Amnesty's the Road Bump in Debate on Immigration
L.A. Times
WASHINGTON -- In the U.S.-Mexico talks on immigration, it is the unspoken word, a term so sensitive that officials on both sides of the bargaining table avoid using it in public.

The word is "amnesty." Today, as Cabinet officials of the United States and Mexico meet to discuss an array of immigration issues, their agenda includes border safety, a new guest worker program and other strategies to impose order on the chaotic human flow across America's southern boundary.

Pasadena Star News

Day laborer laws aren't working
The days may be numbered for laws prohibiting day laborers from soliciting work on street corners. Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca recently issued a letter warning cities to make sure regulations that bar day laborers from looking for work are constitutional. In the meantime, the Sheriff's Department will not cite day laborers for waving down potential employers on city streets, including those of Rosemead, Temple City, Duarte and Industry. "It's a human situation that people have to go through to make money," said Pablo Alvarado, a day laborer advocate for Coalition for Humane Immigrants' Rights of Los Angeles. "Why should we criminalize a human act?"

Laredo, TX

Trucker gets seven years for smuggling
A Laredo man convicted of attempting to smuggle more than half a ton of marijuana into the interior of the United States in his tractor-trailer was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison. A jury found Leocadio Chavez- Araujo, a Mexican national, guilty in May of conspiring to possess more than 200 pounds of marijuana and intending to distribute 1,134 pounds of marijua Chavez- Araujo will appeal the conviction, according to a notice filed by his attorney, Luis Antonio Figueroa. Chavez-Araujo, a Mexican citizen living in the United States, was northbound on I-35 to Dallas Jan. 23 when a Border Patrol canine at the checkpoint alerted officers to the marijuana.

New York Times

Powell Praises Migrant Workers
Colin Powell praised the contribution of Mexican migrant workers to the American economy and said he wants "safe, legal, orderly and dignified'' procedures to ensure they receive humane treatment. Powell spoke Thursday after he and Attorney General John Ashcroft spent two hours conferring on migration and other issues with Mexican Foreign Secretary Jorge Castaneda and Interior Minister Santiago Creel. The migration issue has been a sore point in cross border ties for years but all four participants said Thursday's meeting was productive. [Free Republic item]

Windsor, ME

13 illegal Mexicans & Guatemalans busted
A minor van accident on Route 105 led to the arrests of 13 men as illegal aliens Tuesday night. They will spend more nights in jail until they are deported to Mexico or Guatemala. The men probably were traveling in the area because they are working in the Maine blueberry harvest, according to Maj. Everett Flannery, of the Kennebec Sheriff's Office. But the arrests stemmed neither from blueberry harvesting nor the van accident. They came from a 5:53 p.m. call by an elderly woman who saw a group of what she described as Asian or Puerto Rican men gathering around a neighbor's empty house.

New York Times

U.S. and Mexico Agree on Immigrant Plan
The U.S. and Mexico agreed today in principle to expand a temporary worker program that would allow some of the estimated three million Mexicans living here unlawfully to earn permanent legal residency. -- After meeting for nearly two hours, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and A.G. John Ashcroft joined their Mexican counterparts, Jorge Castenada and Santiago Creel, at a news conference to announce what Mr. Powell called a "shared commitment" to employ a "humane," "family- friendly" migration policy. -- Powell said, "We have to do this in a careful way, a way that will be seen as fair and equitable by both nations, by the people of both nations."

Welasco, TX

Legislator pushes for drivers licenses for illegals
State Rep. Miguel Wise, whose legislation on driver's licenses was controversially vetoed by Perry immediately following the 77th Legislature, has written to the governor's office to "find out why there's been no new movement" on the subject. -- "I'm tired of all this empty rhetoric from Gov. Perry," Wise said. "All this talk about finding a solution to the driver's license issue is simply designed to appease the Hispanic community. I thought there was going to be temporary solution during the interim but in the six weeks since we met with his staff we've heard nothing."

National Review

Prince to Prince
When Clinton looked for an issue on which to triangulate, he stole the popular issue of welfare reform from the GOP. Karl [Rove], you have apparently decided to steal the unpopular issue of an amnesty to legalize three million illegal Mexican immigrants from the Dems. Polls for the last 30 years have shown that most Americans think legal immigration is too high. Why would rewarding illegal immigration be a vote winner? -- What you risk here is depressing your already low vote among both white and minority workers hit by immigrant competition ...

