Daily news updates from CIS

October 6, 2009

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[For CISNEWS subscribers --

1. Admin. mulls commandeering hotels for detention (story, 3 links)
2. Senate approves new Civil Rights boss (2 stories)
3. Sen. Menendez's new book advocates amnesty
4. Experts press for citizens-only Census count
5. Report: health care legislation fails legal immigrants
6. Report urges preference for skilled immigrants
7. Study finds assimilation waning
8. Mexican banks note increase in flow of 'reverse remittances'
9. CA public health care program tightens restrictions
10. SC settles verification dispute with employers
11. San Fran. sanctuary proposal moves ahead
12. NY county police dept. probed over profiling accusations
13. AZ county sheriff losing some enforcement powers (2 stories)
14. Advocates campaign for public option that includes illegals
15. Union seeks to organize CA hotel workers
16. Latino activists seek 'accurate' Census count (story, link)
17. CA forum presses amnesty policies
18. Asians gaining clout in NYC
19. Immigrant students struggle with transient lifestyle
20. Prostitution rife in San Diego's illegal alien camps
21. Two CA police officers accused of smuggling (link)
22. TN kidnapper alleges infant victim was sold (link)
23. Federal charges levied against Chinese exporting military tech (link)
24. Peruvian student charged with drug distribution (link)
25. 50 illegals apprehended in Arizona desert (link)
26. Brother of would-be TX bomber accepts deportation (link)

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

-- Mark Krikorian]

1.
Ideas for Immigrant Detention Include Converting Hotels and Building Models
By Nina Bernstein
The New York Times, October 5, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/us/politics/06detain.html

The Obama administration is looking to convert hotels and nursing homes into immigration detention centers and to build two model detention centers from scratch as it tries to transform the way the government holds people it is seeking to deport.

These and other initiatives, described in an interview on Monday by Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, are part of the administration’s effort to revamp the much-criticized detention system, even as it expands the enforcement programs that send most people accused of immigration violations to jails and private prisons. The cost, she said, would be covered by greater efficiencies in the detention and removal system, which costs $2.4 billion annually to operate and holds about 380,000 people a year.

'The paradigm was wrong,' Ms. Napolitano said of the nation’s patchwork of rented jail space, which has more than tripled in size since 1995, largely through Immigration and Customs Enforcement contracts for cells more restrictive, and expensive, than required for a population that is largely not dangerous. Among those in detention on Sept. 1, 51 percent were considered felons, and of those, 11 percent had committed violent crimes.

'Serious felons deserve to be in the prison model,' Ms. Napolitano said, 'but there are others. There are women. There are children.'

These and other nonviolent people should be sorted and detained or supervised in ways appropriate to their level of danger or flight risk, she said. Her goal, she said, is 'to make immigration detention more cohesive, accountable and relevant to the entire spectrum of detainees we are dealing with.'

Several of the initiatives Ms. Napolitano described, to be formally announced on Tuesday afternoon, are steps on a road outlined in August, when John Morton, the assistant secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, announced an ambitious plan to transform the penal network into a 'truly civil detention system.'

But the corrections expert he had put in charge of the overhaul, Dora B. Schriro, quit last month to become the corrections commissioner in New York City, after delivering a report on her eight-month top-to-bottom review of the system. The report had remained under wraps until now.

Dr. Schriro’s departure, and the delay in making her report public, dismayed many of the dozens of immigrant advocacy groups she consulted. Her 35-page report, provided to The New York Times after the interview on the condition that it not be posted on its Web site until Tuesday afternoon, calls for prompt attention to individual complaints about a lack of medical care, and 'a credible grievance process, sustained in an environment free from intimidation and retaliation.'

In her interview, Ms. Napolitano said little about medical care but promised that within six months the Department of Homeland Security would 'devise and implement' a classification system to better place people with medical or mental health needs in the right detention centers.

That vow puzzled some immigrant advocacy groups that deal with seriously ill detainees, including some who have died in federal custody after not getting proper treatment. The groups said they were concerned about the gap between announced plans to improve medical care and the actions of immigration officials.

Cheryl Little, the director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, pointed to the case of a woman she called Rosemarie, who, while being detained at the Glades County Detention Center, has suffered severe daily bleeding as a result of a fibroid tumor in her uterus.

'This has gone on for more than the five months she has been in ICE custody,' Ms. Little said. 'Since June, we have tried everything to get her proper treatment. We started the requests at the local level and escalated up to D.H.S. headquarters. Ultimately we’ve had to file a lawsuit, and Rosemarie still hasn’t had the surgery she needs.'

Ms. Napolitano noted repeatedly that some of the initiatives she was announcing were 'easier said than done.' Plans to speed the implementation of an online system for families and lawyers to locate detainees, for example, have been complicated by privacy issues and by the fact that many detainees share names and some stay in the system for only a couple of days, she said.

Likewise, though alternatives to detention are much cheaper than the jails under contract — $14 a day at most per person, compared with more than $100 a day — the overall cost is more complicated to calculate, she said.

About 19,000 noncitizens are supervised daily using alternatives like electronic bracelets, but their immigration cases are moved to the back of the line for adjudication. Homeland Security is working with the Justice Department, which oversees immigration courts, to modify that practice, she said, and this fall will submit a proposal to Congress to expand detention alternatives.

A request for proposals to build two model detention centers, one in California, will be issued within a year, said Mr. Morton, the ICE official. On Oct. 30, he said, he will solicit proposals and market research about converted hotels, nursing homes and other residential facilities that could serve as less expensive and less restrictive detention centers.

Mr. Morton said that on Sept. 18 the agency began housing nonviolent detainees, including new asylum seekers, at the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, Fla., near free legal help. But Charu al-Sahli, the statewide director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, said the Broward center, run for profit by GEO, a large prison company formerly known as Wackenhut, had been housing asylum seekers since 2003.

A former work-release center now surrounded by barbed wire, it is being expanded to house 700, up from 530.

'Even though it’s a nicer environment than a jail,' Ms. al-Sahli said, 'these are still the people we would hold up for release, not just nicer detention.'

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U.S. to Revise Detention Standards for Immigration Detainees
By Cam Simpson
The Wall Street Journal, October 6, 2009
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125479445330366545.html

US 'to cut immigrant detention'
The BBC News (U.K.), October 6, 2009
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8292296.stm

Detained immigrants could be categorized by risk
By Suzanne Gamboa
The Associated Press, October 5, 2009
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iJ1PY_yb1VD4P0wk54uwSN6JfeWQD9B5F3R00

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2.
Perez becomes assistant attorney general of Justice Department's civil rights division
By Gary Haber Staff
The Baltimore Business Journal, October 6, 2009
http://baltimore.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2009/10/05/daily23.html

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed Thomas E. Perez as assistant attorney general in charge of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.

It will be a homecoming for Perez, the former head of Maryland’s Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, who worked in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division for 10 years, including serving as deputy attorney general.

Maryland’s two U.S. Senators haled Perez’s confirmation, which came on a 72-22 vote.

Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Maryland) called Perez 'an aggressive champion for justice and the public good.'

'The Civil Rights Division is our nation’s moral conscience and, with Tom’s leadership, will again be empowered to take action against those who violate our laws,' Cardin said in a statement.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland), said in a statement that Perez 'will get the Civil Rights Division back on track and enforce this country’s civil rights laws to combat discrimination, protect minorities and hold violators accountable.'

Perez was named DLLR Secretary by Gov. Martin O’Malley in 2007. O’Malley has tapped Alexander Sanchez, an executive with United Way of America in Alexandria, Va., to succeed Perez.

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Senate floor vote set for civil rights pick
By Jerry Seper
The Washington Times, October 6, 2009
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/06/civil-rights-pick-to-get-senate-vote/

The long-stalled bid to install President Obama's choice as head of the Justice Department's Office of Civil Rights is finally heading for a vote on the Senate floor Tuesday.

Republican objections to Thomas E. Perez had delayed a final vote on the former Clinton administration prosecutor and Maryland Labor Department secretary. They had raised concerns about his ties to an immigrant-advocacy group amid questions about the Justice Department's dismissal of a complaint against members of the New Black Panther Party.

Senate sources said Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, agreed to schedule a cloture vote on Mr. Perez's confirmation. If he gets the 60 votes needed, a final vote and likely confirmation would follow.

Mr. Perez's confirmation was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in June on a bipartisan vote of 17-2.

Although he played no role in the New Black Panther Party case, Republicans have been concerned about the Justice Department's decision to dismiss a civil complaint against three of four defendants in the case after judgments against them already had been approved.

Dressed in black shirts, black pants, black jackets, black boots and carrying a nightstick, the New Black Panthers were caught on videotape issuing racial taunts and slurs at would-be voters.

Political appointees at Justice overruled career attorneys who had brought the case, ordering that it be dismissed against all but one New Black Panther who carried the nightstick. A court order obtained by the department against that member prohibited him from displaying a weapon at a polling place until 2012.

Republicans also have been critical of Mr. Perez's involvement with CASA de Maryland, an immigration-rights organization that has endorsed matricula consular cards as state identity cards, in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, day labor sites, a reduction in restrictions on immigrants receiving driver's licenses, and race-conscious admissions policies for health-professions schools.

Mr. Perez served on the organization's board from 1995 to 2002.

Republicans have expressed concern that his ties to what they described as an extreme immigrant-advocacy organization would work to undermine immigration enforcement if he took over the civil rights division at Justice.

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3.
Menendez book fights stereotypes Latinos' contributions to the U.S. detailed
By David Giambusso
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), October 5, 2009
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-15/12547101055970.xml&coll=1

About 50 people crowded into a small dining room at Mi Bandera restaurant in Union City yesterday to buy signed copies of a book penned by a hometown political star, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.).

'I want to show how Latinos have been here before the nation was founded,' Menendez said of his book before delivering remarks to the group. As costumed revelers lingered on the street below following the city's Hispanic Day Parade, Menendez addressed the crowd in both Spanish and English.

'We have been in defense of both the creation of the country and its history since then,' he said.

In 'Growing American Roots: Why Our Nation Will Thrive as Our Largest Minority Flourishes,' Menendez highlights the contribution of the Latino community to American history and its expanding role in years to come as the Latino population rapidly expands. In the book -- co-written with former Washington Post editor Peter Eisner -- Menendez combats xenophobic perceptions of Latinos in the media and calls for 'sweeping social and economic legislation, immigration reform, improved health care, and an end to the discrimination and prejudice that Hispanics face,' according to a release from Penguin Group, the book's publisher.

Calling for more accurate Census numbers, Menendez said the 2010 survey should be ratified so 'the most accurate numbers possible' are available in order to ensure educational resources, medical care and voting rights are being afforded to all Americans.

'There are some that suggest we shouldn't be counted,' Menendez said of Latino immigrants. 'The Constitution clearly says that every person needs to be counted.'

Those 'some' include conservative television pundits such as Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs, whom Menendez says, 'speak ill of our community.'

Menendez pointed out that Latinos have participated in every war in this country since the American Revolution and have made major contributions to the nation's cultural and political history. Moreover, says Menendez, Latino influence will continue to grow. 'In 2050, the projections are that one-third of our nation will be Latino,' he said.

Peggy Anastos of Wayne bought three copies of the senator's book -- one for herself, her daughter, and a friend -- and said she had always been a strong Menendez supporter. 'Why else would I be here on a Sunday?' she said.

Anastos also took issue with the fears of immigration propagated by pundits such as Dobbs and Beck.

'We are a nation of immigrants, so they should be afraid of themselves,' she said.

Menendez, the son of immigrants, was the first member of his family to graduate from college after growing up in a tenement building in Union City. He went on to get his law degree and become a school board member and a mayor, and in 2006 he was appointed by Gov. Jon Corzine to fill his vacated Senate post. Later that year, Menendez was elected to a full six-year term.

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4.
Experts: Census could hurt La.
By Claire Taylor
The Advertiser (Lafayette, LA), October 6, 2009
http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20091006/NEWS01/910060302

Louisiana and 42 states could lose congressional representation, Electoral College votes and trillions of federal dollars to seven other states if people living in the country illegally are counted in the 2010 U.S. Census.

That's the message John Baker, an LSU professor of constitutional law, and Elliott Stonecipher, a Louisiana demographer, want U.S. citizens to know.

The two, who published an op/ed piece Aug. 9 in The Wall Street Journal, were in Lafayette on Monday evening discussing the consequences of what they call an unconstitutional U.S. Census and urging residents to get involved.

About 40 people attended the event sponsored by the Alexander Law Firm of Baton Rouge and Teche Federal Bank.

