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Daily news updates from CIS
September 11, 2009
Support the Center for Immigration Studies by donating on line here: http://cis.org/donate
ATTN Federal employees: The Center's Combined Federal Campaign number is 10298.
[For CISNEWS subscribers --
1. Issue bursts into health care debate (2 stories, 3 links)
2. USCIS opens awareness campaign
3. Resignation leaves detention reform in limbo
4. Dems use SC Rep's outburst to raise cash (story, 3 links)
5. TX Gov sending rangers to border
6. States, groups press Census participation
7. CNMI preparing for imminent federalization
8. Slate of hawks eye AZ offices
9. San Fran pol stands behind sanctuary (story, link)
10. San Fran DA spares illegal alien capital charges
11. CA county joins Secure Communities
12. TX county schools expel illegals (story, link)
13. TN activists criticize strength of state law
14. UNC forum remains calm, Tancredo absent
15. NJ advocates to hold vigil
16. Day laborers protest on Capitol Hill
17. Insurer provides welcome kits to immigrants
18. Immigrants increase impact upon SC
19. Californians see immigrants as a benefit
20. WWII vet 'finally' achieves citizenship
21. Chinese national seeks reprieve from deportation
22. Beating of Guatemalan man shocks MA community
23. MT police probe fraud scheme
24. 14 illegals found in AZ drop house (link)
25. USBP rescues illegal from Rio Grande (link)
26. Illegal admits molesting three-year old NY girl (link)
Subscribe to CIS e-mail services here: http://cis.org/immigrationnews.html
-- Mark Krikorian]
1.
Health negotiators focus on illegal immigrants
By Erica Werner
The Associated Press, September 11, 2009
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/6613809.html
Washington, DC (AP) -- Health care negotiators in the Senate pressed for a way to ensure that illegal immigrants can't get access to government-funded insurance, a contentious issue now front and center after a Republican congressman's outburst during President Barack Obama's speech.
The issue is one of several thorny problems that came up as a small group of negotiators on the Senate Finance Committee met Friday morning. Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., is aiming to finalize legislation on Obama's health overhaul by next week — though whether it's bipartisan or not remains to be seen.
Members of the group said they thought they'd settled the question of illegal immigration, but it came to the fore this week when Republican Rep. Joe Wilson shouted 'You lie' at Obama during his speech Wednesday. Obama had said illegal immigrants wouldn't be covered under his health plan.
Senators said that's forced the committee to work on provisions verifying legal status before an individual can get coverage.
'We've always been there, but we have to make sure to get the right process and language,' said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, one member of the so-called Gang of Six of three Republicans and three Democrats whom Baucus is leading.
Such verification can be tricky. Many Democrats fear that verification procedures keep legal residents from getting insurance, and in the House, they rejected Republican attempts to add verification requirements to the House health care bill.
The negotiators put off extensive discussion of the illegal immigration issue until Monday and said aides would be working on language on that and abortion over the weekend.
Friday's session focused largely on how an expansion of Medicaid would affect states, and on possible provisions to keep down medical malpractice costs.
The prognosis for bipartisan resolution remained cloudy, with Baucus prepared to go it alone even without Snowe and Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Mike Enzi of Wyoming.
Snowe said she still couldn't predict whether they'd reach consensus — or whether Baucus would be able to count on her vote.
'I can't answer that at this point. We're working through all these issues and we'll see where it goes from there when we finalize everything,' Snowe said.
The question could be answered as early as Monday when the group meets again.
'Obviously we'll find out who wants to support the (bill) and who doesn't,' Baucus said. 'I'm hopeful that there will be bipartisan support. And I'll keep working on it frankly over the weekend, on the telephone talking to people, so on and so forth.'
Enzi declined to comment Friday and Grassley participated in the meeting by phone from Iowa.
EDITOR’S NOTE: CIS analysis of HR3200 is available online at: http://www.cis.org/IllegalsAndHealthCareHR3200
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Shout Draws Focus to Illegal-Immigrant Issue
Coverage Question Is Complex, Experts Say, but Less Ominous Than Reform Foes Warn
By Alec MacGillis
The Washington Post, September 11, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/10/AR2009091004276.html?hpid=topnews
Republican Rep. Joe Wilson's shout of 'You lie!' during President Obama's speech Wednesday night brought renewed attention to swirling questions about whether Democratic health-care legislation would extend coverage to illegal immigrants. Although the answer is more complicated than reform proponents acknowledge, it also does not square with the dark warnings of opponents who say the proposals would bring waves of undocumented immigrants into taxpayer-funded plans.
To counter claims that universal health care would cover illegal immigrants, Democrats and independent arbiters have pointed to language in the House legislation that says the federal subsidies, or 'affordability credits,' that would be the main avenue to expanding coverage would not be available to illegal immigrants.
This language does not assuage the bill's critics, who say the proposals lack the verification tools needed to assure that illegal immigrants do not gain coverage either through federal credits or expanded Medicaid eligibility for the poorest of the uninsured.
House Republicans have proposed amendments to close potential loopholes, but those measures have so far failed in committee. House Democrats say that the stricter rules could prevent eligible people from getting coverage and that eligibility regulations would be drawn up by federal officials. The bill's opponents say such a process would be inadequate.
'The other side appears to be saying, 'Trust us, [the government] will do the right thing.' Well, the trust issue is the core problem in immigration -- the political class is telling the public, 'We'll do the right thing,' and the public doesn't believe them,' said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for stricter immigration policy.
But many tax and social policy experts say the concerns over undocumented immigrants taking advantage of health-care reform are overstated, if not unfounded. The thorniest immigration issue, they say, may be sorting out how subsidies or Medicaid eligibility would work in families with both legal and illegal residents.
'Will some illegal immigrant get [help]? Probably. Will it be this big problem? Probably not,' said Gerald Prante, an economist with the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.
It is estimated that there are 6 million to 7 million illegal immigrants without health insurance and that several million more have obtained coverage through employers or on their own. Taxpayers already subsidize health care for illegal immigrants -- Medicaid reimburses hospitals for emergency treatments for undocumented immigrants, most notably for childbirth. But studies have found that illegal immigrants spend much less on health care than others in the United States, partly because they are wary of interacting with the medical system and the government -- a fear that experts say would keep many of them from trying to exploit the new system.
The Democratic proposals call for covering most of the uninsured by getting them to buy plans on a new 'exchange' where they could choose among private plans -- and possibly a government-run plan -- with the help of subsidies for those with low and modest incomes. Illegal immigrants would neither qualify for subsidies nor be required to buy insurance, as everyone else would be, though they could purchase plans on the exchange.
Tax policy experts say it would be difficult for illegal immigrants to obtain subsidies, because eligibility would be based partly on people's tax returns. It is true, they say, that many illegal immigrants pay payroll taxes using phony Social Security numbers, but they rarely file tax returns, and those who do almost always use 'personal identification numbers' from the IRS, which essentially flag them as illegal immigrants. That is why it is very hard for them to obtain the earned-income tax credit.
'It would be exceedingly difficult for undocumenteds to game the system' by using a bogus Social Security number to apply for subsidies, said Alan Berube of the center-left Brookings Institution.
Activists fighting illegal immigration and House Republicans pushing for stricter rules want the legislation to mandate proof of legal status, such as requiring a birth certificate or using the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, database, which tracks legal immigrants. They say such measures have prevented large numbers of illegal immigrants from enrolling in Medicaid.
Health-care reform proponents disagree, noting that few illegal immigrants enrolled in Medicaid even before proof of citizenship was required and that such requirements have disqualified tens of thousands of eligible citizens because they lack ready birth certificates.
That is why congressional Democrats have since moved to loosen that requirement for Medicaid. Reform proponents say adding back such rules for Medicaid or for the subsidies on the exchange would be costly and would apprehend relatively few illegal immigrants, at the risk of raising hurdles for those who are eligible.
They say that federal regulators may well end up using the SAVE database but that for Congress to impose strict standards now could result in overly blunt measures.
'Everyone agrees that [illegal immigrants] shouldn't be covered, and they're not going to be,' said Edwin Park, a health-care expert with the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 'There's no clear evidence that the system is so vulnerable, so this would be a solution to a problem that doesn't exist but that causes problems for eligible people.'
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Illegal Immigrants Trigger Fight by Foes Over Obama’s Overhaul
By Meg Tirrell and Nicole Gaouette
Bloomberg News, September 11, 2009
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ahHoBkIjOqd4#
Illegal immigrants draw fire in health debate
By Victoria Colliver
The San Francisco Chronicle, September 11, 2009
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/10/BA4A19GI9I.DTL&type=politics&tsp=1
Controversy over Obama speech underscores cost of health care for illegal immigrants
By Karen de Sá
The San Jose Mercury News (CA), September 10, 2009
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_13311560
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2.
