Daily news updates from CIS

September 30, 2009

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[For CISNEWS subscribers --

1. CIS panel urges crackdown on ID theft
2. Debate on border fence stalling spending bill
3. Sen. Grassley seeks H-1B crackdown
4. Young terror plotter revealed as visa violator (story, link)
5. Afghan terror suspects deny guilt (story, link)
6. ACLU report finds border deaths on the rise (story, link)
7. MA health plan limits immigrant access
8. OK Atty. Gen.'s office targets those defrauding foreigners
9. San Fran. leaders split over enforcement proposal
10. NC county sheriff pursues ICE cooperation
11. Community colleges struggle with students' status
12. NC community college board member defends decision
13. Las Vegas a growing center of Hispanic clout
14. CA activists press birth certificate restriction
15. RI advocate moving on to national endeavors
16. CA professor advocates amnesty
17. Museums nationwide highlighting issue
18. NY museum preserves Chinese immigration history
19. Latinos struggle to cope with housing market
20. American Apparel to lay off 1,800 illegal workers
21. Immigrant remains to be interred formally in NY
22. TN kidnapper posed as immigration agent
23. Illegal admits role in vehicle death of NE child
24. Honduran jailed nine years for drop house involvement
25. NY man accused of conning immigrants
26. Illegal alien sex offender facing expulsion
27. OH pair accused of marriage fraud
28. CO man duped Vietnamese into pension fraud
29. Smuggler accused of rape of 12-year-old (link)
30. Russian mob implicated in OH murder (link)

Subscribe to CIS e-mail services here: http://cis.org/immigrationnews.html

-- Mark Krikorian]


1.
Immigration Analysts Call For Employee Identity Verification
By Leah Valencia
The Talk Radio News Service (University of New Mexico), September 29, 2009
http://talkradionews.com/2009/09/immigration-analysts-call-for-employee-identity-verification/

Tuesday immigration policy researchers stated that illegal immigrants are responsible for the majority of identity theft crime and that little is being done by the Obama administration to stop them.

'What is striking to me… is how astonishingly uninterested in this crime the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration is,' said Stewart Baker, the former Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Policy. 'There is no inclination on the part of either of those institutions to enforce the rules.'

The remarks came during a panel discussion hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies at the National Press Club. Panelists urged employers to verify the identity and citizenship of it’s workers by using government systems such as E-Verify and Social Security Number Verification Services, explaining that 75 percent of working-age illegal aliens use fraudulent Social Security card to obtain employment.

'We are finding that foreign born individuals commit more varieties of identity frauds than Americans do,' CIS National Security Policy Director Janice Kephart said. 'E-Verify is snuffing out counterfeiters relatively well.'

E-Verify, which is a voluntary online system operated by the DHS and SSA where employers can verify the identity of new hires by comparing information from an employment eligibility form to a database, has been a centerpiece in current immigration reform debates. Lawmakers have considered mandating all employers use E-Verify as opposed to the brute force of mass deportations.

However, when E-Verify was written into the Secure America Through Verification and Enforcement Act in 2007, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the system would have cost at least $12 billion over 10 years to implement. In 2005 the Government Accountability Office reported to Congress that E-Verify could not detect identity fraud if, 'An unauthorized worker presents an employer with either valid identity documents belonging to another person, or reasonably well-made counterfeit documents containing valid information about another person.'

'If I were to take your name, your social security number and your date of birth… I could steal your identity through E-Verify and get through, It is not totally fool-proof,' Author of a CIS backgrounder Ronald Mortensen said.

E-Verify was scheduled to expire September 30, 2009 but on Monday Congress passed a Short-Term Funding Resolution that included a 31-day E-Verify extension.

'The difference between now and the future will be that the administration is behind it,' Kephart said. 'They have now been convinced that it is a good program and they are willing to go forward with it.'

EDITOR’S NOTE: The CIS backgrounder “Illegal, But Not Undocumented…” is available online at: http://cis.org/IdentityTheft

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2.
Border fence stalls fiscal 2010 spending bill
By Chris Strohm
Congress Daily (Washington, DC), September 28, 2009
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=43681&dcn=todaysnews

Disputes over several issues are holding up the annual Homeland Security spending bill, including funding for border fencing and the construction of a biodefense facility. And with the new fiscal year three days away, Republicans are seizing on the stalled bill to accuse Democrats of putting the nation's security at risk.

House Appropriations Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., said on Friday that 'significant substantive differences' remain in reconciling the House and Senate versions of the fiscal 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations bill.

Until the differences are resolved, appropriators plan to continue funding the department at current levels under a continuing resolution to keep the federal government operating when the new fiscal year begins on Thursday.

One outstanding difference concerns an amendment in the Senate bill that would require the department to build 700 miles of reinforced double-layered physical fencing along the Southwest border, Obey's office said on Monday.

That amendment was added by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and would require the department to complete the fencing by Dec. 31, 2010. But the department and other lawmakers assert that 700 miles of double-layer fencing is unnecessary and prohibitively expensive. The GAO reported this month that one mile of fencing would cost about $6.5 million.

With frustration apparently mounting, House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Harold Rogers, R-Ky., called on Democratic leaders on Monday to wrap up a conference on the bill.

'If there are outstanding issues as the chairman suggests, you appoint conferees and go to conference to work out these tough issues,' Rogers said in a statement. 'The bill is at a place where a true conference negotiation could resolve these last few outstanding issues out in the open, but we're not sure what the majority is afraid of.'

Another holdup involves funding to build the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan., Obey's office said.

The House bill would deny a $36.3 million request to construct the facility and would prohibit obligation of any funds until a separate risk assessment of the site is completed by an entity other than the Homeland Security Department.

But the Senate bill would provide construction funds, pending a safety assessment and report from the department.

The spending bill's lack of movement triggered a brusque exchange Friday between Rogers and Obey.

'Instead of actually doing our work and fulfilling the security needs of our nation, we are placing a priority on Congress' own budget, putting Homeland Security spending on ice, taking the next few Mondays and Fridays off and basically waiting around until October until we get further direction from on high,' Rogers said on the House floor.

Obey said it is 'patently preposterous to suggest that this bill is being delayed in any way.'

'Under the rules of the body, we can't bring a conference bill back to this House until we've reached agreement on all of those differences,' he said. 'If the gentleman wants to resolve those by agreeing with our position on each of them, I would be happy to see them go to conference right now.'

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3.
Grassley seeks proof of jobs from H-1B applicants
As U.S. set to release H-1B visas, Senator renews calls for tougher enforcement
By Patrick Thibodeau
Computerworld, September 29, 2009
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9138674/Grassley_seeks_proof_of_jobs_from_H_1B_applicants_?taxonomyId=60

Washington, DC -- One of the U.S. Senate's leading critics of the H-1B visa program, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), is asking immigration officials to toughen their demands for evidence from companies hiring visa workers.

Grassley wants IT consulting companies that hire H-1B workers at third party client sites to prove that there is work waiting for them. The timing of his request to the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Service (USCIS) is no accident or is Grassley's interest.

About a year ago, Grassley released a USCIS study that found either evidence of fraud or other violations in one-out-five H-1B visa petitions.

His letter to USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas, released Tuesday, also comes just prior to the start of the new fiscal year, Oct. 1 and the release of 66,700 H-1B visas petitions, a number well short of the cap, applied for since April 1, the start of the annual petition process.

In a statement accompanying the release of his letter to Mayorkas, Grassley said, that 'Employers need to be held accountable so that foreign workers are not flooding the market, depressing wages, and taking jobs from qualified Americans. Asking the right questions and requesting the necessary documents will go a long way in getting out the fraud in the H-1B program.'

Five months after USCIS completed its fraud study, federal officials arrested about a dozen people and charged with fraud. One of the cases involved a New Jersey company, Visions System Group Inc. alleged to have set up shell offices in Grassley's home state. The U.S. recently expanded the case; the company is fighting the charges in federal court.

Grassley said in his letter that the USCIS should be asking, 'companies up front for evidence that H-1B visa holders actually have a job awaiting them in the U.S.,' and not end up being 'benched,' or unpaid until work is found.

Grassley is also seeking information on the progress the USCIS has made on a number of other issues addressed in the fraud report, including job duties that differ from those described in the petition and failure to pay prevailing wages.

In response, a USCIS official said Mayorkas has received the letter and will respond to it.

Grassley's call for tougher steps comes at the same time that some immigration attorneys have complained of stepped up enforcement efforts this year, especially with request for more evidence to support a petition.

Grassley, along with U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill), have introduced legislation that would toughen the rules on H-1B program, and impose a number of restrictions, especially on Indian firms and their ability to use large numbers of visa holders without hiring a proportional number of U.S. workers.

The U.S. can issue up to 85,000 H-1B petitions under the cap, with 20,000 set aside for advance degree graduates of U.S. universities. IT employment is down generally, and with it, demand for the visa.

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4.
Jordanian in downtown Dallas bomb plot stayed on expired visa
By Todd J. Gillman
The Dallas Morning News, September 30, 2009
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-smadiillegal_30met.ART.State.Edition1.4c2111d.html

Washington, DC -- Like millions of others classified by the government as illegal immigrants, the Jordanian teen accused of plotting to blow up a Dallas office tower last week arrived in the United States legally and stayed long after his visa expired.

Federal immigration officials said Tuesday that Hosam Smadi, 19, arrived on a visitor visa, not a student visa as initially believed, in spring 2007.

The difference is crucial: For foreign students, dropping out of school triggers a report to a central database and, often, a follow-up by immigration authorities. For those who arrive as tourists or workers, it's almost certain authorities won't take notice unless they apply for a driver's license, get pulled over or arrested or call attention to themselves.

Officials in several federal agencies were reluctant to say much more about Smadi on Tuesday, citing the ongoing investigation. It's unclear when Smadi or his parents obtained the visa – Jordanians can receive visas that expire in five years, so he could have been as young as 11 or 12.

Once a visa-holder arrives with a 'B2' visitor visa – the sort Smadi apparently received – he has six months to seek an extension or leave the United States.

Jordanian authorities say he spent time in detention when he was 14 or so, for a theft his father says he had reported to teach his son a lesson. It's unclear if U.S. authorities knew about that case, nor whether it would have held up his visa if they did.

However he got here and however long he stayed, Smadi came under scrutiny because, the FBI alleges, he expressed jihadist views on a monitored Web site.

'Unfortunately, a lot of people are coming in for the wrong reasons – to harm Americans or kill Americans, rather than as an innocent tourist,' said Rep. Lamar Smith of San Antonio, the senior Republican on the House Judiciary Committee. 'Once you come into the country on a tourist visa, you've passed 'Go.' People know they're home free and there's no effort made to keep track of them.'

In 1996, Smith wrote a bill – signed into law by President Bill Clinton – requiring the federal government to create a system to track both the entry and exit of foreign visitors. Thirteen years later, it's still a work in progress.

The Homeland Security Department has been building a system called U.S.-VISIT for several years.

The system compares biometric data with security databases, mostly to ensure that a foreigner arriving at a U.S. airport or land crossing isn't using someone else's passport. The data is stored. But, since most ports of entry don't identify departing foreigners, it's almost useless for tracking how many people – let alone which individuals – stayed longer than they were supposed to.

Officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, don't dispute that.

Four of the hijackers involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks had overstayed their visas, and that issue has vexed policymakers and informed the nation's immigration debate for years.

Immigrant advocates agree that relatively little effort is expended to track down people who overstay their visas – though, unlike Smith and others, they say that's fine.

'The government doesn't monitor computers and say: 'Aha.' Quite honestly, we don't have the resources for that,' said Crystal Williams, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. 'Mostly what you'll pick up are people who are just trying to earn a living. I would rather see those resources spent on people who really mean us harm.'

The immigration department has a National Fugitive Operations Program that tracks down foreigners who arrived without permission, and also those who arrived legally but stayed longer than their visas allowed. The top priority is to find people who pose a threat to public safety – people with known terrorist links or criminal records, or active arrest warrants.

A teenager with no known criminal record would not rise to the top of such a list.

The immigration agency posts a list of 15 'most-wanted criminal aliens.' Not one is wanted for an act of terrorism. Most are accused of human smuggling or lewd acts involving children.

After Sept. 11, the government required males age 16 to 70 from a number of countries, most of them predominantly Muslim, to report their whereabouts. The backlash was intense, and the program was largely abandoned.

Washington is spending about $300 million per year implementing US-VISIT (the acronym stands for Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology).

The issue of visa overstays, and other elements of the Dallas case, may come up today at a Senate hearing featuring Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and FBI Director Robert Mueller, focused on the domestic terrorism threat since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Napolitano's predecessor in the Bush administration, Michael Chertoff, estimated that up to 40 percent of the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants had earned that status by overstaying their visas.

'We are at the same place we were before 9/11,' said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, a group that advocates immigration restriction. 'There's been some but not much progress.'

EDITOR’S NOTE: CIS national security publications are available online at: http://cis.org/NationalSecurity

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Teen attended high school, baby-sat, got married before arrest on terror charges
By Melody McDonald and Bill Miller
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TX), September 30, 2009
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/story/1645381.html

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5.
Afghan immigrant pleads not guilty to bombing conspiracy
Denver airport shuttle driver Najibullah Zazi appears in federal court in New York and is being held without bail in what authorities call the first Al Qaeda-linked plot on U.S. soil since 9/11.
By Tina Susman
The Los Angeles Times, September 30, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-zazi-terror30-2009sep30,0,5008522.story

New York -- An Afghan immigrant charged with conspiring to bomb U.S. targets in an attack possibly intended to coincide with the Sept. 11 anniversary pleaded not guilty in federal court Tuesday.

Najibullah Zazi of Aurora, Colo., was ordered held without bail in what authorities have called the first Al Qaeda-linked plot on U.S. soil since the 2001 attacks. He appeared beside his attorney, wearing orange sneakers, black trousers and a tunic. Zazi, 24, his heavy beard neatly trimmed, did not speak, and there were no family members in the packed courthouse.

Prosecutors said the case against Zazi would be 'voluminous' and that the charge against him was 'international in scope.' Zazi has been charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, which could bring a life sentence if he is convicted.

The airport shuttle driver was arrested in Denver this month and initially charged with lying to federal agents who were investigating the alleged plot. His father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, also of Colorado, and a New York imam, Ahmad Wais Afzali, were arrested at the same time and also charged with lying to agents. Both have been freed on bail.

Only the younger Zazi, who has traveled twice to Peshawar, Pakistan, since August 2008, has been charged with conspiring to detonate explosives, using chemicals purchased in large amounts from beauty supply stores.

After Tuesday's brief hearing in federal court in Brooklyn, Zazi's attorney, J. Michael Dowling, challenged prosecutors to produce his client's alleged co-conspirators, saying that without them, the conspiracy charge would collapse.

'I've not seen any evidence whatsoever of an agreement between Mr. Zazi and anyone else,' Dowling said.

'What I have seen is that Mr. Zazi traveled to Pakistan, which is not illegal,' he said.

'Unless Mr. Zazi has an agreement with one or more people to commit an unlawful act, this conspiracy charge cannot be sustained,' Dowling said.

Zazi's next court date was scheduled for December.

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NYC terror suspect pleads not guilty, kept in jail
By Tom Hays
The Associated Press, September 30, 2009
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gT-Kwm3eHQPp5qw5B5yzpuy07XuwD9B1H0DO0

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6.
Border Deaths Are Increasing
Rise Is Despite Fewer Crossers, U.S. and Mexican Groups Say
By Spencer S. Hsu
The Washington Post, September 30, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/29/AR2009092903212.html

Despite a 50 percent drop over the past two years in the number of people caught illegally entering the United States from Mexico, the number of those who died while trying to cross the border increased this year and is the highest since 2006, according to new U.S. data and a study by human rights groups in both countries.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Mexico's human rights agency allege that consistently high numbers of border deaths -- hovering around 350 to 500 a year, depending on which government's figures are used -- are a predictable but largely unrecognized result of border security policies.