Stonecipher learned earlier this year that the Census Bureau will include in the 2010 count 22 million noncitizens and treat them the same as U.S. citizens.

The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that 60 percent of them are not documented migrants, he said.

'Whoever the 22 million are, they're going to be included in calculations of congressional reapportionment,' Stonecipher said.

Thirty-one seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, Electoral College votes and $4 trillion over 10 years in federal money will go to people who are not U.S. citizens, he said.

Only seven states stand to gain if noncitizens are counted: Florida, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, California, New Jersey and New York. Texas stands to gain four congressional seats with the 2010 Census, Stonecipher said.

Forty-three states, including Louisiana, will come out on the losing end.

Louisiana, after the 2010 Census, could lose at least $115 million in federal funds a year and a congressional seat, he said.

The best plan is to count everyone in the Census, but include a citizenship question so that noncitizens can be removed when establishing congressional districts and Electoral College votes, Stonecipher said.

Baker said he favors increased immigration, particularly for professionals like doctors and teachers, but counting non-citizens undermines the U.S. Constitution.

There are three things residents can do to help change the situation:

* Urge Louisiana Attorney General James 'Buddy' Caldwell to sue the Census Bureau on behalf of the state of Louisiana to include a citizenship question in the 2010 Census. Call his office at 225-326-6079 or visit http://www.ag.state.la.us/Article.aspx?articleID=28&catID=12.

* Urge your congressman to tell the Census Bureau to include the citizenship question.

* Help raise money to pay for legal action by the state to sue the Census Bureau.

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5.
Report: Healthcare reform does little to help legal immigrants
By Tony Romm
The Hill (Washington, DC), October 5, 2009
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/61609-healthcare-reform-does-little-for-legal-immigrants-report-finds

Millions of uninsured legal immigrants will remain without coverage unless lawmakers adjust longstanding Medicaid rules that delay them from subscribing to the program, a new report finds.

Without those changes, the report's authors add, legal immigrants could continue contributing to the rising costs of healthcare across the country.

Roughly 3.4 million legal immigrants are currently without health insurance, a sizable portion of whom are between 150 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level, the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) indicates in its latest study, released Monday. But much of that demographic lacks access to Medicaid because the federal government already bars it from subscribing for at least five years, they explained.

That delay, which is preserved in every healthcare reform bill Congress is considering, means a number of immigrants could still head to their emergency rooms for primary care or otherwise lack access to preventive medicine — two key points in the healthcare debate that proponents stress would drive down costs for all, according to the report.

'Leaving large numbers of legal immigrants out of healthcare reform would defeat the core goal of the legislation, which is to extend coverage to the nation's 46 million uninsured,' said MPI Senior Vice President Michael Fix.

'The budget projections for healthcare reform assume substantial savings by excluding many immigrants, but do not factor in the costs associated with leaving so many people uninsured,' added senior policy analyst Randy Capps. 'Denying coverage does not eliminate the need for healthcare, and uninsured immigrants will head to emergency rooms or may postpone necessary medical attention — ultimately shifting costs to taxpayers and other health consumers.'

EDITOR’S NOTE: The MPI report is available online at: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/news/2009_10_5.php

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6.
Report: U.S. Should Give Preference to Skilled Immigrants Over Relatives
By Spencer S. Hsu
The Washington Post, October 6, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/06/AR2009100602168.html

The United States should cut back on the admission of immigrants who are extended-family members of U.S. citizens and permanent residents to make room for more skilled workers, a new independent panel recommended Tuesday.

The 20-member panel, set up by the Brookings Institution and Duke University's Kenan Institute for Ethics, reflected an 'unprecedented' range of liberal and conservative thinkers, and was designed to provide a model rather than a specific road map for policy makers as the Obama administration hopes to take up immigration reform early next year, said Noah Pickus, director of the institute and convener of the group.

The panel's 36-page report, released Tuesday, added weight to calls for Congress to create a standing commission to advise it in setting future immigration levels, variations of which have been proposed by the AFL-CIO and Service Employees International Union and the Council on Foreign Relations.

The new report also proposes a way for opposing camps who seek tougher enforcement against illegal immigration or the legalization of many of the roughly 11 million who are inside the United States to meet both goals at the same time.

Specifically, the Brookings-Duke group said a condition for any legalization program should be certification that E-Verify, a government system that electronically confirms the immigration status and work eligibility of employees and potential employees, meets certain effectiveness ratings. Pairing such goals would lead to a 'trust-but-verify' approach that both sides might support, Pickus said.

The group also said that the U.S. government should rapidly clear a years-long immigration backlog of 600,000 spouses and minor children of U.S. permanent residents who seek visas. While reaffirming U.S. policy favoring family reunification, however, the group said preferences for adult children, siblings and other relatives of citizens and green-card holders -- a group estimated at 4.3 million -- should be ended, with U.S. application fees returned with interest.

Closing the door to extended relatives and another 50,000 people admitted each year under a 'diversity' lottery would make room to increase from 180,000 to 330,000 the number of skilled workers and their family members whom the U.S. could admit each year, the group said.

Overall, the Brookings-Duke group said the current distribution of the roughly 1.1 million immigrants legally admitted per year should shift from 63 percent family members, 16 percent work-based and 21 percent refugees, asylum-seekers and other; to a ratio 'tilting' toward skills.

'Highly educated and trained scientists, mathematicians, and engineers can make particularly significant contributions to our economy and society,' the group wrote, citing the 'stiff global competition for such individuals.'
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The panel's recommendations are likely to put off advocates on both sides, Pickus said, which is partly the point. The group, for example, specifically opposed creating or expanding guest worker programs, a key provision sought by former president George W. Bush in 2006 and 2007 when Congress tried and failed to tackle immigration reform, and which some Senate Republicans have said must be part of any deal.

Senate Democrats also will likely object to several other of the panels ideas, such as having a worker verification system as a 'trigger' for any legalization program, tighter restrictions on family admissions, and a proposal to limit eligibility to illegal immigrants who have lived in the United States for at least five years, among other requirements.

Pickus said the panel's hope is to 'reset the debate' beyond rigid lines set by adversarial interest groups or demagogues on either side, and to provide ways both sides could see progress toward their goals.

'The issue is trust,' he said, adding that the panel's members included conservative Harvard historian Stephan Thernstrom and Michael S. Teitelbaum, a demographer who has advocated for reduced immigration, on the right and liberal players such as Will Marshall of the Progressive Policy Institute and Harvard sociologist Christopher Jencks.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Brookings report is available online at: http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2009/1006_immigration_roundtable.aspx

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7.
Economic woes slow assimilation in U.S.
By Alfonso Chardy
The Miami Herald, October 6, 2009
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/1268323.html

The nation's recession has slowed assimilation among immigrants because many have left the country and fewer are trying to enter the United States, according to a study released Monday in New York.

``The economic downturn had a disproportionate impact on immigrants relative to natives,'' said Jacob L. Vigdor, author of ``Measuring Immigrant Assimilation in the United States'' published Monday by the conservative Manhattan Institute. Vigdor is professor of public policy and economics at Duke University.

The conclusions contrasted sharply with findings in last year's report, which revealed that new immigrants were assimilating more quickly than immigrants a century ago.

The report also reaffirmed evidence that many foreign nationals -- legal and undocumented -- are leaving the country as a result of economic conditions.

Decline Data

Recent estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau and Homeland Security have pointed to a decline in the immigrant population, especially among undocumented immigrants. Federal authorities estimate the number of undocumented immigrants has dropped from 11.8 million in January 2007 to 11.6 million in January 2008.

While the focus of the Manhattan Institute report is not the size of the immigrant population, it notes assimilation trends have slowed or stalled because the number of immigrants has declined.

Vigdor's work defines fully assimilated immigrants as those who are indistinguishable from natives in ability to speak English, economic or educational achievements and citizenship. The most recent data in Vigdor's study, from 2007, shows a stagnation in his assimilation index.

``The absence of change in the assimilation index between 2006 and 2007 is not altogether surprising,'' he wrote. ``The economic slowdown that was at least partly responsible for the decline in the rate of immigration hurt immigrants more than the native-born population.''

Increase in Miami

Though the overall assimilation index stalled, it increased in Houston and Miami, two of the country's metropolitan areas with substantial immigrant populations.

The study showed Cubans remained among immigrants who more easily assimilate -- particularly in terms of economic achievement. In the study, Cubans were among the top five nationalities that more quickly assimilate along with Canadians, South Koreans, Filipinos and Vietnamese.

The number of undocumented Cubans arriving by sea and land has declined, partly because of the recession.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Manhattan Institute report is available online at: http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_59.htm

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8.
Immigration/Commerce News
A Strange Development in Cross-Border Money Flows
The Frontera NorteSur News (New Mexico State University), October 5, 2009
http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/

In a strange twist to US-Mexico money flows, new reports of the phenomenon of reverse remittances continue to surface. According to the director of a Mexican rural micro-banking system that serves predominantly indigenous communities in southern Mexico, family members of migrants working in the United States are sending money north of the border to keep their loved ones afloat in tough economic times.

Martin Zuvire, director of the Mexican Association of Social Sector Credit Unions (AMUCSS), said in an interview with the Mexican press that migrants’ relatives are sending between $200 and $400 each month to El Norte. Although Zuvire did not offer total amounts, he reported seeing an increased money outflow during the last four months.

The AMUCSS operates in about 550 communities in the states of Oaxaca and Puebla. Rural communities, Zuvire said, confront a double crisis of home-based migrants now finding themselves without jobs in Mexican cities as well as in the United States.

Reports of reverse remittances come at a time when the migrant money flow from the US to Mexico has dropped to its lowest level since 1996. The central Bank of Mexico reported last week that remittances fell 12.88 percent during the first eight months of 2009 compared with the same time period in 2008.

In communities served by the AMUCSS, the recent decrease has been in the order of 30 percent, according to Zuvire. In addition to Oaxaca and Puebla, other states slammed by the remittance crisis include Chiapas, Tabasco and Campeche. All the states constitute newer sending regions in the broader history of Mexico-US migration.

Raul Feliz of the Mexico-based Center for Economic Research and Teaching projected earlier this year that remittances to Mexico would suffer a seven percent drop from 2008’s total, perhaps reaching $23 billion by year’s end. In August 2009 the average remittance in Mexico was $310, an amount down from $343 during the same month in 2008, according to the Bank of Mexico.

Despite the dive, 2009 remittance revenues are expected to nearly rival petroleum exports as a leading source of foreign exchange.

For the first eight months of 2009, oil exports brought in about $15.4 billion to Mexico’s coffers, while remittances accounted for almost $14.7 billion.

Multiple reports have attributed much of the remittance downturn to the collapse of the US construction industry, which was estimated to employ 18 of every 100 Mexicans working in this country prior to the economic crisis.

AMUCSS' Zuvire said that family savings and possibly loans from relatives are being employed to support migrants in the US.

It’s unclear if money from loan sharks or human traffickers, who charge hefty fees to illegally cross people into the US in the first place, is now being invested to pay routine living expenses until the economy picks up and businesses turn once again to immigrant labor. If migrants and their families are falling further into debt to high-interest lenders, a modern form of indentured servitude could be emerging.

In any event, crossing the Mexico-US border is becoming a costlier endeavor in more ways than one. A joint study by the Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties and Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission reported last week that about 5,600 migrants have died while trying to cross the border without papers since 1994.

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9.
Verification of illegal immigrants is scrutinized amid healthcare debate
L.A. County officials question cost-effectiveness of rules aimed at screening those trying to get public health services.
By Teresa Watanabe
The Los Angeles Times, October 6, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-immig-health6-2009oct06,0,5066052,full.story

Los Angeles County health worker Leonardo Rincon lifts the birth certificate up to the light and expertly scrutinizes it. Do faint watermarks show up? Yes. He rubs his thumb over the official seal to see if it is raised. It is. He checks the number of digits in the document number. Perfect.

Ruth Torres, he decides, has brought in valid U.S. birth certificates for her six children, a valid U.S. passport for her husband and a valid green card for herself, a legal immigrant from Mexico. The family will continue to receive public healthcare benefits, as least for the next year.

Since July 2008, when Los Angeles County began implementing tougher federal verification rules, Rincon and his colleagues have gone back to check the documents of more than 100,000 recipients of Medi-Cal, the public healthcare program for low-income residents.

The county has received nearly $28 million in state and federal funds to cover the cost of the program and posted 81 people in 27 social service department offices to check documents, Walker said.