Agency offers help for immigrants seeking citizenship
By Victor Manuel Ramos
The Orlando Sentinel, September 10, 2009
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/orl-immigrants-citizenship-class-091009,0,5015502.story
How does an immigrant go about becoming a citizen?
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service is launching an effort to answer that question for the many legal immigrants who qualify and want to become citizens.
The agency is reaching out to immigrants now that it has reduced average wait times for citizenship applications from years to less than six months. It will require that all applicants take a new citizenship test starting Oct. 1.
Orlando is among the first cities to hold a class to review those requirements on Saturday, Sept. 12.
'This is a nationwide push,' said Sharon Scheidhauer, the immigration service's spokeswoman in Orlando. 'The goal is to reach an audience of legal permanent residents who are eligible to naturalize. We are saying, 'If you are interested, we want to give you the best information.'?'
The agency estimates that about 8 million immigrants are eligible to become citizens. To qualify, they need to have been legal -- and law-abiding -- residents of the U.S. for at least five years -- or at least 3 years if married to a U.S. citizen. Immigrants who become citizens gain the right to vote, serve on juries and run for office, but they first have to pay $675 in application fees, demonstrate good moral character and pass an English and civics test.
About 700,000 people in Florida are eligible, and the agency --which is funded primarily through application fees -- is looking to tap into that population. It wants to let them know that the naturalization process by which they can become citizens is not as difficult as some imagine, Scheidhauer said. Some don't apply because they fear they can't pass the test or are concerned that the immigration status of relatives will hurt their chances.
Michelle Camilla Suárez, a 20-year-old Colombian immigrant in south Orlando who came to the U.S. nine years ago, plans to attend the Saturday workshop. She expects to apply for citizenship within a couple of months. Her parents and brother have also decided to apply.
Her family sought and obtained U.S. asylum after fleeing threats of violence from guerrilla groups in their homeland, she said. She finds herself at home here and hopes to become an opera singer. She has been attending citizenship classes offered by the Orange County Public Library System.
'There are more opportunities here,' said Suárez, a Valencia Community College student. 'One can live in dignity and have a successful career in this country.'
To welcome people such as Suárez, the immigration service has prepared a package of materials that includes instructions on applying for citizenship, a brochure on the new citizenship test and even flash cards to study for the civics and English-language vocabulary parts of the test. The agency will give those out free at the Saturday workshop, but they are also sold through its Web site.
Immigration officers will answer questions and even do a mock interview for immigrants at the workshop, which is from noon to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12, at the Orlando Public Library, 101 E. Central Blvd. Admission is free. More information: 407-237-8941 or www.uscis.gov.
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3.
Overhaul of ICE detention system for immigrants in question
By Daniel Gonzalez
The Arizona Republic (Phoenix), September 10, 2009
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/LiveWire/62486
In her new job at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Dora Schriro was going to oversee an overhaul of the nation's rapidly expanding detention system for illegal immigrants. But less than eight months into her job at ICE, Schriro quit this week, leaving critics of the detention system worried that the overhaul will never happen.
'We are concerned that someone who at least seemed to be seriously thinking about these problems is no longer going to be there,' said Dan Pochoda, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona.
Pochoda said ICE does not have a good track record of living up to its promises, citing the agency's recent decision to provide more oversight of agreements under a controversial 287(g) program that lets local police double as federal immigration agents. Critics say the program leads to racial profiling and other civil rights abuses but, in Pochoda's view, the new agreements are not much different from the old ones.
Now Pochoda and other critics of the detention system are waiting to see who Napolitano picks to replace Schriro. The ACLU is one of several groups that have accused the detention system of violating due-process rights and providing poor medical care that has resulted in inmate deaths.
John Morton, the head of ICE, said in statement that the agency remains committed to the overhaul.
'In the wake of this announcement, let me be clear that ICE’s commitment to the comprehensive detention reforms announced on August 6 remains unwavering. ICE will continue to move forward in designing and implementing a system that addresses the specific needs of ICE’s civil detention population. This issue is and will remain one of my chief priorities,' Morton said.
In August, ICE released records that showed 104 immigrants have died while in government custody since 2003. The records also showed that 9 immigrants died while in custody at the detention center in Eloy, more than at any other facility in the nation.
In February, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano appointed Schriro as her special advisor on Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Detention and Removal. Before moving to Washington, Schriro ran the Arizona Department of Corrections when Napolitano was governor.
Schriro is leaving ICE to run the New York City Department of Correction.
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4.
In Heckler’s District, Support for the Outburst
By Robbie Brown and Carl Hulse
The New York Times, September 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/us/politics/11wilson.html?hpw
Swansea, SC -- In Washington, Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina was sharply criticized by both Democrats and his fellow Republicans for shouting 'You lie!' during President Obama’s health care address on Wednesday. But here in his strongly Republican Congressional district on Thursday, he was celebrated by many of his constituents for his outburst.
'Yeah, it was rude, but somebody needed to say it,' said Susan Wahl, 41, a homemaker in this town of 800 outside Columbia. 'Ordinary people can’t just get up and tell Obama he lied. He said something we all wanted to say.'
In a state famous for both its gentility and its rebelliousness, Mr. Wilson earned praise from voters who admired his message, if not his delivery.
'I kind of want to defend Representative Wilson,' said Mendel Lindler, 63, an insurance salesman in Lexington, a Columbia suburb. 'The president has been trying to shove something down our throats, and Representative Wilson said, ‘Hold on here.’ '
Mr. Wilson yelled the comment when Mr. Obama said that his health care overhaul would not extend benefits to illegal immigrants. He later issued an apology, which the president accepted on Thursday.
'I’m a big believer that we all make mistakes,' Mr. Obama said. 'He apologized quickly and without equivocation, and I’m appreciative of that.'
Some figures on the right, including the broadcaster Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin, a blogger, said Mr. Wilson, who was previously known mainly for backing the Iraq war, had nothing to apologize for and should instead be hailed for his willingness to challenge Mr. Obama on the particulars of his plan.
Some Republicans noted that President George W. Bush drew derisive hoots from Democrats when he made his case for Social Security changes during his 2005 State of the Union address. But Mr. Wilson’s Republican colleagues overwhelmingly took the position that he had exceeded the bounds of Congressional decorum and that he took the right step by quickly admitting it.
'His behavior was inappropriate,' said Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader.
Other Republicans said the outburst was also counterproductive, providing a political bonanza for Democrats, feeding the party’s story line that the August uproar over the health proposals was fed by boorish Republicans and orchestrated attacks.
Mr. Wilson’s outburst has turned into a fund-raising bonus for his Democratic opponent in next year’s Congressional race, Rob Miller, a former Marine and Iraq veteran. By the end of the afternoon, the Act Blue fund-raising Web site showed that Mr. Miller had received more than $500,000 since the speech.
Mr. Wilson, 62, a onetime aide to the late Senator Strom Thurmond, is in his fourth term in Congress. He served in the Reagan administration as deputy counsel in the Energy Department, and retired as a lawyer in the Army National Guard. He has four sons, all of whom served in the military and one of whom, Alan, has announced he will seek the Republican nomination for state attorney general next year.
He has been known to lose his temper. In a 2002 debate on C-Span about the Iraq war, Mr. Wilson became furious at Representative Bob Filner, Democrat of California, who said the United States had given chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein. According to news reports at the time, Mr. Wilson repeatedly accused Mr. Filner of being consumed by 'hatred of America,' and said he was 'viscerally anti-American.'
Besieged by reporters Thursday, Mr. Wilson said his heckling had been driven by his desire to prevent illegal immigrants from getting government-provided health care and that he had just blurted it out.
'It was spontaneous,' said Mr. Wilson, who said he apologized to the White House on Wednesday night at the urging of his party’s leadership.
The health care legislation is still being developed, and many details could change, but based on the proposals so far, Mr. Obama’s overarching point is accurate: the legislation would not allow illegal immigrants to get the proposed government subsidies that would make it easier for low-income individuals and families to afford health insurance.
The White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said Thursday that Mr. Obama would go further, barring illegal immigrants from buying private health insurance through a proposed government-regulated marketplace, even if they could afford the coverage on their own.
Aides to Mr. Wilson said his office on Capitol Hill received what may have been thousands of telephone calls on Thursday, which they estimated were supportive of the congressman by a margin of three to one.
Some voters in his district said Mr. Wilson’s outburst further embarrassed a state still reeling from the revelation that its governor had an extramarital affair.