'Border deaths have increased despite the economic downturn, fewer migrant crossers, and a steady drop in apprehensions,' Mexico's National Human Rights Commission and the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties in California say in a report set for release Wednesday and obtained by The Washington Post. The rising fatality rates 'signal an escalating humanitarian crisis that is not going away and requires more effective governmental responses,' the groups say.

The findings come as immigrants' advocates increase pressure on Washington to overhaul immigration policies. The administration has signaled its willingness to consider measures that would increase the flow of legal workers and to legalize many of those already here, which some analysts say could reduce illegal crossings.

Until Congress acts, however, the ACLU and Mexico's commission, known by its Spanish acronym CNDH, recommend that both countries prioritize reducing border deaths in bilateral talks, shift border patrol resources to search and rescue, and allow humanitarian groups to do relief work in border areas. The groups also urge that both countries set up a joint 911-type missing persons system run by a non-governmental organization, standardize data collection on deaths and invite international involvement.

Arturo Sarukhán, Mexican ambassador to the United States, called the deaths along the border 'a matter of utmost concern,' citing both countries' efforts to avoid fatalities and to 'break the back' of human smuggling operations. However, he added in a written statement, 'at the end of the day, a secure, orderly, legal and humane flow of migrants will be the only solution to this challenge.'

David Hoffman, chief of the strategic planning, policy and analysis division of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said Washington has taken many steps to reduce border deaths under a 1998 national border safety strategy, identifying dangerous areas with the Mexican government and adding rescue beacons in some areas.

'Every death is a tragedy,' Hoffman said, adding that the Border Patrol has rescued nearly 11,000 illegal crossers in the past six years. 'If there are shortfalls, if there are things we can do better, we are open to doing that,' he said.

The debate over border deaths is drawing renewed attention to a long-standing complaint by human rights groups, one eclipsed lately by the explosion of drug-related violence prompted by Mexico's assault on drug cartels since 2006, which has killed more than 12,000 people in that country.

Analysts have long acknowledged that a U.S. crackdown begun in 1994 in California and Texas increased the hazards for illegal immigrants by driving border crossers from urban centers such as San Diego and El Paso into more remote areas.

The strategy, reflected in plans with names such as Operation Gatekeeper, was intended to focus Border Patrol personnel in places where illegal crossers could disappear quickly into neighborhoods, reasoning that authorities would have more time to catch people trekking through the desert and that the difficulty of such crossings would be a deterrent.

The enforcement push, however, has channeled migrants to places such as Arizona, increasing the number of deaths in the region's inhospitable mountain ranges, Indian reservations, military proving grounds and cactus-filled wilderness.

In the 15 years since the United States began beefing up patrols along the 2,000-mile border, deaths have occurred at a rate of one every 24 hours, the human rights report alleges. Citing Mexico's foreign ministry and media sources, the rights groups say that at least 5,607 deaths occurred between 1994 and 2008.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, the Border Patrol has reported 4,111 deaths in border areas since 1998, not counting those reported first to local authorities.

Meanwhile, the number of people apprehended while crossing the border has dropped steeply. Border Patrol arrests for the year ending Sept. 30 are on track to drop about 23 percent, a precipitous decline that follows a 27 percent drop the year before. Through Aug. 31, the Border Patrol reported 519,394 apprehensions, the lowest number since the early 1970s, and less than half the 2005 level of 1.2 million.

Officials credit the decrease to the economic downturn and increased enforcement. The number of fatalities, however, is on pace to climb slightly this year. Hoffman said Customs and Border Protection is reporting 416 deaths in 2009 so far, compared with 390 last year, 398 in 2007, 454 in 2006 and 492 in 2005, the decade's peak.

Human rights groups say that U.S. agencies typically undercount deaths because of inconsistent classification standards. The CNDH and ACLU report faults governments in both countries, with report author Maria Jiminez saying they lack standards and centralized means to identify, recover and prepare the dead for burial, determine cause of death, and notify next of kin.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The ACLU report is available online at: http://www.aclusandiego.org/article_downloads/000888/Humanitarian%20Crisis%20Report%209-30-09.pdf

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Civil Rights Advocates Say Migrant Deaths A Humanitarian Crisis
By Amy Isackson
The KPBS News (San Diego), September 30, 2009
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2009/sep/30/civil-rights-advocates-say-migrant-deaths-humanita/

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7.
New health plan for immigrants limits network
Three Boston groups denied contracts say patients will suffer
By Kay Lazar
The Boston Globe, September 30, 2009
http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/articles/2009/09/30/new_health_plan_for_immigrants_limits_network/

Many immigrants will no longer be able to get care from three major Boston-area health care networks as of tomorrow, when the state's new health plan for 31,000 legal immigrants begins.

Executives of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Medical Center, and Cambridge Health Alliance said last night that they were denied contracts by the insurance company selected by the state to serve the immigrants. That denial, the hospital officials said, will mean that many of their roughly 10,000 patients will face significant disruptions as they are forced to find new physicians in the network of state-subsidized CeltiCare Health Plan of Massachusetts, and their records are transferred to new providers.

``Patients that expect to have a relationship with a certain doctor or hospital are all of a sudden told they can't have it because an insurance company is intentionally limiting the network'' for no good reason, said Paul Levy, chief executive of Beth Israel Deaconess.

CeltiCare said last night that it is still working to build a ``very robust'' network of health care providers across the state, and that it will make decisions about patients' care on a case-by-case basis.

``If a person is scheduled for an operation with a doctor who is someone outside our network, we will work with that doctor,'' said CeltiCare spokesman Brian Delaney. ``We will not disrupt the important care for people with special cases.''

The immigrants' coverage under the Commonwealth Care plan, the centerpiece of the state's landmark 2006 health care overhaul, expired Aug. 31, after the Legislature initially eliminated $130 million for their care to help balance the state's budget.

Ultimately, legislators restored $40 million, and CeltiCare stepped in to offer a reduced-rate package that will keep core medical services, such as routine doctor visits and hospital treatment, but will no longer cover dental, vision, hospice, and skilled nursing services. In some cases, patients will also have to pay significantly higher copayments for medications and other treatments. Delaney said that CeltiCare's decision to shut out several of Boston's major hospitals - and most of their affiliated community health centers - was a financial decision to control costs.

CeltiCare's network in Boston and beyond is largely composed of physicians and hospitals in the Caritas Christi Health Care and Partners HealthCare networks.

``We are focusing the network with Partners and Caritas Christi, who have come up with creative ways to cover this population, and once you start expanding this, it increases the costs,'' Delaney said.

Coverage starts tomorrow for 13,000 of the immigrants in Greater Boston and will be extended statewide for the rest of the group by Dec. 1.

Health Care for All, a large consumer group that has long advocated for comprehensive care for the immigrants, said it has talked with the administration of Governor Deval Patrick and CeltiCare to try to ensure that adequate care be continued.

``I am encouraged by what I have been told by CeltiCare, but this is not ideal,'' said Amy Whitcomb Slemmer, the group's executive director. ``We have the state spending less than a third on this group than they spent last year and we want to make sure people enrolled in this program get the best care possible.''

A spokesman for the Patrick administration declined to comment last night on the hospitals' concerns about their patients under the new system, and instead issued a statement that noted that state officials did manage to successfully piece together a plan for the immigrants that prevented them from losing all health coverage.

``The plan provides comprehensive health insurance to these 31,000 legal immigrants utilizing the $40 million allocated by the Legislature - an extraordinary accomplishment in the face of such tight budget constraints,'' said Juan Martinez, a spokesman for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

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8.
Scam artists target immigrants
By Michael McNutt
The Oklahoman (Oklahoma City), September 29, 2009
http://newsok.com/scam-artists-target-immigrants-in-oklahoma/article/3404800

Hispanic immigrants, especially those here illegally, are being bilked out of thousands of dollars in motor vehicle sales, home repairs and legal paperwork, an assistant attorney general said Monday.

Immigrants are vulnerable because they are unfamiliar with American customs and business practices and are unaware of available remedies to them, Julie Bays, with the attorney general's consumer protection unit, told members of the Governor's Advisory Council on Latin American and Hispanic Affairs.

Undocumented immigrants, besides struggling with a language barrier, can't turn to law enforcement for help, she said.

'They're not as likely to complain,' Bays said. 'If they're not here legally, who are they going to complain to?'

Council member Guillermo Rojas, editor of a Tulsa weekly newspaper, said he's aware of used-car dealers selling the same car to as many as four or five people in a short period of time. Dealers don't provide a title to the car, and then claim the car when the buyer of the vehicle violates a traffic law and the car is impounded, or the purchaser doesn't make a payment on time.

'They do it on purpose,' Rojas said, noting dealers are to provide a title to the purchaser a couple of weeks after the transaction.

Rojas said another scam consists of a group telling people they can be hired for jobs in other states if they pay $2,000. After paying and driving to another state, the applicant discovers there is no job.

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9.
Newsom Says No, As Supes Say Yes
By Rigoberto Hernandez
Mission Local (San Francisco), September 30, 2009
http://missionlocal.org/2009/09/newsom-says-no-as-supes-say-yes/

The eight supervisors co-sponsoring the ordinance that would report juveniles to immigration authorities only after a felony charge is upheld, said they continue to support it despite opposition from Mayor Gavin Newsom and District Attorney Kamala Harris.

The eight supervisors—a number that makes passage veto proof—said juveniles are entitled to due process and the new legislation 'strikes the right balance' between leniency and overly punitive measures.

The current policy requires juveniles to be reported as soon as they are booked, while up until July 2008, city policy did not require them to be reported at all.

'No one is condoning criminal activity,' said District 9 Supervisor David Campos, who introduced the legislation last month. 'Before we jump into conclusions, let’s give the child due process.'

The Public Safety Committee will take up the proposal on Monday, October 5 and the full board will hold a final vote by the end of October.

The eight co-sponsors include the six progressives and two key swing votes, Supervisors Bevan Dufty, who represents parts of the Mission District, and Sophie Maxwell who represents Bayview-Hunter’s Point.

The controversy over the Campos proposal began when a confidential memo from the city attorney, requested by Mayor Gavin Newsom, was leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle. The memo warned about possible lawsuits the city could face if the ordinance passes.

One of the lawsuits is from the Bologna family, which is suing the city in state court for not reporting Edwin Ramos to immigration officials when he was a juvenile. Ramos, 22, was the alleged killer of three family members including the father, 48, and two sons, 16 and 20.

Though the supervisors are sympathetic toward the family, they argued that the ordinance would not have protected Ramos.

'If the proposed policy were in place when Edwin Ramos had committed crimes as a juvenile, he would have been referred to ICE,' Supervisor Dufty answered to a constituent by email.

Avalos agreed, and immigration advocates told Mission Local that the Bolognas have so far been unsuccessful in their lawsuit against the city.

'I am from the district where the poster child for people who oppose this legislation had committed three murders in one event,' Avalos said. 'The poster child under this legislation would be deported.'

The pressure would also come from the U.S. Attorney for Northern California Joseph Russoniello, a Republican appointee who has warned the city could face more lawsuits should the law pass.

Avalos pointed out that these are only possibilities and the supervisors are prepared to defend the measure. The city attorney has to sign off on the legislation.

Campos said he thinks the law will stand.

'Giving children due process from a legal standpoint is defensible,' said Campos, who is also a lawyer. He added that the city attorney’s memo doesn’t mention any case law or previous opinions from courts.

Supervisor Eric Mar who was once the director of the Northern California Coalition for Immigrant Rights that pushed for sanctuary city in the late 80s, said this legislation would counter the damage the mayor has done.

'[Minors] commit crimes that are far from being felonies like graffiti, depending on where they put their graffiti,' Avalos said. He added that the mayor is more concerned with running for governor and being portrayed as being tough on immigration.

'It is a war of words the mayor is trying to put in place to obscure this legislation and weaken the support for it,' he added.

Dufty said there are families that have been split by the city’s new policy that alerts Immigration Control and Enforcement Agents as soon as an undocumented minor is arrested and charged with a felony. He talked about a minor that was sent to an out-of-state detention center after she was arrested for fighting with her sister.

The supervisors said they are willing to take a controversial stance because public safety is at stake.

'As it is now, too many residents are afraid to cooperate with police investigations, testify in court or communicate with government employees,' Dufty said. 'Teachers, SFPD officers and hospital employees have no training in being effective enforcers of federal immigration law.'

Maxwell also sees the Campos proposal as a human rights issue.

'The basis of our law is ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ Maxwell said. 'If it is the same for you, the same thing should be for them.'

Avalos spoke about the flaws of federal law targeting Latinos and how the legislation would also represent San Francisco as a city.

'It is important local government recognizes the fallacy of that and that we put protection against improper use of federal resources,' Avalos said.

Supervisor David Chiu said he supports the ordinance because it would not subject juveniles to 'draconian federal laws before they have their due process.'

'We (San Francisco) have always supported policies that are supportive and sensitive to the needs of our immigrant communities,' added Chiu, who sits on the Public Safety Committee. 'This is just another law in that realm.

While some supervisors say they have received some negative feedback, they said it’s been mostly positive.

Dufty said it was 'unique' and 'heartening' to be contacted by some 75 people showing support, and while Campos has also received a lot of support, most of the negative comments come from outside San Francisco.

Avalos, on the other hand, said no direct opposition has been raised from his constituents.

'I campaigned saying I did not agree with the new policy the mayor had in place and I won my election,' Avalos said of the general support he receives.

Mar says he has some constituents come in his office yelling anti-immigrant and racist remarks but said most are strong believers of due process.

The supervisors said they are expecting opposition from in and out of San Francisco when the legislation is discussed during the Public Safety Committee on Monday October 5. Campos is urging supporters to show a strong presence.

'It is good to have community come out and show support for the initiative,' he said.

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10.
Duncan working with feds on immigration, rolling out new drug efforts
By David Forbes
The Mountain Express (Asheville, NC), September 30, 2009
http://www.mountainx.com/news/2009/093009buzz1

The Buncombe County Sheriff's Office is pursuing better coordination with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to identify fugitives, says Sheriff Van Duncan. The office is also stepping up its drug-seizure efforts.

'We used to have a lot of problems identifying prisoners because the FBI's fingerprint systems and ICE's system didn't 'talk' to each other,' Duncan said at a Sept. 24 lunch held by the Council of Independent Business Owners. 'We had one couple that was wanted for sexual assault under an alias, but we couldn't identify them, and they got out on bail.'

Local law enforcement doesn't have the authority to arrest people for immigration violations; only ICE agents can do that, said Duncan, who sits on the eight-member N.C. Sheriffs' Association's ICE steering committee.

The Sheriff's Office doesn't consider foreign nationals' immigration status until they have been arrested and jailed on non-immigration-related charges, whether by its deputies or other local law-enforcement personnel. To prevent fugitives wanted by ICE from slipping through the cracks, Duncan initially wanted to have Buncombe join the 287-G program, which would swear in a number of deputies as part-time ICE agents. However, that program would also require the jail to reserve 50 beds for ICE's use. Five counties in North Carolina, including Henderson County, are part of the 287-G program.

'It's expensive, [and] that was a considerable cost,' Duncan said. His office instead decided to go with the Secure Communities initiative, which connects the office to ICE's systems and either turns fugitives over to ICE directly or puts a 'hold' on them until ICE can determine their status.

'ICE are the experts,' he added. 'There's a lot of issues here. Some people entered the country legally — through a work visa — but are here illegally. Immigration law is above even the tax code in complexity. There's a lot of questions about who does or doesn't get deported. We're happy to turn it over to them.'

