LEGALIZING UNAUTHORIZED IMMIGRANTS: EU vs. US

As we begin yet another year disillusioned at the charade of comprehensive immigration reform in the United States, perhaps we might, in the proud tradition of Thomas Jefferson, gaze across the Atlantic for relative consolation. There, we might hope to find in, say, the 22,000 migrant deaths at the European Union's southern border since the year 2000 (as compared with "only" 6,000 deaths at the US-Mexico border) a reminder--albeit morbid--of why, despite its shortcomings, America is still the world's beacon: "a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home."

But, then, what should we make of the fact that EU nations have actually legalized far larger proportions of their unauthorized immigrant populations than the United States in recent decades?

ARTICLE ON IMMIGRATION "AMNESTY"

GPI LAW attorney Amien Kacou has a new online article published in the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. The article, titled "The Equity of Immigration 'Amnesty'," is written in light of current U.S. immigration reform debates; it argues in favor of granting so-called "amnesty" to unauthorized immigrants as a matter of justice.