Havana

Smuggling of Illegal Immigrants [aliens], U.S. Immigration Law Discussed in Cuba- U.S. Meeting

With the Elian Gonzalez case still a delicate subject in both countries, Cuban and U.S. officials began talks Monday on immigration issues, including the growing practice of smuggling illegal immigrants [aliens] into the United States. Havana charges that U.S. policies encourage the practice, particularly the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, which allows Cubans who reach U.S. shores to avoid deportation. Washington, meanwhile, alleges that Cuba has put up barriers to "legal and orderly" migration [prevent foreigners from unlawfully sneaking into] the United States - obstacles that have prompted thousands to risk the dangerous passage trip through the Florida Straits on rickety boats.

America's Newest Migraine

Vicente Fox under fire for his wacky proposals

Letter to the Editor - Dallas Morning News: For an American like myself who is of Mexican descent, I was told very firmly in Mexico City I was not a Mexican-American, I was a Norte Americana. For all of those like me who are born in the U.S. and who may have parents, grandparents also born in the U.S., Mr. Fox's plan to unite Mexican-Americans is detached from reality. I do not have any stake in Mexico. Mexico is not my country. Vicente Fox wants the educated and established Americans of Mexican ancestry to invest themselves in his dream for Mexico. It isn't going to happen. The law which Mr. Corchado mentions along with other laws have worked to smash the Mexican identity for many. Mr. Fox is left with people like me who, long disparaged by Mexicans and the Mexican government, can only respond with "get real."

Yakima, Washington

Mexican convicted of DUI bemoans immigration law

A change in the INS enforcement strategy means that Manuel Ruiz, a legal immigrant from the state of Michoacán, Mexico, will probably be shipped back to the country he left 13 years ago. In the interior parts of the United States, the new INS strategy is to find and deport those who've committed crimes, whether they are here legally or not, rather than seek out illegal immigrants [aliens] working in orchards and warehouses. Nationally, the INS deported nearly 177,000 people in fiscal year 1999, 83 percent of them Mexican nationals, another 8 percent from Central American countries and the remaining 9 percent from around the world. Illegal immigration is a contentious issue nationally and locally.

Meissner's Folly

INS bureaucracy, blundering create "the agency from hell"

Mario Nava and Gregorio Diaz have never met, but they have a lot in common. Born in Illinois, Nava lives in California. Born in California, Diaz lives in Illinois. Both are U.S. citizens. Both lived in Mexico for most of their lives before returning to the U.S. And both say they are victims of the INS's bungling. Nava landed in jail when INS officials insisted he was someone else -- a foreigner -- and then let him languish for six weeks until a Catholic nun came to his rescue. INS officials didn't believe Diaz either but didn't bother with jail. He says they denied him the right to see a judge and packed him off to Mexico within hours of stopping him at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

The Portland Oregonian

INS one the most corrupt federal law-enforcement agencies

In the past three years, the Department of Justice's inspector general has investigated more than twice as many INS employees as it has those of the comparably sized Bureau of Prisons. The same ratio applied to the agencies in terms of arrests for criminal misconduct, including fraud and bribery. The INS and the inspector general's office launched a record 4,551 internal investigations last year -- one per seven workers in an agency that employs 32,000. That compares with one per 31 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms employees and one per 89 Secret Service employees. INS officials dispute such comparisons and say the numbers are not out of whack, given the agency's size and the huge volume of people it deals with each year.

European Prop. 187

Spain not welcoming to its 'New Europeans'

This agricultural boomtown, in the shadows of the 7,000-foot Sierra Gador mountains, once was best known for its plump tomatoes and savory peppers. But no more. For three days in February, an anti-immigrant mob roamed the streets burning Moroccan businesses and terrorizing the young Moroccan men who toil in the surrounding fields. The upheaval followed the third killing in 15 days linked to a north African immigrant and transformed El Ejido, population 50,000, into a cautionary totem of Europe's future. --- For years, Europeans watched with disdain and detachment as the United States struggled, often unsuccessfully, to control its 2,000-mile-long southwestern border. Now, the Spanish parliament is responding with a tough new immigration law that would cut off education, housing and welfare assistance to undocumented immigrants [illegals].

Chief Meddling Mexican

Fox plan for trade may start with San Antonio, Texas

A representative of Mexican President Vicente Fox plans to visit San Antonio this week to explore putting a Mexican business incubator project at KellyUSA. The converted Air Force base is home to the International Business Development Center. The center lets foreign companies from Canada, Mexico and other countries locate export officials to begin finding a market for their goods. Fox wants to market products from each of Mexico's 32 states through a national trade office modeled after an office he opened in Dallas in 1997 as governor of Guanajuato state. The Guanajuato Trade Office, housed in a single-story tan brick warehouse, symbolizes the huge opportunities Fox envisions for Mexico.

Boo-Hoo Article - Reuters

Illegals brave death sneaking into U.S.