He admitted the department's handling of immigration issues has drawn criticism from multiple sides of the contentious issue.

'Quite frankly, we do get shot at from both sides,' Duncan asserted. 'We've been criticized by the left side of the issue and [the] Latino advocacy group, because a lot of the people ICE holds in our jail are there for driving offenses: They were driving without documentation, or they failed to appear in court on driving charges, and we issued a warrant for their arrest like we would for anyone else. Well, if ICE is looking at them, there's probably more there than just a driving issue.'

But he also said the department gets a lot of criticism from 'the other side too, who want us checking everyone's documents. We simply can't do that. Legally, practically — we can't do it.'

Out of the roughly 12,000 people the jail has processed this year, 180 have drawn the attention of ICE.

Duncan also spoke about the county's drug-interdiction efforts, noting that a new two-man unit made up of former State Highway Patrol officers is monitoring Interstates 26 and 40 for drug trafficking.

'They look for telltale signs,' Duncan said, pointing to several recent high-profile drug seizures, including the largest cocaine bust in the county's history.

When asked by an audience member what those signs are, Duncan demurred.

'Their methods are legal, tried and true,' he replied. 'The proof is in the pudding. There's definitely a bit of a sixth-sense aspect to it.'

He said that cash confiscated during drug seizures — $4 million so far this year — helps fund salaries and equipment, including the high-powered rifles Duncan said are necessary to counter drug gangs' increasing firepower.

'[The seizures] have saved the taxpayer a ton of money,' he asserted.

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11.
Struggling with status of undocumented students
By Carisa Chappell
The Community College Times, September 24, 2009
http://www.communitycollegetimes.com/article.cfm?articleId=2141

States aren’t sure what to do about the issue of undocumented immigrants. It’s become especially controversial in places like North Carolina, where during the last eight years, the state community college system has changed its mind four times regarding whether to allow undocumented students to enroll at its institutions.

In 2001, the system prohibited undocumented immigrants from enrolling. In 2004, it allowed each college to decide. In 2007, all community colleges were mandated to admit undocumented students. But that was reversed last year when the system prohibited its member colleges from enrolling undocumented students into degree-granting programs.

Last week, system officials changed their minds again, allowing undocumented immigrants to enroll in classes, as long as they have graduated from a U.S. high school. (See story, N.C. system changes policy on immigrants)

North Carolina is not alone in the quandary about how to handle the dilemma, and states vary in their approaches, said Teresita Wisell, director of the Community College Consortium for Immigrant Education (CCCIE).

'Up until now, this issue has been left to the states and to the community college systems to interpret and administer as they deem appropriate,' she said.

Currently, 10 states—including states with large immigrant populations, such as California, Illinois, New Mexico, New York and Texas— allow undocumented immigrants to attend college at in-state tuition levels if they meet certain conditions, Wisell noted Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia and Virginia charge undocumented immigrants out-of-state tuition.

'The other extreme is those states that do not allow undocumented student to enroll in community colleges at all,' Wisell said.

About two years ago, Arizona passed a law denying in-state college tuition and other state funded benefits to illegal immigrants. Proposition 300 requires state agencies to check the immigration status of applicants for state-funded services in Arizona, including child care and adult education as well as in-state tuition and financial aid for college students, said Steven Fountaine of Stone Mountain Community College.

As a result more than 3,400 community college students and close to 300 university students paid the higher non-resident tuition rate because they couldn’t prove their legal status. Proponents of the law argue that the extra tuition money is helping colleges to offer more programs and services, while opponents contend that the higher tuition cost is preventing thousands of potentially undocumented immigrants from enrolling. Opponents add that the law is also hurting the state economically, as many industries are scrambling to find skilled workers to replace retiring baby boomers. Many of these jobs could be filled if undocumented immigrants could afford the required training at community colleges.

Congress has also struggled to address the undocumented immigrant issue. Lawmakers have proposed legislation—the Dream Act—which would allow undocumented young people to be eligible for a conditional path to citizenship, in part in exchange for a mandatory two years in higher education or military service.

'Should the Dream Act pass, then enrollment in college becomes a clear avenue to conditional residency and subsequently citizenship,' said Wisell, adding it might provide for a more consistent policy across states.

However, proponents of the bill haven’t been able to muster the votes in Congress needed to pass it.

Several organizations, such as CCCIE, are working to educate the public on the legislation. Wisell said that the consortium, which was founded last year, will focus on raising awareness about immigrants at community colleges and the challenges they face, creating a vehicle for promising practices to be shared and partnering with other organizations to create an understanding of the issues around credentialing and licensing for skilled immigrants who’ve been educated or trained outside of the U.S.

Wisell noted that one of the top issues being discussed when it comes to immigrant education includes 'how to offer academic programs that best meet the needs of the immigrant student, both for meaningful employment and advancement in the workplace, and as a gateway to associate degrees and onto bachelor degrees.'

Last year, Westchester Community College (New York) received seed money from the JM Kaplan Fund to create the CCCIE. During the first year, the consortium has formed a panel of community college administrators who oversee programs and services for this population and experts in immigrant education issues and English language acquisition.

The Gateway Center, a 70,000-squar- foot building on campus, is due to open in May and will house many of the credit and noncredit programs at the college.

'It will focus on meeting the educational needs of the immigrant community and fostering an understanding of the value of global education among all of our students,' Wisell said.

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12.
Bailey defends vote on undocumented immigrant students
By David Forbes
The Mountain Express (Asheville, NC), September 30, 2009
http://www.mountainx.com/news/2009/093009buzz2

On Sept. 17, the North Carolina Board of Community Colleges voted 20-1 to allow undocumented immigrants to attend the state's community colleges. Two of those 'yes' votes came from local board members: K. Ray Bailey, a Buncombe County commissioner and former president of A-B Tech, and G. Gordon Greenwood, CEO of Asheville Bank.

Both have drawn fire for the decision, and Asheville City Council member Carl Mumpower is among their detractors. In an e-mail sent out Sept. 21, Mumpower called the move 'government-sponsored cultural terrorism' and accused the board members of lying and betraying both the state and federal constitutions.

'It would be my position that the state Community College Board of Directors are also liars,' wrote Mumpower, who has frequently called for the deportation of illegal immigrants. 'Each of the twenty took an oath of office stating a commitment to uphold the U.S. and N.C. Constitutions. There is no truth in pretending their actions remotely support that oath. At a time when NC's unemployment rate is exceeding ten percent, those in charge have decided that illegal workers need access to more training.'

Bailey defended the decision as a result of careful study.

'Undocumented aliens can already attend high schools, they can already attend public universities, so there was a gap there. We needed a policy that worked across the board,' Bailey told Xpress. 'Most of these students are the children of undocumented immigrants, and once they go through high school, get their diploma, [they] have no place to go. The students have to pay out-of-state tuition — which is enormous — and they can't take an open spot in a program while there are citizens on the list. This really applies to just a handful of people.'

Bailey added that 'who this affects are students who can pay the tuition, are working towards citizenship and are getting the skills they need to get a job.'

Mumpower included a list of the board members in a separate e-mail and advised readers to contact them to express their displeasure. Bailey said he had received 'one e-mail that was very negative. I've also heard from about a dozen people in person who supported my decision.'

At press time, Greenwood had not replied to requests for comment.

Critics of the vote have asserted that tax dollars will end up supporting the education of undocumented immigrants who are here in violation of the law and don't pay taxes. Some undocumented immigrants do pay taxes through their employers or ID numbers provided by state and federal governments.

The decision to let undocumented immigrants attend was 'unanimous, except for Lt. Governor Walt Dalton,' Bailey noted. 'The rest of us weren't thinking about politics — we just knew that this was the right thing to do.'

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13.
Vegas figures prominently in Hispanics’ growing clout
CNN and a federal agency director looked west for input on a burgeoning segment of U.S. population
By Timothy Pratt
The Las Vegas Sun, September 30, 2009
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/sep/30/vegas-figures-prominently-hispanics-growing-clout/

Two very different gatherings happened within 24 hours last week in Las Vegas, each at high levels in their respective worlds, each involving Hispanics.

In one, a heavyweight member of the national media sought input from valley residents on a major production, 'Latino in America.' In the other, a top federal official gathered input on future legislation that would affect many of the nation’s Hispanics.

Representatives for each event said they came to town because of the large population of people here with Latin American heritage, about 28 percent. They weren’t the first to include the valley in their plans for that reason. The most noteworthy of recent examples was the Democratic Party’s decision to hold an early presidential caucus here in January 2008, in large part because of the Hispanic electorate.

Last week’s events provided the latest evidence that the Las Vegas Valley’s future cannot be divorced from the future of Hispanics as a population, and is unavoidably linked to immigration.

That seemed clear Thursday night, when CNN made the Springs Preserve the first stop on a tour of at least 15 cities for advance screenings of 'Latino in America,' set to air Oct. 21 and 22. Patterned after last year’s 'Black in America,' the show is an exploration of the role of Latinos in today’s — and tomorrow’s — United States.

The event brought out about a hundred local Hispanic movers and shakers — university department directors, casino executives — as well as everyday people such as Boy Scout troop leaders.

In an hourlong discussion after the screening, audience members asked CNN producers and a panel of four local figures about interpretations of Hispanic identity, their place in local and national history — and the elephant-in-the-room role immigration plays in the daily lives of most Hispanics.

The next morning, for the first time since the federal government created the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2003, its director came to town to talk with the local press, mainly about the possibility of 'comprehensive immigration reform' under the Obama administration. Director Alejandro Mayorkas also met separately behind closed doors with local figures including immigration lawyers and law enforcement officials, as he will in other cities, to take their pulse on the issue, a sort of town-hall meeting.

Mayorkas, only six weeks on the job, was politic when asked how likely reform would be in the near future, especially amid a crumbling economy. 'I don’t know,' he said, hastening to add that the idea remains 'a priority' for his agency and the president.

Of course, politics is the point. The last time a comprehensive immigration reform bill was brought forward in Congress, in 2006, it stalled. Some immigrant advocacy groups have begun pressuring the Obama administration because they are worried that their issue will wind up pushed aside by the president’s many other domestic and foreign policy concerns.

Estimates of the number of families with mixed immigration status in the United States — meaning they include people in the country illegally as well as residents or citizens — go into the millions. And that means many, if not most, Hispanics nationwide, and in the Las Vegas Valley, would be directly affected by any change in immigration law — particularly if it includes a pathway to citizenship.

For Francisco Menendez, a member of the panel that fielded questions from the CNN screening audience and chairman of the UNLV film department, that pathway was a more simple one — he fell in love with and married a U.S. citizen.

Menendez spoke at the screening’s close of his own experience migrating from El Salvador amid a civil war two decades ago, not exactly the best place and time to pursue his goal in life, making movies, he dryly observed.

Since coming here, Menendez has not only realized his dream of directing films and helping form future filmmakers, but also witnessed the Hispanic population’s growth in the valley, with a population that is now seven times its 1990 tally.

He says a confluence of events is occurring, locally and nationally.

'For better or worse, times are changin’ ... and Las Vegas is in that change. It’s a time of great fear for Latinos because of being demonized,' he said, referring to the growth of Minutemen-like sensibilities throughout the Southwest and South.

'But, it’s also a time of great hope,' he added, pointing both to such media breakthroughs as CNN’s show and to the possibility of change in immigration laws, which would affect not just the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants nationwide, but also their millions of family members.

Menendez points to 'Latino in America’s' clever device, profiling different 'Garcias' across the nation. Garcias, the program posits, are now this country’s Smiths. Like Smiths, the filmmaker notes, the millions of Garcias range from the most successful to the poorest.

Several members of the audience last week offered a divided response to the screening: Thank you for telling the stories of some of those Garcias, but please remember not to focus only on the troubles that have come with migrating illegally, or adjusting to a different culture and language, or living in poverty. Please, also tell our triumphs, so the rest of the country knows we have them.

One mixed-background Realtor with the unlikely name of Joe Roosevelt stood up and asked for more stories in all media, including television, about people like him — six-figure salary, English speaker, Latino.

In the program’s defense, producer Kathy Slobogin responded that only 45 minutes of the four-hour program had been screened, and some of those stories are told in the unseen portion.

But the point lingered. On the one hand, as Ray Garza, audience member and founder of The Hispanic Agency, observed, there’s 'an inevitability' to the numbers behind the Hispanic population — 28 percent of the valley’s population, according to Census Bureau estimates, younger than the population as a whole, larger families.

So representation in public life must follow, he and others at the screening say — in the media, in politics and so on.

On the other hand, there’s a desire on the part of many Hispanics for acceptance, a sense of being recognized by the rest of the country for occupying an important place in today’s America.

Which is where we circle back to immigration.

The scheduling of the two events in Las Vegas last week was 'coincidental — but not without meaning,' Menendez said, adding that the film screening became 'more significant' in light of the immigration director’s visit the following day.

'We’re on the verge of something,' he said.

And with the current economic crisis, 'the American dream of greed has vanished.'

He figures Hispanics will be key to shaping what he calls 'a new American dream,' one that puts less emphasis on materialism and more emphasis on quality of life, family and culture.

This, he said, will be a dream that 'makes it more meaningful to be here.'

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14.
Group seeks to limit services for children of undocumented
By Nicole C. Brambila
The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA), September 29, 2009
http://www.mydesert.com/article/20090929/NEWS01/909290302

Aries Jaramillo was born in the U.S. - barely.

Her mother waited until her water broke to cross the border from Mexicali.

'She always told me if I was a U.S. citizen, I could go to school and be better off than if I were born in Mexico,' Jaramillo said.

For eight years, she was raised in Mexico; then her family moved to the United States.

Today, she is the student body president at College of the Desert, where she is studying political science.

Families with mixed legal status - such as the Jaramillos - are one of many complications created by the nation's broken immigration policies that fuel divisive debate over reform, say researchers at the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research center in Washington D.C.

And anti-immigration advocates aren't waiting for President Barack Obama's promised overhaul.

Local supporters are collecting signatures for a proposed California initiative that would require that birth certificates be stamped 'foreign' for U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants - a tactic designed to limit the state benefits they receive.

They want it on the ballot next year.

The proposed measure is hailed by supporters as a way to rein in state spending by discouraging immigrants from having what they dub 'anchor babies,' a derogatory term for U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants that give the family a foothold in the country.

'So many undocumented, illegal aliens cross the border for no other reasons than to have a child here and get on the public rolls,' said Sylvia Crawford, who worked in public health for more than 20 years and is collecting signatures locally for the Republican Women Federation of Palm Springs.

'I've watched it with my own eyes.'

Opponents call the initiative xenophobic and racist.

'It opens the door to further target undocumented people,' said Juan Lujan, a Latin America expert and a programs dean at College of the Desert in Palm Desert.

'Historically, we have been a country that has embraced immigrants. Now we're talking about immigrants being the target.'

Access to services

Undocumented immigrants can receive assistance for their U.S.-born, dependent children, even though they themselves do not qualify for these programs.

The proposed initiative would change that.

Only qualifying participants would be able to claim benefits for their children. So the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants, while citizens, would no longer qualify for social services.

If passed, the proposed initiative would:

Eliminate cash assistance through CalWORKs, a state welfare program for needy California families.

Require that parents sign an affidavit declaring their U.S. citizenship or lawful presence in the country.

Compel counties to issue two types of birth certificates.

Here's how it would work:

Before receiving a U.S. birth certificate for her child, a non-citizen would be required to submit an affidavit declaring her lawful presence in the country. She would also have to declare her country of origin, means of financial support, and provide a photo and fingerprint, along with $75.

The child's birth certificate would then be stamped: 'foreign.'

The county would then submit the information to the Department of Homeland Security.

U.S. citizens, too, would be required to submit an affidavit declaring their citizenship.

