“What this does is it creates a magnet and incentive for people who are in this country without lawful presence to flock to Baltimore. And there are consequences to that,” said McDonough.
Economic issues cited
McDonough says consequences include added costs to provide bilingual services, added pressures on emergency rooms to deal with uninsured illegal immigrants, higher unemployment among legal residents, and threats to public safety.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said it was not conducting interviews on the immigration case review.
In an email statement, it said the U.S. government is trying to focus immigration enforcement resources on those convicted of crimes, recent border crossers and what it called egregious immigration law violators.
Pro-immigrant activists have complained too many non-violent illegal immigrants are being deported, in a rush by the agency to boost statistics and receive more funding.
Review and considerations
Mary Giovagnoli, the Washington-based Immigration Policy Center director, calls the current two-city review a small step in the right direction.
“Truly moving on is really messy, and like any major social issue you do not resolve it right away. In that sense, it is not unlike the civil rights movement or the voting rights movement or any other number of issues that took years and years to really resolve and get right because you are both changing the laws, and you are changing hearts and minds,” said Giovagnoli.
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2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27