'This shows people that South Carolina is closed-minded,' said Omar Bates, 29, a West Columbia construction worker. 'It makes the state look disrespectful.'
But most of those interviewed in the Second Congressional District, which snakes from Columbia to the Atlantic coast, said Mr. Wilson should not apologize.
'Give Obama hell,' said Bob Allen, 52, a construction worker in Columbia. 'I’m proud of my congressman.'
Marie Briggs, 77, a retiree from Sumter, which is in a different district, said, 'I guess you would say it was a mite disrespectful, but I say, ‘All the way.’ '
Mr. Wilson hit a nerve on the issue of illegal immigration. Even South Carolina supporters of a health care overhaul expressed concern about extending coverage to illegal immigrants. Ms. Wahl accused Latino newcomers of worsening crime in Swansea.
'And now they want health care,' she said.
Until recently, Ms. Wahl said, she and her husband paid $1,000 per month for the family’s health insurance.
Now, she said, 'we’re without insurance, and I do think some folks should get government health care. But they have to be American.'
EDITOR’S NOTE: CIS analysis of HR3200 is available online at: http://www.cis.org/IllegalsAndHealthCareHR3200
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Tancredo says Wilson shouldn't have apologized
By Eric Zimmermann
The Hill (Washington, DC), September 10, 2009
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/58191-tancredo-says-wilson-shouldnt-have-apologized
Democrats raise money off 'You lie' outburst
'We will not stand for our president to be called a liar in front of the nation'
By Chelsea Schilling
The World Net Daily News, September 10, 2009
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=109462
Ex-Colo. congressman Tancredo says Obama did lie about illegal immigrants, health care
The Associated Press, September 10, 2009
http://www.kdvr.com/news/sns-ap-co--healthcare-heckling-tancredo,0,2070011.story
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5.
Gov. Rick Perry says Texas Ranger teams headed for Texas-Mexico border
By Michael Graczyk
The Associated Press, September 11, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-texas-governor-border,0,1871102.story
Houston (AP) -- Special teams of Texas Rangers will be deployed to the Texas-Mexico border to deal with increasing violence because the federal government has failed to address growing problems there, Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday.
'It is an expansive effort with the Rangers playing a more high-profile role than they've ever played before,' Perry said of the Department of Public Safety's elite investigative unit.
The forces, dubbed 'Ranger recon' teams, are the latest effort 'to fill the gap that's been left by the federal government's ongoing failure to adequately secure our international border with Mexico,' he said.
The governor early this year asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for 1,000 National Guard troops and renewed his call last month in a letter to President Barack Obama. The request is bogged down over who will pay for the troops and how they will be deployed.
'Boots on the ground'
Perry's announcement Thursday comes amid increasing border violence, particularly in El Paso, mostly involving people with ties to Mexican drug gangs.
'They'll be deployed to high-traffic, high-crime areas along the border,' he said. 'They'll give us boots on the ground, put people in these hot spots no matter what or where they may exist.'
Perry said the effort also would focus on remote areas where farmers and ranchers have complained of being overrun by smugglers and gangs from Mexico in numbers that also overwhelm local law enforcement and border patrol officers.
'Washington is shortchanging them, not giving them the support they need,' Perry said. 'As a result, we're having to dedicate our resources to deal with the challenges we have along the Texas-Mexico border and ensuing issues that porous border has created all across state of Texas.'
He said the state would pick up the tab of $110 million, allocated by the Legislature in the past two sessions.
Perry's announcement drew immediate criticism from U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is running against the two-term incumbent in the March GOP primary.
'Today's announcement is yet another empty election-year promise from Rick Perry on border security,' Hutchison spokesman Joe Pounder said.
Perry fired back that it was the 'height of hypocrisy for someone who's been in Washington, D.C., for 16 years, who's had the opportunity to help Texas on our border security, and they've been no more successful in delivering the resources and help.'
'So please do that job up there first before you come down here and start criticizing about the state of Texas,' he said.
Hutchison also took Perry to task for the absence of any Texas agency from a federal program that allows Homeland Security personnel to work with local law enforcement on immigration issues.
'Texans need a governor they can trust to actually improve our security,' her campaign said in a statement.
'I happen to think we've taken advantage of every program that's been effective,' responded Perry, who has been branding his opponent as someone from Washington out of touch with her home state. 'Pointing out one program that has been funded and leaving the 800-pound gorilla — which is 1,000 National Guard troops that we need — I am stunned someone from Washington, D.C., would say they've done enough to secure our border.'
Brig. Gen. Joyce Stevens, commander of the Texas Army National Guard, said about 200 soldiers and airmen already have started integrated operations with the Rangers.
Tony Leal, assistant director of the Texas Rangers, declined to provide the number of his officers involved in the effort.
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6.
With power and money on the line, states, civic groups already have push on for 2010 census
By Brian Bakst
The Associated Press, September 11, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-promoting-the-census,0,1328423.story
Falcon Heights, MN (AP) -- State governments and civic groups are sinking scarce dollars into the phone banks, TV ads and door-knocking commonly seen in political campaigns to pump up numbers in the upcoming census.
They've got a vested interest in going beyond the U.S. Census Bureau's planned $300 million blitz to try to persuade households to fill out the 10-question form they will receive early next year. Clout in Congress and billions of future federal dollars ride on the once-a-decade head count.
While some local promotional plans are still in the works, others are moving ahead well before 2010 arrives.
In Minnesota, coordinator Ryan Dolan enlisted mayors, town clerks and others to plug the census in newsletters and recorded messages to callers on hold. Tens of thousands of census-branded flying discs, pencils, bookmarks and rulers were snapped up at the campaign's state fair booth.
New York's Joel Barkin, a deputy secretary of state, expects his state to place ads in ethnic publications and on niche radio stations to target immigrants and other groups with traditionally poor census participation.
In Massachusetts, nonprofit organizer Kelly Bates is helping shape plans for phone banks and door-to-door visits to boost response rates.
All say they can't risk having anyone overlooked.
'It doesn't matter to the U.S. Census Bureau if Minnesota has eight or seven members of the U.S. House of Representatives,' Dolan said. 'They're not going to really care if Minnesota gets X amount of dollars versus Iowa, and they really shouldn't.'
The Constitution requires the count of people living in the country every 10 years, regardless of their citizenship status.
Each U.S. House district is supposed to have roughly the same number of people, and the census is used to determine how many representatives each state will have. Minnesota, Massachusetts and New York, as well as a handful of other states, all face the possibility of losing seats in the 435-member House to faster-growing states in the South and West.
The results also figure into the annual distribution of federal money to states — $400 billion at last count — for more than 100 government programs, from road construction to Head Start to food stamps. Some money trickles down to civic groups that help low-income and immigrant communities.
Bates, whose Massachusetts Census Equity Fund plans to partner with the state, noted that civic groups that already have connections in hard-to-count communities often are better-equipped than governments to alleviate concerns that census answers will be used against people.
'The census cannot reach everybody. Number two, they're not trusted by everybody,' Bates said.
Sharing individual data with immigration, tax and law enforcement authorities is a crime that carries severe penalties.
If past patterns hold, fewer than seven in 10 households will return the census forms. Those who don't can expect visits from census staff. Even then, no census passes without some people being missed.
Minnesota lawmakers have devoted $720,000 to their state's 2010 census campaign, even as they cut budgets for colleges, health programs and most state agencies in the face of multibillion-dollar deficits. Massachusetts, New York and California are poised to spend $2 million apiece.
Because of a historic budget crisis, California, which had 10 of the nation's top 50 hard-to-count counties in the 2000 census, is spending is only a fraction of the $25 million allocated in 2000.
But California Complete Count Committee spokesman Eric Alborg said the state is seeing foundations and local governments step up more with time and money.
For example, San Francisco supervisors allocated $870,000, or about $1 per county resident, for census promotion. And last month, the private California Foundation committed $4 million for outreach among hard-to-count immigrant and low-income populations, building on a nonprofit's recent $1.5 million pledge. In some places, promoters hope to persuade ethnic markets to print information about the census on grocery receipts.
In Minnesota, Dolan's team held 25 town halls this year and crafted public service announcements for radio and television in English, Hmong, Somali and Spanish. At the just-concluded state fair, volunteers put a special focus on retirees who spend their winters in the South, telling them that their census forms could arrive before they return home.
Jeanne Snaza Maanum, a substitute teacher from West St. Paul, stopped by the booth to clear up when the census would start. It actually begins before the official April 1 'Census Day,' with forms arriving in mailboxes in February and March. She said she considers the awareness campaign worthwhile.
'The way things are going in our government, I don't want to lose out on any representation,' she said.