At this time, U.S. citizens - regardless of their parents' legal status - are eligible for social services.

Sentiment not new

The measure requires 433,971 signatures to be placed on the June 2009 ballot.

Supporters began collecting signatures this summer.

'Welfare programs hold people like glue here,' said Ted Hilton, a San Diego activist and author of the measure, known as 'the California Taxpayer Protection Act 2010.'

'The state is financially broke. It's time to examine all of the costs, but this one in particular.

'The automatic citizenship program is bankrupting California.'

Hilton - who calls the initiative 'pro American' - said he has nearly 100,000 signatures.

Immigrant advocates call the measure a bad case of déjà vu.

Tight economic times fan an anti-immigrant sentiment, state historians say.

To save California $5 billion annually in 1994, Proposition 187 denied social services, education and non-emergency health care services to undocumented immigrants.

Passed with nearly 60 percent of the vote, a federal court later overturned the initiative, saying it violated the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection clause.

Fast-forward 15 years.

Hilton and his supporters say the state could save millions during one of the worst recessions and a state budget crunch that's seen furlough Fridays, layoffs and shuttered programs.

The changes could result in the state saving more than $1 billion annually, according to the Legislative Analyst's Office, which provides fiscal and policy advice for the state.

The change, however, could potentially cost local governments tens of millions annually in added personnel and storage, the analysis shows.

Unconstitutional?

Legal scholars, historians and Hilton expect a legal challenge to this initiative as well.

'I think the initiative goes against the grain of the 14th Amendment and is unconstitutional,' said Armando Navarro, a UC Riverside political science professor.

'It's a manifestation of the increasing racism that is beginning to again accelerate.'

Calling the proposed initiative 'egregious,' Navarro said it's the result of Congress failing to address immigration reform.

And it could not come at a worse time.

'We created a window for those crazy right-winger types to come up with this type of initiative because there's a vacuum.

'My concern is we were perhaps better organized in 1995 than we are today,' Navarro said of the protests following Proposition 187.

'Who are our leaders? I don't think I can name one. They're moving at a time when we are not at our best.

'However, this could ignite our community.'

In 2006, the Latino community organized against an enforcement-only House immigration bill co-sponsored by Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs, that would have authorized local law enforcement to investigate and detain undocumented immigrants.

Roughly 500,000 people protested in the streets of Los Angeles and in marches across the U.S. Thousands took to the streets in the Coachella Valley.

With the right leadership, it could happen again, Navarro said.

On the campaign trail, Latino leaders threw their support behind Obama in the hopes he would do what former President George Bush could not: create meaningful immigration reform.

Advocates want immigration reform that includes a guest worker program with a pathway to citizenship.

At the North American summit with Mexico and Canada in August, Obama said he still intends to overhaul U.S. immigration policies, but not before 2010.

This proposed initiative would only serve to fan the flames against the undocumented, local advocates say.

Issuing a separate birth certificate, they say, could lead to harassment at best or secondary citizenry at worse.

'If you're born here, you are a U.S. citizen regardless of where your parents are from,' said Sylvia Cardona, a member of Comité Latino, a Coachella- based group that advocates for fair immigration reform and protested in the valley in 2006.

Jaramillo says she frequently thanks her mother, who about five years ago became a U.S. citizen, for that clandestine trip across the border.

The way Jaramillo sees it, regardless of whether the state sees any real savings from the proposed initiative, the fallout will be personal.

'Yes, they're not citizens,' Jaramillo said. 'But at the end of the day, they're still human.'

California Taxpayer Protection Act 2010

A group is trying to collect 433,971 signatures to place a measure on the June 2009 ballot that would require that birth certificates be stamped 'foreign' for U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants - and limit the state benefits they receive.

Supporters began collecting signatures over the summer.

Roughly 64 percent of Californians say they believe undocumented immigrants place a major strain on the state's budget, according to a July Rasmussen Report, which tracks and distributes public opinion polls.

In 2006, a Desert Sun analysis found undocumented immigrants pump nearly $1.5 billion annually into the Riverside County economy while costing residents roughly $220 million for the social services they use.

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15.
Latino group s leader leaving
By Karen Lee Ziner
The Providence Journal-Bulletin, September 29, 2009
http://www.projo.com/

Central Falls, RI -- After three years at the helm of Progreso Latino, executive director Ramón Martínez says he is leaving the advocacy organization to pursue national endeavors and explore a range of possibilities.

Martínez notified the agency s board of directors two weeks ago that he intended to resign. He formally announced it at a Progreso Latino 32nd gala event last Thursday, where he was honored for his leadership. Last Friday was his last day at Progreso.

George Ortiz, the agency s chief operating officer, will be interim executive director. He said he probably will enter into negotiations to stay on permanently, but we haven t gotten that far yet.

Martínez, 56, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, said he plans to remain in Rhode Island and pursue a new career.

It’s time to leave, Martínez said. I really want to do something national and although the vision we announced [for Progreso Latino] was to be national one day, I want to be national now. Martínez said he has been approached with other opportunities, including as a business consultant.

Dispelling rumors, Martínez said, I do not have any intention of challenging U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy during the 2010 election for the state s 1st Congressional District.

The agency, at 626 Broad St., offers services ranging from adult basic and secondary education, citizenship and immigration services and job and business development to a Latino wellness center and a preschool program.

Asked to cite his proudest accomplishments, Martínez said he believes that Progreso Latino has become a voice with our leadership. He said that includes his speaking up at the General Assembly on immigration-related legislation and other bills that affect immigrants and minorities, and articulating the agency s message through the media.

He said he has realized the goal of developing the agency s preschool into a top-notch program. The school was still in a probationary period when he arrived: Now we are out of probation, certified and selected as one of seven sites of the Rhode Island Department of Education prekindergarten demonstration project, in partnership with the Central Falls school district.

The Rev. Eliseo Nogueras, chairman of Progreso Latino s board, said, Ramón’s leadership has definitely been a great thing, not only for Progreso, but for the Hispanic community as a whole, and for advocacy for all of the immigrant communities.

Ortiz, the interim executive director, said there are some great, exciting things going forward for Progreso Latino, including the agency s first-time sponsorship of the Hispanic Business Expo on Oct. 23.

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16.
Dispelling bias against Latinos
By Jennifer Torres
The Record (Stockton, CA), September 30, 2009
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090930/A_NEWS/909309993/-1/NEWSMAP#STS=g08a6hvm.1kit

Stockton, CA -- Complicating and confounding efforts to reform the country's immigration laws are widespread portrayals of Mexican immigrants as a threat to national culture and unity, Leo Chavez, an author and anthropology professor at the University of California, Irvine, said Tuesday night in a lecture at University of the Pacific.

Chavez's speech was the keynote event in the university's Latino Heritage Month program.

Over the past 40 years, he said, representations of Mexican immigrants as invaders and fear-churning distortions of their fertility in the media and popular culture have contributed to beliefs that Latinos neither deserve to be nor are capable of becoming Americans.

'Who do you allow into that circle?' he said. 'How do you allow that process to occur? Who do you allow to become an American?'

Chavez's presentation, based in part on his recent book, 'The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens and the Nation,' incorporated images from mainstream magazine covers warning, 'There'll be no end to the invasion by ‘illegals'?' and noting 'the browning of America.' It also referenced quotes from pundits such as Pat Buchanan.

Americans tend to take a romantic view of past immigration flows, Chavez said, characterizing immigrants of the past as people who were welcomed and who worked hard to assimilate quickly.

'Unfortunately, that story ... is not necessarily true,' he said, 'But we like to tell that story over and over again, because it's a pleasant one.'

In contrast, Mexican immigrants are seen as unwilling to learn English and to participate in any culture besides their own, Chavez said.

But, he said, he has participated in research that found, in part, that while first-generation immigrants do prefer to use their native language, by the third generation, individuals in those families overwhelmingly speak English at home. Fertility rates also drop over generations.

According to figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, there are about 153,051 immigrants — about 23 percent of the overall population — living in San Joaquin County, more than half from Latin America. Of those, most come from Mexico.

Among Mexican immigrants living here, about one-quarter are naturalized, and most speak Spanish at home.

Their average family size is 4.58 people, compared with the 3.39 average among native-born residents of all ethnicities.

Chavez's talk drew about 80 people to the Pacific Theater, including a group of students from Weston Ranch High School as well as leaders in the local Latino community and representatives from the nonprofit El Concilio.

He advocated creating a means by which undocumented immigrants — especially those who were born in foreign countries but raised and educated here — could obtain citizenship.

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17.
Museums to take on immigration debate
By Sophia Tareen
The Associated Press, September 30, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-immigrationmuseum,0,3711731.story

Chicago (AP) -- With little movement on Immigration reform among lawmakers, the debate is entering a new space: museums.

From New York to San Francisco, a network of museums will address tough questions on Immigration, including health care, borders and citizenship.

The idea is to get community leaders and activists talking to each other in locations connected to history, with the ultimate goal of figuring out how to achieve reform.

The first of the events starts Wednesday in Chicago at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum. It's called 'Face to Face: Immigration Then and Now.'

The museums are part of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, which has over 200 members.

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18.
Immigration Stories, From Shadows to Spotlight
By Nina Bernstein
The New York Times, September 29, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/nyregion/30chinese.html

Frail and dignified at 88, the man leaned on his cane and smiled as the story of his immigration in 1936 flashed behind him on a museum wall. Like tens of thousands of others who managed to come to the United States from China during a 60-year period when the law singled them out for exclusion, the man, Tun Funn Hom, had entered as a 'paper son,' with false identity papers that claimed his father was a native citizen.

From top, Mr. Hom as a younger man and during his military service, which eased his path to citizenship. At bottom, Mr. Hom, his wife and his daughter Mary after he became a citizen.

For years, it was a shameful family secret. But Mr. Hom, a New York laundry worker who helped build battleships in World War II and put three children through college, outlived the stigma of an earlier era’s immigration fraud.

A narrow legalization program let him reclaim his true name in the 1950s. His life story is now on permanent display at the Museum of Chinese in America, which reopened last week at 215 Centre Street. And it illuminates an almost forgotten chapter in American history, one that historians say has new relevance in the current crackdown on illegal immigration.

'When we think about illegal immigration, we think about Mexican immigrants, whereas in fact illegal immigration cuts across all immigrant groups,' said Erika Lee, the author of 'At America’s Gate: Chinese Immigration During the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943.' The book traces how today’s national apparatus of immigration restriction was created and shaped by efforts to keep out Chinese workers and to counter the tactics they developed to overcome the barriers.

The current parallels are striking, said Professor Lee, who teaches history at the University of Minnesota. And though some descendants of paper sons do not make the connection, many others have become immigrant rights advocates in law, politics or museums like this one, which hopes to draw a national audience to its new Chinatown space, designed by Maya Lin.

'In the Chinese-American community, it has only been very recently that these types of histories have been made public,' Professor Lee said. 'Even my own grandparents who came in as paper sons were very, very reluctant to talk about this.'

For Mr. Hom, who was a teenager when he arrived to work in his father’s laundry on Bleecker Street, the past is now a blur. 'It was so long ago that I hardly remember,' he said, as his wife, Yoke Won Hom, 82, straightened the lapels of his suit for a photograph.

But when his memory was still sharp, his daughter Dorothy transcribed 48 pages of his taped recollections, which became the basis of a four-minute first-person narrative produced by the museum. It is one of 10 such autobiographical videos that form the museum’s core exhibit.

'To get into the U.S. under the laws back then, I had to pretend to be another person,' Mr. Hom wrote. His father had bought him immigration papers that included 32 pages of information he was to memorize in preparation for hours of interrogation at Ellis Island.

Such cheat sheets were part of an elaborate, self-perpetuating cycle of enforcement and evasion, historians say. The authorities kept ratcheting up their scrutiny and requirements for documents, feeding a lucrative network of fraud and official corruption as immigrants tried to show they were either merchants or native-born citizens, groups exempt from the exclusion laws.

Mr. Hom was allowed ashore as Hom Ngin Sing, a student and son of a native. In reality, his father had made it to the United States only about six years earlier, through a similar subterfuge, like an estimated 90 percent of Chinese immigrants of the period.

Like many poor families from Taishan, a region that sent many emigrants to California during the Gold Rush of 1849, the Homs had deep ties to the United States. Mr. Hom’s great-uncle, for example, died in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

But unlike any other immigrant group, the Chinese were barred from naturalizing. That bar was part of the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was passed in 1882 after years of escalating anti-Chinese violence in the West spurred by recessions, labor strife and a culture of white supremacy.

The law was expanded in 1892 with a measure that required all Chinese to register with the government and subjected them to deportation unless they proved legal residency, which required the testimony of at least one white witness.

In a comment that reflected the tone in Congress, one senator asserted that the government had the right 'to set apart for them, as we have for the Indians, a territory or reservation, where they should not break out to contaminate our people.'

Lawyers argued that the law was repugnant to 'the very soul of the Constitution.' But it was upheld in a sweeping Supreme Court decision of 1893, Fong Yue Ting v. United States, which held that the government’s power to deport foreigners, whether here legally or not, was as 'absolute and unqualified' as the power to exclude them. That finding reverberates today, said Daniel Kanstroom, a legal scholar and the author of 'Deportation Nation.'

Long after exclusion laws were repealed by Congress in 1943, after China became a World War II ally, that vast power over noncitizens was deployed in raids against immigrants of various ethnic groups whose politics were considered suspect.

In the 1950s, Mr. Hom and his relatives, like many Chinese New Yorkers, suddenly faced the exposure of their false papers in just such an operation. The government was tipped off by an informer in Hong Kong as part of a cold war effort to stop illegal immigration.

'We were very scared,' said Mrs. Hom, who worked at the family’s laundry, first in the Bronx, then in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. 'Everybody was very worried on account maybe they all be sent back to China.'

But in a government 'confession program,' Mr. Hom and some of his relatives admitted their illegal entry; because Mr. Hom had served in the military, he received citizenship papers within months.

As someone who never made it to high school, he now beams over his children’s professional successes and his six multiethnic grandchildren. His son, Tom, is a dentist in Manhattan; his daughter Mary is a physician in the Syracuse area, and Dorothy, an interior designer, works with her husband, Michael Strauss, a principal with Vanguard Construction, which recently completed DBGB Kitchen and Bar, Daniel Boulud’s latest restaurant.

At a time when debates about immigration often include the claim that 'my relatives came the legal way,' referring to a period when there were few restrictions on any immigrants except the Chinese, the Hom family has a different perspective.

'One’s status being legal or illegal, it’s two seconds apart at any point,' Dorothy said. 'For some, the process is more difficult than others.'

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19.
Foreclosures Impact Latino Immigrant Communities
By Sylvia Maria Gross
The KCUR News (Kansas City, KS), September 28, 2009
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kcur/news.newsmain/article/1/0/1559490/KCUR.News/Foreclosures.Impact.Latino.Immigrant.Communities

Kansas City, KS -- The foreclosure crisis has brought a particular set of issues to Latino immigrants in the Kansas City area. Because of language barriers and the lack of a credit history, many immigrants are vulnerable to predatory lenders. They haven't faced more foreclosures than other groups. But when they do have housing problems, there are a few places where they can turn for help.

Carmen and Luis Amiel came to Kansas City about three years ago to buy a house.

'Because I lived 16 years in California and could never buy a house,' Luis Amiel says. 'Because it was too expensive.'

Luis Amiel is from Peru, originally, and Carmen Amiel is from Mexico, where she had studied architecture. They met in Los Angeles, married and had three children. But then Carmen heard from some relatives about the good housing market in Kansas City.

She says they were excited about possibility of a house, with space for their kids, decent schools, and a quiet neighborhood. Her family recommended a real estate agent.

He sold the Amiels a $60,000 house with many structural problems. He promised to fix them, but never did.