So far, they have not found one illegal immigrant who posed as a legal resident to get benefits, according to Deborah Walker, the county's Medi-Cal program director. Fewer than 1% of applicants between July 2008 and February 2009 lacked the proper documents, and many of those applicants eventually produced them, she said.

Among new Medi-Cal applicants, county officials have found a relative handful of cheaters under the tougher standards. In the El Monte office, for instance, supervisor Alma Young said that five to eight undocumented immigrants were discovered among about 7,000 applicants in her unit over the last year -- about 0.1% of the total.

'It's been a big effort without a whole lot of payback,' Walker said of the program.

As the health insurance debate continues to rage, a key point of contention has been how to screen out illegal immigrants from access to any new public benefits. U.S. citizens and legal residents are entitled to full public health benefits; illegal immigrants are eligible only for emergency and pregnancy care.

Members of Congress have proposed a range of new verification requirements, including presentation of photo identification and checks with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's immigration database. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-New York), has proposed requiring biometric ID cards -- using fingerprints, for instance -- to prove citizenship.

'The point of this is not to catch people, it's to deter them and potentially save tons of money,' said Steven A. Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based research organization that advocates immigration restrictions. 'If you don't have these systems, you might have hundreds of thousands of illegals trying to get health benefits.'

Immigrant advocates disagree. They argue that stricter verification rules, such as those implemented last year in Los Angeles County, have proven costly, ineffective and ultimately harmful to U.S. citizens who may be deprived of healthcare because they lack the required documents.

The stricter rules were passed as part of the 2005 federal Deficit Reduction Act and require applicants for Medi-Cal to present documents proving citizenship or legal status. Previously, applicants only had to declare their status on affidavits.

Nationally, however, two federal studies have raised questions about the cost-effectiveness of the rules. One congressional oversight committee found that the regulations cost the federal government and six of nine states surveyed this year $16.6 million in new administrative costs but resulted in snagging only eight illegal immigrants.

A 2007 study by the Government Accountability Office found that half of 44 states surveyed said the new requirements had resulted in a decline in Medicaid recipients, but most of those affected were believed to be eligible citizens.

Jennifer Ng'andu of the National Council of La Raza said that as many as 13 million U.S. citizens do not have a driver's license, birth certificate or passport.

'We think there are adequate verification systems in place today, and the consequence of imposing more excessive ones will mean that people could be left out of healthcare reform,' she said.

At the county social services department in El Monte, Rincon offered a different view. The bilingual 36-year-old Los Angeles native, whose parents legally immigrated from Mexico, figures he has checked out more than 240,000 documents under the new law since last year.

During that time, Rincon said, he has found only two suspicious citizenship documents -- one with a name handwritten over one whited out, the other with a name different from the one on the applicant's driver's license. But both ultimately checked out with U.S. immigration officials.

Rincon said the only time he caught an illegal immigrant was under the old system, when he noticed the birth certificates that a woman presented for her various children all listed her age as 40. He referred the case to the state's fraud unit, which verified with immigration officials that the children had no legal status. Rincon called her back for a second interview, where he said she admitted the ruse.

But the tougher standards have improved coordination between state and local agencies and resulted in faster response times, Rincon said. Tapping into his computer at the El Monte office's verification desk, he demonstrated the different federal and state systems at his disposal.

If an immigrant's citizenship certificate or green card seems suspect, Rincon said, he will submit an electronic request for verification to Homeland Security's immigration database. If a native-born person's birth certificate needs checking, he will verify it through a state database of vital statistics.

And if applicants are born outside California, he will mail a verification request to officials in their state of birth under an interstate information-sharing agreement. One improvement he said he would like to see is federal legislation authorizing states to link their systems together to eliminate the need for snail mail.

Even though he hasn't caught any cheaters in the last year, Rincon said he still sees value in the tougher standards.

'I think it's a good deterrent for people passing themselves off as U.S. citizens when they are undocumented,' Rincon said. 'The word of mouth is that you can't pass off these fake documents so easily anymore. Now everything is followed up on.'

Torres, for instance, still needs to produce more documentation than just citizenship papers to continue coverage for her whole family. Now that one of her daughters turned 18 this year, Torres will have to present a photo ID that matches her daughter's birth certificate. If she fails to do so within 30 days, a county worker will follow up. Without identification in a year, the daughter's benefits will be downgraded to emergency and pregnancy care only.

Torres, a 50-year-old Baldwin Park resident, said her family has received Medi-Cal benefits for the last eight years, since her husband lost his job repairing conveyor belts. He subsequently found a job maintaining machines for a packaging company, but it does not provide health insurance. She said she is ambivalent about the tougher laws.

'If it relates to health, it shouldn't matter if you have or don't have documents,' she said.

But other applicants offered different views.

Thomas Medina, a fourth-generation Mexican American who is applying for Medi-Cal for the first time after his pizza and sandwich business soured, said he doesn't mind requests to produce his birth certificate.

'I want to help them,' he said, referring to illegal immigrants. 'But if they're overloading the system and hurting those of us who have put into the system for years, it's wrong.'

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10.
Employers in S.C. reconcile over immigration status audits
By Fred Horlbeck
The South Carolina Lawyers Weekly, October 5, 2009
http://www.sclawyersweekly.com/ [Subscription]

Employers critical of recent state immigration audits have reached an agreement with the S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation with the help of employment lawyers from several of the state's largest firms.

Since July 1, LLR has conducted random audits of businesses to ensure compliance with a recently enacted provision of the S.C. Illegal Immigration Reform Act.

But employers said LLR went too far. They complained that the audits were unannounced and that LLR was seeking random interviews with employees and proof of verification of the work status of all employees, not just those hired after July 1.

The S.C. Chamber of Commerce and several of the state's largest law firms, including Nexsen Pruet, Ogletree Deakins and The McNair Law Firm, worked with LLR to resolve the issues, said David Dubberly, who chairs Nexsen Pruet's employment and labor law practice group.

A Nexsen Pruet update e-mailed to clients on Sept. 30 said that LLR had agreed to give employers at least three days written notice of audits. Also, LLR agreed to no longer inspect records of employees hired before July 1.

An LLR attorney referred questions to department spokesman Jim Knight. Knight did not return a phone call seeking comment prior to publication.

Dubberly said the discussions with LLR were amicable. No legal action was involved.

'The bottom line here is we were able to work everything out, and that's the way that we wanted to do it. There were some clients that wanted to go to court, but our advice to them was to work it out,' he said.

Businesses began complaining soon after enactment of a provision that requires private businesses with 100 or more employees verify the work status of new employees, Dubberly said. The provision kicked in July 1.

'We started to get calls from clients saying, 'LLR has come to inspect' and 'Can they really do the things they said they're wanting to do?,'' Dubberly said.

The unannounced audits were 'objectionable' because state law requires inspections to occur at reasonable times, he said.

The chamber and the law firms asked LLR to follow the example of the U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which gives three days advance notice of its audits.

'We believe in the immigration laws. Our clients are not trying to get around them. They're trying to comply in a way that doesn't put them in more legal jeopardy and that also allows them to continue to run their businesses,' Dubberly said.

'If you get somebody showing up at your door, that's disruptive because then you've got to pull everything together right then,' he said.

Random interviews with employees also were disruptive, he said.

'Our position based on the law was that it's fine for them to interview people if there were questions about their documents and if the people were hired on July 1 or later because the law started to apply on July 1. If people were hired before July 1, then it wouldn't be appropriate for them to interview them because they wouldn't be covered by the law and if their documents were in order, there would be no reason for them to interview the employees,' Dubberly said.

In lieu of interviewing employees and asking for documentation for employees hired before July 1, LLR agreed to allow business to sign an 'Affirmation of Legal Work Status' form.

A business signing the form certifies that it isn't 'knowingly or intentionally employing unauthorized aliens and that it has taken appropriate measures to verify that its workers are authorized to work in the United States,' the Nexsen Pruet announcement said. Making false statements on the form can result in fines or imprisonment.

The chamber led the effort to convince LLR to reconsider its handling of the audits, asking the law firms to assist but not retaining them, Dubberly said.

'It was mainly the chamber that was involved, and the chamber involved the law firms. We all had clients that questioned the way the law was being enforced,' he said.

Ted Speth, a lawyer with Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart, did not return a call prior to publication.

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11.
San Francisco sanctuary rule change moves ahead
By John Cote
The San Francisco Chronicle, October 6, 2009
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/05/BARR1A1FPN.DTL

San Francisco officials on Monday moved closer to amending the city's controversial sanctuary ordinance and restricting when local authorities can report juveniles for possible deportation.

The public safety committee of San Francisco's Board of Supervisors approved the legislation on a 2-1 vote, with Michaela Alioto-Pier dissenting.

The legislation is expected to go before the full board later this month. A veto-proof majority supports amending the policy so that federal immigration officials are notified if a juvenile is convicted of a felony. Current policy, enacted by Mayor Gavin Newsom last year, requires immigration officials be contacted when a juvenile is arrested on suspicion of a felony.

Newsom says the legislation proposed by Supervisor David Campos conflicts with federal law, is unenforceable and sets the city up for legal challenges.

Monday's committee hearing, though, was packed with supporters of Campos' legislation.

'We are on the right side of history,' said Campos, a lawyer who arrived here as an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala. 'San Francisco has always been at the forefront of civil rights, and what we do here usually sets a precedent for the rest of the country. Hopefully, we'll do the right thing.'

Campos, immigrant rights groups and others say this is an issue of due process: children who had no say in crossing the border are facing deportation without even being convicted of a crime. Youth are arrested for crimes they didn't commit or for minor offenses like graffiti that are overcharged as felonies. Even if cleared in court, they can be split from their families.

Supporters say the measure will help public safety because illegal immigrants will be willing to cooperate with police.

Newsom says the current policy strikes the right balance between public safety and individual rights.

'Our sanctuary city policy is designed to protect our residents, regardless of immigration status, but it is not a shield for criminal behavior, and the mayor won't let it be used that way,' Newsom spokesman Nathan Ballard said. 'If you are booked for a felony, you have lost the protection of the sanctuary city policy.'

Newsom enacted the policy after The Chronicle reported the city was shielding young felons from deportation. In one of the most high profile cases, Edwin Ramos, 22, who had been arrested for several felonies as a youth but never referred to immigration officials, was arrested and charged with the 2008 slayings of Tony Bologna and his two sons.

Newsom in August released a memo from the city attorney's office saying Campos' amendment would likely result in a federal legal challenge that could threaten the entire sanctuary ordinance.

The memo said the amendment could also violate state law requiring authorities to notify the federal government when an undocumented person is arrested for a variety of drug crimes and jeopardize the city's defense against a Bologna family lawsuit.

Federal law also says the city cannot prohibit its officials from providing information to federal authorities on someone's immigration status, the memo said. That makes Campos' legislation unenforceable and could put officials who follow it in legal jeopardy, Ballard said.

Backers point to legal scholars from Yale, Stanford and UC Davis who say the amendment is legally defensible.

'I am 100 percent confident that the sanctuary ordinance and the new proposal is constitutional and legally viable,' UC Davis law Professor Bill Ong Hing said at the hearing.

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12.
Inquiry Looks at Treatment of Latinos by Suffolk Police
By Kirk Semple
The New York Times, October 5, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/nyregion/06suffolk.html

Federal authorities have opened an investigation into allegations of 'discriminatory policing' by the Suffolk County Police Department over how officers responded to reports of crimes against Latinos, a Justice Department spokesman said Monday.

Latino residents and their advocates have accused the police in that Long Island county of systematically failing to fully investigate allegations of assaults on Latinos. After the highly publicized stabbing death of an Ecuadorean immigrant last November ó prosecutors said that his attackers were driven by prejudice against Latinos ó residents stepped forward with accounts of other attacks they believed were racially motivated. Some of those cases had been reported to the police but had not resulted in any arrests.

Justice Department investigators 'will seek to determine whether there are systemic violations of the Constitution or federal law' by the police, said Alejandro Miyar, a spokesman for the department. The agency notified Suffolk police authorities of the investigation on Sept. 30.

The police commissioner, Richard Dormer, said in a telephone interview that he welcomed the federal investigation into his police force and denied that there had any police discrimination against Latino crime victims.

The investigation, he said, 'gives us a chance to dispel the myths that we didn’t investigate thoroughly and completely any complaints that have come to our attention.'

Mr. Dormer acknowledged that his force may have missed a pattern of racially motivated crime against Latinos in the county in recent years but said that was because some crimes were apparently not reported to the police.

