Chapman Law Firm Home > News and Updates > Essential Worker News & Updates Post October 2006

ESSENTIAL WORKER NEWS & UPDATES

11/19/2009, Economic Blame Game, Immigration Policy Center
Today on Capitol Hill, Congressmen Steve King and Lamar Smith will host a forum on the impact of "illegal immigration on American jobs." Panelists will likely attempt to draw a direct correlation between U.S. immigration policy and unemployment, just as they do with all other domestic issues including the environment, security, and health care. As in the past, their only solution is to deport more immigrants. This is a "solution" that neither helps American workers nor solves our immigration crisis...Read More

10/14/2009, At the White House, a Celebration of Latin Music, John Pareles, New York Times
Coalition-building came with dance steps, sequins and plenty of rhythm at Fiesta Latina, a concert held Tuesday night in a tent on the South Lawn of the White House as part of the White House Music Series. From the open tent, the White House was the performers’ backdrop...Read More

9/18/2009, Illegal Immigrants Allowed to Enroll in Community Colleges, Chicago Tribune
North Carolina's community college system voted Friday to admit illegal immigrants at its campuses next year, a move unlikely to bring an immediate surge in undocumented students given a requirement that they pay higher tuition...Read More

9/17/2009, Community college panel OKs illegal immigrant enrollment, Dan Bowens, WRAL.com
A committee of the North Carolina Board of Community Colleges on Thursday approved a policy that would allow illegal immigrants to enroll at the two-year colleges...Read More

8/20/2009, President Obama Reaffirms Commitment to Immigration Reform, Contact Seth Hoy, IPC
Today, President Obama once more reaffirmed his commitment to comprehensive immigration reform, pledging that "we can get this done." The President and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Napolitano met with immigrant advocates, faith leaders, labor, business, and law enforcement officials to listen to concerns and discuss the next steps forward. Mary Giovagnoli, Director the Immigration Policy Center, attended the White House meeting and issued this statement...Read More

8/19/2009, Including Legal Immigrants in Health Care Reform, Immigration Policy Center
As anti-immigrant groups continue to use immigration as a scare tactic to thwart progress on the health care debate, the Immigration Policy Center has provided factual information on why including legal immigrants in health care reform benefits all Americans. By including legal immigrants in health care reform, we can lower the overall costs. Refusing to accept people who want to pay into the system just doesn't make sense. Immigrants are the not the cause of the health care crisis, but they can certainly be part of the solution...Read More

8/17/2009, Immigrants are vital to recovery, By Walter Ewing, Philadelphia Inquirer
As Pennsylvania grapples with a budget deficit brought on by the current recession, state and local policy makers would do well to keep in mind that immigrant communities are a potent force for economic recovery...Read More

8/17/2009, Experts Untie the Immigration and Unemployment Knot, Immigration Policy Center
Today, the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) released the third and final installment of a three-part report, Untying the Knot, which seeks to debunk the frequently misrepresented relationship between immigration and unemployment. The final report, by Rob Paral and Associates, reveals that unemployed natives and employed recent immigrants cannot simply be "swapped" for one another since unemployed natives and employed immigrants tend to have different levels of education, live in different parts of the country, and have experience in different occupations and different levels of work experience. The report also shows that immigrants tend to fit into the labor force in areas where there are insufficient numbers of comparable native workers. In other words, removing immigrants would not automatically lead to job openings for natives...Read More

8/17/2009, New Voices Join Push for Real Immigration Reform, By Frank Sharry, Huffington Post
Earlier this week, President Obama reaffirmed his commitment to comprehensive immigration reform. Although many in the news media have focused on disappointment with the timeframe he laid out -- draft legislation later this year, and action early next -- they miss a crucial point...Read More

8/14/2009, CATO Institute Finds $180 Billion Benefit to Legalizing Illegal Immigrants, By Daphne Eviatar, The Washington Independent
A new study from the libertarian CATO Institute concludes that legalizing the more than eight million undocumented workers in the United States would have significant economic benefits for the country, while simply enhancing border enforcement and applying restrictive immigration laws would actually hurt the U.S. economically...Read More

8/12/2009, Reality Check: Immigrants and Health Care, Contact Wendy Sefsaf, AILF
As the current debate on health care rages in town halls across the nation, immigration is being used as a way to jam a stick into the wheels of impending reform. Some are scapegoating immigrants as a way to thwart progress on the issue and are arguing that even legal immigrants be restricted from our health system. Linking these two issues does nothing to advance necessary reforms to either health care or immigration. The U.S. can do both, but public debate and discussion must be based on facts, not myths and misinformation...Read More

7/23/2009, U.S. Police Brass Urge Immigration Reform in Phoenix, by Dennis Wagner, The Arizona Republic
Some of the nation's top police officers on Wednesday called upon Congress to promptly adopt an immigration-reform measure, saying local law-enforcement agencies across America are struggling to deal with crime and confusion caused by a broken system...Read More

7/23/2009, California Issues Formal Apology for Past Discrimination Against Chinese, By Corina Knoll, The Los Angeles Times
The documents Chan Share clutched as he left China were forged. It was 1939 and Asians were not allowed to immigrate to the United States. So, like many others, Share claimed he was a "paper son" and had a California-born relative whose records were lost in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake...Read More

7/23/2009, U.S. Police Brass Urge Immigration Reform in Phoenix, by Dennis Wagner, The Arizona Repulic
Some of the nation's top police officers on Wednesday called upon Congress to promptly adopt an immigration-reform measure, saying local law-enforcement agencies across America are struggling to deal with crime and confusion caused by a broken system...Read More

7/23/2009, California Issues Formal Apology for Past Discrimination Against Chinese, By Corina Knoll, The Los Angeles Times
The wave of immigrants who worked dangerous jobs building railroads and early California infrastructure faced decades of discrimination, marriage restrictions and private injustices...Read More

7/21/2009, Immigration Pitfall, By Jorge G. Castaneda and Tamar Jacoby, The Washington Post
President Obama looks to be gearing up to make good on his campaign promise of comprehensive immigration reform. But unlike in 2006, when Democratic and Republican reformers agreed on what was needed in an overhaul, this year there's a new fault line...Read More

7/21/2009, Immigration Prosecutions for April 2009, TRAC Immigration
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during April 2009 the government reported 9037 new immigration prosecutions. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is up 8.5% over the previous month...Read More

7/20/2009, New Americans in the Great Lakes State, by Wendy Sefsaf, Immigration Policy Center
The Immigration Policy Center has compiled research which shows that immigrants, Latinos, and Asians not only wield tremendous political power in Michigan, but are also an integral part of Michigan's economy and tax base. As workers, taxpayers, consumers, and entrepreneurs, immigrants and their children are an economic powerhouse--especially the Arab American community. As voters, they are a potent political force. As Michigan's economy begins to recover, immigrants and their children will continue to play a key role in the shaping and growing the economic and political landscape of the Great Lakes State...Read More

7/11/2009, New Edict on Immigration Enforcement, By Anna Gorman, The Los Angeles Times
Local police agencies empowered by the federal government to enforce immigration law must focus their efforts on criminals who pose a threat to public safety, with less emphasis on those who commit minor crimes, Department of Homeland Security officials announced Friday...Read More

7/10/2009, Regular Applicants Subsidize Premium Processing, ILW
Two GAO reports from earlier this year show that USCIS's vaunted Premium Processing unit's services are subsidized by regular applicants who receive shoddy service. In other words the fees of regular applicants for USCIS's services are used to subsidize the cost of delivering faster services to premium processing applicants...Read More