'Because they didn't have the knowledge,' says Licha Ybarra, who runs a home ownership program at Harvest America, a non-profit agency based in Kansas City Kansas. 'They didn't know what to do. They didn't know how to do it. They didn't know who to go to. They were not able to get anything done, period.'

Earlier this year, the Amiels came to Harvest America looking for help, when Luis lost one of his two jobs, and they fell behind in their mortgage payments. In the past year, Licha Ybarra's office has gotten hundreds of calls for help with loan modifications, mainly from Latino immigrant families.

'Someone just found out about Harvest America,' Ybarra says. 'And then we had all these calls; so we had a high volume of, unfortunately, foreclosure cases.'

For Ybarra, it's been a stunning turn of events. About 15 years ago, she helped found one of the first local home-buyer programs geared towards Spanish speakers.

'There was a boom,' Ybarra says. 'In their countries, you have to be rich to buy a house and when they found out that all they needed was between a three percent and five percent down-payment. It was just word of mouth!'

In the late 1990s, several banks saw this as an under-served market. They began translating mortgage applications into Spanish, and accepted taxpayer IDs for those who didn't have social security numbers.

'I have to tell you that most Latinos are ready,' Ybarra says. They have their money saved up, they have their savings, they have great work history, great rent history.

Ybarra says if they don't have traditional credit, she and the banks will work with home-buyers to come up with an alternative. But without that help, immigrants were at the mercy of some unscrupulous lenders.

'So here they were signing all these documents, you know, paying all these high fees, interest rates, paying all this money to the broker, to the real estate agent. And you know what, a lot of Spanish-speaking brokers, and a lot of Spanish-speaking real estate agents sadly took advantage of their own people.'

In the past year, Ybarra says she's been able to help most families with bad mortgages get loan modifications.

Now this doesn't mean that Latino immigrants have had more problems with foreclosures than others. Ann Murguia heads the Argentine Neighborhood Development Association. She's been tracking foreclosures throughout Wyandotte County, where she's also a Unified Government Commissioner.

'Based on my experience in Argentine,' Murguia says, 'The number of foreclosures with migrants is few and far between.'

Murguia's observations coincide with a national report from the Pew Hispanic Center, which says the rate of homeownership among immigrant Latinos has stayed the same in the past couple of years. That's even while homeownership has dropped for US-born Latinos, African Americans and whites.

'Migrants typically don't over-extend themselves,' Murguia says. 'It's a very conservative population, and they try to live within their means.'

Murguia says even in situations where families have been the victims of predatory schemes, many will just keep paying a large portion of their incomes on loans they'll probably never pay off. And that's for modest homes.

'People want to keep paying because they don't want to raise any attention to themselves. And I don't just say that because they're undocumented. They don't want to cause problems, they don't want to make waves, and so - they don't complain.'

Back at Harvest America, Licha Ybarra says some of these same predatory lenders are now charging families to do loan modifications.

Ybarra tells the Amiels, 'Don't trust someone just because they speak your language.'

And as for them, Luis Amiel hasn't been able to find enough work here. So he's thinking about going back to California, while Carmen and the kids stay in Kansas City.

'How sad,' Licha Ybarra says, 'That they'll need to be separated just to keep paying for their home.'

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20.
Immigration Crackdown With Firings, Not Raids
By Julia Preston
The New York Times, September 30, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/us/30factory.html?hp

Los Angeles -- A clothing maker with a vast garment factory in downtown Los Angeles is firing about 1,800 immigrant employees in the coming days — more than a quarter of its work force — after a federal investigation turned up irregularities in the identity documents the workers presented when they were hired.

The firings at the company, American Apparel, have become a showcase for the Obama administration’s effort to reduce illegal immigration by forcing employers to dismiss unauthorized workers rather than by using workplace raids. The firings, however, have divided opinion in California over the effects of the new approach, especially at a time of high joblessness in the state and with a major, well-regarded employer as a target.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat, called the dismissals 'devastating,' and his office has insisted that the federal government should focus on employers that exploit their workers. American Apparel has been lauded by city officials and business leaders for paying well above the garment industry standard, offering health benefits and not long ago giving $18 million in stock to its workers.

But opponents of illegal immigration, including Representative Brian P. Bilbray, a Republican from San Diego who is chairman of a House caucus that opposes efforts to extend legal status to illegal immigrants, back the enforcement effort. They say American Apparel is typical of many companies that, in Mr. Bilbray’s words, have 'become addicted to illegal labor.'

'Of course it’s a good idea,' Mr. Bilbray said of the crackdown. 'They seem to think that somehow the law doesn’t matter, that crossing the line from legal to illegal is not a big deal.'

In July, the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as ICE, opened audits of employment records similar to the one at American Apparel at 654 companies around the country. John T. Morton, who, as assistant secretary of homeland security, runs ICE, said the audits covered all types of employers with immigrant workers, including many like American Apparel that were not shadowy sweatshops or serial violators of labor codes.

The investigation at American Apparel was started 17 months ago, under President George W. Bush. Obama administration officials point out that they have not followed the Bush pattern of concluding such investigations with a mass roundup of workers. Those raids drew criticism for damaging businesses and dividing immigrant families.

Immigration officials said they would now focus on employers, primarily wielding the threat of civil complaints and fines, instead of raids and worker deportation.

'Now all manner of companies face the very real possibility that the government, using our basic civil powers, is going to come knocking on the door,' Mr. Morton said.

The goal, he said, is to create 'a truly national deterrent' to hiring unauthorized labor that would 'change the practices of American employers as a class.'

The employees being fired from American Apparel could not resolve discrepancies that investigators discovered in documents they had presented at hiring and in federal Social Security or immigration records — probably because the documents were fake. Peter Schey, a lawyer for American Apparel, said that ICE had cited deficiencies in the company’s record keeping, but that the authorities had not accused it of knowingly hiring illegal workers. A fine threatened by the agency was withdrawn, Mr. Schey said.

After months of discussions with ICE officials, the company moved on its own to terminate the workers because, Mr. Schey said, federal guidelines for such cases were 'in a shambles.' The Bush administration proposed rules for employers to follow when workers’ documents did not match, but a federal court halted the effort and the Obama administration decided to abandon it.

With its bright-pink, seven-story sewing plant in the center of Los Angeles, American Apparel is one of the biggest manufacturing employers in the city, and makes a selling point of the 'Made in U.S.A.' labels in its racy T-shirts and miniskirts. Dov Charney, the company’s chief executive, has campaigned, in T-shirt logos and eye-catching advertisements, to 'legalize L.A.,' by granting legal status to illegal immigrants, a policy President Obama supports.

Since the audit began, Mr. Charney has treaded carefully, eager to show that his publicly traded company is obeying the law, and to reassure investors that the loss of so many workers will not damage the business, since production has slowed already with the recession.

But Mr. Charney is also questioning why federal authorities made a target of his company. Over the summer he joined his workers in a street protest against the firings. Because the immigration investigation is still under way, Mr. Charney declined to be interviewed for this article but did respond in an e-mail message.

The firings 'will not help the economy, will not make us safer,' he said.

'No matter how we choose to define or label them,' he said, illegal immigrants 'are hard-working, taxpaying workers.'

On a recent visit to American Apparel’s factory floors here, amid the whirring of sewing machines and the whooshing of cooling fans, a murmur of many languages rose: mostly Spanish, but also Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Portuguese. Masseurs were offering 20-minute massages for sewers in need of a break.

But there was also a mood of mourning, as work was interrupted with farewell parties. The majority of workers losing their jobs are women, most of whom are working to support families. Many departing workers have been with the company for a decade or more.

Executives said many workers had learned skills specific to a proprietary production system that allows American Apparel to make 250,000 garments a week in Los Angeles, while keeping prices competitive with imports from places like China.

Some workers who are leaving said the company had been a close-knit community for them. Jesús, 30, originally from Puebla, Mexico, said he was hired 10 years ago as a sewing machine operator, then worked and studied his way up to an office job as coordinating manager.

'I learned how to think here,' said Jesús, who would not reveal his last name because of his illegal status.

The company provides health and life insurance, he said, and he earns about $900 a week, with taxes deducted from his paycheck.

Like many others, Jesús said his next move was to hunt for work in Los Angeles. He will not return to Mexico, he said, because he is gay and fears discrimination.

'There they treat you and judge you without even knowing you,' Jesús said.

He said several job offers from mainstream garment makers in this country had been withdrawn once he was asked for documents.

'Being realistic,' he said, 'I guess I’m going to have to go to one of those sweatshop companies where I’m going to get paid under the table.'

ICE has made no arrests so far at the factory. But Mr. Morton of ICE said the agency would not rule out pursuing workers proven to be illegal immigrants.

Mr. Schey said company human resources managers had added new scrutiny to hiring procedures. But workers facing dismissal pointed to the line of job applicants outside the factory one recent day, who, like many of them, were almost all Spanish-speaking immigrants.

'I think the Americans think that garment sewing is demeaning work,' said Francisco, 38, a Guatemalan with nine years at the plant who is being forced to leave.

A top supervisor, he is training new employees to replace him.

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21.
Immigrant remains to be interred on Staten Island
By Ray O'Hanlon
The Irish Echo (NY), September 30, 2009
http://www.irishecho.com/newspaper/story.cfm?id=19680

They were forgotten for years and then rediscovered during construction work in the parking lot of a Staten Island courthouse.

But on Saturday, October 17, the remains of Irish and German immigrants from the mid-19th century will be interred with full ceremony and ritual in a local cemetery.

But only for a couple of years.

The plan is to re-inter the remains at the original site of discovery in 2012, this once the construction work has been concluded at the court site.

The final resting place will be known as 'Memorial Green.'

The remains were exhumed in 2007 from an existing parking area, the St. George municipal lot, which dates to the 1950s. The site is at the intersection of St. Mark's Place, Hyatt Street and Central Avenue in the St. George neighborhood.

The remains are those of Irish and German immigrants who died in the mid-1800s of diseases such as typhus and yellow fever in a quarantine hospital situated close to the present day court complex.

The burial site was rediscovered as a result of an archaeological dig in a parking area designated for the new state court building.

The dig site was once known as the Marine Hospital Complex, a facility that operated from 1799 until 1858 and was propelled into the front lines of the Great Hunger tragedy during the 1840s.

The advocacy group, Friends of Abandoned Cemeteries of Staten Island, headed by local activist Lynn Rogers, originally wanted to inter the remains in Staten Island Cemetery, a restored burial ground just a mile from the four-acre, $114 million court complex.

This eight-acre cemetery dates to 1802 and before that was a Native American burial ground. It was restored about 25 years ago and is maintained by the Friends, a charitable group that includes a number of local members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.

The Friends were especially fearful that the remains would be left in what was a shallow grave at the court house site. But, in a series of negotiations, a compromise was brokered leading to the temporary burial in the cemetery and eventual permanent interment at the specially created memorial location.

'It has been very important to us that these remains were treated with respect and brought back to Staten Island and out of storage boxes in Brooklyn,' said Rogers, who is executive director of the Friends group.

'Once back on Staten Island they will be housed in a receiving tomb in a cemetery until the original cemetery is prepared and rehabilitated at the site.

'By 2012 the remains will be permanently re-interred to the original site which will be raised and landscaped. Monuments will also be erected,' she said.

The October 17 ceremony, which is free and open to the public, will begin with Mass at St. Peter's Catholic Church at St. Mark's Place, concelebrated by Monsignor James Dorney and Rev. Richard Michaels.

The Mass will be followed by the temporary entombment ceremony at 11 in Moravian Cemetery. The laying to rest will be watched over by an Ancient Order of Hibernians honor guard.

After the entombing, there will be a reception hosted by Tappen Park Oktoberfest featuring Irish and German music.

'There has been a lot of interest expressed about the ceremony,' said Bill Reilly, one of the leading AOH campaigners in the effort to secure proper burial for the immigrant remains.

'The names and lives of these individuals as well as Staten Island's unique history as a major quarantine station for New York Harbor have been forgotten for the past 151 years. On October 17 this history will be remembered,' said Lynn Rogers.

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22.
Newborn kidnapped after mom stabbed in Nashville home
The Tennessean (Nashville), September 30, 2009
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090930/NEWS03/90929084/1009/NEWS02/Newborn+kidnapped+after+mom+stabbed+in+Nashville+home

Metro police, the TBI and the FBI are searching for a Lebanon woman in the abduction of a 4-day-old baby taken from his South Nashville home Tuesday afternoon after a brutal attack on his mother.

A citizen's tip helped police identify Lisa Sampson, last know to have lived on Sugar Flat Road, as a person of interest in the kidnapping. Sampson is described as 5 feet, 6 inches tall, weighing 225 pounds. Anyone with information is asked to call local police or 1-800-TBI-FIND.

Earlier story

Metro police and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are searching for a four-day-old baby stolen from his South Nashville home Tuesday afternoon following a brutal attack on his mother.

Maria Gurrolla, 30, told investigators that a white woman in her 30s with blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail knocked on her door at about 2:30 p.m. and claimed to be an immigration agent.

She asked the new mother to see her immigration papers. Gurrolla let her inside and the woman turned on her with a butcher knife.

Gurrolla 'was stabbed multiple times,' said Metro Police spokeswoman Kristin Mumford. The mother ran out a side door.

She knocked on Eric Peterson's front door three houses down on East Ridge Drive.

At first, Peterson said he thought Gurrolla was playing a prank on him, but then he got a good look at her.

'She had stab wounds from head to toe,' Peterson said. 'She was telling me to go get (her) babies and that a lady attacked her in her kitchen.'

Mumford said Gurrolla's attacker was still in the house when she ran out. Gurrolla told investigators she saw a black four-door car resembling a police sedan parked in her driveway.

Peterson found Gurrolla's 3-year-old daughter outside the house wearing only a diaper.

'I wasn't sure if she could speak English, so I told her to come on and I didn't have to say it again,' Peterson said. 'She jogged behind us back to the house.

Moments later, an ambulance arrived and took Gurrolla to Vanderbilt University Medical Center where she remains in critical condition with stab wounds to the head, neck, breast and thigh, her family said.

As investigators worked behind a blue sign saying 'It's a boy' in the front yard and yellow crime scene tape surrounding Gurrolla's home, her husband of four years, Antonio Carillo, and her cousin Jessenia Sigala, watched.

Detectives would not allow them to leave the scene until all the interviews were done, Sigala said.

'I was with her all morning,' Sigala said. 'I left for a job interview and this happened.'

Carillo said his wife had been receiving strange phone calls for about two days before the incident.

'They would call from a private number and make weird sounds then hang up,' Sigala said. 'They just thought it was someone playing a prank so they stopped answering them.'

Police said Gurrolla's injuries were not life threatening and that she was talking to detectives at the hospital.

Sigala said she was certain the announcement sign in the front yard played a role in the abduction.

'Nobody knew outside the family that he'd been born,' she said. 'They just got out of the hospital last night.

'All I'm thinking is about the baby. Is he eating? Is he okay? Is he alive?'

Mumford said police are asking for the public's assistance in locating the suspect.

'If anyone sees a woman with a baby that doesn't look like it belongs to her, call 911,' she urged.

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23.
Illegal immigrant faces prison
By Todd Cooper
The Omaha World Herald (NE), September 30, 2009
http://www.omaha.com/article/20090930/NEWS01/709309953

The suspended driver and illegal immigrant blew a red light and slammed a pickup into a minivan near 180th Street and West Center Road in May — killing 4-year-old van passenger Josie Bluhm.

For those actions, Eleazar Rangel-Ochoa pleaded no contest Tuesday to driving under suspension, a felony, and misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide.

And Rangel-Ochoa remains distraught, his attorney said.