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7.
Countdown to Guam-CNMI immigration changes
The Australia Network News, September 11, 2009
http://australianetworknews.com/stories/200909/2683352.htm?desktop
US Customs and Border Protection are to begin work with airlines who fly to Guam and the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands to ensure a smooth transition when a new visa waiver agreement comes into effect on November 28.
The Guam-CNMI Visa Waiver Scheme will replace the existing Guam Visa Waiver Program.
Under the new scheme citizens of 12 countries, including Australia, Japan, Malaysia, PNG and Hong Kong, will be allowed to enter CNMI and Guam visa free for up to 45 days.
China and Russia, two emerging tourism markets for the islands, are not included on the list because of US security concerns.
Under the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008 CNMI will surrender control of its immigration system to the United States after 33 years of self-administration.
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8.
2010 Arizona ballot could include anti-immigrant slate
By Mike Sunnucks
The Phoenix Business Journal, September 10, 2009
http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2009/09/07/daily63.html
There could be an anti-immigration slate of candidates running for key elected posts in the 2010 elections.
State Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, said he would be interested in running for Maricopa County Sheriff if Joe Arpaio opts to run for governor next year.
Pearce has been a main advocate of hard-line immigration policies, including punishing businesses that hire undocumented workers and denying state services to illegal immigrants.
'First of all Sheriff Joe’s doing what Arizona and America need most: enforcing our laws and the best job in town. If he chose to run for governor, I certainly would give serious consideration to running for sheriff,' Pearce said.
Arpaio is considering a run for governor against Gov. Jan Brewer in the Republican primary and Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard (the likely Democratic nominee) in the general election.
Both Pearce and Arpaio favor get-tough approaches to illegal immigration, as does Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, who is considering a run for Arizona Attorney General.
Arpaio and Thomas would have to eventually resign their county jobs to run for statewide offices. County officials feel they would appoint interim officeholders to serve out their terms until 2012, although there could be a legal challenge to that policy which could compel elections for sheriff and county attorney in 2010.
Thomas and Arpaio have been aggressive in enforcing state immigration laws, including raiding businesses suspected of hiring illegal immigrants.
Pearce previously served as an MCSO deputy and has two sons in law enforcement. He also served as a justice of the peace in Mesa.
The get-tough approach to immigration earns Pearce, Thomas and Arpaio support from conservative parts of the Valley that want tougher controls on the Mexican border but criticism from those worried that crime sweeps and business raids unfairly target Hispanics.
Critics of Arpaio and Pearce also don’t like the fact that far-right extremist groups sometimes show up at rallies in support of their anti-immigration efforts.
Thomas, Pearce and Arpaio stress they don’t condone some of the Neo-Nazi and far-right groups that back hard-line immigration policies and that they oppose illegal immigration, not legal immigrants.
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9.
Daly: 'redouble our efforts' on immigration bill
By Joshua Sabatini
The San Francisco Examiner, September 10, 2009
http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/under-the-dome/Daly-redouble-our-efforts-on-immigration-bill-58547477.html
Supervisor Chris Daly is standing strong behind immigration legislation by Supervisor David Campos that has sparked one of the fiercest political debates this year.
Campos' legislation would prevent city officials from turning over juveniles who are illegal immigrants and charged with felonies to federal immigration law enforcement for deportation. The City would only be able to turn them over once they are convicted.
The punches thrown so far include letters sent by the local Republican Party to supervisors and other elected officials condemning the proposal and Mayor Gavin Newsom authorizing the leaking of a confidential memo regarding the proposal to reveal the city's legal risk.
'Right now, San Francisco is at the forefront of the immigrant rights struggle. Last month, Supervisor David Campos, together with immigrant rights advocates, introduced a proposal to provide juveniles who are undocumented due process,' Daly said in an opinion piece posted on a local news Web site.
'SF progressives should redouble our efforts on this issue and build the next generation of activists, as we engage.'
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S.F.'s GOP speaks out on Sanctuary City
By Joshua Sabatini
The San Francisco Examiner, September 9, 2009
http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/under-the-dome/SFs-GOP-speaks-out-on-Sanctuary-City-58182732.html
San Francisco's Republican Party has sent out letters to city officials, including Mayor Gavin Newsom and members of the Board of Supervisors, denouncing Supervisor David Campos' legislation that would change the city's Sanctuary City policy.
The legislation is turning into one of the most politically charged debates since a set of new board members came into office in January.
'We urge you to reconsider your co-sponsorship to this piece of irresponsible and dangerous legislation,' a letter sent to members of the Board of Supervisors who signed on in support of the bill said.
Campos' legislation would prevent city officials from turning over juveniles who are illegal immigrants and charged with felonies to federal immigration law enforcement for deportation.
The City would only be able to turn them over once they are convicted.
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10.
Edwin Ramos won't face death penalty
By Jaxon Van Derbeken
The San Francisco Chronicle, September 11, 2009
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/10/BAM819L7NE.DTL
San Francisco -- San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris will not seek the death penalty for an alleged gang member accused of murdering a father and two of his sons, a prosecutor said Thursday.
The announcement in San Francisco Superior Court means that Edwin Ramos will at most serve life in prison without parole if convicted of the June 22, 2008, slayings of Tony Bologna, 48, and his sons Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16.
The decision is in keeping with Harris' campaign promise never to seek the death penalty. There had been speculation, however, that with Harris running for state attorney general next year, she might shift direction in an especially notorious crime.
Assistant District Attorney Harry Dorfman put an end to that speculation in court Thursday. 'We will not seek the death penalty in this case,' he told Judge Charles Haines.
Harris said outside court that her office will do everything it can to make sure Ramos 'dies in prison for these horrific crimes.'
She said her office had spent 'many, many months' reviewing the case, but did not give a specific reason for her decision.
'We have thoroughly reviewed the facts and the law in this case,' Harris said. 'It was a complicated analysis that involved many issues, many facts and many laws.'
Widow outraged
The decision angered members of the Bologna family.
Tony Bologna's widow, Danielle Bologna, 'is outraged,' said Marti McKee, a spokeswoman for the family. 'She feels that the city of San Francisco has let her and her family down.'
Danielle Bologna and other relatives have sued the city, saying that authorities should have turned over Ramos, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, to federal authorities for deportation when he was arrested on gang-related offenses as a juvenile.
'She feels that not only did she lose half her family, she lost her home because she was forced to move so she could protect the rest of her family,' McKee said. 'With this decision, it will just never end.'
Shot in their car
Ramos, 22, believed to be a member of the MS-13 gang, was ordered in June to stand trial for the killings of the Bolognas, who were shot to death in the Excelsior district by someone in a passing car as they were driving home from a family outing.
Authorities believe Ramos mistook one of the Bologna sons for a rival while looking to retaliate for the shootings of two fellow MS-13 gang members earlier that day.
The lone survivor from the attack, Tony Bologna's 19-year-old son, testified during a 10-day preliminary hearing that he had seen Ramos open fire after the defendant pulled alongside his father's car at Congdon and Maynard streets and delivered a menacing stare.
Ramos' attorney, Marla Zamora, argued that her client had been driving the car carrying the gunman but that he had not fired the shots. She said Ramos was not a gang member and had identified the killer, a man whom authorities have been unable to locate.
High-profile call
For Harris, the case was the most significant death-penalty decision she had had to make since the April 2004 killing of police Officer Isaac Espinoza.
Ramos' previous criminal record was similar to the one compiled by Espinoza's killer, David Hill. Ramos had no adult record but had two gang-related offenses as a juvenile, one for an assault on a Muni passenger, the other the attempted robbery of a pregnant woman.
Hill also had only a juvenile gang-related record and, like Ramos, was 21 when he was accused of murder. Harris spared Hill the death penalty; a jury convicted him of second-degree murder in 2007, and he is serving a sentence of life without parole.
Harris announced her decision on Hill, however, within hours of his arrest, prompting criticism from police and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, among others. Thursday's announcement on Ramos, in contrast, came more than a year after he was arrested.
After the Hill furor, Harris followed the example of many other prosecutors and set up panels to potential death penalty cases.
In the Ramos case, prosecutors have alleged three special circumstances that could have made him eligible for lethal injection - that the Bologna killings were gang-motivated, that they were committed as a drive-by attack, and that the shooter committed multiple murders.
Harris' predecessor as district attorney, Terence Hallinan, also had a policy of not pursuing capital punishment. No one in San Francisco has been sentenced to death since 1991, when Clifford Bolden, now 53, was convicted of the 1986 robbery and slaying of Michael Pedersen. Bolden is still appealing his sentence.
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11.