7/8/2009, Council on Foreign Relations Calls for Sweeping Immigration Reform, Immigration Policy Center
Today, the Council on Foreign Relations, one of the oldest and most respected non-partisan foreign policy think tanks in America, issued a sweeping report on U.S. immigration policy. Developed by an independent task force comprised of bi-partisan leaders, including former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Thomas "Mack" McLarty, the report finds that the passage of comprehensive immigration reform is vital to the national interests of the United States...Read More

7/8/2009, Senate Democrat Says Coming Immigration Bill to be More Generous to High Skilled Workers, by Suzanne Gamboa, The Chicago Tribune
The lead Democrat steering an immigration overhaul through the Senate said Wednesday he expects to have a bill ready by Labor Day that is more generous to highly skilled immigrant workers than those who are lower skilled and is tough on future waves of illegal immigration...Read More

7/2/2009, Study finds workplace immigration raids unlawful, By Desiree Evans, Magazine for the Institue for Southern Studies
In the early morning hours of December 12, 2006, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents swept into Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in six states, rounding up detaining thousands of workers in one of the largest immigration raids in U.S. history...Read More

7/2/2009, New Immigration Law Sets Dangerous Precedent, By Chris Burbank, The Salt Lake Tribune
As you begin the experience of the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., one of the first images you encounter is a photo of a Nazi soldier standing with a German police officer. Conspicuously, the identical theme exists at Yad VaShem, Israel's memorial to Holocaust victims...Read More

7/1/2009, ICE launches initiative to step-up audits of businesses’ employment records, Contact ICE Public Affairs, ICE
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is launching a bold, new audit initiative today by issuing Notices of Inspection (NOIs) to 652 businesses nationwide – which is more than ICE issued throughout all of last fiscal year. The notices alert business owners that ICE will be inspecting their hiring records to determine whether or not they are complying with employment eligibility verification laws and regulations. Inspections are one of the most powerful tools the federal government has to enforce employment and immigration laws. This new initiative illustrates ICE’s increased focus on holding employers accountable for their hiring practices and efforts to ensure a legal workforce...Read More

7/1/2009, Stop the deportation of DREAM student Walter Lara, By Kate Thomas, SEIU
Walter Lara is an honor student who has lived in the U.S. since his parents brought him here from Argentina when he was just 3 years old. Almost 20 years later, Walter is set to be deported this July 4th weekend...Read More

7/1/2009, ICE Launches Workplace Immigration Crackdown, By Susanne Gamboa, The Associated Press
The Obama administration launched investigations of hundreds of businesses around the country Wednesday as part of its strategy to focus immigration enforcement on the employers who hire illegal workers...Read More

7/1/2009, Arizona House Rejects Bill That Would Criminalize Illegal Immigrants' Presence in State, By Jacques Billeaud, The Chicago Tribune
The Arizona House has defeated a bill that would have made it the only state in the nation to criminalize the presence of illegal immigrants by expanding its trespassing law....Read More

6/30/2009, Immigrant High School Student Endures Detainment, By Helen O'Neill, CBS 3 News
He was born on the Fourth of July, an irony he would only appreciate later, during the dark period of his life, when liberty and freedom became far more than mere words in his high school history book...Read More

6/25/2009, White House Statement on Immigration meeting: Congress & Obama, Office of the Press Secretary
The President and the Vice President will meet with a small group of Senate and House members from both sides of the aisle and both sides of the issue to discuss immigration reform in the State Dining Room at 2:00 PM today...Read More

6/25/2009, Obama Set for First Step on Immigration Reform, by Ginger Thompson and David M. Herszenhorn, The New York Times
President Obama is expected to meet with Congressional leaders of both parties on Thursday to begin laying the political groundwork for sweeping immigration legislation, even though its passage this year is considered very unlikely...Read More

6/25/2009, Pelosi to Defer to Senate on Immigration Reform, by Steven T. Dennis, Roll Call
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), following the same strategy of the last Congress, said Thursday that the House will wait for the Senate to act first on comprehensive immigration reform...Read More

6/25/2009, President Obama Leads Immigration Reform Debate, Immigration Policy Center
Today the President, Vice President, and key cabinet members met with a bipartisan group of Senate and House leaders representing the spectrum of opinion on immigration. The White House characterized the meeting as the "launch" of a policy conversation and "an honest discussion about the issues...identifying areas of agreement and areas where we still have work to do, with the hope of beginning the debate in earnest later this year."...Read More

6/24/2009, Schumer Says Immigration Reform Will Happen, by Jessica Brady, Roll Call
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) maintained Wednesday that Congress will tackle comprehensive immigration reform this Congress, and perhaps even this year...Read More

6/24/2009, Homeland Security Chief: We will Enforce Immigration Laws, By Perry Stein, The Miami Herald
Addressing hundreds of the nation's sheriffs in Fort Lauderdale, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday that her department would work to secure the nation's border and enforce immigration laws. ''Make no mistake about it. We are a law enforcement department. We will enforce the nation's immigration laws.'' Napolitano said...Read More

6/24/2009, IPC Lauds Obama Administration for Beginning Immigration Reform Discussion, Contact Wendy Sefsaf, Immigration Policy Center
Tomorrow President Obama and Congressional leaders will meet to chart a roadmap designed to move comprehensive immigration reform forward in 2009. The President has already begun solving our nation's toughest problems and has promised to tackle our broken immigration system in his first year in office. Leaders in Congress are also committed to moving immigration reform this year and their efforts are buoyed by a groundswell of support from the majority of Americans who want immigration reform...Read More

6/24/2009, Graduation Dreams, The New York Times
We were caught between exhilaration and despair on Tuesday as we watched more than 500 young people in caps and gowns gather in a park a few steps from the United States Capitol. It was a graduation, but it wasn't. There were awards, but no diplomas. And while there was talk of bright futures, the speeches were threaded with notes of impatience and defiance and made clear that those hopes were in no way assured...Read More

6/23/2009, A Dream for America - Hundreds of Immigrant Students Gathered for a "Dream" Graduation Ceremony in Washington, D.C., Contact Tolu Olubunmi, National Immigration Law Center
In advance of President Obama's key meeting on Immigration Reform, over 500 immigrant students and their supporters held a moving "DREAM" Graduation ceremony steps from the U.S. Capitol. The event highlighted the achievements of our nation's undocumented youth and the vast support for passage of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act...Read More

6/23/2009, Groups Lobby for Wis. Driver's Card for Immigrants, By Ryan J. Foley, The Chicago Tribune
Allowing illegal immigrants to qualify for special driver's cards would make the roads safer, reduce insurance rates and generate much-needed revenue for state government, supporters said Monday...Read More

6/22/2009, ICE Won't Detain Non-U.S. Drivers in Nashville, By Kate Howard and Chris Echegaray, The Tennessean
The federal government will no longer detain illegal immigrants caught driving without a license in Nashville. Instead, the federal system wants to use its bed space to house and deport the most dangerous offenders...Read More

6/22/2009, USCIS Announces Resumption of Premium Processing Service for Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, AILA
USCIS announced today that effective June 29, 2009, it will resume Premium Processing Service for Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, in accordance with 8 CFR 103.2(f)(2)...Read More

6/19/2009, The National Campaign for Fair Immigration Reform has not yet Found a State Director for North Carolina, AILA
The Campaign to Reform Immigration for America is a historic, united national effort that brings together individuals and grassroots organizations with the mission to build support for workable comprehensive immigration reform and pass legislation this year...Read More

6/19/2009, Obama Reiterates Commitment to Immigration Reform, Kristi Keck, CNN
President Obama on Friday reiterated his commitment to passing comprehensive immigration reform, telling a Hispanic audience that the country must be guided by the principle "love thy neighbor as thy self."...Read More