He isn't the only one. Josie's loved ones, including parents Kyle and Jayme Bluhm, have had to carry on without their 4-year-old middle child — a blonde-haired, blue-eyed bundle of fun.

Jayme Bluhm was driving the couple's three children, then ages 5, 4 and 1, to day care on May 12, when the crash happened, prosecutors said.

'All of these cases are horrible,' said prosecutor Matt Kuhse, who handles Douglas County's motor-vehicle homicide cases. 'But it's particularly troubling when it's a child who is so, so young — especially when her life ended in such a violent way.'

Rangel-Ochoa's case has been marked with questions about why he was driving and why he was still in the country after three drunken-driving convictions.

Rangel-Ochoa's attorney, Joe Lopez-Wilson, said Rangel-Ochoa, 27, is torn up over his actions — and has little explanation for why he was driving.

Lopez-Wilson said Rangel-Ochoa got behind the wheel of the pickup because the truck's owner wasn't going to work that day. Rangel-Ochoa and his two passengers were headed to work at a construction site.

The attorney said he was uncertain whether Rangel-Ochoa's two passengers could have driven, or whether they had driver's licenses. Rangel-Ochoa didn't. His driver's license had been suspended for 15 years after his third-drunken driving conviction in 2003.

It also was unclear why Rangel-Ochoa hadn't been deported after his drunken-driving convictions — all of which preceded 2003.

Lopez-Wilson, who handles immigration cases, said that, back then, authorities were more concerned with illegal immigrants who committed violent offenses.

Shortly after the crash, Lopez-Wilson said, his client wanted to 'man up' by pleading to the charges against him. Lopez-Wilson said he wouldn't let Rangel-Ochoa do so until the attorney had a chance to review the charges and all of the evidence. (Rangel-Ochoa wasn't drunk that morning — hence the misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide charge.)

Rangel-Ochoa faces up to six years in prison — five years for driving under suspension, one year for motor vehicle homicide — when he is sentenced in December. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have a deportation hold on him now — and Rangel-Ochoa is expected to be deported after he serves his sentence.

'From Day One, he was distraught,' Lopez-Wilson said. 'Every time I talk to him, he's downtrodden.

'He knows whatever happens to him in court is temporary. He's going to have to deal with the consequences of what he did for the rest of his life.'

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24.
Honduran sentenced in Phoenix drop house case
The Associated Press, September 29, 2009
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gsiXCB-UvO3SlJsMt4H9s4ul2UvwD9B19P900

Phoenix (AP) -- A Honduran man has been sentenced to nine years in federal prison for his role in holding two dozen illegal immigrants hostage in a Phoenix drop house.

Prosecutors say 28-year-old Marlon Rubio of Nacaome Valle, Honduras, was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court after earlier pleading guilty to brandishing a firearm during a violent crime.

Authorities say Rubio was one of three Hondurans who held 24 smuggled immigrants hostage in July 2008.

The immigrants later told investigators that Rubio was a guard at the Phoenix drop house and menaced them with a loaded pistol and repeatedly held the gun to the head of a female immigrant.

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25.
DA: NY man posed as US agent to defraud immigrants
The Associated Press, September 29, 2009
http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=11225446

A Queens man faces charges that he swindled immigrants out of more than $1 million by posing as a government agent.

Queens prosecutors say Shane Ramsundar flashed a badge, wore a gun and told people he was an undercover Homeland Security agent. They say he extorted $43,000 from one victim by telling him he was on a terrorism watch list and might be deported if he didn't fork over cash.

Authorities say he told others he could get them green cards for a fee.

Prosecutors say Ramsundar also stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from immigrants who thought they were buying real estate in Florida.

Ramsundar is charged with larceny, fraud and impersonating a public servant. His attorney said he was new to the case and couldn't yet comment.

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26.
Bradenton sex offender faces deportation
By Beth Burger
The Bradenton Herald (FL), September 29, 2009
http://www.bradenton.com/news/local/story/1740650.html

Manatee, FL -- A 37-year-old illegal immigrant convicted of lewd and lascivious battery faces deportation after he failed to register as a sex offender, according to a Manatee County Sheriff s Office report.

Edwin Chirinos of Bradenton was stopped by a deputy during a traffic stop Monday. Chirinos was driving with a driver s license that expired more than seven years ago.

Chirinos, who has a hold placed on him by federal immigration officials, faces charges of failing to register as a sex offender and failing to renew his driver s license.

Chirinos was convicted of sexually assaulting a child between the age of 12 and 16 in April 2006 after the Bradenton Police Department arrested him in August 2005, according to court records.

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27.
Former husband, wife plead guilty
By Jeb Phillips
The Columbus Dispatch, September 29, 2009
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/09/29/asante_plea.html?sid=101

A Columbus-area immigration lawyer and her ex-husband pleaded guilty yesterday to marriage fraud.

Lilian Asante, 37, and Kwadwo Asante, 39, both natives of Ghana, admitted marrying U.S. citizens in an effort to become permanent residents. In fact, the Asantes live together as husband and wife in Blacklick.

The Asantes married in 1999 in Ghana and came to Ohio for graduate school in 2002, according to a statement that Special Agent Jeffrey Landthorn of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement read yesterday in federal court. They divorced in 2004 and married other people in 2005 and 2006. But the Asantes bought a house together, continued to live together and had a child together in 2008.

Lilian Asante graduated with a law degree from Ohio State University and practiced in Columbus. She was accused of using her knowledge of immigration law to help her husband and Kwadwo Asante's wife answer questions from immigration officials.

Kwadwo Asante has a master's degree in business administration from Case Western Reserve University.

Each Asante pleaded guilty yesterday to one felony count of entering into a marriage to evade the immigration laws of the United States. Each could be sentenced to five years in prison, fined $250,000, put on three years of supervised release and deported. Judge Gregory L. Frost said that Lilian Asante also could lose her law license.

The court has not scheduled a sentencing hearing.

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28.
Colorado fraud case exposes pension loophole
Old Age Pension
By Allison Sherry
The Denver Post, September 29, 2009
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13441123

A Lakewood man sent to prison for six years Monday for bilking the state's Old Age Pension system out of $1 million has sparked a call to strengthen regulations so the program is tougher to abuse.

Jeffrey Dan Van recruited 45 elderly Vietnamese immigrants to falsely sign up for the Old Age Pension, a 72-year-old program that provides aid to Colorado's elderly poor.

The Vietnamese, all legal immigrants, were from 11 other states, and officials do not think they knew they were part of any crime.

Dan Van told Jefferson County Human Services caseworkers he was helping the immigrants sign up for the state benefit and would act as their translator.

He filled out the application forms, using addresses of his family members and friends in Jefferson County, and put his cellphone number as the contact. Because it doesn't take much more documentation to get the extra income - meant to supplement Social Security - Dan Van collected as much as $600 a month per person from 2001 through 2008. County officials say he gave the people participating a small amount and kept the rest for himself.

'The crux of this is that he discovered a loophole,' said Lynnae Flora, director of community assistance for Jefferson County Human Services. 'On the face of it, the program is not duplicitous or wrong, a lot of times people need help ... But some people are taking advantage of this.'

To qualify for the cash benefit, which can range from $10 to $699 a month, a person must be 60 and can't generate more than $699 in gross income a month.

At swamped county human services offices, intake workers ask for proof of address, but an Xcel Energy bill can suffice. In Dan Van's case, he wrote notes in his applicants' files that they were fighting with their children and staying with friends or family - which were really his friends and family - in Jefferson County.

State law doesn't require that a person live in Colorado for any set period of time before collecting the money.

Last year, the state spent $83.1 million on Old Age Pension benefits. This year, for 18,843 people, officials expect to spend almost $96 million.

Jefferson County officials were tipped about Dan Van's scheme three years ago. County investigators worked with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to find the immigrants.

In 2006, they cut off Old Age Pension benefits for 36 of the people suspected in Dan Van's ring and no one called to complain, said Janet Sullivan, the county's investigations quality assurance supervisor.

County officials suspect Dan Van, as the official translator for those seeking benefits, was not telling them the truth about what they were doing. Since then, the county only uses official translators when people come in seeking help and can't speak English.

But Flora says they hope to work with lawmakers to tighten the rules surrounding Old Age Pension even more. Littleton Republican state Sen. Mike Kopp said he would be happy to work with county officials to make that happen.

'Obviously, the legislature's job is to protect the taxpayers and ensure all our programs for the elderly are safeguarded,' Kopp said.

But a 'knee-jerk response to a bad actor' will be something AARP will fight, said Morie Smile, state director of the advocacy group for senior citizens.

'These are people who are already in a precarious position, they're already low-income, they're already in need,' she said. 'Throwing up another roadblock is going to be a slippery slope.'

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29.
Lawyers spar over victim's statement?
By James Tinley
The New Haven Register (CT), September 29, 2009

Milford, CT -- Lawyers battled Monday over exactly how much a jury will hear of a young Salvadoran immigrant's journey across the continent before she was allegedly raped at the hands of the man paid to transport her.

Prosecutors contend Francisco Pascual, 26, sexually assaulted a 12-year-old illegal immigrant whom he was paid to transport from California to her family in Boston. The girl was found wandering Boston Post Road in December 2007 after she escaped from the Milford motel room where she told police Pascual had just sexually assaulted her, authorities said.
. . .
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/09/29/b1-micoyote29.txt

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30.
Russian mob behind immigrant's murder?
By Sheila McLaughlin
The Cincinnati Inquirer (OH), September 29, 2009

Two years after his skeletal remains were found by tree trimmers, police are still trying to find out how the newlywed wound up dead with his head bashed in. His body was rolled in a green comforter stashed in a broken-down shed 30 feet off a busy Warren County road.

But court records in Hamilton County, filed by an attorney who was asked to investigate the Russian immigrant's disappearance, lend some insight into what was happening at that time in Alferov's life.

They accuse two men from Kurdistan of pilfering thousands from Alferov's Fifth Third bank account in a series of withdrawals that began just days before Alferov went missing and continued after he was dead.

Hamilton Township Police Lt. Jeff Braley said Tuesday that the men, who allegedly wrote checks to themselves from Alferov's account, are 'persons of interest' in his investigation into the Alferov's death.

But they aren't considered primary suspects in the killing, he said.

Investigators believe Alferov, a 32-year-old Roselawn resident who ran a cleaning business, was associating with the wrong people, those on the fringes of the Russian mafia.

'There are a minimum of two to three people involved in the killing with possibly one or two more,' Braley said. 'I think the majority of them are still in the country.'

One of them lives near the scene where Alferov's body was found, he said.
. . .
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090929/NEWS0107/909300347/Russian+mob+fingered+in+man+s+murder

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OVERSEAS IMMIGRATION NEWS

1. U.K.: Scots leader slams national immigration laws (story, link)
2. U.K.: Irish organization helps ex-pat professionals network
3. U.K.: Conman at center of major fraud scheme jailed
4. France: Illegals attempt Channel crossing in bus engine (link)
5. Norway: Immigration a divisive issue in politics
6. Germany: Immigrants increase representation in parliament
7. Switzerland: U.N. says Gulf of Aden immigration soaring
8. Greece: U.N. urges more immigrant-friendly policies by next gov’t
9. Italy: Milan police accused of profiling foreigners
10. Malta: Housing facility residents conduct clean up
11. Cyprus: Minister calls enforcement sweeps ‘racist’
12. Libya: Somali detainees attempt mass suicide
13. Nigeria: Gov't seeks tally of illegals present (story, link)
14. Kenya: Eritrean ex-diplomat arrested, facing deportation (link)
15. S. Korea: Foreign worker workplace deaths increase
16. Australia: Gov't braces for crowding in detention center (2 stories)
17. Australia: Immigration could double one city's population

Subscribe to CIS e-mail services here: http://cis.org/immigrationnews.html

-- Mark Krikorian]

1.
Salmond slams UK immigration laws
The Press Association (U.K.), September 30, 2009
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hxQWiQhrl4CsJB2ixfXy-YwFOp4Q

First Minister Alex Salmond has hit out at UK immigration laws which he said do not reflect the 'values' of Scotland.

In an address to more than 300 delegates from ethnic minority organisations, he described his anger at 'crazy' decisions made in Westminster.

He took a swipe at Baroness Scotland - the Attorney General accused of breaking her own rules on employing immigrants.

+++

Scottish leader launches attack on UK immigration laws
By Mark Johnstone
Global Visas, September 30, 2009
http://www.globalvisas.com/news/scottish_leader_launches_attack_on_uk_immigration_laws1682.html

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2.
Business network aims to provide right connections for Irish firms in London
By Mark Hennessy
The Irish Times, September 28, 2009
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2009/0928/1224255367192.html

In a 40-year career in banking, Andy Rogers ended up running Bank of Ireland’s operations in the United Kingdom. Today, he spends much of his time helping Irish business people to make their way in London.

Rogers is now one of the leading lights of the Irish International Business Network (IIBN), a group set up by Conor Foley of Worldspreads two years ago to develop links between the Irish in the city.

There are nearly one million Irish people in Britain, but the community has not matched its strength in numbers with an equivalent strength in business.

'We are seen now as the biggest ethnic group, but we are not identifiable because we have integrated so well. It is a catch 22,' said Rogers, speaking on the margins of an IIBN meeting in London. The group has set up a chapter in New York and arrives in Dublin today to set up a home branch at a meeting in the O’Reilly Hall in the University College Dublin, with 200 already signed up to attend.

Contrasting the success of Irish-Americans in business with the UK experience, Rogers said: 'There are different generations here. Some people came in very poor circumstances in the 1950s.

'They built themselves up: the John Murphys, the McNicholases and others, and they are rightly proud of what they have done.

'Then in the 1980s another huge group came and they have formed their own businesses, but they don’t link with the 1950s people, so they are quite separate. There are these disparate groups and then we have those who came in the professional sectors in the last 10 years or so,' he added.

Each six weeks or so, the London chapter meet to hear short presentations from Irish firms that want to do business in the city, lectures from business figures, and take the opportunity to build up contacts.

Cork-born Jonathan Grey, who chairs the organisation, said they hoped the not-for-profit group could become 'the first port of call for Irish people if they have a brief or project that they want to give out. If they win the business, that’s great. If not, that’s fine,' said Grey, who runs Ovation Incentives, a firm that offers incentive marketing programmes to firms in the UK and Europe.

'London is a very anonymous place, you are only as good as what you do, not who you say you are or who you are connected to,' he told The Irish Times. 'It is brutal in that sense. You have to put up. You have to walk the walk as well talk the talk.

'With the economy the way it is, we must find ways of connecting out to the Irish diaspora.'

While the Irish community had been strong in business and later in professional services, he said, it had not 'been as good as other immigrant communities in London in connecting with each other'.

'But the connections that the Irish have in construction and engineering are not necessarily the same as they have in the professional services and entrepreneurial world.'

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3.
Fraudster jailed over fake citizenship ceremonies
A fraudster, who helped pocket a £200,000 fortune using a fake Home Secretary to hijack the British citizenship ''dreams'' of desperate Chinese, was jailed for four-and-a-half years.
The Telegraph (U.K.), September 30, 2009
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/6244015/Fraudster-jailed-over-fake-citizenship-ceremonies.html

Xiang Li and his cohorts spared no effort to fool victims by setting up bogus law firms and hiring the imposing Methodist Central Hall near the Houses of Parliament and just yards from the new Supreme Court.

They also recruited up to 20 actors, to play immigration officials, security guards and audience, as well as then Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

The bogus politician even gave an impassioned welcoming address as a film crew faithfully recorded every contrived minute.

Unaware they were all unwitting stooges in a carefully-crafted con, they watched as the real victims ''proudly'' swore an oath of allegiance and then sang the national anthem in front of a portrait of the Queen and a giant Union Jack.

