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JV

Jessica Vaughan

Director of Policy Studies at Center for Immigration Studies.

Series

Parsing Immigration Policy14 episodes

Recent Episodes

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

A Deep Dive into Chicago’s Immigration Enforcement Crisis

This week on Parsing Immigration Policy, Jessica Vaughan, the Center’s Director of Policy, unpacks the ongoing tension in Chicago, as federal and local law enforcement agencies continue to clash over illegal immigration and crime. The Trump administration launched Operation “Midway Blitz” in September, sending ICE, Border Patrol, and other federal agents into the Chicago area in an effort to enforce immigration laws where state and local jurisdictions refuse to cooperate. Just back from Illinois, where she met with officers from across the state, Vaughan explains that they recognize the safety implications of unlimited illegal immigration and want to help federal authorities, but sanctuary policies from the city, county, and state tie their hands. Vaughan highlights growing crime concerns in Chicago — a clear example, she says, of the public safety crisis created by the Biden administration’s open-border policies.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

March 2023

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

Alternatives to Detention or Alternatives to Enforcement?

Summary Federal law requires that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detain illegal border-crossers pending the completion of their cases. Despite this detention mandate, the Biden administration has been releasing hundreds of thousands of aliens on “Alternatives to Detention” (ATD), where they are monitored via ankle bracelets, GPS tracking, or the SmartLINK app. ATD effectiveness is poor, in part because the monitoring stops years before proceedings are complete, allowing illegal border-crossers to live and often work illegally in the United States for years and to be no-shows at their asylum hearings. In 2004, ICE permitted a limited and narrowly defined group of aliens who were subject to detention to be released and monitored under ATD – those with a high chance of succeeding in their asylum cases and considered to be at low risk of flight or of threatening public safety. Under the Biden administration, the number being released on ATD has grown from hundreds to hundreds of thousands, and the low-risk standard has been abandoned.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

February 2023

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

U Visas for Illegal-Alien Crime Victims: Yet Another Amnesty Ploy

Summary This week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy highlights a visa program rife with fraud – the U visa program. Designed to assist law enforcement agencies in prosecuting criminals, the U visa is granted to victims of crime who lack immigration status and allows them to stay in the country (and work legally), and eventually get a green card and citizenship, ostensibly to aid in the prosecution of the crimes. Is the U visa still serving its purpose? Jessica Vaughan, the Center’s Director of Policy Studies, and Jon Feere, the Center’s Director of Investigations and a former ICE Chief of Staff, share their knowledge of the program and its misuse. Applicant numbers started growing in 2011 as more illegal aliens (and their attorneys) came to see the visa's usefulness as a pathway to remain legally in the United States. Plus, just filing an application protects illegal aliens from deportation and leads to a work permit, whether or not it is later approved.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

January 2023

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

National Human Trafficking Prevention Month

Summary To bring greater attention to the issue of human trafficking, Jessica Vaughan, the Center’s Director of Policy Studies, joins our podcast this week to highlight border-related human trafficking. Current immigration policies are responsible for an out-of-control southern border and for lax guest worker programs, both of which are major contributors to the human trafficking industry in the United States. How do we end this criminal exploitation of the vulnerable? Vaughan clarifies the important distinction between human trafficking and human smuggling, and describes how smuggling operations can develop into trafficking, which is on the rise. Forced labor trafficking is the most common form of trafficking at our Southern border, and Biden’s border policies create incentives for both smuggling and trafficking. Vaughan says, “Failure to enforce our immigration laws creates ideal conditions for trafficking. And without any changes to immigration policy, the issue is unlikely to improve.”
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