6/18/2009, California Briefing, by Joel Rubin, The Chicago Tribune
An appeals court Wednesday upheld the Los Angeles Police Department's Special Order 40, a policy governing how officers interact with immigrants...Read More

6/18/2009, Border Companies Thrive on Mexican-Americans, by James Flanigan, The New York Times
MEXICO’S economy has suffered a series of blows in recent months — drug violence, swine flu and the worldwide economic downturn. Yet some companies on each side of the border with the United States are prospering because they serve the expanding Mexican-American market in the United States...Read More

6/17/2009, 3 Teens Caught in Immigration Raid are Returned to San Diego, by Tony Perry, The Los Angeles Times
Three teenagers swept up in an immigration raid while on their way to school a month ago have been returned to San Diego from Mexico as a "humanitarian" gesture, the U.S. Border Patrol and the American Friends Service Committee said Wednesday...Read More

6/17/2009, More than 100 U.S.-Born Children Sue the Obama Administration Over Their Parents' Deportations, By Laura Wides-Munoz, The Chicago Tribune
Ronald Soza celebrated his 10th birthday Wednesday with cake and a serenade by more than 100 other children and their parents...Read More

6/16/2009, New Americans in the Old Domination: Virginia's Immigrants, Latinos, and Asians are a Political and Economic Powerhouse, Contact Wendy Sefsaf, Immigration Policy Center
The Immigration Policy Center has compiled research which shows that immigrants, Latinos, and Asians not only wield tremendous political power in Virginia, but are also an integral part of Virginia's economy and tax base. As workers, taxpayers, consumers, and entrepreneurs, immigrants and their children are an economic powerhouse. As voters, they are a potent political force. Yet anti-immigrant groups are exaggerating the alleged fiscal "costs" imposed by undocumented immigrants, and are completely discounting the many economic benefits which immigrants, Latinos, and Asians bring to the Old Dominion...Read More

6/15/2009, This Week in Immigration, Immigration Impact
President Obama Calls on Congress for a "Fair, Practical and Promising Way Forward" on Immigration Reform...Read More

6/15/2009, Deportations may save Oklahoma $4M, By Julie Bisbee, News OK
Oklahoma will begin deporting illegal immigrants who are serving sentences for nonviolent crimes when a new law takes effect July 1...Read More

6/12/2009, Computer 'Raid' in Vernon Leaves Factory Workers Devastated, By Patrick J. McDonnell, The Los Angeles Times
Overhill Farms, a major food-processing plant in the L.A. area, terminates more than 200 employees after an IRS audit finds that they had provided 'invalid or fraudulent' Social Security numbers...Read More

6/11/2009, AG launches undocumented immigrant crime strike force, by Sheena Mcfarland, The Salt Lake Tribune
A new strike force will focus on felony crime committed by undocumented immigrants, and Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is asking for victims of such crimes to come forward, regardless of their legal status....Read More

6/11/2009, Immigration to Further Complicate Health Fix, by Jennifer Bendery, Roll Call
House Democrats leading the charge on health care reform will soon have another major hurdle to overcome beyond public options and employer mandates: immigration reform....Read More

6/10/2009, Immigrants Become Hostages as Gangs Prey on Mexicans, by Joel Millman, The Wall Street Journal
A whispered 911 call from a cellphone early one January morning brought police to a home on West Columbine Drive in this Phoenix suburb. Inside, they found more than 30 half-naked and shivering men -- prisoners, police say, of a gang that had smuggled them in from Mexico... Read More

6/10/2009, Senator Reid said he has the votes for immigration reform this year, EFE
The leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Harry Reid, said today in an interview with Efe that "there arithmetic" for approving an immigration bill this year that "out of the shadow "on undocumented immigrants...Read More

6/9/2009, The Numbers Are In: Most Americans Want an Immigration Overhaul, by Seth Hoy, Immigration Impact
Despite anti-immigrant groups repeated attempts to sway public opinion by scapegoating immigrants for the recession, new polling data suggests that the majority of likely voters actually support an overhaul of our broken immigration system--an overhaul that includes a path to citizenship for the roughly 12 million undocumented immigrants living in America...Read More

6/9/2009, DHS Establishes Interim Relief for Widows of U.S. Citizens, Office of the Press Secretary, Department of Homeland Security
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today granted deferred action for two years to widows and widowers of U.S. citizens—as well as their unmarried children under 18 years old—who reside in the United States and who were married for less than two years prior to their spouse’s death...Read More

6/2/2009, South Florida Groups to Push for Immigration Reform, By Jose Pagliery, The Miami Herald
Advocacy groups from South Florida and across the nation seeking immigration reform will descend on Washington D.C. later this week, holding President Barack Obama to his promise to address the issue during his first year in office. The groups, backed by leagues of faith-based organizations and workers' unions, hope to meet with hundreds of lawmakers and have House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put the issue on Congress's agenda...Read More

6/1/2009, Reform Immigration for America Campaign Kicks off Today, Contact George Tzamaras, AILA
As the momentum keeps building for comprehensive immigration reform, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) is excited to announce its involvement in the "Reform Immigration For America" campaign. This broad-based national campaign kicks off its effort today to fix America's broken immigration system through a comprehensive legislative approach...Read More

6/1/2009, Are Greensboro Police Involved in Racial Profiling?, by Mark Sills, Faith Action
If you decided to stop your car in the parking lot along West Market Street at Lindley Park around 10 p.m., and a police officer came up to you, asked for identification, what do you think would happen next?...Read More

6/1/2009, Reform Immigration for American Campaign Kicks off Today, Contact George Tzamaras, AILA
As the momentum keeps building for comprehensive immigration reform, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) is excited to announce its involvement in the "Reform Immigration For America" campaign. This broad-based national campaign kicks off its effort today to fix America's broken immigration system through a comprehensive legislative approach...Read More


5/30/2009 , Paying Taxes Comes Back to Bite Illegal Immigrants, By Ivan Moreno, New York Times
Immigrant advocates say they've seen nothing like it before or since: A prosecutor looking for illegal immigrants seized thousands of confidential tax records from an income tax preparer popular with Hispanics in this northern Colorado city...Read More

5/29/2009, Labor Department Suspends Bush-Era Regulation on Temporary Farm Workers, by Sam Hananel, The Chicago Tribune
The Labor Department on Friday suspended a regulation adopted shortly before President George W. Bush left office that would have made it easier for farmers to bring in foreign workers...Read More

5/28/2009, Roswell Police to Stop Policy of Holding Immigrants, The Current-Argus
Roswell police have stopped detaining undocumented immigrants for the Border Patrol. Police Chief Rob Smith told a Police Council Committee meeting Wednesday that recent conversations with the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement cast doubt on the practice...Read More

5/27/2009, Fed Prosecutors Charge 12 People in Alleged Scheme to Employ Illegal Immigrants in 14 States, The Chicago Tribune
Federal prosecutors in Kansas City say 12 people and three companies face charges alleging they were involved in a scheme to lure illegal immigrants to the U.S. to work as "modern-day slaves" in 14 states...Read More

5/25/2009, Immigration Reform Could Emerge Again in the Fall, By Steve Stoddard and J. Taylor Rushing, The Hill
Senate Democrats may be close to 60 votes on a measure that would represent the first step towards immigration reform under President Obama...Read More

5/23/2009, Teens' Detention, Deportation Assailed, By Angelica Martinez, The Union-Tribune
Parents of three high school students who say their children were deported to Mexico by immigration officials after they were detained at the Old Town Transit Station spoke out against authorities' tactics yesterday...Read More