In January, federal authorities announced that they had begun a review of numerous allegations of racially motivated crime against Latinos in Suffolk to determine which ones might be violations of federal civil rights laws. That criminal review remains open and no related charges have yet been filed, though federal authorities are closely monitoring the continuing prosecutions of hate crimes in Suffolk, Mr. Miyar said.

Federal scrutiny of hate crimes in Suffolk was spurred by the killing last November of the Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero. Seven youths are awaiting trial in that case.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization based in Montgomery, Ala., that tracks hate groups around the country, reported last month that many Latino crime victims in Suffolk 'said police did not take their reports of attacks seriously, often blaming the victims instead.'

'They said there’s little point in going to the police, who are often not interested in their plight and instead demand to know their immigration status,' said the report, the product of months of investigation on Long Island, including scores of interviews with Latino immigrants and local civic leaders.

Advocates for Latino immigrants praised the Justice Department for its decision to investigate the police.

'For a long time Latinos in Suffolk County felt that the Suffolk County police have been hostile or indifferent to their well-being and that they have not been treated as white residents have been treated,' said Foster Maer, senior litigation counsel for LatinoJustice P.R.L.D.E.F., an advocacy group based in Manhattan that had been pressing the Justice Department for the inquiry.

'Hopefully,' he added, 'we can look forward to a new day on Long Island when Latinos can have full confidence that the police out there are serving them as well as the police are serving others in the community.'

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13.
Feds limit Arizona sheriff's immigration powers
By Jacques Billeaud
The Associated Press, October 6, 2009
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i4nY72M0hFVOHUzIrqYpD67DoBxgD9B5Q40G2

Phoenix (AP) -- An Arizona sheriff known for aggressively cracking down on illegal immigration is being stripped of some of his power to enforce immigration law.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says federal officials won't let him renew a deal that let his deputies make federal immigration arrests. The U.S. government is changing its rules for allowing local police to enforce more expansive federal immigration laws.

Federal officials did renew a deal that will let Arpaio's jail officers determine the immigration status of people in his jails.

Arpaio says federal officials offered no explanation of why his powers were cut in half.

A spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to comment on the curtailment of Arpaio's powers.

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Arpaio plans to 'combat' ICE agreement
By JJ Hensley
The Arizona Republic (Phoenix), October 6, 2009
http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/azelections/articles/2009/10/06/20091006arpaio2871006-ON.html

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's ongoing battles with government will take center stage this afternoon during a news conference where Arpaio will discuss his plans to 'combat' an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Arpaio said on Friday that he had signed a contract with ICE that would authorize sheriff's deputies to continue screening inmates in county jails for immigration violations. Without an agreement that authorizes immigration screenings on the street, deputies will need probable cause to detain a suspected illegal immigrant until federal agents can determine the suspect's immigration status.

Sheriff's deputies will still enforce the state's human-smuggling law, which allows illegal immigrants to be charged as co-conspirators in their own smuggling, but a conviction requires proving clear links to some sort of smuggling activity, said Dan Pochoda, Arizona American Civil Liberties Union legal director.

The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to approve the agreement on Wednesday, and the paperwork is due in Washington, D.C., by Oct. 15.

In a news release, a Sheriff's Office spokesman said Arpaio was 'furious' with the agreement and planned to hold a 2:30 p.m. news conference.

The agreement Arpaio signed last week removes the authority for sheriff's deputies to act as federal immigration agents during the course of their street-level enforcement duties, a function deputies had since the Sheriff's Office and ICE entered into a similar agreement in 2007.

A copy of the agreement The Republic obtained on Monday states that, 'there are two models for the 287(g) program, a Task Force Officer (TFO) mode or a Detention model. Pursuant to this (Memorandum of Agreement), MCSO has been delegated authorities under the Detention model as outlined below.'

The jail-screening effort helped officials catch nearly 30,000 illegal immigrants since the program began in February 2007, but it was the street-level enforcement that caused the most controversy and produced less substantial results, capturing about 264 illegal-immigration suspects.

Federal officials have come under increasing pressure from civil-rights, labor, religious and pro-immigrant groups to end the program, known as 287(g), because of fears of racial profiling.

The Sheriff's Office had been operating under an umbrella agreement that authorized the street-level enforcement and jail operations, but ICE officials announced in July that all the contracts with local law-enforcement agencies were under review.

Arpaio said he had been prepared to sign a new umbrella agreement, which stressed a focus on enforcing immigration laws only in cases of serious crimes, before the Oct. 15 deadline.

Then, ICE's deputy assistant secretary for operations, Alonzo Pena, came to Phoenix two weeks ago and presented the sheriff with a contract that would authorize the operations to continue only in the jails. Attorneys for the Sheriff's Office tried to contact ICE administrators for the past week to determine the outcome of the street-level agreement but failed to get a response, Arpaio said.

Arpaio tied ICE's decision to separate the jail-and-street enforcement agreements to the Justice Department's ongoing civil-rights investigation into allegations that sheriff's deputies engaged in racial profiling while enforcing immigration duties.

'Looks like a little politics, doesn't it?' he said.

With the deadline looming to continue any sort of agreement with ICE, Arpaio signed the jail authorization on Friday.

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14.
Hispanics could face barriers under health-care reform
Advocates say immigration restrictions and costs could keep many from insurance plans
By Victor Manuel Ramos
The South Florida Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale), October 5, 2009
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-hispanics-immigrants-health-care-reform-100509,0,6106212.story

As the health-care reform debate takes shape in Congress, advocates worry that many Hispanics -- who have the highest rate of uninsured of all ethnic and racial groups -- could still be left without needed medical care.

Some think that out-of-pocket expenses would keep many Hispanics from buying insurance. For others, their immigration status could affect whether they get any kind of coverage.

On Monday, several minority advocacy groups, including the National Council of La Raza and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, announced a campaign in favor of a public option that would cover more people in poor minority communities.

'The proposals assume that people have the money to buy health insurance. . .' and those who don't could be fined, said Josephine Mercado, director of Hispanic Health Initiatives, an advocacy group in Casselberry. 'I just don't know how fair that system is going to be to the people who really need it.'

Among those who might be priced out is Adela Moreno of Apopka, a legal immigrant from Mexico who has been living with an abdominal hernia for years because she lacks insurance and cannot afford treatment.

Her medical care consists of occasional $20 checkups at community clinics.

Under current proposals, Moreno would be required to buy medical insurance from an exchange, which would serve as a government-regulated marketplace, before she could qualify for tax subsidies.

But the mother of three doubts she and her husband could pay premiums on his income from odd jobs in construction.

'I don't have the resources to pay for myself,' said Moreno, 46. 'Legal or illegal, if you don't have the money, it's all the same.'

While the Senate Finance Committee has defeated amendments that would have restricted access to legal immigrants, pending proposals would leave out millions of others who are in the country illegally, completely excluding them from benefits.

Illegal immigrants -- whose population adds up to about 1 million in Florida and 11 million nationwide -- became a flash point in the debate when U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., accused President Obama of lying about their eligibility during the president's national address last month.

Advocates on all sides agree that illegal immigrants excluded from health benefits will end up using public resources through emergency rooms and government-funded clinics.

'Either you encourage people to go home or you pay through the nose,' said Steven Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington group that calls for stricter immigration enforcement. 'There is no other way about it.'

Others think that keeping illegal immigrants out of health benefits would also affect legal residents and U.S. citizens in mixed households, who might just opt out of the system altogether.

'The reality is that we have [undocumented and recent] immigrants in the same families as citizens, so trying to claim that health care should focus only on citizens is not addressing who we are as a nation,' said Sonal Ambegaokar, a health-policy attorney with the National Immigration Law Center in Los Angeles. 'The goal of health-care reform was to avoid people going into emergency rooms for care and [instead] to see their doctors, so they don't have to delay care until it gets serious.'

The Obama administration, though, issued a statement saying that health care reform will benefit more Americans, including those in minority communities.

'Health reform is very important for minorities in this country,' said Cecilia Munoz, Director of Intergovernmental Relations for the White House. 'Through a health insurance exchange, Americans and immigrants who are here legally will be able to choose between several health plans that are low cost and high quality, to decide what will work best for their families.'

Marytza Sanz, who heads the nonprofit advocacy group Latino Leadership in Orlando, agreed that while reform plans are not ideal they are still an improvement over the current system.

More legal residents and Hispanics who are citizens, such as those in Orlando's large Puerto Rican community, would have an opportunity to buy insurance regardless of pre-existing conditions, she said.

As things stand now, Sanz cannot buy insurance that would cover her care for diabetes and high blood pressure because companies consider her too much of a risk.

That would change under the government-regulated marketplace.

'More people will have some health care,' Sanz said. 'Right now, we have nothing.'

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15.
Union hopes to organize Long Beach hotel workers
By Patrick J. McDonnell
The Los Angeles Times, October 5, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hotel-workers5-2009oct05,0,2773363.story

After a day's work cleaning one hotel room after another, Maria Valdivia says she's often too fatigued to play with her three children once she gets home.

'It pains me to tell my kids I don't have time for them,' said Valdivia, a housekeeper at the Hyatt Regency in Long Beach. 'But sometimes I'm so tired and so achy that I'm just worn out.'

Valdivia was among the hundreds of hotel workers and labor activists who took to the streets of Long Beach last week to launch a national campaign dubbed Hope for Housekeepers, designed to spotlight what union leaders call substandard working conditions at Hyatt hotels nationwide. It is also part of an ongoing organizing effort at the Hyatt, Hilton and other nonunion hotels in Long Beach and elsewhere.

Hyatt officials rejected union allegations that the hotel abuses its housekeepers and is hostile to organized labor.

'The safety of our employees is always at the forefront of our minds,' said Jeff C. Pace, general manger at the 528-room Hyatt Regency Long Beach, which abuts the Convention Center and overlooks the harbor. 'We are not anti-union. What we are is pro-employee.'

The Hyatt chain has suffered a number of public relations blows lately, notably last month, when a firestorm of criticism ensued after Hyatt dismissed 98 nonunion housekeepers at three Boston-area hotels and replaced them with low-wage workers from a subcontractor. The governor of Massachusetts has threatened a boycott unless Hyatt rehires the workers.

Labor representatives voice the hope that the Hyatt Regency and other Long Beach hotels will become another success story in the aggressive recruitment of low-wage, mostly immigrant workers throughout Southern California.

Unite Here Local 11, known for its militant tactics and public relations savvy, has won contracts at hotels near Los Angeles International Airport, in Santa Monica and elsewhere in recent years.

But Long Beach's huge tourism industry remains largely nonunion, posing a challenge to a resurgent organized labor network. Labor leaders say the many public subsidies granted to the hospitality industry in Long Beach mandate more equitable treatment of hotel employees and other tourism workers.

'We will make Long Beach a union town,' Maria Elena Durazo, head of the L.A. County Federation of Labor, said at the union rally last week.

Organizers are seeking a so-called neutrality agreement from Hyatt and other hotels in Long Beach. That would facilitate Local 11 representation if a majority of workers sign authorization cards supporting the union. But hotel management is insisting on a vote on unionization, which is the employers' right under law.

'We truly believe that a secret ballot process is the best way to go and give everyone an opportunity to weigh in with their opinions,' said Pace at the Hyatt Regency, which has roughly 350 employees, including about 80 housekeepers, and has been a waterfront fixture for more than a quarter of a century.

In Washington, big labor is pushing for federal 'card check' legislation that would end the election mandate in union drives. Labor leaders say such ballots are flawed because of company coercion. But business groups vigorously object to the proposed Employee Free Choice Act, contending that card check alone allows union backers to intimidate employees into signing.

Pro-union hotel workers and their supporters marched for a mile in Long Beach last week, hoisting a massive quilt that, the union said, represented the pain and injury that housekeepers suffer on the job.

Room attendants often suffer back, shoulder and hand injuries while bending, lifting beds, cleaning and performing other tasks, labor leaders say.

A union-funded study this year of federal occupational safety data at five top hotel chains found that hotel workers have higher rates of injury than other service employees.

According to Local 11, union housekeepers in Southern California typically earn $13 to $16 an hour, with healthcare and pension benefits, compared with $9 to $12 an hour for their nonunion counterparts.

Among those protesting was Celia Alvarez, a longtime Hyatt housekeeper who says she has been out of work for more than a year with lower back and shoulder injuries. 'There was always a lot of pressure to clean more rooms,' said Alvarez, who accompanied the march in a wheelchair.

According to the union, housekeepers at the Hyatt in Long Beach have to clean as many as 30 rooms a day, almost double the rate at union hotels.