Imperial County jail checks immigration records
The Associated Press, September 10, 2009
http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_13309972
Imperial, CA (AP) -- Law enforcement agencies in Imperial County can now check the immigration status of people they arrest when fingerprints are taken during booking.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Thursday that Imperial joins about 80 other counties nationwide in the program called Secure Communities. Los Angeles and San Diego are among them.
The program lets local law enforcement check fingerprints against a federal immigration system in addition to criminal records. ICE is notified if the fingerprints yield a match in the immigration system.
ICE plans to extend the program nationwide by the end of 2013.
Imperial County is in the California's southeast corner, bordering Mexico and Arizona. The county jail houses an average of about 600 people a day.
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12.
Texas school district turns away students from Mexico
By Mayra Cuevas-Nazario
CNN News, September 11, 2009
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/09/11/texas.border.schools/index.html
For years, children from Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, have attended schools across the border in Del Rio, Texas, but this week that changed for students who cannot prove residency.
The local school superintendent imposed new regulations to stem what he said is a long-standing problem for the district.
'I have seen van loads of kids with plates from Coahuila State (in Mexico) pulling in front of the school,' San Felipe Del Rio School Superintendent Kelt Cooper told CNN. 'Everyone knows what is going on. It's real blatant.'
Cooper, who joined the district 11 months ago, previously was superintendent in the border town of Nogales, Arizona, where he had to deal with similar circumstances. There, he remembered, he once had 32 students with the same home address. When district officials checked, the property was a vacant lot.
In Del Rio, Cooper said he began to notice 'there was some slackness in the protocol' dealing with proof of residency.
'Border towns are really unique,' Cooper told CNN in a phone interview. 'There is a lot of fluidity between the two cities. Having grown up in the border, I know this is very common.'
Last week, Cooper received confirmation from authorities at the International Bridge border crossing that some 540 school-age kids were crossing the bridge in the mornings.
Cooper said the situation was 'getting out of hand,' and on Wednesday he dispatched district staff members to the bridge to talk to the parents accompanying their children from the Mexican side. The staff was able to identify 195 students that could be barred from the district's schools if they failed to provide proof they lived within the district.
Three of the students were Carla Gomez' children. In a phone interview, Gomez told CNN she lives in Del Rio with her sister-in-law, but she travels back and forth to Ciudad Acuna to see her husband, who was deported.
On Wednesday, Gomez was stopped by school district staff and received a letter saying that her children would be dropped from enrollments if she couldn't provide proof of residency.
To prove residency, the district requires parents or guardians to provide an official document such as a utility bill, lease or proof-of-rent payment, none of which Gomez said she can provide since everything is in her sister-in-law's name. She said her only alternative may be homeschooling her children.
Cooper said he knows some of the parents who received letters are upset, especially those with children who are U.S. citizens. But he said the issue is a matter or residency, not citizenship or immigration status.
'Citizenship is a moot point. It really comes down to whether you live here,' Cooper said.
'Frequently, they (Mexicans) come with the impression that their kids are U.S. citizens, so they can go to school here,' he added.
'I am not U.S. Border Patrol, Customs or INS. If you are a resident here, you get to go to school here, if you don't, you don't. This is not a matter of border enforcement.'
A 1982 Texas Supreme Court ruling protects students from being discriminated upon based on immigration status, but Texas law states the student must live in a school district's area to attend a school within that district.
Cooper and his staff are trying to work out a tuition system for students who cannot prove residency. He is in talks with state agencies to calculate an appropriate tuition fee, but the school board would first have to approve the program.
'We are saying if we have room, you can pay tuition. We don't want this to be a burden on taxpayers. Some of the parents we have talked to have expressed interest in paying tuition,' he said.
But as Cooper has learned this week, the tuition program has proven unsuccessful in other cities. He has spoken with three superintendents of other border school districts, all of whom have said to him they tried the tuition program but it didn't work.
'I got the impression from them it was not worth the hassle,' he said.
But losing non-resident students could wind up costing the district.
Cooper estimated that in a worst-case scenario, the district could lose some $2.7 million in state funding since budgets are based on attendance. There are currently about 10,000 students in the district.
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Del Rio Schools Expel Students Who Used Fake U.S. Addresses
The KAUZ News (Wichita Falls, TX), September 10, 2009
http://www.kauz.com/news/national/58724812.html
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13.
Washington, D.C.: Protest group gets earful on immigration
By Matt Wilson
The Chattanooga Times Free Press (TN), September 11, 2009
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/sep/11/washington-dc-protest-group-gets-earful-immigratio/?breakingnews
Washington, DC -- Members of a local group who will march on the National Mall Saturday to protest government spending woke up about 8 a.m. this morning to hear criticism of a two-year-old immigration law.
Gary Armstrong of the Minutemen of Tennessee told riders on one of a pair of buses carrying protesters that a Tennessee state immigration law passed in 2007 was 'badly flawed.'
The law set up penalties for employers who knowingly employ illegal immigrants, but Mr. Armstrong said no businesses licenses have been revoked and, to his knowledge, no businesses have been investigated.
State Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, said he has not seen any data or information regarding how the law has been enforced. He said a committee on which he serves — Government Operations — could ask about it.
Jeff Hentschel, with the Tennessee Department of Workforce Development, said that some cases under the law have been reviewed but he did not know of any penalties that had been assessed.
Mr. Armstrong also said he believed federal immigration legislation was coming as soon as the health care debate ends.
The protest group, which arrived in Washington this morning about 9 a.m., will head to Walter Reed Army Medical Center this evening for a counter-protest against Code Pink, a mostly female anti-war group.
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14.
Immigration debate is calm
Community college policy at issue
By Jesse James Deconto
The News and Observer (Raleigh), September 11, 2009
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1684297.html
Chapel Hill, NC -- Ron Woodard repeatedly pointed out that he was outnumbered six-to-one, but no one shouted him down as he opposed allowing illegal immigrants to attend the state's community colleges.
Director of the nonprofit N.C. Listen, which seeks to limit immigration, Woodard inflated his opposition just a bit. Only three out of five fellow panelists unequivocally supported admitting illegal immigrants. He also appeared to be counting the El Pueblo advocate who introduced the panel discussion.
Still, Woodard felt he was heard Thursday night at UNC-Chapel Hill -- unlike former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, whose speech ended abruptly in April when protesters shouted profanities, held banners in front of him and smashed a window in a campus building.
'I was given plenty of time to say what I had to say,' Woodard said. 'The students were very respectful.'
Dozens filled the Nelson Mandela Auditorium at the FedEx Global Education Building in a do-over of the debate that never happened last spring. Noah Pickus, a Duke University ethicist, closed the forum with nods to both sides, saying the people of North Carolina won't support higher education for illegal immigrants if it doesn't come with strict limits on future immigration.
Next week, on Thursday and Friday, the state Board of Community Colleges will convene its monthly meeting. On the agenda is deciding whether to let illegal immigrants attend their schools.
In a Chapel Hill courtroom Monday, one student will face a charge of disturbing the peace for allegedly disrupting Tancredo, and six others will face disorderly conduct charges for allegedly interrupting former U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode's anti-immigration speech on campus a week later.
Neither the restrictionist Youth for Western Civilization nor the pro-immigrant Students for a Democratic Society made their presence known Thursday night. The panelists spoke in measured tones, acknowledging agreement on many aspects of a difficult debate.
'There's no good answer,' Pickus said. If states provide higher education just because it seems practical to educate a growing population of future workers, he said, 'all of a sudden any sense of democratic-decision-making has gone out the window.'
But UNC professors Hannah Gill and Paul Cuadros, who have both written books about the experiences of immigrants in North Carolina, argued that U.S. businesses caused mass immigration by recruiting foreign workers, that Americans benefit from the cheap labor and that public policy should anticipate that immigrant teenagers will still be here in the future.
'The stakes are really too high to bar undocumented immigrants from higher education,' Gill said.
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15.
Immigrant advocates to hold candlelight vigil in Morristown
By Minhaj Hassan
The Daily Record (Parsippany, NJ), September 11, 2009
http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20090911/UPDATES01/90911019
The New Jersey Advocates for Immigrant Detainees will hold a candlelight vigil at St. Margaret’s Church, located at 6 Sussex Ave., at 6 p.m. Tuesday to support the rights of children who may be at risk of being separated from their families because of deportations or detentions.
Morristown is a hotbed for immigration issues, given Mayor Donald Cresitello’s support for a controversial federal program that calls for deputizing police officers to serve as immigration agents. Known as 287(g), the mayor has yet to sign an agreement to put the program in place.