5/22/2009, Immigrant Rights Activists: Trolley Sweep 'Crossed Line', 10news.com
An immigration sweep that resulted in the arrests of dozens of illegal immigrants took place in the most unexpected of places, and immigration rights activists are unhappy with the operation, 10News reported...Read More

5/20/2009, Momentum for Immigration Reform Continues to Build, By George Tzamaras, AILA
The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) welcomes several developments today that signal that immigration reform is gaining momentum!...Read More

4/16/2009, Hispanic groups call for Census boycott, by Haya El Nasser, USA Today
Some Hispanic advocacy groups are calling for illegal immigrants to boycott the 2010 Census unless immigration laws are changed. The move puts them at odds with leading immigrant rights advocates and creates another hurdle in the Census Bureau's quest to count everyone in the USA...Read More

4/16/2009, Undocumented - and a reality, The Sacramento Bee
With the economy in the tank, unemployment soaring and government budgets under stress, the issue of immigration, especially illegal immigration, is again moving to the forefront. It is easy to see why. The federal government historically has done a poor job of policing this nation's borders, and California, with an estimated 2.7 million illegal immigrants living here, shoulders more than its share of the burden of dealing with the results...Read More

4/15/2009, U.S. births to illegals up sharply, by N.C. Aizenman, Washington Post
The number of children born in the United States to illegal immigrants has dramatically risen over five years from 2.7 million in 2003 to 4 million in 2008, according to a study released yesterday. The report by the nonpartisan, Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center also found that more than a third of such children were in poverty in 2007, compared with about 18 percent of those born to either legal immigrants or U.S.-born parents. Similarly, one in four U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants had no health insurance in 2008, compared with 14 percent of those born to legal immigrants and 8 percent born to U.S.-born parents...Read More

4/15/2009, Sheriff says suspected illegal immigrant paid $85K a year, KTAR Newsroom
Two men have been arrested at a Scottsdale business in a case related to the state's employer sanctions law. One of the suspected illegal immigrants arrested was earning more than $85,000 a year, according to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio...Read More

4/15/2009,Rate of illegal immigrants in S.C.work force levels off, by Noelle Phillips, The State
Illegal immigrants make up about 2.2 percent of South Carolina’s workers, well below the national average of 5.4 percent of the labor force. The Pew Hispanic Center study, based on 2008 statistics and released Tuesday, says the impact of illegal immigrants on the S.C. labor market is not as widespread as many have thought...Read More

4/15/2009, Fla. jurors who acquitted Egyptian college student of explosives charges decry deportation try, by Mitch Stacy, Associated Press
Four jurors who acquitted an Egyptian college student of federal explosives charges criticized U.S. immigration authorities on Wednesday for trying to deport him, saying it was a "blatant disregard" of their verdict...Read More

4/15/2009, Legislature passes legal presence bill, by Douglas Tallman, Gazette.net
After a late-night scramble for a compromise, lawmakers passed a measure Monday that would give applicants for a Maryland driver's license until 2015 to prove they are in the country legally...Read More

4/15/2009, Obama Administration Takes on Immigration Reform, by Lucas Guttentag, Director, ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project
Last week, a front page New York Times story reported that the Obama Administration is getting ready to address immigration reform. Yesterday, the Times followed up that organized labor had reached a new consensus in support of reform...Read More

4/14/2009, Obama Immigration Proposal May Not Be at Odds With Economy, by Daphne Eviatar, Washington Independent
Last week, a senior aide to President Obama told The New York Times that the White House plans to support a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would offer a path to legalization for undocumented workers. But will Obama be willing to invest the political capital needed to pass such a bill during an economic crisis – when anti-immigrant sentiment is generally at its peak? After all, President George W. Bush couldn’t get Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill during his presidency even during an economic bubble; he faced too much opposition from within his own party....Read More

4/14/2009, Immigration Accord by Labor Boosts Obama Effort, by Julia Preston and Steven Greenhouse
The nation’s two major labor federations have agreed for the first time to join forces to support an overhaul of the immigration system, leaders of both organizations said on Monday. The accord could give President Obama significant support among unions as he revisits the stormy issue in the midst of the recession...Read More

4/13/2009, Former Iowa kosher slaughterhouse personnel manager pleads guilty to immigration charges, by Amy Lorentzen, Associated Press
A former personnel manager arrested after a massive immigration raid at a kosher slaughterhouse pleaded guilty Monday to federal immigration charges. Elizabeth Billmeyer, 48, of Postville, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens for profit and one count of knowingly accepting counterfeit resident alien cards. She faces up to 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine...Read More

4/13/2009, Immigration rallies: Activists plan vigils, lobbying efforts to push immigration reforms, by Antonio Olivo, Associated Press
Buoyed by recent promises from the Obama administration to push forward on federal Immigration reforms, activists in Chicago and other cities are planning a series of events this week to build more momentum for their cause...Read More

4/13/2009, Judge halts Colorado ID-theft investigation, says seizure of tax records violated privacy, by Ivan Moreno, Associated Press
A judge has halted an identity theft investigation targeting illegal immigrants in Colorado, saying prosecutors wrongly seized records from an income tax preparer. The judge Monday ordered Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck to return or destroy the evidence within seven days. Buck's attorney says he will appeal...Read More

3/10/2009, Ex-US immigration official sentenced to prison, by Ben L eubsdorf, Associated Press
A former senior U.S. Immigration official who took bribes in exchange for releasing illegal immigrants from detention and other favors has been sentenced to three years, one month in prison...Read More

3/10/2009, Cheers, fears over E-Verify immigration program, by Tyche Hendricks, San Francisco Chronicle
A voluntary electronic system to verify employees' immigration status, and thus their right to a job, expired Friday but is likely to be reauthorized by Congress as part of a budget bill due to come up for a vote this week...Read More

3/10/2009, Ex-officer fights deportation, death, by Sara A. Carter, Washington Times
Guillermo Eduardo Ramirez-Peyro, a former Mexican police officer who was paid $224,000 for information used to convict dozens of high-ranking Mexican narcotics smugglers, is fighting to remain in the United States - and to stay alive. Mexican police officer who was paid $224,000 for information used to convict dozens of high-ranking Mexican narcotics smugglers, is fighting to remain in the United States - and to stay alive...Read More

3/9/2009, Verifying green cards not so easy, by Claude Solnik, Long Island Business News
North Star Concrete ended up in hot water when Suffolk County determined two of its employees didn’t have the right to work in the United States. The company argued it had obtained documents and paid employees a union wage, so there was no financial benefit to hiring undocumented workers. But Suffolk County argued North Star had been lax and sought to bar it from county contracts...Read More

3/9/2009, Driving While Latino, by Fernando Díaz, The Chicago Reporter
In the summer, Osman Maldonado drove less than a mile from his house to a gas station near a busy intersection in northwest suburban Crystal Lake for cigarettes. He spotted a McHenry County Sheriff’s deputy parked in the lot of an adjacent boutique. The deputy walked up to the Honduran immigrant’s window and asked for his driver’s license and registration. Then he examined Maldonado’s wallet...Read More

3/9/2009, SPLC attorney calls Latino immigration most significant civil rights issue, by James D. Davis, South Florida Sun Sentinel
Today's big issue, according to a veteran of civil rights wars: Latino immigrants...Read More

3/9/2009, The failure of ICE, La Opinión
The report released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the program that authorizes collaboration between police and immigration agents provides the best argument yet to get rid of it. The lack of interest shown by the Office of Immigration and Custom (ICE) in fulfilling the program's stated purpose has led to a poorly supervised and misdirected process...Read More

