Immigration Debate

The current administration expanded the scope of detention and imprisonment of immigrants, but the resulting problems of no place to actually detain them didn’t become such a desperate conundrum until the last few years. Instead of being detained in federal prisons and designated detention centers, immigrants are now being shipped to whatever location is available. The potential for human rights abuses is monumental.

Initially the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee was supposed to keep their fingers on the pulse of where federal detainees were relocated after arrest. The war against terrorism put a major crimp in the process and rather than centralize detentions, things became highly disorganized and diffuse. Then another wrinkle came along, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.

Homeland Security is responsible for rounding up illegal immigrants. Their zeal for the task has dramatically increased the demand for beds, a demand the administration is working of meeting. Finding beds actually means jail space. And if you spend any time looking at the federal budget you’ll know there’s been major funding set aside to handle the increased demand. In other words all the law enforcement agencies have new money to burn so long as they lock up immigrants. Note: the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (2004) gave the nod to 40,000 jail spaces to hold immigrants for immigration violations.

Shockingly in 2008 there are now 32,000 beds on demand and accessible by Immigration and Customs Enforcement the arm of Homeland Security that detains and removes immigrants. There are plans for 1,000 more to become available in 2009. If you’re wondering how much this is costing the taxpayers, wonder no more. Records show Immigration and Customs Enforcement is shelling out about $1.7 billion for detention alone. Enforcement and removal comes in at $700 million.

Homeland Security isn’t the only enforcement agency with beds/jail spaces at its disposal. The US Marshals Service can lay its hands on beds/jail spaces when it needs to. The Service processes roughly 180,000 detainees a year and over 30 percent of them are in the slammer due to immigration charges.

Interesting conundrum when the nation depends on influxes of immigrants to boost its housing market and put it back on the map and yet those very same immigrants are being arrested and removed on immigration charges. It’s a Catch-22 situation and well worth discussing with a qualified immigration lawyer.

With such depressing statistics for the housing market, one wonders if it will ever turn around. More to the point, what factors could come into play that would set the market back on its feet. There are glimmers of hope on the horizon in the form of demographic changes. Things need to change so that homeowners are no longer left with a property worth less than their mortgage.

Demographics is the study of, or information about, people’s lifestyles, habits, population movements, spending, age, social grade, employment, etc and if you take a microscope to these details, there are some interesting things taking place at a grassroots level that will shake up the housing industry in ways not entirely evident on the surface of things.

The good news is the country is on the brink of seeing an increase in housing demand over the next ten years. You might be wondering right about now what this has to do with immigration - a lot. Influxes of immigrants wanting housing will kick start the economy in a big way. The philosophy is that the more potential households you have, the more they will need places to live.

Higher immigration numbers combined with other prevailing social trends such as divorces on the rise and late marriages means single-person homes are the fastest growing sector in the nation. Here is where the projected immigration figures of roughly 1.2 million people will make an enormous difference. New immigrants are potential house buyers. It’s as simple as that. Welcome additions to the neighborhood.

Of interest is that population projections for the next 10 years show a dramatic increase in households by an estimated average of 1.4 million a year. This is all well and good, but the current glut of unsold homes needs to be cleared first. These figures will shock you. In a two-year period between 2005 and 2007 the numbers for new and existing vacant homes for sale hit close to 2.12 million. That’s a staggering 46 percent.

Generally speaking if the housing market has a six-month supply of unsold new homes, it’s considered to be in good shape. When 2008 rang in there was an 11-month supply on hand. Add into those figures about an 8-month supply of existing homes and you have a housing market disaster.

Many factors have to be in place to turn this fiasco around. Topping the list of things that need to happen to improve the current housing market is welcoming more immigrants, lowering house prices, decreasing the interest rates and seeing an increase in employment. These factors should increase consumer confidence and make mortgages a whole lot easier to obtain for everyone. Immigrants buying houses on the market can only have a positive impact on the economy and the marketplace.