December 2022

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

2022 Recap: The Impact of Biden’s Policies Two Years In

Summary In this year-end episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, Center for Immigration Studies experts discuss key Biden administration immigration policies and their impacts. The roundtable discussion includes Jessica Vaughan, Andrew Arthur, and Jon Feere, moderated by the Center’s executive director (and podcast host) Mark Krikorian. The group looks at 2022 developments in border security, interior enforcement, and legal immigration, including DACA, detention, the decline in deportations, human trafficking, and the unlawful abuse of parole. The participants also draw attention to the topics the public should be following in 2023. Host Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies. Guests Andrew Arthur is Resident Fellow in Law and Policy at the Center for Immigration Studies. Jon Feere is Director of Investigations at the Center for Immigration Studies. Jessica Vaughan is Director of Policy Studies at the Center for Immigration Studies.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies
Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

Immigration in the Lame Duck: Per-Country Cap, Dreamers and Farmworkers

Summary Before the 118th Congress is sworn in on January 3, the current Congress will likely consider several immigration measures in the “lame duck” session with the backdrop of a historic meltdown at the border. In this week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, experts at the Center join Mark Krikorian, the Center’s executive director and host of the podcast, discuss the issues to watch for in the closing weeks of the 117th Congress. George Fishman, a senior legal fellow, and Jessica Vaughan, the Center’s director of policy, focus on three specific measures. First, the "Equal Access to Green cards for Legal Employment" (Eagle) Act, supported by Big Tech, which would dispense with per-country caps for employment-based green cards and offer permanent work permits to many ostensibly temporary workers on green-card waiting lists. Second, there is a bipartisan effort to provide green cards to so-called Dreamers, adult illegal immigrants who came as minors, many of whom have work permits through the legally dubious DACA program.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

June 2022

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

Not Just Border-Jumpers

View Podcast Archive Summary Some two million people have illegally crossed over the Southwest border and settled in the United States since President Biden's inauguration. Americans see the images and are justifiably concerned. But unseen by Americans are the estimated 40 percent of the illegal immigrant population that arrived legally, then overstayed their visas. The extent of the overstay problem became apparent after the 1993 World Trade Center terror attack (three of the seven 1993 terrorists were or had been visa overstayers) when Congress mandated an annual report on overstays. Today’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy highlights the key findings of the most recent overstay report, which contains FY 2020 data. It was not released to the public until 2022, after several members of Congress questioned DHS Secretary Mayorkas about the delay in releasing it. In 2020, approximately 684,000 people did not leave the country when their authorized stay was over.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

March 2022

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

Biden Administration Hides Immigration Enforcement Report

View Podcast Archive Summary This week’s episode of the Center for Immigration Studies’ weekly podcast covers the Biden administration’s decision to not publish the 2021 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “Enforcement and Removal Operations Report”. This detailed annual report, which allows policymakers, law enforcement officers and the public to compare enforcement metrics over time, has been published by December 31 for at least the last decade. Jon Feere, the Center’s director of investigations and a former ICE chief of staff, discusses how last week, under pressure from congressional offices, ICE finally published a narrative report, with a spin, lacking data needed to assess accurately the impact of recent policy changes. “The Biden administration is hiding the impact of their immigration enforcement policies at a time when thousands of illegal border crossers are being apprehended daily at the southern border and then released into the country, “ said Feere. “The numbers have been cooked.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies
Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

Who Makes U.S. Immigration Policy?

Summary Congressionally established immigration policy has certain narrow carve outs providing discretion to presidents. One of these carve-outs, "immigration parole", has been abused by presidents of both parties to admit hundreds of thousands of ineligible people from abroad, ignoring the intent of Congress and undermining the Constitution’s separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches. The Biden administration seems to want to parole in millions. Can presidents simply ignore laws passed by Congress and let into the United States anyone they want? In this week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, George Fishman, the Center’s senior legal fellow with more than 25 years' experience in government, provides recommendations for how the courts or Congress can address the executive branch’s abuse of parole. Jessica M. Vaughan, the Center’s director of policy studies, discusses the impact of allowing the mass entry of broad categories of beneficiaries.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