But Pace, the Hyatt general manager in Long Beach, said that attendants cleaned a maximum of 24 to 26 rooms a day and that completing 18 to 20 rooms a day is more typical. Many Hyatt housekeepers participate in a bonus program allowing them to earn more if they opt to clean additional rooms, the company said in a statement.

'The safety of our guests and associates is a serious concern for us,' Hyatt declared. 'Every associate, including housekeeping staff, undergoes extensive training to ensure a safe work environment.'

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16.
Groups Seek Better Count of Hispanics
By Miriam Jordan
The Wall Street Journal, October 1, 2009
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125435725382154619.html

A coalition of Latino groups backed by the Census Bureau will launch a campaign Thursday to pull off an elusive feat: getting an accurate count of Hispanics in the U.S.

The Hispanic population has exploded since the 2000 census, growing 33% to an estimated 47 million. But it is also one of the hardest groups to track.

Hundreds of thousands of Hispanics are migratory workers. Several million are in the country illegally and reluctant to fill out official forms. Language barriers persist, and the foreclosure crisis has left many Hispanic families without a mailing address.

A new Spanish language media spot featuring journalist Maria Elena Salinas urges Hispanics to participate in the Census.

'This is adding up to a perfect storm when it comes to the census on Latinos,' said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, a nonpartisan group known as Naleo, which is spearheading the campaign.

The outreach is also being led by Spanish-language media, unions and grass-roots groups. Dubbed 'Ya Es Hora. Hagase Contar!' (It's Time, Make Yourself Count!), the effort is designed to encourage all Hispanics, even immigrants in the U.S. illegally, to fill out census forms.

An accurate count could bolster the swelling political clout of Hispanics. The decennial count will determine the allocation of billions in federal and state funds each year. Data from the questionnaire will also be used to determine reapportionment for congressional and state legislative districts.

The census campaign seeks to counter calls for a boycott of the tally by groups angry at President Barack Obama's inaction on legislation that could legalize about 12 million undocumented immigrants.

The coalition of Latino groups is coming off a trio of victories. Over the past couple of years, it successfully recruited many Latinos to become U.S. citizens and also orchestrated a major voter-registration drive, followed by a massive voter-turnout effort.

Univision, the largest Spanish-language broadcaster in the U.S., will bombard its three television networks and its radio airwaves with public-service announcements on the census. Its reporters will weave motivational messages into news shows.

'People will be hearing about the census on their way to work, at church and at union meetings,' said Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, which represents janitorial, health-care and food-service workers. 'We are going to get the word out until people are sick and tired of hearing about the census,' Mr. Medina said.

The Census Bureau is coordinating with the Latino groups and separately is investing $312 million on advertising in 28 languages.

Much of the advertising will be directed at so-called 'hard to count' communities, census tracts with a history of low participation that typically include immigrant enclaves. For the first time, the Census Bureau is mailing bilingual questionnaires to about 13.5 million households in areas where at least a fifth of them use Spanish as their primary language.

In the Los Angeles area alone, the Census Bureau has 300 staff dedicated to working with churches and community groups to get at hard-to-reach immigrants.

'We want to get down as low as we can go and get into these communities,' said James Christy, director for the Los Angeles region.

At a Brazilian festival in Los Angeles earlier this month, Census Bureau staffer Jose Mayorga told visitors, 'We don't ask about immigration status.'

He distributed fact sheets in Portuguese that stated in capital letters: 'CONFIDENTIALITY IS THE LAW!!!!'

One group that has called on Hispanics to boycott the census is the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders. Its leader, the Rev. Miguel Rivera, claims that data from the 2000 census indicating a surge in the Hispanic population spurred anti-immigrant politicians, particularly in states like Georgia, to crack down on illegal immigrants.

'We don't want to help such states gain seats in the House,' Mr. Rivera said.

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High-Stakes Census for Latinos Complicated by Fears
By Devin Dwyer
The ABC News, October 5, 2009
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/latinos-2010-census-high-stakes-face-challenges-count/story?id=8737329

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17.
Forum discusses immigration reform
By Sandra Emerson
The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario, CA), October 5, 2009
http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_13491733

Claremont, CA -- A group of immigration reform supporters gathered at Our Lady of the Assumption Church to motivate people to start pushing for law changes.

The Latino/Latina Roundtable held the forum on Sept. 30 to get a head start on mobilizing the community and encouraging them to communicate their desire for immigration reform to elected officials.

If immigration reform does not get passed by the government, it is the country as a whole that will be at a loss, said Esther Lopez of United Food and Commercial Workers.

'It is in fact who we are in this country and what we stand for because what it means is the extreme right wing has beaten us,' Lopez said. 'It means that those that are hanging to preserve the legacy of slavery have won.'

The need for immigration reform is critical to keep workers from being exploited for their lack of legal status, Lopez said.

'The consequences of not moving and not succeeding in moving comprehensive immigration reform are dire, and frankly, from labor's perspective, they're dire for workers,' Lopez said.

Many of the immigration reform details didn't sit well with some attendees who disagreed with some of Lopez' comments.

'We surely do need immigration reform. We need something that will put a damper on the things that are going on,' Upland resident Dee Barrow said. 'Even if they have to stop (immigration) for a short time and get everything caught up and figure out a way that's not going to cause all this dissension between people in this country. We need it all right, but not in the way (Lopez) is talking about.'

The idea of increasing workers' wages while allowing more workers to keep coming into the country didn't sit well with Claremont resident Minor Collinsworth.

'If you increase the supply of anything all things being equal, the price is going to go down,' Collinsworth said. 'If you increase the amount of workers, all things being equal, the wages will go down.'

Angelica Salaz of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights for Los Angeles discussed difficulties associated with becoming a legal resident of the United States.

Getting a green card, or legal permanent residence, 'Is one of the hardest, hardest things for a person, for an immigrant, to get,' Salaz said.

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18.
Asians gain power in NYC elections
By Sara Kugler
The Associated Press, October 5, 2009
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/05/asians-gain-power-in-nyc-elections/

NYC (AP) -- Chinatown is likely to get its first Chinese-American representative on the City Council, and a Taiwanese immigrant is headed for citywide office - a dramatic change for the nation's most-populated city, which had no Asian-Americans in elected office just eight years ago.

For the first time in its 150 years, the downtown Manhattan neighborhood, which is one of the biggest Chinese communities outside Asia, could be represented by a Chinese-American. Margaret Chin, whose family emigrated from Hong Kong in 1963, when she was 9, beat incumbent Alan Gerson in a Democratic primary last month and is expected to win the seat in November.

Ms. Chin, a community organizer and immigrant advocate who speaks three Chinese dialects, is heavily favored to beat Irene Horvath, a Republican. She said it was exciting to finally break the barrier.

'People want to get involved and want to be part of the mainstream and want to make sure that the community that they come from is represented,' Ms. Chin said. 'The dynamics of the city are changing.'

And John Liu last week won the Democratic primary runoff for comptroller, the city's chief financial officer and one of its top three elected positions. Mr. Liu, whose family emigrated from Taiwan when he was a child, is on his way to becoming the first Asian-American to hold citywide office in New York City.

Mr. Liu, a Queens council member, beat fellow council member David Yassky in the runoff and is expected to win the Nov. 3 general election against lesser-known Joe Mendola, a Republican.

Experts say Mr. Liu's primary campaign, along with a handful of local races in which Asian-American candidates were running, helped fuel unprecedented enthusiasm among Asian-American voters.

'There's definitely a sense of excitement - it has an energizing effect that led to a turnout surge,' said Democratic strategist Evan Stavisky, who is working for Ms. Chin and worked for Mr. Liu's past campaigns.

In Chinatown, Chinese-Americans have run for City Council before - including Ms. Chin three times. But several factors, including low Asian turnout in past primaries and multiple Asian candidates splitting the vote, prevented their victories.

Asians account for about 12 percent of the city's 8.3 million people, compared with blacks' 25 percent and Hispanics' 27 percent. They represent just less than 5 percent of registered voters, according to Mr. Stavisky's analysis of enrollment data.

The primary on Sept. 15, when Mr. Liu was running in a four-way race and several other Asian-Americans were seeking council seats, brought out many first-time Asian voters.

An analysis of results from the Sept. 29 runoff showed Mr. Liu was propelled not only by Asian-American voters but also by strong backing from blacks and Hispanics. He had campaigned with black leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, and highlighted his record on civil rights and racial equality.

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19.
Transient students struggle
By Judy Bastien
The Daily World (Opelousas, LA), October 6, 2009
http://www.dailyworld.com/article/20091006/NEWS01/910060306

Many students entering kindergarten can look forward to graduating with the same students they started school with. In today's mobile society, however, some may end up in different school districts with different sets of classmates. Their parents may move across town to a bigger house or across the country for a better job.

Changing schools can be tough for a child who has to learn new routines, make new friends and sometimes struggle to catch up with their new classmate.

But there is a segment of the school population for whom moving from place to place and school to school is a way of life. They get their education in bits and pieces.

That can have a devastating effect on the children's grades with a ripple effect on their schools. The students' families tend to gravitate to schools in high-poverty areas, which not coincidentally, too often struggle to get off or stay off of the Louisiana Department of Education's Academically list of unacceptable schools.

While there are no state or federal program specifically aimed at transient students, St. Landry Parish as a whole and individual schools that struggle with students being displaced have been trying to focus efforts to provide these children some stability and increase their chances in school.

These students belong to two groups.

In one group are the children of migrant workers. Children of migrant workers move from town to town, following seasonal work, which includes farming, racetrack work and, in St. Landry Parish, working at a crawfish processing plant in Eunice.

At the beginning of the school year, there were 212 children of migrant workers enrolled in St. Landry Parish schools. That number dropped to about 150 in the middle of September, when seasonal jobs at Evangeline Downs ended.

The second group are children whose parents move within the city from the home of one relative or friend to the next because they are caught in a cycle of poverty. The reasons vary.

'It could be they lost their job and went down,' said Delores Thomas, senior migrant recruiter and homeless liaison for the St. Landry Parish School Board. 'Or there are some on drugs and don't care. When they lose their jobs and can't find one, they begin to face the reality that they're losing everything. They pick up the kids and stay with someone else.'

Most of the transient students at Southwest Elementary, which lies in a pocket of high poverty, fall into the second category.

Southwest Elementary Principal Judy Frank is familiar with the problem in a personal way.

'When I grew up, I moved several times because I had a single mom, but I went to only one school. I had the same teacher and I didn't have to meet anybody new,' Frank said. 'My housing changed, but who I had to see the next day didn't change.'

Not so for students today. Many transient students attend four or five different schools in any given year.

'Because of zoning, with each move, they're likely to get a new school, a new community. It doesn't give them any stability,' Frank said.

Frank was able this year, through tutoring programs and the hard work of faculty, staff and students, to pull her school up and off the academically unacceptable list.

Extra help is provided to many students in those less than ideal situations.

'In the schools, we have Title I services, pull-out programs with a teacher's aide working one on one with them,' Thomas said.

Title I refers to federal programs that provide help in reading and math to students in grades kindergarten through eight whose test scores fall below average.

But it's an uphill battle.

Lower test scores are exacerbated by a higher rate of absence and tardiness among children with unstable home lives.

In the case of migrant workers, older children are often kept home to care for the younger ones, Thomas said.

Those lower scores not only result in diminished opportunities for students to better their lives, but also lower scores for their schools - absence count against a school's score.

The number of absences is down at Southwest so far this year, Frank said. She attributes that to the efforts of counselors and parent educators who try to impress upon parents how important regular attendance is for their children.

The extra help offered by the school system isn't limited to academics. Supplies and uniforms are often provided. Thomas' office also supplies transportation for children to and from doctor's offices or the St. Landry Parish Health Unit, when parents have no way of getting them there.

Transportation means that Thomas drives them in her personal vehicle.

'We don't have special vehicles here,' she said.

Tracking migrant workers' children, who are often a full grade behind, and giving them extra help difficult, at times.

'In the classroom, we provide Title I services,' Thomas said. 'We may work with them one by one. But sometimes, we help them fill out the paperwork and the next week, they're gone.'

While helping children in dire straits can be rewarding, it can also take its toll.

'Some of these kids, you feel so sorry, you want to take them home with you,' Thomas said. 'But you can't get personally involved.'

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20.
Migrant camps in San Diego are teeming with prostitution
By Kimberly Dvorak
The Examiner (San Diego), October 5, 2009
http://www.examiner.com/x-10317-San-Diego-County-Political-Buzz-Examiner~y2009m10d5-Migrant-camps-in-San-Diego-are-busy-with-prostitution

Over the weekend the San Diego Minutemen stumbled upon some extracurricular activities in McGonigle Canyon in the city of San Diego -illegal prostitution.