The church where the rally will take place, St. Margaret’s Church, is attended by many Hispanics, some of whom are undocumented.
Officials said the vigil is intended to show support for children who live in households where at least one parent is undocumented or is a legal permanent resident.
Participants will call for an end to raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, detentions and deportations because they cause children to separated from their families. The participants will share stories of being separated from their families and will call for federal immigration legislation that prevents the break-up of families
Diana Mejia, who heads the local immigrant resource center, said the 287(g) program will split families and divide the community.
'The people here in Morristown reject the idea that immigrants are to be treated like criminals,' she said. 'People in our community from all walks of life are coming out in droves in support of all families who work and live in our town - with or without papers. We are all members of the same community.'
According to the American Friends Service Committee, an immigrant rights group, New Jersey is detaining some 1,000 immigrants in county jails or the Elizabeth Detention Center.
Morristown is one of 10 municipalities where an immigration reform vigil is taking place. The other towns include Bridgeton, Dumont, Freehold, Hightstown, Jersey City, Highland Park, Keyport, Montclair and Newark.
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16.
Day Laborers Protest for Fair Wages on Capitol Hill
The WJLA News (Washington, DC), September 10, 2009
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0909/658142.html
Washington, DC -- A new fight over day laborers comes to Washington with supporters wanting to make sure they get a fair wage for a hard day's work.
In D.C., like some other cities where there's a Home Depot, there are day laborers looking for work. Many are in the country illegally and are seeking work with contractors. And while they are usually paid properly, they say there are many instances when they're not.
'We don't have any rights, any voice,' said Antonio Martinez, a day laborer. 'We don't have it so if anyone don't pay us, we just have to shut up that's it. We have to be quiet.'
An organization called the National Day Laborer Organizing Network brought several hundred workers to Capitol Hill Thursday from around the country to protest their powerlessness.
'They arrest us you know and they connect us to immigration,' said Jose Zelaya, a day laborer.
Members of a group from New Orleans who came in after Hurricane Katrina say police drive them off street corners where they're seeking work and contractors cheat them.
They're hoping to pressure Congress and President Obama to take on immigration reform and stop local authorities from using an immigration code called 278G -- where somebody stopped for a taillight can be turned over to immigration and deported.
While D.C. police generally don't enforce immigration laws, day laborers say they're still not going to go to police to complain about contractors cheating them.
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17.
Newest citizens get a welcome, thanks to Blue Cross staff and Dakota County agency
Blue Cross staff help local agency by assembling kits
By Elizabeth Sias
The Pioneer Press (St. Paul-Minneapolis), September 11, 2009
http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_13313341?nclick_check=1
Newly arrived immigrants to Dakota County are getting a helping hand from the Community Action Council and Blue Cross and Blue Shield in the form of a thousand welcome kits.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield employees in Eagan helped assemble the kits Thursday.
They include 'New Immigrant Orientation Guides,' children's coloring books and a welcome card, Minnesota maps, Dakota County maps, a card with tips for bicyclists as well as a health and wellness brochure.
The kits — in Somali, Spanish and English — are paid for and printed by Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
'We wanted something that would be meaningful and relevant to our community, particularly in Dakota County,' said Susan Schuster, community affairs senior consultant at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota.
'We looked at what would you need as a new immigrant, what would be important to you as you're trying to assimilate into the communities,' Schuster said.
The hands-on volunteer booth was part of Blue Cross and Blue Shield's annual outdoor picnic CareFest to kick off the insurer's Community Giving Campaign.
Marsha Shotley, vice president of community relations and president of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation, said the foundation does a lot of work with immigrants.
'It's a natural fit,' she said. 'These are courageous new Americans who are coming here with hope for health and safety and new lives, and so we want to give them the resources to make that happen.'
The kits are part of the Community Action Council's new program, New American Services, aimed at helping new citizens settle in.
'We were looking for on-site volunteer activities to have at our CareFest and we wanted to have something that employees could join in on,' Schuster said. 'One of the biggest needs we saw was with Community Action Council's New American Services program needing a way to access and work with new immigrants, so we decided to put this kit together.'
Schuster said they chose Somali and Spanish languages because the most prevalent immigrant groups in Dakota County are Latinos and Somalis.
Simit Desai walked through the assembly line 10 times to package welcome kits.
'It's a great cause,' he said. 'That's what Blue Cross is about.'
Schuster said she liked the hands-on volunteer booth because all employees could get involved to help families in the community.
'All of our employees can contribute and take a part. It only takes about a minute to put together one of these welcome kits,' she said. 'Some family somewhere in Dakota County is going to get that, and it's going to help them have a new life here.'
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18.
Poll: Californians, especially in Bay Area, consider immigrants more benefit than burden
By Matt O'Brien
The Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA), September 10, 2009
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_13307850?source=rss&nclick_check=1
A majority of Californians consider immigrants more of a benefit than a burden, but no one in the state appreciates the foreign-born more than Bay Area residents, according to a poll released Thursday by the Public Policy Institute of California.
Fifty-eight percent of Californians and 65 percent of Bay Area residents surveyed by pollsters this month consider immigrants a benefit to the state because of their hard work and job skills.
Thirty-five percent of residents in the state said they consider immigrants a burden because they use public services.
The results revealed sharply different views based on the ethnicity and political affiliation of those polled.
Most whites and most Republicans, in contrast to the general population, consider immigrants a burden.
About 51 percent of white residents described immigrants as a burden because they use public services and only 43 percent described them as more of a benefit.
The numbers have not changed much since March 2007, when a high of 60 percent of Californians considered immigrants more of a benefit than a burden. In 1998, when the institute first began asking the question, only 46 percent considered immigrants more of a benefit to the state.
Opinions have hardened in recent years and the economic crisis seems to have made little impact on Californians' perceptions of immigrants, said Mark Baldassare, the head of the institute.
'Their views seem to be separate from whatever current experiences they have with the economy and budget circumstances,' Baldassare said. 'They don't blame immigrants.'
In a second question that asked specifically about illegal immigrants, 69 percent of Californians and 75 percent of Bay Area residents said those who have been here for at least two years should be given a chance to keep their jobs and eventually apply for legal status rather than be deported.
Half of Republicans, however, said illegal immigrants should be deported back to their native country. Thirty-eight percent of all white residents, 18 percent of Democrats and 8 percent of Latinos agreed.
The two questions about immigration were part of a broader survey gauging the mood of Californians on the state's economic outlook as well as about specific politicians.
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19.
Report: Immigrants a growing segment of S.C. population
The Charleston Regional Business Journal, September 11, 2009
http://www.charlestonbusiness.com/news/29411-report-immigrants-a-growing-segment-of-s-c-population
A report conducted by the Immigration Policy Center based in Washington, D.C., shows that immigrants make a substantial impact on South Carolina.
Immigrants made up about 4.3% of South Carolina’s total population as of 2007, the report says, and more than one-third of them are naturalized citizens who are eligible to vote.
Immigrants constituted 5.4% of the state’s work force in 2007, or about 118,443 workers, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Unauthorized immigrants made up 2.2% of the state’s work force, or 50,000 people.
Immigrants and the children of immigrants account for 1.3%, or 25,812, of all registered voters in the state, the center said, with 66,603 naturalized citizens living in the state. Latinos constituted 18,000, or almost 1%, of S.C. voters in the 2008 elections, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The Immigration Policy Center’s research also found:
* The purchasing power of South Carolina’s Latinos and Asians totaled $5.2 billion in 2008.
* S.C. businesses owned by Asians and Latinos had sales and receipts of $2.8 billion and employed more than 20,000 people in 2002 (the last year for which data is available).
* If all unauthorized immigrants were removed from South Carolina, the state would lose $1.8 billion in spending, $782 million in economic output and about 12,000 jobs.
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20.
WWII vet finally becomes a US citizen
By Wilson Ring
The Associated Press, September 11, 2009
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090911/NEWS02/309119987/-1/news
Randolph, VT (AP) -- Harry Lee Reynolds loves America and has shown his affection for decades.
He fought in World War II, receiving the Bronze Star on the Pacific Island of Guadalcanal 65 years ago Wednesday. For years after returning from war, he flew the American flag in front of his home. He voted and served on juries.
Reynolds, 88, assumed he was an American citizen all those years. He wasn't.
'It came as a surprise,' he said.
With help from U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and his own research, the problem has been resolved. But the mixup was a bit unsettling for the retired Connecticut businessman who moved to Vermont 25 years ago.
Reynolds thought he became a citizen as a teenager, when his father became a citizen in 1940. But he learned two years ago – when he went to replace a Social Security card – that there was no record that he had been naturalized.