Washington Post

Declining Birthrate South of Border May Slow Tide North
Mexico's falling birthrates may begin to significantly lower illegal immigration to the United States within 15 years, according to Mexican and U.S. officials working to craftsolutions to their shared problem. Immigration specialists have long said that the flood of Mexican workers to the United States would cease only when Mexico's economy improved enough to substantially narrow the wage gap between the countries. Although the world's richest nation sits just north of the border, more than 40 percent of Mexicans live in poverty.

The Black World Today

New Players - New Game? Guest Workers Or Amnesty
A tantalizing vision of new rights and legal status has stirred the 11 million undocumented immigrants thought to live in the States. Yet the obstacles to that possibility have never been clearer. -- A standing ovation greeted Jorge Castañeda, Mexico's foreign minister, when he appeared at the recent convention of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees (HERE). A high Mexican official visiting a U.S. union is only one sign of change.

The News - Mexico City

U.S. and Mexico to negotiate regularization of illegal Mexican immigrants
Secretary of State Colin Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft will meet today in Washington with Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda and Interior Minister Santiago Creel to negotiate the regularization of three million illegal Mexican immigrants in the United States. -- The meeting will take place today at the State Department, said the spokesperson for the Mexican Embassy in Washington.

Tucson Citizen Editorial

Our opinion: Immigration policy unbalanced
Illegal immigration isn't that complicated. It is nothing more than the basic law of economics: supply and demand. -- The demand is created by American employers seeking inexpensive labor for jobs that U.S. workers won't take. -- The supply is a seemingly endless number of people seeking to enter this country illegally, often from Mexico and points south, willing and eager to take those jobs. -- Any serious and comprehensive effort to address illegal immigration is destined to fail unless it deals with both sides of the equation. So recent revelations that the federal government has virtually abandoned efforts to enforce employer sanctions help explain why efforts to cut illegal immigration have flopped.

Washington Post

Poor Mexicans protest Fox's economic policies
"Fox promised change that would improve things for Mexicans, not a change that would increase misery," said Francisco Zazaleta, a coffee farmer from Oaxaca state. "There are Mexicans who are dying of hunger. As much as they work, they can't earn enough to provide for their families." Mexico's campesinos, or rural farmers, have suffered from the effects of increasingly open trade with the United States, which has driven down prices for their produce.

New York Daily News

Report Eyes Immigrant Bias - Range of abuses on rise, according to coalition
From hate crimes to deportations to racial profiling on the U.S. border, discrimination against immigrants is on the rise, according to a new report released yesterday by a nationwide coalition of immigrant groups. -- From the two Suffolk County Mexican day laborers brutally attacked when seeking work to Abner Louima, the Brooklyn Haitian who was tortured by police officers, immigrants of color are increasingly becoming the targets of racism on a number of fronts.....

Rocky Mountain News

Hispanic activist claims Lamm, Tancredo proposal is 'racist'
Former Gov. Dick Lamm and congressman Tom Tancredo joined Wednesday in blaming immigration for many of Colorado's and the nation's growth problems. --- Their comments were immediately attacked by Paul Sandoval, a Hispanic activist from Denver who has served as a state senator and school board member. "When they're talking about too many immigrants in this country, they're talking about Hispanic immigrants, pure and simple," Sandoval said. "When you talk that way, you're talking racism....." [Also see this article in the Denver Post.]

L.A. Daily News

Canoga Park project about more than just housing
"I'm very excited about it," said City Controller Laura Chick, who as a Valley councilwoman representing the area enlisted city support last year for the project called Tierra del Sol. "Once again, the Valley will be a leader and innovator for the rest of the city for showing the way. Because this isn't just about housing, it's about schools and child care for working families and meeting the needs of our residents." [Reader comment: Little Mexico coming to Canoga Park, with taxpayer's money. I am sure the official language will be Spanish. The invasion of the West Valley has started officially.]

FAIR Press Release

Sensenbrenner and Gekas Offer Common Sense About Immigration Policy
Yesterday's announcement by the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and the chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration urging comprehensive reform of U.S. immigration policy before contemplating an amnesty program for millions of illegal aliens is a welcome injection of common sense and public interest into this important policy debate, declared FAIR. Chairmen James Sensenbrenner and George Gekas are demanding an overhaul of the INS before moving forward with any plans for amnesty programs for illegal aliens.

Contra Costa Times

INS acts show bias, advocates' study says
The United States systematically discriminates against immigrants by holding thousands in detention centers and targeting them for intimidating stops and inspections, says a report released Wednesday by an Oakland immigrant rights advocacy group. The number of immigrants held for deportation has doubled in the past five years, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service has grown to become the biggest armed law enforcement agency in the country, says the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. This has resulted in criminalization of immigrants, etc....