December 2021

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

Immigration Roundup for 2021

View Podcast Archive Summary Center for Immigration Studies’ analysts come together for this year’s final episode of Parsing Immigration Policy to discuss the top immigration stories of 2021 and to predict the biggest immigration stories of 2022. Mark Krikorian, the Center’s executive director and host of the podcast, leads the conversation focusing on three key immigration issues: the border, interior enforcement, and regulatory rule-making. Andrew R. Arthur, the Center’s fellow in law and policy, discusses the surge in illegal immigration at the southern border. Apprehensions at the southwest border have been the highest in history this fiscal year, and the current surge shows no sign of slowing. Those apprehended are also no longer predominantly single adult males from Mexico; this fiscal year’s apprehension number of unaccompanied minor children reached the highest number in history, and the majority of migrants entering were not citizens of Mexico. Arthur argues that the Biden administration is attempting to effectively legalize illegal immigration.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

October 2021

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

Are Immigrants Less Willing to Report Crime?

Summary One of the most frequently cited justifications for sanctuary policies is the claim that immigrants are less willing to report victimization to authorities. A report was released by the Center for Immigration Studies casts doubt on this claim, using the latest data from the National Crime Victimization Survey. Mark Krikorian, the Center’s executive director and host of Parsing Immigration Policy, moderates a rebroadcast of the Center's recent panel discussing the report. Two of the study's co-authors participated in the panel, Center researchers Jessica Vaughan and Steven Camarota. They were joined by Capt. Keith Harmon of the Collier County, Fla. Sheriff’s Department, which has long experience with ICE's 287(g) program. Host Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

September 2021

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

Chain Migration and Why It Matters

Summary Every year the United States welcomes more than one million legal immigrants; two-thirds of this population are family members brought in through chain migration. With an average immigrant sponsoring 3.45 family members, the U.S. immigration flow is always impacted by chain migration. The thousands of Afghans being resettled in the U.S. will be able to eventually petition for more relatives, just as all illegal immigrants granted amnesty would be able to bring in family members. On this week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, Jessica Vaughan, the Center's director of policy studies, joins host Mark Krikorian to discuss chain migration, its impact, and possible policy changes. Should immigrants be entitled to bring in their adult siblings and their families? Adult children and their families? Parents? The larger question is whether we should continue to allow yesterday’s immigrants to select tomorrow’s immigrants. In the closing commentary, Krikorian, the Center’s executive director, highlights the risks associated with the present vetting of Afghans.
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

July 2021

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

Roundtable on the Week’s Top Immigration News

Summary Immigration has dominated headlines over the past week, and this week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy brings together Center for Immigration Studies experts to analyze these issues. The roundtable discussion covers the recent federal court ruling on DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), the newly released border apprehension numbers for June, and the possibility of Senate passage of an amnesty via a budget "reconciliation" rule. Robert Law, the Center’s director of regulatory affairs and policy, weighs-in on the federal court ruling on DACA, which created President Obama’s executive amnesty program that awarded work permits and Social Security numbers to illegal aliens. Although the judge found the program to be an “illegally implemented program,” he ruled that DACA recipients, along with their employers, states, and loved ones, have come to rely on the DACA program, and his decision does not revoke work permits from the current DACA population. What are the implications of this decision? Will it be appealed?
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies

May 2021

Parsing Immigration Policy
Parsing Immigration Policy

‘All You Americans Are Fired’: The Controversial H-2B Guestworker Program

Summary The Biden administration recently increased the H-2B visa cap, allowing more low-skilled, non-agricultural seasonal workers into the country to compete with American workers and to be exploited by employers. Jessica Vaughan, the Center’s director of policy studies, discusses this guestworker visa program, which creates the false impression of "jobs Americans won't do" by incentivizing employers to use a business model that is reliant on temporary worker programs instead of reaching out to American workers. Vaughan also offers recommendations to improve this controversial immigration program. Mark Krikorian, the Center’s executive director and host of the podcast, wraps up this episode of Parsing Immigration Policy with an assessment of the Biden administration’s plans for handling the border crisis, as laid out in his recent article in RealClearPolicy. Related Reports Biden Administration Continues to Admit Cheap Foreign Workers Where Does Biden Go from Here on Immigration?
Host:
Mark Krikorian
Organization
Center for Immigration Studies