'I became a citizen when my father became a citizen, but they don't give the children any paperwork to prove it, and that is a problem,' Reynolds said.
Problems like his aren't that unusual, especially since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when the government toughened many of its rules and laws. In some cases, people seeking travel documents or the paperwork needed to get government benefits find they never became citizens.
'We are seeing an increase in clients who thought all along they were United States citizens and they probably are, they just don't have the documents to prove it,' said Jean Tharpe, field office director in St. Albans for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Reynolds was born in Stanstead, Quebec, just across the border from Derby Line. His family moved to Massachusetts when he was a toddler where his father ran a paper business.
When Reynolds was in basic training in 1942, Army officials questioned his citizenship.
'They checked me out and said 'you are a citizen,'' he said. 'Then I stayed in the Army.'
After returning from the South Pacific, he got married, had two sons and worked as a distributor of flooring products.
He enjoyed all the trappings of citizenship. He was a regular voter. When he turned 65 he started receiving Social Security.
For Reynolds to derive his citizenship through his parents, both would have had to have been naturalized before he became an adult, Tharpe said. Reynolds' mother didn't become a citizen until the 1950s.
'He had been told repeatedly he was a United States citizen so he just assumed that he was,' Tharpe said.
During the early years of the last century, many people moved into the United States from Canada with few or no immigration formalities, Tharpe said.
'We have 86-, 89-, 90-year-old people coming in here thinking that all their lives they were United States citizens when in fact they weren't,' she said. 'We do our best to provide them with all the information they need to set the record straight.'
In some cases, when a person can show they've been in the United States for decades they're eligible for legal residence and eventual citizenship.
When spoke to Leahy's office, he had plenty of documentation: newspaper clippings about his wartime service, his Army discharge papers, decades worth of tax returns and receipts for life insurance payments.
It took just under two years, but Reynolds' case was relatively simple. His military service made him eligible for citizenship, Tharpe said.
In June Reynolds was told to go the citizenship office in St. Albans. He figured he would be taking a citizenship test. Instead, he was offered the opportunity to take the citizenship oath on the spot. He could have waited for a larger naturalization ceremony, but he did it then.
Everyone in the office cheered after he took the oath, said his wife, Edith. As Reynolds sees it, the oath was just a formality.
'I've always been a citizen and I'm getting the citizenship papers now,' he said.
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21.
Immigrant Finds Path Out of Maze of Detention
By Nina Bernstein
The New York Times, September 11, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/nyregion/11mental.html?hp
Holding tight to her sister’s hand in the bustling streets of New York’s Chinatown last week, Xiu Ping Jiang looked a little dazed, like someone who has stepped from a dark, windowless place into a sunny afternoon.
In a sense, she has. For a year and a half Ms. Jiang, a waitress with no criminal record and a history of attempted suicide, was locked away in an immigration jail in Florida. Often in solitary confinement, she sank ever deeper into mental illness, relatives say, not eating for days, or vomiting after meals for fear of being poisoned.
With no lawyer to plead for asylum on her behalf, she had been ordered to be deported to her native China, from which her family says she fled in 1995 after being forcibly sterilized at age 20. Too ill to obtain the travel documents needed for the deportation to take place, she was trapped in an immigration limbo: a fate that detainee advocates say is common in a system that has no rules for determining mental competency and no obligation to provide anyone with legal representation.
Then, through a fluke, her case came to the attention of The New York Times, which published an article on May 4 about her ordeal and the efforts of her sisters in New York to help her. An immigration judge in Florida reopened the case.
Now Ms. Jiang, 36, is free on bail, living in Brooklyn with her older sister, Yun, a United States citizen, and receiving the medical and psychiatric help she needs while awaiting a fresh immigration hearing close to home — this time with a lawyer. And her case is being held up as an example of the system’s worst and best approaches toward the mentally ill, as advocates press the Obama administration for change.
If immigration courts were required to offer the same basic protections for the mentally disabled as any other court, advocates say, Ms. Jiang’s prolonged detention — which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and put her life at risk — could have been avoided.
Hers is one of several cases cited in a 15-page letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. that asks for such protections, including the appointment of counsel to anyone with a mental disability in deportation proceedings, and the appointment of guardians ad litem to speak on behalf of those found mentally incompetent. The letter, signed by 77 mental health experts, civil rights lawyers and immigration advocates around the country, was sent July 24, but not made public until Thursday.
The Justice Department has made no formal response, but Matthew A. Miller, a spokesman, said the department provided specialized training on handling the mentally ill at the annual conference of immigration judges last month.
'Persons with mental disabilities face significant challenges in removal proceedings, and these cases also present substantial challenges for immigration courts,' he said in an e-mail message. 'We recognize our obligation in this area, and we will continue to review how we can improve our efforts to provide due process and reasonable accommodation.'
Sunita Patel, a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights who signed the letter, said such training was a positive step, but insufficient.
'As Ms. Jiang’s case demonstrates,' she said, 'these difficult cases require all of the proposed protections. And change should happen fast, before more people with mental disabilities disappear into the detention maze.'
Ms. Jiang was held at the Glades County Detention Center in December 2007, after immigration agents stopped her at a Greyhound bus station in West Palm Beach, Fla., where she was traveling to a restaurant job. She had no immigration papers.
At her first brief hearing, the immigration judge, Rex. J. Ford, issued an order of deportation saying that she had failed to show up because she kept answering his question, 'What is your name?' without waiting for the interpreter’s translation into Mandarin.
He sent her back to the jail, where she was deprived of proper treatment and her mental state rapidly deteriorated, according to court petitions on her behalf. She was periodically confined to an isolation cell on suicide watch, records show.
'Immigration detainees with mental-health issues often receive little, if any, treatment,' the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center wrote this year in a report on detention. 'In many cases, their conditions worsen or they destabilize while in detention. They are misdiagnosed, improperly medicated, cruelly treated or denied psychiatric care altogether. Worse, many of those immigrants should not have been detained in the first place.'
Ms. Jiang did not speak at all at a second hearing, before another immigration judge, Scott G. Alexander. He, too, ordered her deported, but reopened the case after The Times article was published, and in June 2009, transferred her from the jail in Glades County to a hospital detention center in Columbia, S.C., for a new assessment of her mental state. There, Ms. Jiang jumped out of a second-floor window, her lawyer says, only to enter an immigration agent’s vehicle and wait inside, apparently thinking it was a taxi.
Her physical condition had deteriorated, too. An obvious lump in her neck, ignored at the jail, was biopsied at the South Carolina center and found to be thyroid cancer; she underwent surgery, said Theodore N. Cox, an immigration lawyer in New York who took the case without fee.
In July, Mr. Cox persuaded the immigration judge in Charlotte, N.C., Theresa Holmes-Simmons, to free Ms. Jiang on $3,500 bail, despite opposition from Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyers who argued that her leap from a window showed she was a flight risk.
On July 17, she went home to Brooklyn with her sister Yun, 38. 'But she was too scared,' the sister recalled. 'I had to bring her to the hospital' — Bellevue Hospital Center, which has treated immigrants regardless of their ability to pay since 1736.
There, after 17 days as a voluntary psychiatric inpatient, she was visibly on the mend when a reporter visited on Aug. 3. Her cheeks were round.
Only months before, when her older sister had visited her in the Florida jail, Ms. Jiang, emaciated and incoherent, had scratched her face and refused to speak to her, the sister said. Now, she added, laughing, 'She calls me on the phone, and says, ‘Visit and bring me some food!’ '
That afternoon, the older sister had brought a feast culled from fruit stands and Chinese restaurants: melon, bags of peaches, sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves, noodles with duck, even the sweet black-bean-paste treats of her childhood in Fujian Province. Ms. Jiang, in blue hospital pajamas, dug happily into the yellow flesh of a melon with a plastic spoon, then paused to answer a question about her detention.
'When they locked me up, I was very cold,' she said softly through an interpreter. 'I asked for a blanket, but they didn’t give me one. It was dark. I got scared, so I think I went crazy.'
Her reason for jumping from a detention center window? 'I wanted to stay in the United States,' she said. 'I like the United States. China had the sterilization — nothing is good.'
Her sister eyed her anxiously. 'Whenever she talks about the past, her hands start to tremble and she gets this faraway look in her eyes,' she said.
Since her discharge from Bellevue in August, Ms. Jiang has been receiving weekly treatment. Doctors recommended delaying a second operation on her neck until her emotional state was more stable, her sister said.
Meanwhile, she does simple chores in the restaurant where her sister is a cashier: cutting broccoli, watching the employees’ children.
'I’m feeling O.K.,' she said last week with a timid smile, fingering the scar at her throat. Her sister smoothed her hair, and guided her onto the subway home.
