LyrArc Article Gist
This exceptional account by Ginger Thompson and Sara Cohen shows the Obama administration's strategy of creating credibility for its immigration enforcement by setting a target of 400,000 deportations a year, and focussing on the border states such as California, Texas, Arizona. The deportations were kept away from the midwestern states and states in the interior of the country. Under the Bush administration raids were made on businesses hiring illegal immigrants and the policy implemented all over the country, not selectively targeting the border. Local police were given authority to check immigration status of suspected foreigners. Deportations reached a peak of 383,000 under Bush in 2008. In 2008 Congress supported the Bush administration by doubling the immigration agency budget to $5.5 billion and imposed a mandate requiring detaining a daily average of 34,000 immigrants. Under the Obama administration the pilot project for state and local police to check immigration status of people fingerprinted in an arrest was expanded. Under project Secure Communities police could hand over illegal immigrants to immigration authorites, and new implementation criteria in a June 2010 memo easily covered a third of the 11.5 million illegal immigrants, according to immigration officials cited by NYT. Removal process was expedited so that expedited removals doubled under the Obama administration. Under Bush about 75% of those deported were sent home with criminal charges if they had no criminal record. Under Obama this increased to 90%. The NYT analysis suggests the immigration enforcement and grasp of the immigrant story looking for a better life, was better for "good" immigrants under presidents from border states such as Reagan from California and the elder Bush from Texas, than under a midwesterner of minority background. It shakes up the image of Hispanic Americans as part of a political affiliation to a particular party. ...

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This WSJ editorial comments on the low U.S. employment to population ratio of 58.9% in March 2014. It was 62.2% on average in 2007. This is the share of all potential workers with a job.

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Three million additional Americans get access to Medicaid as a result of the Obama Healthcare Law (Affordable Care Act). Under the law states could expand Medicaid to people less than 65 years old with income of 133% of the federal poverty level of $15,521 for individual or $31,721 for family. About half of U.S. states expanded Medicaid and the rest kept the prior income guidelines. The figures are from a report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which show 58 million Americans on Medicaid in third quarter of 2013, and up to 61 million in March 2014.

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The U.S. labor force participation rate is still at a low 63.2% in March 2014.

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The U.S. Labor Department reports nonfarm payrolls up by seasonally adjusted 192,000 in March 2014, with unemployment at 6.7%. Figures for January and February were revised upwards by 37,000. The figure for parttime workers who are looking for fulltime work was up by 225,000 from prior month to 7.4 million. Over the first 3 months of 2014 average hourly earnings were up by 2.1%, barely keeping up with inflation.

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Anne Lowrey looks at the situation facing the 7.4 million Americans working parttime in March 2014 because they cannot find full time jobs. She cites Alan Krueger, former chairman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisors, for research that shows only 1 of 10 workers who were counted as long-term jobless betwen 2008 and 2012 had a full time job a year later. In Nov 2013 7.2 million worked parttime because they could not find full time work showing an increase of 0.2 million by March 2014.