To reenter the U.S. an LPR normally needs to present his or her green card (Permanent Resident Card, Form I-551). A reentry permit is needed for reentry from absences outside the U.S. that are greater than one year but less than two years in duration.

Thus, if an LPR anticipates remaining outside the U.S. for longer than one year, he/she will need to apply for a reentry permit while he or she is in the U.S. See 8 C.F.R. § 223.2(b)(1)(Re-entry permit may be approved IF filed by a person who is in the U.S. at the time of application)(emphasis added). An application is not complete until an individual has provided his or her fingerprints and photograph (i.e., biometrics).

The newly revised I-131 instructions also provide procedures for requesting an expedited ASC appointment for biometrics collection and for requesting expedited delivery of a travel document, where needed. USCIS believes that the majority of LPRs who live abroad will be able to re-enter the U.S. using their Permanent Resident Cards. Those LPRs who currently live abroad, but who know that when they return to the U.S. they will need to apply for a Re-entry Permit because they plan to leave the U.S. again for more than a year and will need the permit to re-enter the next time they come to the U.S., USCIS encourages these LPRs to anticipate their need for the Re-entry Permit sufficiently in advance of their travel and, if necessary, to follow the procedures for obtaining an expedited ASC appointment where absolutely necessary.

If the LPR departs from the U.S while the I-131 is pending, but before biometrics are taken, then the adjudication of the I-131 re-entry permit application will not be affected as long as the applicant returns to the U.S. to attend the biometrics appointment before the first year of foreign travel has ended. In such case, the LPR could apply for reentry to the U.S. using only his or her I-551 Permanent Resident Card if he has been absent for less than one year. If it is necessary, the LPR may make arrangements to have his Re-entry Permit delivered to him through a U.S. consulate or a USCIS office abroad.

Do you think that illegal immigrants should be able to buy auto insurance?

New Mexico’s legislature passed a law in 2003 that allows illegal immigrants to get driver’s licenses so that the public would be safer. States regularly deny driver’s licenses to foreign citizens no matter what there immigrant status is. Some states like California began tightening their requirements for driver’s licenses, and many immigrants couldn’t renew their licenses, and their car insurance was cancelled automatically.

Some car insurance companies have seen this as a new golden market. Even though many states deny driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, the law doesn’t prevent insurers from selling insurance to unlicensed drivers and car owners. Big companies like Progressive are writing car insurance for illegal immigrant drivers.

My first reaction to this story was anger. How could those insurance companies reward illegal immigrants with car insurance? But then, I calmed down and began thinking like an insurance claims professional.

The legal arguments about immigration are not my immediate concern, and they shouldn’t be yours, either. The most important thing you should consider is what happens to you if you get into a traffic accident with an unlicensed driver who has no car insurance.

How many times have you heard a news story that told about an illegal immigrant driver that caused an accident, and then took off on foot, abandoning their car? Sometimes, they’ll beg the other driver to let them pay for damages in cash, just so they are not discovered driving without insurance or confronted by police.

I like the fact that the insurance companies are taking a pragmatic position. Illegal immigrants are going to drive cars in North America. Few things will stop them. They are going to drive to and from work whether or not they have a license. Nothing prevents them from owning a car in any state that I know of.

By serving this growing market, the auto insurers are offering protection as they rightfully should. They are staying out of the political fray, and correctly staking their position in the free market. Certainly, this market of illegal immigrants is high-risk insurance, and so the insurers are charging high-risk rates for auto policies. But that’s no different than charging higher rates for American citizens that have had a DUI. Risky behavior gets you higher rates.

But the insurance companies are finding that the illegal driver segment is very profitable. The insurance companies experience good “retention,” meaning that the policies renew regularly. Just as important is the fact that illegal immigrants seldom report small accidents to lower the chances that they’ll have a brush with the law. Companies like Progressive, Farmers Group, Bristol West, Infinity P&C and Alliance United are putting a lot of effort into expanding this part of their book of business.

So, in this case, I think the insurance companies are doing the right thing. The more illegal immigrants that have car insurance, the more we all will be financially protected.