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22.
‘Look how they left him’
Brutal beating of immigrant, charges against six boys bring alarms in Lynn
By Maria Sacchetti
The Boston Globe, September 11, 2009
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/09/11/attack_on_immigrant_raises_concerns_in_lynn/#
Lynn, MA -- Damian Merida was the seventh of 11 children born in a thatched-roof house with a dirt floor in Guatemala. He was just a boy when he left, following his brothers to the United States because their village had little food, no medicine, no work, and no future.
All of that he found here, in an immigrant enclave of Lynn. Everyone in his family knew how far they had come.
Then, in the middle of a warm summer day on July 22, the family’s vision of America was lost in a blur of bricks, rocks, bottles, and sticks.
As Merida slept under a shade tree in a Lynn park, a mob of children allegedly descended on the 30-year-old landscaper and savagely beat him. The vicious attack is provoking questions and inciting fear throughout this city and beyond, because police say he was targeted because of his ethnicity.
His alleged attackers are six boys age 11 to 14; most were on championship sports teams, and one is an immigrant himself, from West Africa, the Globe has confirmed.
Police are investigating whether the same group was responsible for an attack in the area two weeks before on another man from Guatemala, and are urging the victim to come forward.
Once stocky and strong, Merida is now in Tewksbury Hospital, learning to walk and feed himself. Family members say he has permanent brain damage and will never live and work on his own. Sometimes he suffers from long crying fits. His family is suddenly tens of thousands of dollars in debt.
'Look how they left him,’’ his 66-year-old mother, Teofila Merida, said in Spanish, covering her deeply lined face with hands wrinkled from decades of picking coffee and husks of corn. She stared at a photograph of her son in the hospital, his eyes swollen shut, his face covered in tubes, his legs wrapped in bandages. 'I can’t understand why they would have done it.’’
The boys are facing multiple assault charges, including armed assault with intent to murder, and a civil rights violation because they allegedly targeted him as an immigrant. Authorities would not confirm the boys’ names because they are minors, and juvenile court proceedings are private.
Merida family members and the Daily Item of Lynn said the boys pleaded not guilty and all but one is free pending trial. Lynn public schools suspended four of the boys indefinitely, which they will appeal today, said Rick Iarrobino, a school official. The oldest boy, age 14, is still in state custody.
The sixth boy’s status is unclear. He attended St. Mary’s Junior-Senior High School last year but he did not re-enroll in the fall, the principal said.
Despite their anonymity, the boys are under heavy scrutiny as the city searches for answers. The Anti-Defamation League and the Latino Professional Network condemned the attack this week. Doubts about the attackers’ motive have also surfaced: Frances Martinez, executive director of the nonprofit La Vida Inc., said she did not believe Merida was targeted because of his ethnicity, as crime is widespread in Lynn.
But acting Police Chief Kevin Coppinger said witnesses said the boys targeted Merida because he is Latino. He urged immigrants to report crimes to the police even if they, like Merida, are here illegally and said the police do not generally ask about the immigration status of victims.
'The attack to us was a very serious incident, very out of the ordinary,’’ Coppinger said.
At least five of the six boys had won recognition in their community. Four were on Pop Warner football teams that were among the best in the state last year. In online photographs, one team is pictured being praised in a ceremony at City Hall. After the attack, the boys were allowed to play until the Merida family and others expressed outrage.
One of the boys is a soccer star from West Africa. He is pictured on the Internet with a medal around his neck. He is still playing in a private league, according to his coach, who said he believes the boy is innocent. The coach spoke on condition of anonymity.
Five boys are under age 14 and cannot be tried as adults, but they could be committed to the Department of Youth Services until they turn 18. The 14-year-old could be in DYS until he turns 21, said Stephen O’Connell, spokesman for the Essex district attorney’s office. The district attorney’s office is reviewing whether to try him as an adult.
Merida was not much older than the boys who are accused of attacking him when he decided to move to the United States. But he had a starkly different life.
He was born in a rural village near San Sebastian. His family slept in one large room, scrubbed clothes by hand, carried water for washing and cooking from the river, and cooked over an open fire, according to family members.
His mother, a quick, bubbly woman, said she raised them largely alone because their father, now dead, refused to recognize them all. Sometimes all they had to eat was egg soup seasoned with chili peppers.
None of the children spent more than a few months in school.
By age 11, Damian Merida worked in the fields. At 16, he followed his older relatives to the United States. He crossed the border illegally and took cash-only jobs in Massachusetts landscaping, cleaning, and cooking to send money home to his mother, who later joined them here.
In the United States, his family said, Merida blossomed from a skinny youth to a strong, handsome man. A skilled cook, he delighted his family by breaking two eggs at once, one in each hand, and frying them one-handed in the skillet.
Though still poor, he lives with other family members in a large house in Lynn, with an electric stove, a microwave oven, and plenty to eat.
But relatives said Merida also developed a vice: drinking alcohol. It started years ago when a girlfriend broke up with him, though family members said he had dramatically cut back in recent months.
Instead, he was attending an evangelical church with them, and talked about getting married. 'I want to get my life in order,’’ his mother recalled him saying.
On July 22, he could not find work and decided to have a couple of beers and take a walk to Robert McManus Field, a wide, grassy park about a mile from his house, relatives said. Police said he settled down for a nap near a graffiti-strewn embankment just below the train tracks.
At 2:49 p.m., police said, someone called 911.
At Massachusetts General Hospital, where he spent the first few weeks, family and friends said he was barely recognizable. He cannot precisely remember the attack, friends and relatives say, but suffers violent flashbacks.
'Sometimes he’ll say, ‘Please stop, don’t hit me. Don’t hit me,’ ’’ said Nanci Pye, his landscaping boss. 'And then he’ll start really crying.’’
He was recently transferred to Tewksbury Hospital. His family is trying to move him closer to Salem, so that his mother can see him more frequently, said his brother, Fredy Pojoy.
They are also raising money through Sovereign Bank for his care, Pojoy said.
Merida’s sister-in law and Pojoy’s wife, Maria Gonzalez, said the family has been shaken by the violence, and were troubled that the boys were allowed to return to Pop Warner football until there was public outcry over it. 'My question is, when will we have justice?’’
Before the attack, Merida cared for his mother and they shared a room. Now, in the hospital, she curls up at the foot of his bed to keep him company.
'They tell me to be patient,’’ his mother said, her hands clasped in the apron of her lap. 'If God allows it, he’ll come back. But he’ll never be the same.’’
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23.
Police investigate possible immigration fraud
The Associated Press, September 10, 2009
http://www.kpax.com/Global/story.asp?S=11108008
Twin Falls, ID (AP) -- Police in south-central Idaho are investigating a possible case of immigration fraud after 23 Jerome residents said they were duped into paying for documentation services that were never delivered.
Jerome County Sheriff's detective Rick Cowen says the victims were not trying to buy forged papers, but attempting to take the legal route to obtaining U.S. citizenship.
The Times-News reports nearly two dozen Hispanics in Jerome complained to the sheriff's office in recent weeks, saying they gave large amounts of money to a person who claimed to be an immigration consultant.
Police have not identified the suspect.
Cowen says the victims included legal aliens, people living in the country illegally and U.S. citizens who wanted to update their citizenship status.
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24.
14 migrants found in south-side trailer
Escapee alerted authorities to the drop house
By Alexis Huicochea
The Arizona Daily Star (Tucson), September 11, 2009
Fourteen illegal immigrants were in the process of being deported Thursday after authorities found them in a drop house on Tucson's south side.
. . .
http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/308531
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25.
Border Patrol agents rescue illegal immigrant from Rio Grande
The Monitor (McAllen, TX), September 10, 2009
Mission, TX -- U.S. Border Patrol agents rescued an illegal immigrant who nearly drowned in the Rio Grande early Thursday morning, officials said.
. . .
http://www.themonitor.com/articles/border-30465-patrol-agents.html
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26.
Illegal immigrant pleads guilty to molesting Port Chester girl, 3
By Rebecca Baker
The Journal News (White Plains, NY), September 11, 2009
A 28-year-old illegal immigrant admitted in court yesterday that he molested a 3-year-old Port Chester girl last year, the Westchester District Attorney's Office said.
. . .
http://www.lohud.com/article/20090911/NEWS02/909110315/-1/SPORTS/Illegal%20immigrant%20pleads%20guilty%20to%20molesting%20Port%20Chester%20girl+,%203
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********Center for Immigration Studies
1522 K St. NW, Suite 820
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 466-8185 fax: (202) 466-8076
center@cis.org www.cis.org
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