3/9/2009, Unreliable CIS Data Is Out-of-Date and Context, Immigration Policy Center
Newspaper and television are running a narrow story quoting out-of-date and out-of-context data prepared by the immigration restrictionist group, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), who are alleging that 300,000 "illegal immigrants" will benefit from jobs created by the recently-approved economic stimulus plan. Unfortunately, these stories provide no counter-analysis from other research groups or experts who study these issues...Read More

3/9/2009, Widows face deportation under immigration law, Associated Press
At least 200 immigrants nationwide face deportation under what's become known as the "widow's penalty," a federal policy ordering widows and widowers out of the country if their U.S. citizen spouse dies before their immigration application is approved...Read More

3/9/2009, Unreliable CIS data is Out-of-Date and Context, Immigration Policy Center
Newspaper and television are running a narrow story quoting out-of-date and out-of-context data prepared by the immigration restrictionist group, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), who are alleging that 300,000 "illegal immigrants" will benefit from jobs created by the recently-approved economic stimulus plan. Unfortunately, these stories provide no counter-analysis from other research groups or experts who study these issues...Read More

3/8/2009, Border arrests drop to 1970s levels, by Richard Marosi, The Los Angeles Times
Reporting from San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico - Arrests of illegal immigrants on the U.S.-Mexico border have fallen to levels unseen since the 1970s as the ailing U.S. economy and enhanced enforcement appear to be deterring people from trekking north...Read More

3/8/2009, Colorado Sees 11 Percent Jump In ICE Referrals, CBS Denver
The number of suspected illegal immigrants referred to federal authorities by state law enforcement agencies jumped 11 percent from 2007 to 2008, according to a review by The Denver Post of figures submitted to the state so far...Read More

3/8/2009, Prof thinks ICE raids unjust, by Joe Johnson, Athens Banner-Herald
A University of Georgia professor is relieved the federal government has declared a moratorium on workplace raids that rounded up illegal immigrants by the dozens...Read More

3/7/2009, NJ widow, wed 8 months, fights green card denial, NewsDay
A Caribbean woman whose husband of less than a year died in a ferry crash is taking her fight to get her green card to the U.S. Supreme Court...Read More

3/7/2009, Nashville Ethnic Media on the Frontlines of Immigration Battle, by Anthony Advincula, New America Media
On a Friday morning, in a small house outside downtown Nashville, La Sabrosita, a Spanish-language AM radio station, was airing its shows in full swing. Immigration was the most pressing topic...Read More

3/6/2009, Bill aims to keep aid from illegal immigrants, By Franco Ordoñez, The Charlotte Observer
Saying illegal immigrants shouldn't profit from the stimulus package, N.C. lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require contractors eligible for the federal money to verify their employees' immigration status...Read More

3/6/2009, Released mother says she violated immigration law, but is not a criminal, by Víctor Manuel Ramos, The Chicago Tribune
Rita Cote, the immigrant mother from Tavares who was released Thursday after two weeks in detention for her undocumented status, acknowledges that she was wrong to live in the United States illegally after crossing the border with her mother in 2000...Read More

3/6/2009, Colombian brothers Alex and Juan Gomez avoid deportation -- again, By Jose Pagliery and Lesley Clark, The Miami Herald
Alex and Juan Gomez, two Colombian-born brothers who faced possible deportation while attending Killian High School in 2007, have gained more time to push for legal residency in the United States. A bill filed by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., will give the Gomezes, who were both detained by immigration authorities, at least another 18 months in the United States...Read More

3/6/2009, Nervous employers turn to ID check for workers, by Maria Sacchetti, The Boston Globe
A federal system that lets employers check the legal status of their workers is soaring in popularity across the country, growing by 1,000 companies a week, fueled by anxiety over workplace raids and uncertainty over the future of the nation's illegal immigrants...Read More

3/5/2009, Brazilian migrants sue ICE over mental health care, by Jennifer Kay
Two Brazilian migrants have sued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying they've been denied mental health care for post-traumatic stress disorder in a South Florida detention facility since their boat ran aground last fall. Jaime Miranda and Daniel Padilha were diagnosed with the disorder by a private physician in December but have not been given prescribed medications or treatments while being held at the Broward Transition Center in Pompano Beach, according to lawsuits filed Wednesday in Miami federal court...Read More

3/4/2009, Agriprocessors supervisor sentenced to 23 months, By Amy Lorentzen, The Chicago Tribune
A supervisor arrested after a massive Immigration raid at an eastern Iowa kosher meatpacking plant has been sentenced to nearly two years in federal prison for harboring illegal immigrants, prosecutors said Wednesday...Read More

2/24/2009, Immigration Is Big Topic As 5th Cong. Dist. Candidates Turn Out, Craig Dellimore, WBBM Newsradio 780
There's just a week to go before the primary election to pick the Republican and Democrat candidates for the Congressional seat vacated by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel...Read More

2/24/2009, Court Takes Up Kentucky Immigrant Case, Associated Press
The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide a frequently recurring question involving immigrants: whether they must be told by their lawyers that they face deportation if they plead guilty to serious crimes...Read More

2/23/2009, Obama and Immigration Reform, Under the Radar … For Now By John Rudolph, FI2W Executive Producer
For a new president who is still in the process of defining his administration’s policies, the media scrutiny can be intense. Almost immediately after taking office President Obama experienced what it’s like to be under the microscope as he and his White House team began to grapple with the economic crisis. Reporters guided by the advice to “follow the money” in the stimulus package began pulling apart the president’s proposals even before a penny was spent... Read More

2/23/2009, Man gets 3 years for smuggling immigrants at LAX, Associated Press
A former mechanic at Los Angeles International Airport has been sentenced to three years in prison for smuggling illegal immigrants into off-limits elevators to evade federal inspectors...Read More

2/22/2009, In Loneliness, Immigrants Tend the Flock, By Dan Frosch, New York Times
Somewhere in Wyoming's vast, barren sagebrush country, Lorenzo Cortez Vargas pokes his head out of the rickety camper where he lives and stares into the dirt. Mr. Vargas, a sheepherder from Chile, spends his days and nights on lonesome stretches of the Rockies, driving 2,000 sheep across Coloradoand Wyoming as part of a federal temporary worker program he signed up for more than a year ago.... Read More

2/22/2009, Walls closing in on immigrants, By Laura Crimaldi, Boston Herald
A worldwide economic crisis coupled with a surge in border enforcement at the end of the Bush administration is snuffing out the American dream for thousands of immigrants, legal and illegal, advocates and researchers say... Read More

2/21/2009, Bill Adds Hurdles for Foreign Hires, By John D. McKinnon, Wall Street Journal
A little-noticed provision in the stimulus package discourages banks that receive federal bailouts from hiring skilled foreign workers, and it likely foreshadows broader efforts to restrict work-related visa programs this year...Read More

2/18/2009, Conflicting Accounts of an ICE Raid in Md., by N.C. Aizenman, Washington Post
The boss was not happy. His elite team of immigration officers had been raiding targets across Prince George's and Montgomery counties all night long in search of fugitive and criminal immigrants but had netted only a handful...Read More

1/2009 - 2/2009, Faith & Immigration, North Carolina Council of Churches
When it comes to immigration, this new year presents not only great challenges but also great opportunities. As far as challenges go, we are still dealing with strong anti-immigrant sentiment in NC, stoked by fear-mongering and negative stereotyping. These shrill voices continue to be influential in the public debate, and we have a lot of community education in front of us to untangle the pervasive myths and untie the knots of fear that keep us from welcoming immigrants. At the same time, opportunities abound. New national and state political leaders offer the hope of comprehensive solutions. The public is also becoming more aware of the human cost of very harsh enforcement procedures...Read More