After everyone had clapped, the would-be Britons listened for their names to be called before taking turns to eagerly climb onto a platform and receive their prized passports.

London's Southwark Crown Court heard soon afterwards, those who believed they had bought British citizenship, paid what they owed for the charade.

Some of the more wealthy ended up losing £20,000 each.

One of up to 20 victims described actually dropping £19,000 cash into a holdall held open by a couple of the conmen.

It was only when he and the others tried to use their new passports that they realised they were fakes.

Li, 29, from Stratford, east London, was convicted of one count of assisting unlawful entry and one of fraud by misrepresentation.

He had earlier pleaded guilty to two other unlawful entry charges, two of fraud and one of money laundering.

Sentencing, Judge James Wadsworth QC, said the offences he had committed were ''very serious both for the damage that they do to those you have cheated and for the damage that you have done to the integrity of this country's immigration proceedings.

''It is very important that everyone, the public and the authorities, should be able to trust the documentation of those who come to this country.''

He said the doubling in the maximum prison sentence from seven to 14 years for such crimes demonstrated the country's concern about them.

The judge said the evidence left no doubt Li was part of a ''sophisticated and carefully planned operation'' targeting a ''substantial'' number of victims.

''I am satisfied that the loss to your countrymen working here and seeking to improve their lives here totalled at least £200,000 and probably more, and that your benefit was substantial.''

While not the ''prime mover'' behind the scam, there was no doubt Li was a ''very willing and able'' part of it.

The judge added he was also recommending his deportation because it was equally apparent ''your continued presence in this country is not in the public interest''.

The court heard how alleged gang mastermind, Tian Zhao - who has never been caught - launched his fraud by setting up two fake law firms, called Lombard Law and Borough de Law, and advertised their services.

Those who attended their ''impressive'' rented City offices, replete with convincing rows of law books, were given a presentation and asked for deposits of up to £2,000 on a ''no win, no fee'' basis.

Later they received confirmation that their applications had been successful and were invited to the ceremony on December 7 2007.

Simon Clarke, prosecuting, said: ''It's difficult to imagine a more high-profile venue in which to hold a British citizenship ceremony. From the main entrance of the central hall you can see the Houses of Parliament. You can only imagine the impression left with those who have taken an oath of allegiance and received their documents at a ceremony at such a location.

''Any foreign national new to citizenship would have no reason to doubt the authenticity of that ceremony. A new citizen would perhaps have been proud and honoured to have participated.''

The barrister continued: ''Tian Zhao provided his own photo of Her Majesty the Queen, while the Central Hall staff provided receptionists.

''Altogether there were about 20 actors and a video crew. One of the actors played a security guard, four sat behind a table and another took up position in the front row of the seating.

''Then a member of staff from the hall was handed a CD of national anthems and asked to play the British one.''

''Convincing as this was for those who attended, this was not a genuine citizenship ceremony. It was false in just about every respect.

''It seems even the actors and the film crew had been deceived having been told they were making a film helping to welcome Chinese immigrants into the UK,'' counsel added.

One victim, Shao Ming Lin, who came to Britain nine years ago, told the court that in late 2007 he spotted an advert in a Chinese language newspaper offering a full citizenship service.

It was he said the ''answer to my dreams.

''I was interested because I wanted to have the right to live in the UK. I was thinking of opening a Chinese takeaway and wanted proper legal status.''

He explained he then made an appointment to see Zhao, who is not before the court.

''I was told indefinite leave to remain had been obtained for lots of satisfied clients that year. I left telling them I wanted to think about it. I went back the next day after phoning Mr Zhao and telling him I would pay for the company's legal expertise in return for their assistance in helping me realise my dream of becoming a British citizen.''

He said that having been warned there were only ''two vacancies left in that year's quota'' and he should therefore act quickly, ''I signed a contract and paid a £1,000 deposit.''

Weeks later, in early December, he was told to attend the Methodist Hall meeting ''near Big Ben''.

''When I got there I saw officials in uniform, there was a portrait of the Queen and there was a film crew there. There were others like me there who were going to take this oath. I believed I was attending a genuine British citizenship ceremony. It all looked official and legitimate.

''I was given a name badge and a piece of paper with a timetable or schedule on it. Then I sang the national anthem...and then I was called up and given a passport by an official person on the platform.

''After the ceremony the money was collected by a short chubby guy with a holdall. He and Mr Zhao opened the bag and asked us to put the money in. Some people asked if they were going to count the money but were told no.

''I put in £19,000 and saw other people paying the money as well,'' he added.

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4.
Are we in Britain yet? The moment two teenage illegal immigrants crawled from engine of school coach bound for Britain
The Daily Mail (U.K.), September 30, 2009

Crawling out from underneath a school coach with a nervous grin, this is the moment a young illegal immigrant gave up on his desperate attempt to get into Britain from France.

The boy and a companion, both believed to be 14, were found after getting underneath the coach which was parked in a Calais supermarket car park.

The children used the coach's exhaust to climb on top of its engine in an attempt to smuggle themselves across the Channel.

But the exhaust cracked as they stepped on it thereby aiming poisonous fumes directly where they were hiding.

The coach driver rumbled the pair, who quickly crawled out of their hideaway and fled. He said the youngsters were later seen in the car park trying to find an alternative route out of the country.

The Travel De Courcey bus had been hired by Exhall Grange School in Coventry for a week-long trip and was on its way to the ferry port for the journey home.

The schoolchildren on board were the same age as the stowaways, who would have been killed if they'd not been discovered.
. . .
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1217168/The-moment-young-illegal-immigrants-crawl-engine-compartment-school-bus-bound-Britain.html

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5.
Dørum: Immigration issue divides Norway
Norwegian politician: Visit to UND reaffirms faith in liberal arts education
By Chuck Haga
The Grand Forks Herald (ND), September 29, 2009
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/135328/

For Odd Einar Dørum, a leading member of the Norwegian parliament, a visit to Grand Forks and UND this week has reaffirmed a lifelong faith in the values of a liberal arts education, an open society and civility in government.

'Getting to know people here, seeing what you are doing in the liberal arts but also in aviation and innovation, the philosophy is here: There is no contradiction between valuing the liberal arts and being modern,' he said.

In an interview before a UND lecture Tuesday on climate change and other matters affecting the polar regions, the former justice minister said those values influence his approach to one of the most contentious issues facing Norwegian society today: the continuing arrival of many thousands of immigrants, mostly from the Middle East, and their inclusion in the fabled, oil-fueled Norwegian welfare state.

'There should always be an honest way for people to come to our country, regardless of the color of their skin or their background, and find a living,' he said. 'After all, approximately 1 million Norwegians were given that right by another country,' the United States of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Dørum, a member of the centrist Venstre (Liberal) Party and minister of justice in a center-right coalition government from 2001 to 2005, is part of a Norwegian delegation in Grand Forks to meet with Norwegian students at UND and leaders of the Nordic Initiative, the Center for Innovation, the UND Aerospace Foundation and others.

Despite a hard charge by a populist, anti-immigration party led by a self-styled 'Viking Margaret Thatcher,' Norway’s ruling center-left government apparently has another five years in power after a razor-thin electoral victory earlier this month.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s Labor Party and other parties in his 'red-green' coalition of leftist and environmentalist interests claimed 86 seats in the 169-seat Storting, just enough to hold onto power.

But the populist, right-wing Progress Party of Siv Jensen gained three seats, from 38 to 41, after a campaign marked by hostility toward the government’s immigration policies — what some in the party called the 'sneak Islamisation' of Norway, according to the London Times.

In a pre-election interview with the Times, Jensen called for closed asylum centers where people coming to Norway without proper identity papers would be kept until their status was resolved. 'There is a very large number of immigrants living on welfare, and they have been for a very, very long time,' she said. 'They often tend to commit crimes and end up in prison, where they can get the wrong ideas.'

A great divide

Dørum said his small party, Norway’s oldest, could consider forming a coalition with the Conservatives and other center-to-right parties but not with the Progress Party.

There are insurmountable differences over tax policy and climate change, he said, but the sharpest difference he has with Jensen’s party 'is how you think about people. We think people who come to our country should be seen as individuals, not as a group.

'The appeal of the Progress Party has been that many feel there’s been too big a challenge (to Norwegian society) by people coming from the Middle East. But we who live (in Norway) and have a good life should give the opportunity also for people who are coming from elsewhere.'

He said his grandfather came to the United States, worked for about six years and saved enough money to return to Norway and eventually establish his own business.

'We must never, ever see the Muslims collectively as terrorists,' Dørum said. 'As individuals, people can make a contribution.'

He is a capitalist, he said, not a Socialist, and a firm believer in small business and the power for good of the marketplace. He didn’t like the Vietnam War, but he is a strong supporter of NATO.

'But the first thing I ever did in my political life, when I was 18, was to fight against apartheid in South Africa,' he said. 'I was part of a group of protesters who chained themselves together to save a waterfall' threatened by hydroelectric development. I was arrested — and later I became justice minister!

'I’m of that generation that I’m still hearing John Kennedy in my head. I’m still hearing Martin Luther King in my head. There were quite a few Norwegians who disliked the Bush administration and couldn’t see America through that. I could always see America.'

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6.
Number of German MPs with immigration background rises
The Local (Germany), September 30, 2009
http://www.thelocal.de/politics/20090930-22271.html

Germany’s newly elected parliament has 15 MPs with foreign roots – more than ever before, daily Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on Wednesday.

The last parliament had 11 representatives with what Germans call 'immigration background.'

The most multicultural MPs belong to the environmentalist Green party, which has five, including Iranian-born Omid Nouripour, who entered his second term after Sunday's election.

Meanwhile the centre-left Social Democrats have four, and the socialist Left Party now has three.

For the first time, the pro-business Free Democrats, who are also Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats’ preferred coalition partner, also have two new MPs with foreign roots – Turkish-German Serkan Tören and Iranian-born Bijan Djir-Sarai.

Meanwhile Merkel’s CDU parliamentarians include Michaela Noll, whose father is Iranian.

'The clear growth to 15 mirrors the growing weight of immigrants among voters,' the paper reported, adding that some 5.6 million German residents with foreign roots have the right to vote.

But the country’s largest group of immigrants, those from Eastern Europe, are not represented in the Bundestag, though some 2.5 million can vote in Germany, the paper said.

Many parties searched for candidates with Turkish background due to the country’s large population, but interest was limited, according to the paper. Germany's most famous Turkish-German politician, Green party member Cem Özdemir, is co-leader of the party and thus not a member of parliament.

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7.
Gulf of Aden immigrant rate soars in 2009: UN
Agence France Presse, September 29, 2009
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h6zoxO7tynjic9w1pfGGfw9TM-FA

Geneva (AFP) -- Since the beginning of 2009, a total of 994 boats and 50,400 clandestine migrants have crossed the Gulf of Aden between Somalia and Yemen, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said Tuesday.

'September and October are the height of the sailing season and the number of arrivals by sea is staggering,' UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic said, with the figures representing a 50 percent increase on the same period last year.

The UNHCR said that so far this year 266 people have drowned attempting the crossing with another 153 missing presumed dead. The total dead and missing for all of 2008 was 948.

More than half those making the crossing are Ethiopians, Mahecic said, and almost all the rest Somalis.

'Those who make the crossing are fleeing desperate situations of civil war, political instability, poverty, drought and famine in Somalia and the Horn of Africa,' he said.

The UN early this month reminded governments and sailors that they are legally obliged to help migrants who embark on the world's seas in vessels that are often unseaworthy.

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8.
UN: Immigration major challenge for next Greek government
Deutsche Presse Agentur, September 30, 2009
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/287841,un-immigration-major-challenge-for-next-greek-government--feature.html

Athens (DPA) -- The United Nations has urged the new Greek government to revamp its migration policies to include improved reception centres, free legal aid and faster and fairer processing of asylum requests. Sitting at the crossroads of three continents, Greece has become a main transit point for immigrants seeking entry into the European Union. It is desperately trying to cope with a surge of migrants arriving on the country's islands, which has left detention centres overflowing and thousands of undocumented migrants without shelter.

Last year, almost 150,000 illegal immigrants and more than 2,000 traffickers were arrested in Greece, making migration an important issue in October 4 parliamentary elections, after the economy and social security.

'Greece is faced with an increasing pressure of mixed migratory movements, namely migrants who seek better economic opportunities and refugees who flee persecution, war or violence,' said Giorgos Tsarbopoulos, the director of the UN refugee agency UNHCR office in Greece.

'Both groups use the same means for reaching Greek territory ... there is a need to strike a balance between control at the borders and protection to those who are in need.'

The UN and other human rights groups such as New York-based Human Rights Watch, have slammed Greece in the past for its treatment of migrants, accusing the country of illegally deporting migrants and often misleading them about their right to apply for asylum.

Last year fewer than 1 per cent of the 20,000 people who applied for asylum from the Greek government were successful, far below rates of 18 per cent in Germany, 11 per cent in Italy and 4 per cent in Spain.

The growing wave of immigrants pouring into the country from Asia and Africa has caused many Greeks to associate it with rising crime.

The rising social tensions the influx has caused led the Conservative New Democracy government to step up arrests with successive police sweeps in downtown Athens, shut down a makeshift camp in the western port city of Patras and to increase coast guard patrols in the Aegean.

The arrests follow the announcement of draconian legislation in July which include longer detention periods for illegal immigrants and plans to build more camps, in disused military camps, to receive them.

'In a context of increasing feelings of xenophobia and racist violence incidents, it is of primary importance to guarantee the security and welfare, in particular for those groups specifically protected by the law, such as the unaccompanied children and asylum seekers,' said Tsarbopoulos.

The main opposition Socialists, who are leading opinion polls ahead of the vote, are more supportive of migrants and have promised to grant citizenship to all immigrant children born in the country.

According to Paris-based NGO Medecins du Monde, other challenges facing the new government is to put into place a comprehensive health caresystem for migrants.

'Right now the country's migrants do not benefit from the country's health care system and this needs to change,' Nikitas Kanakis, the director of Medecins du Monde in Greece said.

'The lack of information, fear of being reported and cultural barriers are among the main factor preventing illegal immigrants from using the public health service for non-emergency treatment.'

Medecins du Monde, which operates health clinics in Athens, the northern port city of Thessaloniki and on the southern Mediterranean island of Crete, called on EU governments to promote policies designed to grant health care for migrants, regardless of their legal status.

'Greece should regularize rather than expel seriously ill illegal immigrants,' said Kanakis.

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9.
Italy: Immigrants 'targeted' by police in Milan
ADN Kronos International (Italy), September 30, 2009
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.3828950771

Milan (AKI) -- Immigrants in the northern Italian city of Milan are being targeted on public transport by police who are demanding their documents, a report by an Italian daily said on Wednesday. A report published by Italian daily La Repubblica said that the special police force - established in the year 2000 for the safety of passengers in buses and trams - is now focusing on activities to 'stop and identify' immigrants.

'Guys, go find that one that's hidden behind the bushes and you will make me happy,' a police superintendent is reported to have told officers.

He was referring to a 20 year-old young man from North Africa who freed himself from the officer and began running towards the bushes.

Transport officials travel on buses and trams asking travellers for their tickets, however, now one person is reportedly in charge of checking immigrants for their documents.

If the immigrant does not have his or her documents, he or she will be taken off the bus and placed in a 'jail bus', which looks exactly like a normal public transport bus but with metal grates so the migrants cannot escape.

They are then taken to the police station to be identified and may be expelled from the country.

'This is a service which is carried out solely by this special taskforce and does not take away police officers from carrying out traffic-related duties,' said Milan's deputy mayor Riccardo de Corato, quoted by La Repubblica.

La Repubblica claimed that only three of the ten migrants stopped by officials are in Italy legally.

The other seven are issued an expulsion order and one of them is arrested for not having left Italy after the order had been previously issued.