A couple of Minutemen activists, who often scout the local canyons for illegal migrant and squatter camps and their associated crimes and fire hazards, observed an unusually high number of well-dressed Latino men and boys traversing the field into an old grove of eucalyptus trees.

After 45-minutes of observation, the pair were joined by a freelance photojournalist and decided to get a closer look at the scene because the canyon has a history of prostitution in a nearby location aptly named the 'rape grove.'

Once they reached the tree grove, approximately eight men and two girls scattered into all directions, according to Jeff Schwilk, founder of SDMM.

What they found inside the trees were two makeshift 'sex dens' complete with used and unused multi-colored condoms, lubricant, women’s clothing and shoes and a rough-shod bed. A man suspected of being a pimp or a 'John' and a suspected prostitute were apprehended by the San Diego Police Department.

Schwilk pointed out the well-used foot paths as the signs that led his group to suspect something fishy was taking place. 'We noted the paths through the brush leading into the prostitution area were very well worn and the ‘lounge’ area was cleared of brush,' Schwilk explained.

'It appears that prostitution has been going on in this area regularly for many months,' he said.

Schwilk referred to this problem as San Diego’s ‘dirty little secret,’ and notes his frustration with local law enforcement not doing enough to keep the canyon clear of dozens of migrant camps which provide many of the clients for the field prostitution ring. 'Three years ago SDMM exposed the daytime prostitution ring in the old rape grove, but many migrant camps have remained.'

Local illegal immigration activist, Enrique Monrones, still visits the migrant camps in the canyon a couple of Saturdays a month, according to emails he sends out to his group. 'He claims to be delivering food and water to the illegal squatters,' Schwilk said.

A local resident said he was shocked about the crimes taking place below his housing development. 'I don’t like it,' he said as he walked the popular canyon with his toddler. 'I guess they (police) should take care of that problem.'

The apprehended perpetrators are suspected of being illegal aliens, although the female claimed she had been in the country illegally for 17 years. According to conversations with the suspected prostitute, who wouldn’t share her name at the scene, she was worried that this may hurt her chances of becoming a legal resident some day.

SDMM reported the crimes immediately to the San Diego Police Department, who arrived near the scene, but failed to investigate the prostitution site and continue to interview all who were involved.

The San Diego Police Department has not confirmed whether the apprehensions culminated in arrests yet.

After visiting the scene the next day, police had not cleared the area of used condoms and trash, leaving one to wonder what kind of diseases could be contracted by passersby and whether the police even bothered to collect any evidence of the prostitution the citizens walked in on.

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21.
Federal smuggling probe targets two San Luis Obispo Police Department officers
By Sally Connell
The San Luis Obispo Tribune (CA), October 6, 2009

San Luis Obispo police officers Armando Limon and Dan McDow have been on administrative leave for nearly three weeks, since U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained them on suspicion of transporting illegal contraband into the country.

City Attorney Jonathan Lowell confirmed their employment status Monday evening.

The two were stopped and detained at the San Ysidro border crossing near San Diego on Sept. 15, but officials would not say what they may have been carrying.

The case involves an ongoing investigation into suspected illegal contraband, ICE spokeswoman Lori K. Haley wrote in an e-mail.
. . .
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/story/874844.html

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22.
Sources: Family Tried to Sell Snatched Tenn. Baby
The Associated Press, October 6, 2009

Nashville (AP) -- A kidnapped newborn and three siblings were taken away from their mother following allegations that a family member tried to sell the baby, according to officials familiar with the case.

Mom Maria Gurrolla was briefly reunited with newborn Yair Anthony Carillo over the weekend before state child welfare officials placed all four children in foster care. A custody hearing is set for Tuesday, but records are closed because the case is in juvenile court.

Two officials confirmed the baby-selling allegations but spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case. They could not say how or if the allegations were related to the kidnapping.

Week-old Yair was safely recovered in Alabama on Friday, three days after he was snatched from his Nashville home. His mother said he was taken after a woman posing as an immigration agent attacked her with a knife.
. . .
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/10/06/us/AP-US-Tenn-Newborn-Snatched.html

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23.
3 Chinese, 2 firms face export charges in Boston
The Associated Press, October 6, 2009

Boston (AP) -- Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts have filed charges against three Chinese citizens and two corporations for conspiring to illegally export military products.

Prosecutors said Monday that the employees of Chitron Electronics Inc. lied in official documents when they shipped products to China through a Hong Kong front company for more than 10 years. Chitron Electronics is a U.S. subsidiary of China-based Shenzhen Chitron Electronics Company Ltd.

Chitron Electronics and Shenzhen Chitron Electronics were also charged with conspiring to violate U.S. export laws.

Zhen Zhou Wu, Yufeng Wei, and Bo Li were arrested in December and face charges of illegally exporting defense articles, money laundering and filing false documents. Wei also is accused of immigration fraud.
. . .
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jz5RbPOBb3vf_R_T5LffWsRzeDsgD9B59S980

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24.
Student from Peru charged in drug case
By Robin Fitzgerald
The Biloxi Sun Herald (MS), October 6, 2009

Biloxi, MS -- A native of Peru living here on a student visa has been arrested on a charge of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, said Harrison County Sheriff Melvin Brisolara.

Jhon Tony Tenorio, 26, of Gateway Drive in Biloxi, was arrested at his apartment Friday.

Brisolara said narcotics investigators from the Sheriff s Department and the Biloxi Police Department found about 1.5 ounces of cocaine inside Tenorio s residence.
. . .
http://www.sunherald.com/local/story/1652495.html

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25.
Border Patrol agents near Douglas round up 46 illegal immigrants
By Bill Hess
The Sierra Vista Herald Review, October 6, 2009

Douglas, AZ -- Nearly 50 illegal immigrants were taken into custody late Thursday and early Friday about two miles north of the Douglas Port of Entry, according to the Border Patrol.
. . .
http://www.svherald.com/content/news/2009/10/06/border-patrol-agents-near-douglas-round-46-illegal-immigrants

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26.
Brother of bomb plot suspect chooses deportation
The Associated Press, October 6, 2009

San Francisco (AP) -- A teenager whose brother was arrested last month for planning to blow up a Dallas skyscraper told an immigration judge he wanted to go home to Jordan.

Eighteen-year-old Hussein Smadi appeared before a San Francisco immigration court on Tuesday. He told the judge he wanted to rejoin his father in Jordan and offered to pay his own ticket.
. . .
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/10/06/state/n130543D14.DTL&type=business

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International News

1. Canada: Report says immigration a lifeline for dying towns
2. France: Gov't reneges on repatriation deal with U.K.
3. Netherlands: Gov't to tighten rules governing foreign spouses
4. Israel: Hospitals refusing birth certificates to foreigners unable to pay fee
5. Sri Lanka: Smuggler deported from Australia arrested upon return (link)
6. S. Korea: Gov't extends crackdown on illegal aliens
7. Japan: Nagasaki Chinatown a boon to tourism
8. Malaysia: Cops vow crackdown on foreign prostitutes (story, link)
9. Indonesia: Smugglers dupe would-be illegals bound for Australia
10. Australia: Gov't denies Tamil Tigers present in detention center (story, link)
11. Australia: Gov't dubs wrongful detention a 'serious error'
12. Australia: Gov't hires advertising agency to combat illegal immigration
13. Australia: Foreign female students disappointed with Melbourne
14. N.Z.: Immigration Min. rejects calls to change advisors act
15. N.Z.: Ethnic leaders tapped to address visa violators
16. N.Z.: Former MP jailed for immigration fraud

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

-- Mark Krikorian]

1.
Immigration reviving some small towns
By Nicholas Keung
The Toronto Star (Canada), October 6, 2009
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/706332--immigration-reviving-some-small-towns

Conventional wisdom would have us believe immigration and small town Canada don't mix. It's time to rethink that, says a Conference Board of Canada report that says immigration has injected new life into dying Canadian towns.

Interested in moving to Winkler, Man. or Brooks, Alta.? How about Florenceville-Bristol, N.B. or Yellowknife, N.W.T.?

The four small communities, with populations ranging from 1,539 to 18,510, are cited in the report released Monday as prime examples of how immigration planning, if done right, can toss a lifeline to dying towns across the country.

But it takes everyone in town - employers, school boards, immigrant-serving agencies, local government officials, faith groups and residents to make it a success, says the report, titled Immigrant-Friendly Communities: Making Immigration Work for Employers and Other Stakeholders in Small-Town Canada.

'There are opportunities outside of large metropolitan cities,' said Doug Watt, an associate director of the conference board. 'Immigrants can play a key role in regional economic development.'

said Doug Watt, an associate director of the conference board. 'These small towns may not have the absolute number of jobs as bigger cities. They still need particular skill sets not met in their communities. It's about matching the needs with the skills.'

Promoting immigration to smaller regions can also relief Canada's metropolitan centres, such as Toronto, Montréal, and Vancouver, from straining their labour markets and social services, the 70-page report said.

Canada welcomes an average of 229,668 immigrants yearly, and more than 80 per cent of them settle in the 10 largest cities. In 2006, just 5.1 per cent of newcomers lived in rural and small towns with 50,000 residents or less.

There is no cookie cutter model for success, but the report's case studies illustrate strategies small communities can capitalize on:

Winkler

Winkler, where a quarter of the 9,106 residents are immigrants, used its Mennonite roots to attract Mennonite families from Europe and South and Central America. The strong community support triggered a 'chain migration' that made it one of the fastest-growing rural communities.

Brooks

Brooks, with 17.6 per cent of its 12,495 residents being newcomers, was helped by its key employer, Lakeside Packers, a meat processing and packing plant. The company needed 2,000 employees and worked with Calgary Catholic Immigration Society to bring in recruits from Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia.

Yellowknife

Yellowknife, where immigrants make up 12.7 per cent of its 18,510 residents, relied on its growing diamond industry to attract newcomers with unique skills sets from Armenia, Mauritius, India, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. Its government nominee program allows these temporary foreign workers to become permanent residents as skilled workers, service industry workers and businessmen.

Florenceville-Bristol

Florenceville-Bristol had 1,539 residents, 6.2 per cent of them newcomers, in 2006. Its key employer, McCain Foods, recruited many foreign information technology workers for its global technology centre. The firm hires through the temporary foreign worker program and has an in-house recruitment specialist to assist immigrant employees with settlement needs.

To make it work, the report said, immigration needs to be part of a community's long-term economic development rather than used as a temporary solution for labour shortages or population decline.

'Building a critical mass of immigrants in a community is important ..... as most immigrants choose settlement destinations based on the presence of ethnic networks,' the report said.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Conference Board of Canada report is available online at: http://www.conferenceboard.ca/documents.aspx?did=3229

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2.
French U-turn on Afghan flight deal
The Press Association (U.K.), October 6, 2009
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5gJQRrBaqam-5RkQ8PTdU6t-62Q-Q

Plans for the first joint British and French flight taking immigrants back to Afghanistan have fallen apart after Paris withdrew its co-operation at the last minute in the face of protests from refugee groups.

A charter flight leaving the UK on Tuesday night carrying a group of deported Afghans to Kabul was due to stop off in Lille, where Afghans detained by France, some detained during raids on the Calais 'Jungle' camp, would have joined the flight.

The Home Office refused to comment but sources confirmed the British side of the deportation would go ahead as planned with around 25 Afghans originally held in Britain returned.

France's last minute withdrawal followed vociferous protests by a coalition of refugee groups.

Frank Supplisson, France's deputy immigration minister, issued a short statement saying there would be 'no return flight' on Tuesday.

He said: 'To put a stop to certain rumours, I inform you that no return flight designed to repatriate refugees to Afghanistan will take place today.'

Paris agreed to the principle of joint return flights during talks at Evian in February between Home Office minister Phil Woolas and his French counterpart Eric Besson. But the last minute change of heart by the French raises doubts about future joint arrangements.

Flights returning failed asylum seekers are a routine part of UK immigration policy but are much more controversial on the other side of the channel.

In addition to paying for the flight home, Britain meets the cost of travel for the Afghans from Kabul to their home towns and hostel accommodation in the Afghan capital for up to 14 days.

A spokesman for the Refugee Council in the UK said Afghanistan was still a 'volatile' place and raised concerns about the safety of those forcibly returned.

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3.
Stricter Dutch rules for imported spouses
United Press International, October 6, 2009
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/10/06/Stricter-Dutch-rules-for-imported-spouses/UPI-44231254850778/

The Hague (UPI) -- Integration exams for brides and grooms 'imported' into the Netherlands will be made stricter, officials said.