1/22/2009, Senators Shuffle Membership on Judiciary Committee, by David Ingram, Legal Times
Three members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, including two former chairmen, have officially left the panel with the passage Wednesday night of the Senate’s organizing resolutions. Three Democrats, two of whom are lawyers, are replacing them...Read More

1/22/2009, AILA Calls for a More Rational and Just Immigration Policy, AILA InfoNet Doc. No. 09012263 (posted Jan. 22, 2009)
Today, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) calls upon the new Obama Administration to eschew the harsh, indiscriminate, "enforcement-only" policies of the past 8 years in favor of a more rational and just approach to immigration policy that restores the rule of law and serves America's core economic, security, and humanitarian interests. AILA welcomes this opportunity to work with the new Administration to forge a new path toward a 21st century immigration system that meets the needs of the American people and respects the ideals upon which our country was built...Read More

1/22/2009, Obama to stop ousting illegals? President asked for executive order to halt deportation, work raids, by Chelsea Schilling, WorldNetDaily
A former illegal alien who sought sanctuary in a Chicago church in 2006 before being deported back to Mexico has written a letter to President Barack Obama, asking him to issue an executive order to stop sending illegals home...Read More

1/22/2009, The First Lady Sends Message With Dresses: Immigrant Designers Embody Quest for American Dream, Echoing President's Speeches, by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, Wall Street Journal
et what was most interesting about Mrs. Obama's style choices for her first day as First Lady was not the ensembles themselves but the message she telegraphed through the designers she picked. Her day dress and matching jacket were created by Isabel Toledo, who was born in Cuba but left as a girl when her family fled to the U.S. in search of a better life. Mrs. Obama went off the beaten path of well-known designers again when choosing her evening gown...Read More

1/21/2009, Report Faults Treatment of Women Held at Immigration Centers, by Dan Frosch, New York Times
Some 300 women held at immigration detention centers in Arizona face dangerous delays in health care and widespread mistreatment, according to a new study by the University of Arizona, the latest report to criticize conditions at such centers throughout the United States...Read More

1/21/2009, Immigrant Activists March on ICE on Day After Inauguration, by Marcelo Ballvé
New America Media
Even as the masses celebrating President Obama's inauguration dispersed, a new crowd gathered Wednesday for a day-after march to place immigrant rights atop the president's agenda...Read More

1/21/2009, Calls for immigration reform under Obama, by Juliana Barbassa, Associated Press
Taking to heart an inauguration speech that honored those who "traveled across oceans in search of a new life," thousands embarked on a campaign Wednesday to make immigration reform a priority for the new president...Read More

1/21/2009, Obama's Immigration Agenda on White House Website, Univision
President Barack Obama's agenda regarding issues such as immigration was launched on the White House website this afternoon, reports Univision online...Read More

1/21/2009, Latinos fight for political recognition, by Gebe Martinez, Politico
Puffed with pride after casting 10 million votes in November that were vital to President Barack Obama’s election, Hispanics are feeling empowered to make great demands on the new president...Read More

1/20/2009, Guilford To Join Deportation Program, by Pat Kimbrough, The High Point Enterprise
The Guilford County Sheriff's Office will begin participating in a federal initiative to identify, apprehend and deport illegal immigrants this spring... Read More

1/20/2009, Tancredo celebrates Bush's commutation of agents' sentences, By Jessica Fender, The Denver Post
In one of his last acts in office, President George W. Bush gave two former immigration officers their freedom and former Rep. Tom Tancredo an unexpected parting victory...Read More

1/19/2009, Bush commutes sentences of former US border agents, by Deb Riechmann, Associated Press
In his final acts of clemency, President George W. Bush on Monday granted early prison releases to two former U.S. Border Patrol agents whose convictions for shooting a Mexican drug dealer fueled the national debate over illegal immigration...Read More

1/19/2009, Immigration Tops Latinos’ Wish List at D.C. Meeting, by Fernanda Santos, New York Times
A new president takes office on Tuesday. It is time to ask for favors, to settle debts accrued during the campaign season...Read More

1/15/2009, Napolitano Confirmation Hearing Leaves Many Questions Unanswered, by Angela Kelley, Immigration Policy Center
Gov. Janet Napolitano's performance at today's confirmation hearing to serve as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary deserves an "A" for "know-how", but an "incomplete" for "how-to" reform DHS and our country's broken immigration system...Read More

1/14/2009, Judge upholds Ariz. human smuggling law, by Ryan Gabrielson, East Valley Tribune
A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit brought by Somos America against Maricopa County, arguing the immigrant-rights group failed to show how the county attorney’s prosecutions under the state anti-human smuggling law are unconstitutional...Read More

1/14/2009, AZ congressman wants illegals deported for DUI, by J.W. Cox, KTAR
Congressman Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., plans to introduce a bill that would make a third drunken driving offense by an illegal immigrant grounds for deportation...Read More

11/25/2008, De-Romanticizing Our Immigrant Past: Why Claiming “My Family Came Legally” Is Often A Myth, Angela Kelley, Immigration Policy Center
Many people assume that their family immigrated to the U.S. legally, or did it “the right way.” In most cases, this statement does not reflect the fact that the U.S. immigration system was very different when their families arrived, and that their families might not have been allowed to enter had today’s laws been in effect. In some cases, claiming that a family came “legally” is simply inaccurate—undocumented immigration has been a reality for generations...Read More

7/15/2008, Drug smugglers bribing U.S. agents on Mexico border, by Robin Emmott, Washington Post
U.S. Border Patrol agent Reynaldo Zuniga was arrested last month lugging a bag of cocaine up from the Rio Grande, one of a growing number of law enforcement officers accused of taking bribes from drug gangs...Read More

7/13/2008, The Shame of Postville, Iowa, New York Times Editorial
Anyone who has doubts that this country is abusing and terrorizing undocumented immigrant workers should read an essay by Erik Camayd-Freixas, a professor and Spanish-language court interpreter who witnessed the aftermath of a huge immigration workplace raid at a meatpacking plant in Iowa...Read More

7/12/2008, Immigration agents came at 4:30 a.m., by Tricia Tirella, North Bergen Reporter
Anyone who has doubts that this country is abusing and terrorizing undocumented immigrant workers should read an essay by Erik Camayd-Freixas, a professor and Spanish-language court interpreter who witnessed the aftermath of a huge immigration workplace raid at a meatpacking plant in Iowa...Read More

7/12/2008, Interpreting after the Largest ICE Raid in US History: A Personal Account, by Erik Camayd-Freixas, MRZine
On Monday, May 12, 2008, at 10:00 a.m., in an operation involving some 900 agents, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) executed a raid of Agriprocessors Inc, the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse and meat packing plant located in the town of Postville, Iowa...Read More

7/11/2008, Citizenship surges for Mexican immigrants as total naturalizations dip, by Antonio Olivo, Chicago Tribune
Reflecting a massive push for citizenship in Chicago and other cities with large Latino populations, the number of Mexican immigrants naturalized in 2007 jumped 46 percent from a year earlier to 122,250, federal statistics released Wednesday show...Read More

7/11/2008, Number of Mexicans gaining citizenship soars in 2007, by Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times
The number of Mexican-born immigrants who became U.S. citizens swelled by nearly 50% last year amid a massive campaign by Spanish-language media and immigrant advocacy groups to help eligible residents apply for citizenship, according to a government report released Thursday...Read More

7/11/2008, An Interpreter Speaking Up for Migrants, by Julia Preston, New York Times
In 23 years as a certified Spanish interpreter for federal courts, Erik Camayd-Freixas has spoken up in criminal trials many times, but the words he uttered were rarely his own...Read More

