring of unau- - ened border enforcement and provided for legalization for a large share of the unauthor- thorizedized immigrant workers population, illegal for whichthe first then time numbered in US history. about In 3 addition, million to it 5called million. for Thestrength legal status provision, combined with new enforcement measures, was intended to “wipe the slate clean” of the problem of illegal immigration. Implementation of IRCA’s key provisions proved to be disappointing. Employer sanctions — the law’s centerpiece — have been ineffective in the absence of a reliable method for border enforcement. IRCA’s legalization programs were seen as largely successful, however, verificationhaving granted of work legal eligibility.status to about And it3 tookmillion until individuals, the mid-1990s the number to mobilize estimated stepped-up to have been eligible. Illegal immigration and enforcement have been the dominant focus and concern driving immigration policymaking for more than 25 years. The defects in IRCA, combined with unprecedented growth and job creation by the US economy in the 1990s and early 2000s, as well as deeply ingrained migration push fac- tors in Mexico and, more recently, Central America, enabled illegal immigration to con- tinue to grow. By the mid-2000s, the unauthorized population was estimated to number 11 million to 12 million and affected nearly every part of the country to varying degrees. As a result, illegal immigration and enforcement have been the dominant focus and concern driving immigration policymaking for more than 25 years. During this time, there has been strong and sustained bipartisan support over successive administrations and Congresses for strengthened immigration enforcement, even as there has been deep ideological and partisan division over broader immigration reform. A decade-long debate over comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) legislation has repeatedly foundered, in part over the question of whether the federal government has the will and ability to ef- fectively enforce the nation’s immigration laws. CIR would increase enforcement but would also provide new avenues for future worker CIR point to the presence of an estimated 11 million unauthorized residents1 as proof flows and allow for legalization of the existing unauthorized population. Opponents of 1 Michael Hoefer, Nancy Rytina, and Bryan Baker, Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States (Washington, DC: Department of Homeland Security, 2012), www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/ois_ill_pe_2011.pdf. REPORT IN BRIEF 1 MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE of the government’s failure to enforce the law and as the reason not to enact broader reform measures, especially a legalization program such as that included in IRCA.2 This opposition has been instrumental in preventing passage of CIR and more modest measures, such as the DREAM Act, which would provide a pathway to legal status for certain unauthorized immigrants who were brought to the United States as children and who meet certain educational or military service criteria. Some opponents of CIR that it can and will enforce its laws before broader immigration policy measures can be argueconsidered. for an Proponents “enforcement-first” of CIR contend policy, thati.e. that effective the United enforcement States must is only first possible establish with laws that are enforceable. Thus, the statutory framework that guides the immigration system must, according to this point of view, be reworked to achieve effective enforce- ment. This political stalemate has persisted for at least a decade. Meanwhile, the facts on the ground have steadily and dramatically changed. Now, more than ten years after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and 26 years after IRCA — which ushered in the de facto become the nation’s singular policy response to illegal immigration. current era of immigration control policies — enforcement first has Immigration enforcement has evolved into a complex, interconnected system administered by multiple Cabinet departments. operationally robust, multidimensional enforcement system. Immigration enforcement Enforcement-firsthas evolved into a demandscomplex, interconnectedhave been an important system administered driver in building by multiple a well-resourced, Cabinet departments, most importantly the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the De- lead immigration enforcement and policy agency has become DHS, which houses three partmentseparate immigration of Justice (DOJ), agencies and the whose Department
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