New measures designed to curtail the influx of imported marriage partners, presumed marriages of convenience between aunts, uncles and cousins, and marriage-migrants under the age of 18, were announced Friday by Ernst Hirsch Ballin, the Dutch justice minister, Radio Netherlands reported.

Dutch citizens or residents who want to bring in prospective spouses may also first have to take the integration exam, the news agency said.

'We want to prevent girls being brought to the Netherlands under duress, Ballin said.'

Since 2008, the number of migrant marriages rose by 30 percent to 15,000, Radio Netherlands reported.

The targeted marriages are those in which foreign-origin Dutch residents bring into the country partners from their countries of ethnic origin, especially Morocco, Turkey, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq, the news agency said.

The new measures are intended to protect both Dutch society and the imported women, as they often are relegated to a position of dependency and subservience when they arrive in the Netherlands, Integration Minister Eberhard van der Laan said.

'Because of their lack of knowledge of the Dutch language, their low level of education and unfamiliarity with institutions, there is a risk that these women will not be adequately able to bring up their children to be proper citizens,' Van der Laan said, adding this may cause children to become school dropouts or criminal.

Migrants will be required to have job training upon arrival in the Netherlands, the news agency said.

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4.
Hospitals deny birth certificates to non-citizens who can't pay fee
By Ronny Linder-Ganz
Ha'aretz (Israel), October 5, 2009
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1118612.html

What does a hospital that cannot collect childbirth fees from refugees and migrant workers do whenever it delivers a baby? According to numerous complaints submitted to the non-government group Physicians for Human Rights, the hospital presents expectant couples with a stark choice: If you do not pay the fee, you will not receive a birth certificate.

For the children, this presents a daunting, cruel dilemma. Without an official birth certificate, they are, for all intents and purposes, children with no status or recognition from authorities.

Their parents cannot register their births with the Interior Ministry nor provide them with health insurance and municipal education services. In fact, the parents are not able to prove that their child is indeed theirs.

Five years ago, the matter was brought to the attention of the Health Ministry's legal counsel, Mira Hibner-Harel, who said: 'The Health Ministry director-general decided to instruct state-run hospitals not to condition the granting of a notice of birth on payment of debt to the hospital for services rendered.'

In practice, however, it appears the ministry's directive has not been implemented, and hospitals continue to demand payment of fees as a condition for issuing birth certificates.

Nadav Perkovich, who is aiding refugees and migrant workers in conjunction with PHR, says he has personally become familiar with numerous cases in which hospitals employ this stratagem. Even after he intervened, some hospitals continue to harass mothers who had given birth.

'When a mother is set to be discharged from the hospital after giving birth, they tell her that until she pays the fee - NIS 10,000 - she will not get a birth certificate for her baby,' Perkovich said. 'This is a sum that most of these people cannot pay and the result is that many of these women give birth under very difficult conditions.'

Perkovich said hospitals often engage outgoing patients in negotiations. 'They are ready to meet them halfway and get just part of the sum, NIS 1,000 or NIS 2,000, because the hospital wants to get the money, and it knows refugee families do not have this much money,' he said.

Perkovich said he has succeeded in resolving a few of these cases, yet dozens, if not hundreds of refugees and migrant workers who have appealed to him for help, have yet to receive birth certificates.

PHR officials said the practice is common and the conduct of the hospitals wrong.

'It is obvious to us that the hospital deserves payment for the services it provides,' said Tamar Nevo, a PHR coordinator who works with migrant workers and refugees. 'Yet one should not harm and punish the babies because of this,' Nevo said. 'Placing conditions for birth certificates serves as a means of applying pressure on parents who owe a fee, but ultimately it leads to harming the children themselves, children who make up the weakest sector in all of Israel. It would behoove the hospitals to appeal to the Health Ministry and demand that a system-wide solution to the problem be found, one that does not punish women and children for something of which they are not guilty.'

The Health Ministry replied that its previous director-general instructed hospitals to cease and desist from the practice of conditioning birth certificates upon payment of hospital fees. The ministry added that it is now reexamining the issue and will soon release a new set of guidelines.

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5.
Deported Sri Lankan arrested on smuggling charge
The Age (Melbourne), October 7, 2009

A Sri Lankan asylum seeker deported at the weekend has been arrested and charged with people smuggling in Colombo.

Indika Mendis, 28, was among nine men flagged for forced deportation last week as the Government began returning people from Christmas Island to countries of origin against their will.

He failed to meet criteria for protection in Australia.

Yesterday, the Immigration Department confirmed the arrest and that it sought more information on its circumstances. It is alleged the man was beaten by police and was too frightened to speak.

''Whether someone has broken Sri Lankan law is something for the Sri Lankan courts to determine,'' a departmental spokesman said.
. . .
http://www.theage.com.au/national/deported-sri-lankan-on-smuggling-charge-20091006-glgz.html

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6.
Crackdown on Illegal Foreigners Extended to December
By Park Si-soo
The Korea Times, October 4, 2009
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/10/117_52888.html

The Ministry of Justice said Sunday it will extend the crackdown on foreigners overstaying their visas until the end of the year.

The move comes as the number of undocumented foreigners, particularly foreign workers, has been increasing. It is estimated that nearly 184,000 or 15.9 percent of 1.16 million foreign residents have overstayed their visas.

Since September, the Ministry of Labor and the Small and Medium Business Administration have been on a nationwide campaign that encourages undocumented foreigners to leave the country on their own and so far more than 2,500 have left the country.

Those who leave voluntarily have been exempt from fines and allowed to set foot on Korean territory again only one year after their departure, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, tough sanctions are to be imposed on Korean firms employing undocumented foreigners. Many small- and medium-sized companies here have hired foreigners whose residency here is unjustifiable to save labor costs.

Those found to have hired such foreigners will be fined up to 20 million won ($17,000) and prohibited from hiring foreign laborers for the next three years, it said.

'The campaign result was lower than expected,' said Sung Rak-seung, an official involved in the upcoming crackdown. 'Those who leave the country after the crackdown begins will also receive the same advantage as others who leave voluntarily.'

In fact, this is a sort of periodic measure put into practice when the number of illegal foreigners reaches an alarming level.

Such an intense crackdown has been recognized by the authorities as an efficient way to reduce the number, but they have also been under fire from the foreign communities for alleged recklessness and inhumanity.

In the latest crackdowns, scores of undocumented foreign workers were injured while leaping from factory buildings. Some had their legs and even spinal cord broken. Among the injured were pregnant women.

To help remove such side effects, the government in May set out a guideline and a code of conduct that immigrant officers must abide by when apprehending or conducting raids on undocumented foreigners.

The rule mandates that at least one female officer participate in every crackdown, in case of the arrest or body search of women. It also requires every investigating squad to have an official recording of procedures and practices as evidence in any legal dispute that may arise during a crackdown. Officers must submit a detailed investigation plan to their boss before raids.

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7.
Nagasaki Chinatown's bright light
Kyodo (Japan), October 6, 2009
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20091006f1.html

Nagasaki (Kyodo) -- Toshiyuki Hayashi, a second-generation Chinese immigrant in Nagasaki, has a lot of 'tourism charisma.'

Hayashi is the originator of the Nagasaki Lantern Festival, an annual Chinese New Year's festival that drew 920,000 tourists in 2007.

Hayashi's idea of hanging up 200 to 300 Chinese red lanterns over the local Chinatown has eventually developed into a major event with dragon dances and 15,000 shiny lanterns, a popular tourist attraction now widely known across the country.

The old city of Nagasaki saw a sharp decline in visitors in the 1990s, which prompted officials to ask Chinese residents to expand the lantern festival started by Hayashi in 1987.

A bigger version was launched in 1994, which attracted 150,000 tourists to the city.

Given the impressive success of the lantern festival, the central government has selected Hayashi as one of its 'Tourism Charismas' to help promote local tourism.

'I didn't think of anything ambitious, like attracting tourists,' he said.

Hayashi is one of three brothers who run a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown.

Lamenting the loss of Chinese ambience in Chinatown in recent years, one of Hayashi's brothers started a fundraising campaign to build four Chinese gates, which were completed in 1986.

'That was my starting point' of starting the Chinese New Year's festival, Hayashi said.

The Lantern Festival this year also featured a Chinese lion dance, circus, parades and a night market. The 2010 festival will be held from Jan. 26 through Feb. 9.

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8.
Uzbeks earn $40,800 a month
The Straits Times (Singapore), October 6, 2009
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/SE%2BAsia/Story/STIStory_438674.html

Kuala Lumpur -- Women from other countries are making big bucks in the prostitution trade in Malaysia but the cops are keeping track of them.

Criminal Investigations Department Director Comm Mohd Bakri Zinin said police considered the fight against prostitution a serious matter and would not let up in their effort to eradicate it.

Utusan Malaysia reported on Monday that Uzbekistan women involved in the flesh trade were earning between RM1,000 (S$408) to RM1,500 per session. The women who enter the country on student and tourist visas are said to earn an estimated RM100,000 a month by entertaining at least five clients a day and work five days a week.

They come to Malaysia on three-month social visit and after earning more than RM300,000, they would leave the country and head for another.

Comm Mohd Bakri said the police have been holding regular meetings with the Immigration Department and have urged them to be more stringent in allowing foreign women to enter the country.

He revealed that this year alone 7,810 foreign women from 21 countries who were allegedly involved in the flesh trade were arrested. Since 2005 and up to Sept 30 this year, police have also arrested 456 pimps, of whom 191 were charged in court and another 265 detained under Preventive Laws. Among those arrested were 211 Uzbekistan women.

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36,858 women held for prostitution since 2005
The New Straits Times (Malaysia), October 5, 2009
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/articles/20091005180005/Article/index_html

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9.
Asylum seekers in the dark over location
By Lindsay Murdoch
The Age (Melbourne), October 5, 2009
http://www.theage.com.au/national/asylum-seekers-in-the-dark-over-location-20091004-ghwk.html

It was the middle of the night when 22 asylum seekers were told they had reached Australian territory and a new life.

Indonesian people smugglers crewing the boat they were on waved at them to go ashore and they excitedly scrambled over the side.

But as the sun rose over the small island they found themselves on - and the boat had long disappeared - the asylum seekers realised they had been duped and lost their life's savings.

The men - believed to be Afghans - were dumped at the weekend on N'Dao, a tiny Indonesian island about 50 kilometres from Australia's Ashmore Island, where they had paid thousands of dollars to be taken.

If the people smugglers had done what they promised and taken the asylum seekers to Ashmore Reef, they would have risked arrest by Australian navy or customs personnel on boats which constantly patrol the area.

Convicted people smugglers face up to 20 years' jail in Australia.

N'Dao's villagers were not happy about the arrival of the asylum seekers, who quickly split up and sought hiding places across the island when they realised they were still in Indonesia.

Villagers called Indonesian police on nearby Rote island, who commandeered three boats from a local tourist resort and travelled to N'Dao.

After a manhunt that lasted several hours, all the asylum seekers were rounded up and taken to a Rote police station, where they were being held last night.

They are expected to be taken to Jakarta to face immigration charges.

Armed police had ordered the asylum seekers to walk face down with their hands on their heads along a beach on Rote, which is a popular destination for surfers.

Witnesses said the men appeared to be in good health but were extremely upset at being duped.

The asylum seekers told police the boat had travelled to N'Dao from the Indonesian island of Flores, a journey that had taken several days.

Australian authorities are cracking down on Indonesian crew members of boats bringing asylum seekers into Australian territory.

Two Indonesian crew on a boat that exploded near Ashmore Reef in April have been charged with people smuggling.

Five people died on that boat and dozens more were injured after at least one asylum seeker deliberately lit fuel on the boat, which caused the explosion, a Northern Territory police investigation found.

The asylum seekers were agitated after navy personnel had ordered them to return to Indonesia.

They were also Afghans and had each paid people smugglers about $US6000 to travel from Pakistan, through Indonesia to Australia.

Almost 1500 people have arrived in Australian territory on 30 vessels so far this year.

Meanwhile, former Liberal MP Bruce Baird has warned the Opposition against undermining the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

This followed immigration spokeswoman Sharman Stone last week accusing UNHCR offices in the region of corruption.

''UNHCR does a terrific job looking across the board at refugees in Africa, in the Middle East, in Asia,'' said Mr Baird, who is chairman of the Government's Refugee Resettlement Advisory Council. ''It is unfortunate to undermine the particularly important role that they carry out.''