7/10/2008, Employment Verification Debate Pushed Off to Next Year, by Mark Schoeff Jr., Workforce Management
A key House leader on immigration policy intends to push into next year a contentious debate regarding employment verification...Read More

7/10/2008, Immigration raid lawsuit voluntarily dismissed, by Amy Lorentzen, Associated Press
A federal lawsuit that claimed a major Immigration bust at a kosher meatpacking plant in northeast Iowa violated the rights of detained workers has been dismissed at the request of the attorneys who filed the action...Read More

7/9/2008, Loss of undocumented workers could cost Oregon $17.7B, Portland Business Journal
The state could see an immediate loss of more than 170,000 jobs and a $17.7 billion drop in production under a proposed federal regulation that would require employers to fire undocumented workers, according to a study released Wednesday...Read More

7/9/2008, Myth vs. Fact: Worksite Enforcement, Michael Chertoff, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Opponents of immigration enforcement continue to propagate mythical objections to the Department's enforcement efforts. Some have claimed we are unfairly targeting low-level employees and not the employers who hire them. Others have misstated the facts about our E-Verify system, claiming it is riddled with errors and harms legal workers at the expense of identifying illegal ones....Read More

7/8/2008, Undocumented workers aid economy, study claims, by Devona Walker, NewsOK
A recent study conducted by the Waco, Texas-based Perryman Group shows Oklahoma would lose $1.8 billion in spending and nearly 13,400 jobs if undocumented workers were removed...Read More

7/8/2008, Use of false IDs not necessarily illegal in Pilgrim's Pride case, by Monica Mercer, Chattanooga Times
A federal judge has suggested that when two men used fake Social Security cards to gain employment at the local Pilgrim's Pride plant, they might not technically have broken the law...Read More

7/4/2008, Immigrants Are America, Katherine Vargas, National Immigration Forum
To help us celebrate the 4th of July, here is a compilation of quotes by and about immigrants...Read More

7/2/2008, 5 employers of Action Rags USA charged with hiring, employing illegal aliens, Immigration and Customs Enforcement
A criminal complaint was unsealed today charging the owner and managers of Action Rags USA, an exporter and grader of used clothing, with conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens, inducing illegal aliens to come to the U.S. and engaging in a pattern or practice of hiring illegal aliens. These arrests were announced today by U.S. Attorney Don DeGabrielle, Southern District of Texas, and Robert Rutt, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Houston...Read More

7/2/2008, Gay marriage: until deportation do us part?, by Mary Milliken, Washington Post
Rita Boyadjian wishes she were in a better mood to celebrate the weddings of fellow gay friends after California began legally marrying same-sex couples last month...Read More

7/2/2008, Fallen Marine wanted to give back to U.S., by Rosanna Ruiz, Houston Chronicle
As the son of legal residents from Mexico, Edgar A. Heredia wanted to give back to the country that had been so good to his family...Read More

7/1/2008, Advocates protest Anne Arundel Co. raids, by Kelly Brewington, Baltimore Sun
Hoisting signs that read, "Don't divide our families," about 100 immigrant advocates held a rally in Baltimore this morning to protest an immigration raid yesterday. The raid on an Annapolis painting company resulted in the arrest of 46 suspected illegal immigrants...Read More

7/1/2008, Raid Unsettles Kosher Beliefs, by Miriam Jordan, Wall Street Journal
An immigration raid on the country's largest kosher meatpacking plant has fueled a nationwide debate in the Jewish community about what it really means to be kosher...Read More

6/30/2008, National Guard Border Troops Moving On, Immigration Policy Center
June 2008 simultaneously marks the two-year anniversary and the end of Operation Jump Start, a joint program by the Border Patrol and Department of Defense. Under the operation, roughly 6,000 National Guard troops were temporarily deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border to assist the Border Patrol with surveillance operations and the construction of fences and vehicle barriers. The last National Guard troops are due to leave by late July, and the Border Patrol is meanwhile attempting to hire thousands of agents to permanently take their place...Read More

6/19/2008, ‘Failed’ federal policy costs $1M, by Scott Rothschild, LJWorld.com
payers spent upward of $1 million and thousands of eligible Kansans lost their health insurance because of federal anti-illegal immigration rules that ended up catching one illegal immigrant trying to apply for health coverage, officials said Wednesday. Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence, said the situation showed the federal government had failed to enact common sense immigration policies...Read More

6/18/2008, Woodstock family indicted on human trafficking and harboring charges, Immigration and Customs Enforcement
A Woodstock, Ga., family, who allegedly submitted an immigrant from India to a form of modern slavery, was indicted here this week by a federal grand jury on human trafficking, alien harboring, witness tampering and making false statements charges after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigation...Read More

6/11/2008, Secure Borders? Try Fenced In, by Marc Cooper, LA Weekly
With $860 million spending sprees, high-tech surveillance towers that don't work and Operation Streamline show trials, it's still the same old catch-and-release game...Read More

6/11/2008, USCIS to Offer Premium Processing For Certain Form I-140 Petitions, USCIS
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that on June 16, 2008, it will begin accepting Premium Processing Service requests for Forms I-140 (Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker) filed on behalf of certain alien workers who are nearing the end of their sixth year in H-1B nonimmigrant status...Read More

6/10/2008, Amid Anti-Immigrant Fervor, ICE Deporting More American Citizens, by Jacqueline Stevens, The Nation
A headline in the San Francisco Chronicle screams, 900 Nabbed in State on Immigration Charges. The Seattle Times reports, Feds Combing Jails for Illegal Immigrants. An AP article declares, Immigration Raid in Iowa Largest Ever in US and reports 390 arrests. In 2007, more than 276,912 US residents were deported. Thanks to a recent Bush Administration crackdown, the net cast by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) is wide--so wide, it turns out, that some of those being deported are US citizensl...Read More

6/9/2008, Bush orders contractors to check legal status of employees, by Suzanne Gamboa, Associated Press
President Bush has signed an executive order requiring contractors and others who do business with the federal government to make sure their employees can legally work in the U.S...Read More

6/9/2008, Immigrant kids–alone and detained, by Ofelia Casillas and Vanessa Bauzá, Chicago Tribune
In 1999 the 9-year-old boy fled the Dominican Republic, where his abusive mother had tried to strangle him, forced him to kneel on a cheese grater and had her name tattooed on his arm as a symbol of her ownership...Read More

6/9/2008, Watchdog blasts FBI immigrant checks, by Andrew Zajac, The Baltimoresun.com
The FBI takes it on the chin from the Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine today for "serious deficiencies that have resulted in large backlogs and questions about the reliability of the resulting information" on citizen and immigration application name checks...Read More

6/8/2008, U.S.-born children feel effects of immigration raids, by Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times
Yesenia Rangel, 12, looked out her window on a Friday morning in February and saw several officers with the letters "ICE" on their sleeves...Read More

6/5/2008, Immigration Raids Must Halt, by Raquel Aldana, Rome News-Tribune
Postville, Iowa has been turned into a ghost town. Nearly a third of its residents, mostly undocumented workers from Guatemala and Mexico, sit in jail convicted of identity crimes or awaiting deportation. Hundreds more hide in fear. Their children, too scared to go to school, have left the town’s classrooms nearly empty...Read More

6/3/2008, Federal immigration raid in Iowa puts stain upon all of us, by Deborah Smith, Great Falls (MT) Tribune
"The one place a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow," said Atticus Finch, the widower lawyer and father to his young son Jem in Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird...Read More

6/3/2008, Protecting the Rights of Immigrant Defendants , New York Times (Letter)
Re “270 Immigrants Sent to Prison in Federal Push” (front page, May 24):
Among the many outrages involved in the mass prosecution of undocumented workers for document fraud in Iowa, the greatest may be the statement by Linda R. Reade, the chief judge who approved the emergency court...Read More