Denver Post

Tancredo, Lamm try to close U.S. doors
Runaway immigration - both legal and illegal - has caused Colorado's growing pains by crowding schools, draining public coffers and contributing to urban sprawl, U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo and former Gov. Dick Lamm said Wednesday. In a joint news conference at the state Capitol, the Republican congressman and former Democratic governor called for a plan that would effectively eliminate legal immigration for the next five years. "If you're concerned about growth in Colorado, you have to be concerned about immigration. The two are linked," Lamm said.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Despite layoffs, tech firms still need foreigners
Despite layoffs in the technology industry, U.S. companies are expected to hire up to 80,000 more skilled foreign workers this fiscal year than last under a special visa program. Eileen Schmidt, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, said ''it's likely'' the agency will approve the legal maximum of 195,000 new H-1B visas by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. Representatives of companies that sponsor the workers --- mostly for computer-related jobs --- say they cannot find enough American workers with needed technology skills.

New York Times

Pockets of Protest Are Rising Against Immigration
Mason City, IA -- At a City Council meeting here last month, Duane Crum objected to Iowa's plan to use this prototypical Midwestern town as a "model city" to recruit immigrants to help increase the state's population and ease its labor shortages. "We are not racists nor are we bigots," said Mr. Crum, 51, a former meatpackers' union steward. "We are not interested in doing anything other than preserving a way of life." - By the time a mostly pro- immigrant crowd of 300 people gathered at a town hall meeting a few days later to debate the plan, Mr. Crum had gained more supporters.

Dallas Morning News

Legalization, amnesty or what? - Officials choose words carefully
Amnesty: It's the politically charged word that won't cross the lips of U.S. and Mexican government officials who are debating an initiative that could place many of the 3 million to 4 million Mexicans living illegally in the United States on a path to legal residency. Instead, they talk of "regularization" and "legalization" ­ or, in Spanish, regularizar and legalización. -- In fact, the NCLR recommended to Vicente Fox that he not utter the "A" word. Focus group testing found that respondents voiced more resistance to the word than to the proposed policy itself, said La Raza president Raúl Yzaguirre.

Phoenix

Hospitals may foot illegal alien bills
Unless the state comes to the financial rescue, Arizona's 102 hospitals could be forced to pick up an extra $20 million of the cost of emergency care for illegal immigrants. Arizona taxpayers have previously subsidized treatment for undocumented migrants. Earlier this year, state officials struck a deal for the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to absorb the $20 million program. But the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state's health- care program for the poor, learned Aug. 1 that the federal dollars can't fund the program because an overlooked federal law prohibits it. [Reader comment: Bill Vicente Fox] (AZ Republic - Free Reg.)

Tucson, AZ

Customs, Border Patrol rescue 6 illegals
Customs agents found three stricken illegal immigrants but were unable to find a fourth they said had died. Meanwhile, Border Patrol agents in the Yuma sector found three men on Tuesday, two of whom were hospitalized for severe dehydration. Five others had died nearby last week. Monday night's search in the Tucson area began after two immigrants approached Border Patrol agents and said they had left behind four others behind who needed help. -- In the Yuma area, meanwhile, Border Patrol agents following footprints found three apparent illegal immigrants on Tuesday about 12 miles north of the border, near the Yuma Foothills area. (AZ Republic - Free Reg.)

Arizona Daily Star

Not your dad's U.S.
To borrow a line from an old car commercial, this is not your father's America. In fact, the America of the white, middle- class family is making room for the families of recent immigrants who increasingly speak a language other than English in the home. A report from the Census Bureau released this week shows that more than 11% of this country's population are immigrants and that nearly one in five speaks a foreign language at home. -- While those figures are definitely in the category of "mixed blessings," there are troubling, chronic problems that persist through the decades. For instance, almost 13% of America is poverty stricken.

Mexico City

Bombs explode at three Banamex branches
At least three bombs exploded and two others were defused in three Banamex bank branches in Mexico City on Wednesday night. No serious damages or injuries were reported. "The intention was probably not to cause a lot of damage, but to get the public's attention," Mexico City Attorney General Bernardo Batiz told the television network Televisa in a live interview. Televisa and rival television network TV Azteca both reported that a group called the People's Revolutionary Armed Forces, or FARP, had claimed responsibility for the explosions in television calls to the stations and two Mexican newspapers.