He did not know of any credible evidence of corruption. ''We should be supporting UNHCR in their work,'' he told the Ten Network.

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10.
Tamil Tigers not among boat people: govt
The Australian Associated Press, October 6, 2009
http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/tamil-tigers-not-among-boat-people-govt-20091006-gkh3.html

Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor has rejected claims some Sri Lankan boat people detained on Christmas Island are former Tamil Tigers who could pose a security risk.

Sri Lanka's high commissioner to Australia, Senaka Walgampaya, has spoken of his suspicions that former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels are among recent illegal boat arrivals.

It has been claimed some of the recent arrivals raised suspicions because they had injuries consistent with having been involved in conflict, including shrapnel wounds.

'I have in fact informed (the Department of Immigration and Citizenship) also that there is a really strong possibility that the (LTTE) combatants, the LTTE cadres, will try to infiltrate, will try to come to Australia,' Mr Walgampaya told The Australian newspaper.

However, Mr O'Connor says checks of illegal arrivals during the past 12 months had uncovered no people considered to be security risks.

'There are no adverse security findings that have been made in relation to the irregular maritime arrivals that have arrived since September last year,' Mr O'Connor told Fairfax Radio Network on Tuesday.

He said there was a comprehensive security and identity checking process in place and no person would be provided with a visa if there was a question mark about security issues.

'We have a very rigorous assessment (process).

'Once a boat is intercepted and taken to Christmas Island there are health checks, there are identity checks and there are also security checks.

'And they are rigorous because we want to ensure that we do everything we possibly can to maintain the integrity of our borders and the integrity of our immigration system.'

The opposition says the recent surge in illegal boat arrivals is because the Rudd government has gone soft on border security.

But Mr O'Connor maintains the influx is due mainly to push factors caused by conflict and unrest.

'We've maintained the mandatory detention, we've maintained the process of having people intercepted and brought to Christmas Island, we believe in a strong, robust system,' he said.

'But of course we don't agree that you put children behind barbed wire.'

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Boatpeople facing expulsion over security concerns on former Tamil fighters
By Paul Maley
The Australian, October 6, 2009
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26170994-601,00.html

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11.
Three-year detention a 'serious error'
The Australian Associated Press, October 4, 2009
http://www.theage.com.au/national/threeyear-detention-a-serious-error-20091003-ghdr.html

The wrongful locking-up of a Vietnamese-born Australian resident for three years was due to a ''serious administrative error'', says the Rudd Government.

The Age revealed yesterday that permanent resident Van Phuc Nguyen (right) was held in the Villawood detention centre for 1173 days after immigration officials failed to recognise his visa.

''Obviously, it's a very bad event, a serious administrative error and a terrible circumstance,'' Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said in Perth.

An offer of $58,000 compensation to Mr Nguyen by the Commonwealth is inadequate, his lawyers say. German-born Australian resident Cornelia Rau received $2.6 million after being wrongfully detained for 10 months in 2004-5.

Commonwealth Ombudsman John McMillan says Mr Nguyen's wrongful detention, which started in 2002, should lead to legal changes.

The Migration Act does not include a provision that allows government officials to say they have made a mistake.

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12.
Australia hires ad agency to battle illegal immigration
Australian News.Net, October 6, 2009
http://www.australiannews.net/story/550927

The Australian government has embarked on a novel campaign to combat a growing wave of illegal immigrants by hiring an international advertising agency to mount street theatre in Sri Lanka.

The agency Saatchi and Saatchi will take Canberra's blunt warning against people trying to smuggle themselves into Australia.

Local actors will use 'street drama' to warn people of the dangers of trying to sail to Australia on leaky boats. Actors will play people smugglers exploiting and tricking their victims, and will warn that Australian authorities will probably return them to Sri Lanka.

The new campaign comes after a surge in asylum-seekers trying to reach Australia by boat. More than 1,600 have been plucked this year from the sea and remote coral reefs, and Australian detention facilities are close to overflowing.

Many asylum-seekers have drowned, and many more have been exploited and abandoned by people smugglers.

Posters, leaflets, banners and seminars will be used to get the Australian government's message to the huge numbers of desperate Sri Lankans not to try to make the perilous voyage to Australia.

There are 250,000 displaced people in northern Sri Lanka alone following the deadly civil war between separatist Tamil Tigers and the government.

Speaking from Sri Lanka's capital Colombo, Saatchi and Saatchi's Ronald Peiris said the campaign will tell the truth about people smuggling.

'A lot of rumours are being spread by the (people) traffickers or the networks, saying that people can make it,' Peiris told Brisbane's Courier-Mail newspaper.

'What we want to tell the people is that, what you hear is not what really happens.'

On Friday, Australian authorities deported 60 Indonesian asylum-seekers after they were not accepted as refugees. Nine Sri Lankans are about to be flown back to their country as the Australian government cracks down on illegal immigrants.

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13.
Concern for female students
By Tom Reilly
The Age (Melbourne), October 4, 2009
http://www.theage.com.au/national/concern-for-female-students-20091003-ghbq.html

Two-thirds of female students who come to live in Victoria from overseas say life in Melbourne does not live up to their expectations.

A report by the Victorian Immigrant and Refugee Women's Coalition that involved interviews with 17 women found that although all but one said Melbourne was a ''tolerant and multicultural place'', 11 believed their ethnicity had negatively affected their ''chances in life'' in Australia.

The survey comes as the topic of international students has become a pressing political issue across the country. Last week Premier John Brumby flew to India to reassure officials that the State Government was taking action to protect Indian students after a number of racially motivated attacks.

One of the key findings of the report, launched yesterday, was that ''international students have been particularly seriously affected by the current housing situation in Melbourne''.

A number of those interviewed said they felt real estate agents were reluctant to rent properties to them, forcing them to live in substandard accommodation. Another concern was the number of those questioned who had felt isolated since arriving, with 12 of the 17 stating they felt ''loneliness, disappointed and frustrated''.

Melba Marginson, executive director of the Victorian Immigrant and Refugee Women's Coalition, believes more support services need to be put in place for foreign students.

''The Government needs to do more to support foreign students, especially female students … as they are also discriminated against because of their gender,'' she said.

''These women should be respected for the contribution they are making to Australian society and not just for the fees they are paying.'' She said a resource centre was needed to provide information and education specifically for female foreign students.

The international education industry is worth $15 billion in Australia.

While in India, Mr Brumby announced a $14 million package to shore up the lucrative international student market.

The package includes $7 million for education service managers, overseas, providing support for Victorian institutions. There is also $2.7 million for initiatives such as a buddy system, culture card and information kits to provide support and help build networks for international students, and $1.4 million to expand auditing of ''high risk'' education providers.

One such provider was the city-based vocational college St George Institute of Professionals, which was closed last week after a ''rapid audit'', leaving 129 international students - most from India - in limbo.

EDITOR'S NOTE: VIRWC can be found online at: http://www.virwc.org.au/

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14.
Minister rejects calls to change Immigration Advisers Act
By Lincoln Tan
The New Zealand Herald, October 7, 2009
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10601696

Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman says there are no plans to review or change the Immigration Advisers Act, which makes it illegal for anyone who is an unlicensed immigration adviser to give any advice on immigration matters.

This means people who do not hold an immigration advisers licence can be prosecuted if they discuss, direct, assist, or even blog anything that can be constituted as immigration advice.

Kiwi Immigration Watch, an immigration watchdog group headed by former United Future MP Bernie Ogilvy, says the act breaches the Bill of Rights and the basic human right to freedom of speech.

He wants the act to be scrapped or reviewed.

But Dr Coleman said the act had been passed with the support of all political parties in Parliament, and the question of whether it breached the right to freedom of speech was never raised.

'Part of the act's passage was subject to expert scrutiny in terms of New Zealand's human rights commitments,' he said.

'No inconsistency with those commitments was raised.'

Dr Coleman said the House received 34 submissions on the Immigration Advisers Licensing Bill, and all supported or conditionally supported it.

The act requires anyone who gives immigration advice to be licensed unless exempt, or face fines of up to $100,000 and up to seven years in jail.

The Immigration Advisers Authority defines immigration advice as 'using or purporting to use, knowledge of or experience in immigration to advise, direct, assist, or represent another person in regard to an immigration matter relating to New Zealand, whether directly or indirectly and whether or not for gain.'

The authority, which administers the act, has issued 18 warning letters since the law came into effect on May 4, and has warned one blogger, Helen Winterbottom, to stop posting immigration suggestions on her blog.

Mr Ogilvy said the act was inadvertently creating victims.

'The act takes away a citizen's rights to give systematic immigration advice even in free-of-charge, innocent situations, using public domain information ... this is the unintended consequence of a hurried, ill-drafted legislation by a Parliament trying to fix the problem of dodgy immigration consultants, but creating a new problem of absurdity,' he said.

'Our Prime Minister can entice people to come to New Zealand, but its citizens cannot. How crazy is that?'

Ms Winterbottom, who has written to Dr Coleman asking for the act to be changed or scrapped, said in her letter: 'This law was meant to protect migrants to New Zealand from unscrupulous immigration agents who charged ridiculous fees for often no more than filling out a form, but all that has been accomplished is that there are only around 300 people in the world who can act as agents on behalf of tens of thousands of migrants we want to attract to New Zealand.'

A spokeswoman for the Immigration Advisers Authority said there were 279 licensed advisers.

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15.
Leaders help in bid to reach overstayers
By Lincoln Tan
The New Zealand Herald, October 7, 2009
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10601673

Asian community leaders are being used to win the trust of illegal immigrants in Immigration New Zealand's latest move to reduce the number of overstayers.

Advertisements will appear in ethnic newspapers and on radio across Auckland inviting illegal immigrants to 'information clinics' with leaders in their communities, at which they discuss their immigration status.

The overstayers will be given the choice of having their status in New Zealand legalised, or leaving the country without being blacklisted for future re-entry.

Those who choose not to abide by these recommendations could continue to overstay, but will be warned that they will be subjected to a five-year ban if they have to be removed.

The move follows the successful trial of four education clinics run with the Indian, Chinese and Korean communities last year.

The clinics resulted in 12 overstayers being granted residence or work permits and 11 voluntary departures with 'no compliance action taken'.

Two illegal immigrants had to be forcefully removed, costing the department about $3600, and 15 others decided to continue staying in New Zealand illegally.

Immigration head Andrew Annakin said the plan to keep the project running followed positive feedback from communities, but the timing for the new education clinic would depend on numbers and available resources, and be decided on a case-by-casebasis.

'The clinics aim to provide free and frank advice in a non-threatening environment where options available to those who are in New Zealand unlawfully can be discussed.'

Immigration was hopeful that people attending the clinics would alert the department to illegal immigration advisers, he said.

Figures show the number of immigrants unlawfully in New Zealand has fallen to 15,769 from 17,485 last year.

In a staff training guideline, the agency said the aim was to give overstayers informed options in a culturally sensitive way, and strengthen the relationship between Immigration and ethnic communities.

Tony Tse, a licensed immigration adviser and Chinese community leader who has been appointed to run information clinics for Chinese overstayers in Auckland, says the biggest challenge is winning the trust of illegal immigrants.

'With community leaders fronting the clinics, overstayers will not see it as a meeting organised by a Government agency out to get them ...'

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16.
Former NZ government minister jailed for graft
Agence France Presse, October 6, 2009
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ihMHnx-Rx-09wMm5aELdXzPumLGw

Wellington (AFP) -- A former New Zealand government minister was jailed Tuesday for six years for bribery, corruption and perverting the course of justice.

Taito Phillip Field became the first Pacific Island-born legislator in New Zealand when he was elected in 1993 but in August he also became the first member of parliament found guilty of bribery and corruption.

Justice Rodney Hansen sentenced Field to four years jail on the bribery and corruption charges and another two years for perverting the course of justice.

Field had received free work on houses he owned in New Zealand and Samoa from Thai nationals whom he was helping to get residence in New Zealand.

The 57-year-old was also convicted of trying to obstruct an inquiry called into his dealings with the Thais.

Justice Hansen said bribery was intolerable in New Zealand, threatening democracy and justice, adding Field had let people down who had trusted him.

'You breached that trust and undermined the very institutions it was your duty to uphold,' he said.

Field was an associate minister of Pacific Island Affairs in the previous Labour Party-led government of Helen Clark, which lost power in elections last year.

His ministerial responsibilities were taken off him in 2007 after the allegations surfaced and he left the Labour Party before last year's elections, in which he ran under his own party but lost his seat in parliament.

Field has consistently maintained his innocence but was impassive as the sentence was passed Tuesday.

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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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