"Take your hands out of your pockets. Put your hands up over your head," barked the U.S. border patrol agent on California's frontier with Mexico. Nine bedraggled Mexican migrants [illegals], squinting at the strong flashlight shining in their faces, stumbled out of the reeds bordering a foul-smelling sewage canal. They had floated on the scum- flecked black water in the hope of crossing into the U.S., their sights set on [stealing] The American Dream. "It's not worth risking your life like this," one of five U.S. agents at the scene told the motley, shivering group in Spanish once they had all been rounded up. "If you kiss your children when you get home you could give them tuberculosis. You have to think about this."

Orange County, Calif.

Mexican migrants hope bribes at the border will disappear

For years, Mexican immigrants have complained about having to pay la mordida to Mexican authorities to get their belongings past customs and police checkpoints scattered throughout the country. The new president of Mexico has made these bribes a priority in an immigrant agenda crammed with problems. Beginning Friday, President Vicente Fox plans to visit border and highway checkpoints to welcome back "with open arms" Mexican immigrants who traditionally return to visit relatives during the winter hol idays, the peak travel season for the Mexican immigrant community. More than half of the estimated 2 million Mexican immigrants who return to Mexico each year travel in December for the holidays, Mexican figures show.

Denver

'Justice' drives INS official

"Whether you are a high-paid athlete or not, when you stand before the bar of justice, you should be treated equally," U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service District Director Joe Greene said in an interview. "If Pedro Astacio was a citizen of the United States, he would stand today convicted of third-degree assault... . Why should an alien be given a break on a criminal conviction that a U.S. citizen isn't given? It shouldn't happen. I'm one of many voices in the INS now that are urging the (U.S.) attorney general to look at this issue and make a binding determination." This response caught the attention of immigration lawyers, in part because Colorado Avalanche hockey goalkeeper Patrick Roy of Canada also is embroiled in a case of domestic violence.

Come One, Come All!

A call for more immigrants

In the land of cows, corn and American Gothic, Tom Vilsack sees trouble. Iowa's labor force is aging. Young people are leaving. If every high school graduate stayed and worked, Iowa still would be short 10,000 workers by 2010. So Vilsack, the governor, has come up with a surprising idea: Ask Congress to exempt Iowa from immigration limits and throw open the state's doors to more foreign- born labor, skilled or not. While its chances of approval are slim, the idea has gotten noticed nationwide. Hundreds of immigrant job- seekers have phoned asking whether the governor is serious. Opponents from outside Iowa have run critical ads on local TV. Other shrinking places, including Philadelphia, have taken note of the idea.

Paul Craig Roberts - Washington Times

U.S., Britain fading away

There won't always be an England or a United States. Both are already fading, not from military conquest but from their own immigration policy. Demographers have calculated that by the end of this century the English people will be a minority in their homeland. The English are not having enough children to reproduce themselves. In contrast, the "people of color" who have flooded into England have a high fertility rate. Non-whites will comprise a majority of the population of London in just nine years. It is amazing how fast it is happening. Half a century ago, there were only a few tens of thousands of non-whites in the entirety of Great Britain. In another half century, there will be the beginnings of a black government.

Massachusetts Migrant Woes

Immigrant felons stir worry in Dorchester

The Fields Corner section of Dorchester is a bustling, up-and-coming place today, a neighborhood seemingly removed from the mid-1990s when Vietnamese gangs terrorized immigrant families with extortion, robbery, and ruthless home invasions. Crime is down, and business is better. But more and more, the streets of Fields Corner are being frequented by what one law-enforcement official called ''the walking deported.'' Convicted of felonies and ordered removed from the United States, at least 50 Vietnamese who served prison time in Massachusetts are free on Boston streets because Vietnam does not accept deportees, authorities said.

Tucson Reconquista Soiree

Activists urge 'border solutions'

More than 600 activists from around the United States and Mexico found broad agreement during a weekend conference in Tucson that the border region must be de-militarized, immigration laws reformed and economic globalization humanized. The upshot, organizers said, is that broad sentiment for these reforms has coalesced. "It looks like a whole movement coming up," said Gerry Condon of San Diego's Committee for Solidarity in the Americas. Those attending focused on three interrelated issues that have be-come evident in Arizona as Mexican migration reached record levels over the last two years: militarization, immigration laws and economic globalization. Also see this Tucson Citizen item.

Vicente 'In Your Face, Gringo' Fox

Mexican presidente to visit to Nogales this week

Mexican President Vicente Fox is scheduled to travel to Nogales, Sonora, this week as part of an effort to smooth the seasonal return home for Mexicans living in the United States. The visit was initially scheduled for tomorrow but may be postponed until Friday, said Roberto Rodriguez Hernandez, the Mexican consul in Nogales, Ariz. Fox is planning to tour important border crossings from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, the consul said. His message is that Mexicans' traditional return home for Christmas should be smooth and without abuse, Rodriguez said.