In July, Italy's upper house of parliament on Thursday voted into law a controversial security bill making illegal immigration a punishable offence.

The measures, especially the criminalisation of would-be immigrants, have drawn criticism from rights groups including Amnesty international, as well as Italy's centre-left opposition and the Catholic Church.

Italy's prime minister Silvio Berlusconi won elections in April 2008 on an anti-crime platform, vowing to curb illegal immigration which, according to surveys, many Italian associate with a growing security problem in their towns and cities.

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10.
Hal Far open centre residents clean up the area
The Times of Malta, September 30, 2009
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090930/local/hal-far-open-centre-residents-clean-up-the-area

Immigrants who live at the Hal Far open centre, which houses about 600 people, yesterday rolled up their sleeves, donned gloves and carried garbage bags to clean up the area.

They collected plastic bottles and paper cartons that lined the road and trimmed overgrown weeds in an effort to give something back to the community.

The clean-up was organised by the Żurrieq local council together with the Agency for the Welfare of Asylum Seekers, formerly known as Oiwas, that falls within the Justice Ministry.

About eight immigrants who live in the area came forward to clear up the litter in an initiative that is to take place regularly. They will be paid for their contribution.

Residents at the Marsa open centre last month cleared the area around their home in a similar initiative.

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11.
Minister brands police sweep xenophobic
By Stefanos Evripidou
The Cyprus Mail, September 27, 2009
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.php?id=48043&cat_id=1

Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis yesterday slated the massive police sweep against illegal immigrants in old Nicosia on Friday, saying it reinforced the view of 'xenophobia and racism in our society'.

Despite being responsible for illegal migration, the minister said he was not informed of the operation beforehand, adding that its indiscriminate nature was 'wrong'.

Police made 48 arrests at dawn on Friday after using 257 members of the police force to gather 150 foreign nationals either from their homes or on their way to work. Most were released after being taken to the station for identification, while 36 were arrested for illegal residence and 12 for being implicated in a recent clash at the Omeriye mosque.

The police leadership and Justice Minister maintained the aim was to tackle crime, prevent illegal immigration and instil a sense of security in the old town. Migrant support group KISA argued that the authorities were simply pandering to racists who believed that non-EU nationals were responsible for crime in the old town, despite no statistical evidence to back it up.

'I was not informed. I spoke to the Justice Minister at 7am as soon as I heard about it. He told me (the operation) was targeted. Such things cannot happen, it is wrong, they can’t indiscriminately carry out such operations,' said Sylikiotis.

KISA’s executive director Doros Polycarpou charged that police were fighting 'crime' without even proving its existence by entering houses without warrants and handcuffing women.

Police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos said at no point did police enter houses without warrants. He repeated the view that the main aim of the operation was to embed a sense of security among residents of the old town.

'I consider that such things cannot be repeated. There is a specific policy which must be followed regarding illegal immigrants,' said Sylikiotis. The minister listed a number of measures already taken to tackle illegal migration, including stricter laws on illegal employers, faster asylum application processes, and a proposal to criminalise the renting of accommodation to illegal migrants. KISA countered that such a move is anathema to the universal right to shelter, stipulated in international conventions.

Sylikiotis also referred to the fact that many legal migrants get caught in the net when you have such wide-sweeping operations. 'Why arrest someone who is legal just to ascertain their details? It strengthens the view of xenophobia and racism in our society.'

The reaction to the operation was mixed, with popular daily Politis, calling it a 'pogrom' against migrants. Listeners on the state broadcaster’s Trito station called in with differing opinions. One said he was embarrassed to be a Cypriot citizen, while another said those who are not legitimate tax-paying citizens have it coming.

KISA’s Polycarpou welcomed the dialogue on the issue, but questioned why the municipality had yet to engage with any migrant representatives to discuss the problems faced in the old town.

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12.
Jailed Somali immigrants attempt suicide
United Press International, September 29, 2009
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/09/29/Jailed-Somalian-immigrants-attempt-suicide/UPI-75331254239370/

Tripoli (UPI) -- More than 200 Somali immigrants allegedly tried to poison themselves to avoid being tortured in a Libyan prison near Tripoli, witnesses said.

Immigrants in a prison in Karanbodia first tried to starve themselves and then drank poison to escape the brutal conditions of the prison, Ibrahim Modobe, a Somali inmate, allegedly told Shabelle Media Network in a story published Tuesday.

So far, no one has died of the poison, said the Shabelle story, which did not say what kind of poison was involved or how the immigrants got the poison.

Most of the immigrants have been without legal representation since being arrested and many have been tortured, Shabelle said.

Some of the immigrants were arrested while sailing to Italy, while others were arrested in Tripoli and in the Sahara, Shabelle said.

The immigrants fled Somalia to avoid fighting between Islamic insurgents and government soldiers that has displaced at least 165,000 in Mogadishu alone since May, Shabelle said.

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13.
Representatives Summon Immigration Boss Over Illegal Immigrants
By Philip Nyam
All Africa, September 30, 2009
http://allafrica.com/stories/200909300525.html

Abuja -- Worried by the continued maltreatment of Nigerians in other parts of the world, the House of Representatives has said it would summon the Comptroller-General of Immigration, Mr. Chukwura Udeh, to ascertain the number of illegal immigrants in Nigeria.

The House has also concluded arrangements to meet with the Chinese ambassador to Nigeria , Mr. Rong Yansong, to find a way of resolving the incessant clamping of Nigerians in Chinese prisons over allegations of involvement in crime.

Meanwhile, about 150 Nigerians deported from Libya arrived Lagos yesterday as another 600 were currently being held at various deportation camps with four others: Chinedu Orji, Solomon Chukwu Francis, Valentine Okoye and Monday Ismaila Ahanwanti were still in Libyan prisons. Two others are however feared dead in custody.

Chairman of the House Committee on Diaspora, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, explained that the committee's intervention was not a reprisal action but an effort to ensure that Nigerian citizens' rights are guaranteed in line with the Universal Declaration on Human Rights anywhere they find themselves.

She condemned the recent disclosure by Chinese authorities that 30 dead bodies of unidentified Nigerians were billed to be cremated in China, lamenting the failure of Nigeria's embassy officials in China to come to the aid of Nigerians in the country.

She also expressed concern over the plight of the other 732 Nigerians held in prisons China, arguing that though the House was not in support of Nigerians travelling to foreign lands with the aim of committing crimes and casting the image of the nation in bad light, Nigerians must be accorded due respect as human beings.

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Illegal migrants: Reps summon Immigration, Chinese envoy
By Tordue Salem
Vanguard (Nigeria), September 29, 2009
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2009/09/29/illegal-migrants-reps-summon-immigration-chinese-envoy/

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14.
Eritrean ex-diplomat arrested in Kenya
Agence France Presse, September 30, 2009

Nairobi (AFP) -- A former Eritrean diplomat who re-entered Kenya illegally after being expelled last month and who is suspected of terrorist activities, was arrested Tuesday and is to be deported, sources said.
. . .
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h9tJxm7ivsv1vwS3IC-_K4xTCfNA

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15.
On-Job Deaths of Foreign Workers Rising Sharply
By Do Je-hae
The Korea Times, September 30, 2009
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/09/113_52783.html

An increasing number of migrant workers in Korea are dying or sustaining injuries on the job, according to a recent report to the National Assembly.

There were 117 occupational fatalities and 5,211 injuries in 2008, Rep. Cho Won-jin of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) said Tuesday. This equals one fatality per every 5,000 migrant workers. Fatalities among Korean workers stand at one per every 10,000, though a significant gap in the sample size of the figures may make for an unfair comparison.

The cases of fatalities and injuries are apparently rising, as 87 were killed and 3,967 were injured at work in 2007.

The figures came from a report prepared by the Korea Occupational Safety & Health Agency (KOSHA) ahead of the National Assembly’s government inspection of the agency.

'As a major destination for migrant workers, we need to be better equipped with measures for their occupational safety,' Rep. Cho said in a statement. 'Since many of the fatalities occurred on construction sites, we need stronger enforcement of safety guidelines in the construction sector.'

The sector has often been criticized for its lack of adherence to safety rules.

As many as 60 out of 100 construction companies here have not hired a safety officer as required by law, Rep. Kim Jae-yun of the main opposition Democratic Party said Monday.

The KOSHA report showed that 43 people have been killed in the first half of this year alone, with 38 of them dying in accidents. Around 2,440 have been injured this year.

Among the 43 fatalities, 19 occurred on construction sites and 14 at manufacturing sites.

There are total of 570,000 migrant workers employed in certain key industries, such as construction, agriculture, livestock and fisheries, among others.

Some migrant workers who have entered the country illegally are unable to receive assistance in dealing with industrial injuries, authorities said.

Unless seriously injured, many illegal migrant workers do not sign up for insurance, fearing that their status may be disclosed. Even those working with proper registration often do not get the benefits they are entitled to, due to insufficient support from their employers.

Due to the rising concerns for the welfare of migrant employees, KOSHA has been running campaigns to raise the awareness of the issue thorough online promotional videos and instructions, available in Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and other languages. For more information, visit www.kosha.or.kr.

General industrial fatalities have been on the rise since beginning of the decade.

Out of the 12,528,879 employees working at 1,429,885 workplaces covered by the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act, the number of fatalities stood at 2,406.

Among them, 1,383 were due to injuries and 1,023 were due to fatal illnesses.

The number of injuries and illnesses has increased considerably since 2001 as the coverage of the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act was extended to include companies with at least 1 employee in Jul. 2000.

The top three causes of fatalities at the workplace include heart disease, pneumoconiosis and falls.

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16.
Darwin plan for illegal arrivals on boats
By Siobhain Ryan
The Australian, October 1, 2009
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26149056-2702,00.html

More than 16 boatpeople a day sought refuge in Australia last month in the biggest surge in arrivals since the start of the decade, forcing Canberra to consider transfers from Christmas Island to Darwin to accommodate the rush.

About 500 asylum-seekers, mostly from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, were diverted to Christmas Island for immigration processing in September -- more than the total number of arrivals in Australian waters recorded over the previous seven years combined.

The influx of boat people has pushed the 1200-bed detention camp on the remote Indian Ocean island to about 75 per cent occupancy and will extend it beyond capacity within three weeks if the flow continues unabated.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans yesterday acknowledged there were 'contingency plans' in place to free up space on Christmas Island if the need arose. 'If additional accommodation is required, single men who are nearing the end of their processing may be transferred from Christmas Island to the secure Northern Immigration Detention Centre (in Darwin) for the final stages of processing,' he said.

Three boatloads of asylum-seekers have arrived in three days this week, with a fourth believed en route late night.

The tally of boats detected and asylum-seekers intercepted so far this year has jumped by a third in the past 30 days alone, leaving the Rudd government exposed like never before to Coalition attack over its ability to protect Australia's borders.

Malcolm Turnbull said arrivals were 'going through the roof' since Labor had dismantled the Howard government's policies on asylum seekers.

'Now what Mr Rudd has got to do is recognise that there is a problem, recognise that his border protection policies have failed,' the Opposition Leader said.

'And what he must do is have urgently an independent inquiry which can have the benefit of the expert intelligence advice so that all Australians can get an understanding of what has gone wrong, and what measures are needed to fix it.'

John Howard championed offshore immigration processing camps and tough visa restrictions to stem a flow of boatpeople which peaked in 2001, when 5516 arrivals were recorded.

Since taking office, Kevin Rudd has dismantled his predecessor's 'Pacific Solution', abolished temporary protection visas for asylum-seekers, relaxed mandatory detention rules and stopped charging those seeking refuge for the costs of their detention.

Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce used a parliamentary visit to Christmas Island to declare the policy changes a failure this week, warning they were now attracting economic migrants, rather than refugees from political, ethnic or religious persecution.

But a spokesman for Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor blamed the September surge in numbers on 'push factors' such as the conflicts in Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

'The increase in irregular maritime arrivals to Australia is part of a worldwide trend,' he said. 'The number of arrivals to Australia remains low by world standards.'

He said the 641 asylum-seekers granted permanent visas so far this year were owed Australia's protection, while those found not to be refugees had returned to their countries voluntarily.

An immigration department spokesman said no one had been forcibly deported, although 21 had been repatriated voluntarily.

The pressure on Christmas Island, however, is unlikely to ease any time soon, given the dramatic increase in asylum-seekers in Indonesia -- a common staging post en route to Australia.

A spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said the number of asylum-seekers registered with its Indonesian office had jumped from 392 at the start of the year to 1593 as at the end of August.

Most were Afghans (1371), followed by Sri Lankans and Iraqis with 58 people each.

The UNHCR spokesman said the agency discouraged 'irregular movement by boat' but noted the call on its services was on the rise. 'This increase is the result of many complex reasons, principally conflict and deteriorating security situations in countries of origin and limited options for long-term solutions -- and often even short-term security -- in their region of origin,' he said.

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Australian border protection under scrutiny
The ABC News (Australia), September 29, 2009
http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/200909/2700709.htm?desktop

Australia's government has denied claims from the opposition that it's deceiving the Australian public by not releasing information about the extent of people smuggling in South-East Asia.

It comes after the interception of another boat carrying asylum seekers.

The latest boat was found carrying 43 people near the Cocos-Keeling Islands Tuesday.

The Federal Opposition says more than 1,800 asylum seekers have been detained since August last year.

The Opposition's Customs spokeswoman Sussan Ley says the government needs to reveal the full extent of the problem so it can formulate a more effective response.

'Let us know the ample intelligence that would have been received from South East Asia and hot spots around the world about the numbers of unauthorised arrivals we can expect and what Australia proposes to do policy wise to deal with them,' she said.

The Government says its border protection policies have prevented people smugglers from reaching mainland Australia.

Ten boats carrying more than 230 people have arrived in Australian waters in the past month.

The Opposition has accused the Government of being too passive in its attempts to stem the flow of asylum seekers to Australia.

But the government blames the global conflict for the increase.

Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor says evidence shows the Government's approach is working.

'We're continuing to target the people smugglers, we're continuing to ensure that we do everything we can to intercept vessels,' he said.

He says the Government has been upfront with the Australian public.

'I don't think we need any lectures from the opposition about disclosure. Everyone knows [the opposition's] history on truth and people smuggling,' he said.

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17.
Boom on way: City migrant influx
By Alex Johnson
The Warrnambool Standard (Australia), September 30, 2009
http://www.standard.net.au/news/local/news/general/boom-on-way-city-migrant-influx/1636502.aspx

A new wave of international migrants is on its way to Warrnambool and could double the city’s population within 40 years, according to a city academic.

The projections by Warrnambool population expert Gordon Forth come with the release of new Federal Treasury population estimates which forecast the nation’s population will balloon to 35 million people by 2049.

'The question has got to be asked: do the people in the (Warrnambool) community want a population of 60 or 70,000?' Dr Forth said.

'Because (if the population does increase by that much) you’re going to lose a lot of what Warrnambool currently has.'

Dr Forth is half-way through an extensive study examining Warrnambool’s population, housing, employment, business and 'the rise and rise of the professional class'.

Dr Forth backed the revised Federal Treasury estimates released by the National Sea Change Taskforce this week which found seven million more people than previously thought would be living in Australia by 2049.

At least 4.8 million of the additional population would need to live in non-metropolitan coastal areas, the taskforce’s executive director Alan Stokes said.

Regional coastal populations were set to rise from a current level of 6.4 million to 12.2 million by 2049.

'That is the equivalent of adding more than 11 new Gold Coasts to the population of these communities which already have the highest growth rates in Australia,' Mr Stokes said.

Dr Forth said Warrnambool would be a prime location for a population surge.

'Warrnambool should be the one that should take off because it’s got very good amenties . . . and it’s got water and for Victoria, a relatively good climate.'

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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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