6/3/2008, The Great Immigration Panic, New York Times (Editorial)
Someday, the country will recognize the true cost of its war on illegal immigration. We don’t mean dollars, though those are being squandered by the billions. The true cost is to the national identity: the sense of who we are and what we value. It will hit us once the enforcement fever breaks, when we look at what has been done and no longer recognize the country that did it...Read More

6/3/2008, The Right Immigration Reform, Sen. Robert Menendez, Wall Street Journal
I feel my recent move to strike certain provisions from the supplemental spending bill on the floor of the Senate deserves a different explanation than is given in your editorial "The Menendez Method1" (May 29)...Read More

6/2/2008, Travelers without visas to be required to register, by Douglass K. Daniel, Associated Press
Travelers who don't need visas to enter the United States will be required to register online with the U.S. government at least three days before they visit, a security regulation set to begin next year...Read More

5/31/2008, H-1B opponents challenge Bush administration in court, by Patrick Thibodeau, Computer World
The Bush administration's recent decision to extend the amount of time foreign nationals can work in the U.S. on student visas is being challenged in a federal lawsuit by H-1B visa opponents...Read More

5/30/2008, Operation Return to Sender, by Jennifer Bennett, Slate
May has been an embattled month for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, faced inquiries from House and Senate members about the inhumane treatment of people detained for violating immigration laws. This congressional scrutiny followed a special report in the Washington Post (and a rash of articles elsewhere) detailing stomach-turning—and sometimes deadly—mistreatment in immigrant detention centers...Read More

5/29/2008, Judge Voids an Ordinance on Immigrants, Associated Press
A federal judge found Wednesday that a local ordinance prohibiting apartment rentals to illegal immigrants was unconstitutional and could not be enforced...Read More

5/29/2008, The Menendez Method, The Wall Street Journal Online
Republicans in Congress are usually to blame for blocking immigration reform. So it's worth noting that last week's effort to fix a broken guest-worker program for migrant farm workers died at the hands of a Democrat...Read More

5/29/2008, Federal judge strikes down Farmers Branch immigrant rental ban, By Patrick McGee, Star-Telegram
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Farmers Branch's attempt to ban illegal immigrants from renting apartments is unconstitutional...Read More

5/28/2008, Villas at Parkside Partners d/b/a Villas at Parkside, et al., v. The City of Farmers Branch
Federal District Court’s ruling, finding the local ordinance (prohibiting various activity by local merchants and landlords with undocumented aliens) unconstitutional...Read More

5/27/2008, Law Firm Files Suit to Bar Outsourcing of Client Data, by Pedro Ruz Gutierrez, The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times
Law firms looking to cut costs by outsourcing their legal support services overseas could be jeopardizing their client confidentiality, according to a recent federal suit filed by a Bethesda, Md., firm...Read More

5/21/2008, Report: Losing undocumented workers would cost trillions, by Brandi Grissom & Austin Bureau, El Paso Times
The U.S economy could lose nearly $1.8 trillion a year if undocumented workers left the country, according to a report released this week by a group of immigration reform proponents...Read More

5/21/2008, Senate Loads War-Funding Bill With Domestic Spending, Associated Press
President George W Bush's request to fund U.S. combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan until his successor can take over hit a rocky patch in the Senate on Tuesday...Read More

5/20/2008,Baby Steps Used for Immigration Bills, by Steven T. Dennis, Roll Call
Cheap labor and pretty faces are always in demand, and Members of Congress want to deliver...Read More

5/20/2008, Businesses feel effects of work visa cap, by Summer Harlow, The News Journal
Al Parker misses his Mexican workers All honest, hardworking and quick learners, they did the paving and excavating work in half the time it takes most U.S. workers to do the same job, said Parker, who owns A. Parker Paving Inc., in Sussex County...Read More

5/20/2008, Female farmworkers at risk, Los Angeles Times (Editorial)
When the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld an award of almost $1 million to a farmworker whose supervisor had raped her, farmworker advocates celebrated from the lettuce fields of California to the orange groves of Florida. According to the sexual harassment and retaliation suit filed against Harris Farms, a Fresno County agricultural giant, Olivia Tamayo's supervisor raped her three times...Read More

5/19/2008, A Compromised Judiciary, AILA InfoNet Doc. No. 08051960 (posted May. 19, 2008)"
In a troubling turn of events, it appears that the Federal judiciary has become complicit in an effort to deprive employees of an Iowa meat packing plant of their basic rights. The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) calls upon the court system and the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to restore due process and maintain the presumption of innocence...Read More

5/16/2008, Senate Appropriations Committee Adds Immigration Amendments to Supplemental War Bill, AILA InfoNet Doc. No. 08051661
On 05-15-08, the Senate Appropriations Committee held a mark-up session for the emergency war supplemental bill. Among the various amendments added to the bill were several immigration-related measures which passed...Read More

5/15/2008, E-Verify and Arizona: A Rough Road Ahead for Employers, Employees, and the Economy, Immigration Policy Center
On January 1, 2008 the Legal Arizona Workers Act went into effect, which requires all employers in the state to enroll in and use the E-Verify system to verify the employment eligibility of all new hires...Read More

5/15/2008, Immigration reform: When there's no one to harvest the crops, by Mark Kimble, Tucson Citizen
Citing the lack of a guest worker program, S. Arizona farmers let acres sit fallow...Read More

5/15/2008, Alleged smugglers sexually assaulted immigrants, officials say, by Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times
An immigrant discovered in a South Los Angeles drop house Wednesday told authorities she was impregnated by one of the smugglers, and witnesses reported that several other women were sexually assaulted, immigration officials said today...Read More

5/15/2008, Deportation of Wis. eighth-grader reveals immigration policy's painful side to class, by Sam Lucero, The Compass News
Students at St. Bernard School learned about the painful realities of illegal immigration recently when one of their classmates was deported to Mexico...Read More

5/15/2008, Guest-worker legislation slipped into Iraq spending bill, by Carolyn Lochhead, San Francisco Chronicle
Two of California's most immigrant-dependent industries — agriculture and Silicon Valley — are pushing narrow measures through Congress in an effort to get foreign workers at opposite ends of the labor market, people who pick vegetables and the post graduate engineers and scientists of Silicon Valley...Read More

5/14/2008, North Carolina bans illegal immigrants from community colleges, McClatchy newspapers
North Carolina community colleges yesterday banned illegal immigrants from seeking degrees, creating a new policy that is among the most restrictive in the US...Read More

5/14/2008, Obama needs to be cautious with Latinos, by Gebe Martinez, The Politicio
When Barack Obama strolled over to the “barrio” last week, he took a calculated risk...Read More

5/13/2008, Hundreds arrested in immigration raid at Postville plant, by Henry C. Jackson, Associated Press
Federal Immigration agents on Monday arrested more than 300 people in Postville during a raid at the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant...Read More

5/12/2008, ICE and DOJ joint enforcement action at Iowa meatpacking plant, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents executed a criminal search warrant this morning at Agriprocessors, Inc., in Postville, Iowa, for evidence relating to aggravated identity theft, fraudulent use of Social Security numbers and other crimes, as well as a civil search warrant for people illegally in the United States. The announcement was made by United States Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa Matt M. Dummermuth and ICE Special Agent in Charge Claude Arnold...Read More

5/8/2008, The Social Security Administration No-Match Program: Inefficient, Ineffective, and Costly, by Marielena Hincapié, Tyler Moran, and Michele Waslin, Immigration Policy Center
Today the Immigration Policy Center unveils a new report entitled The Social Security Administration No-Match Program: Inefficient, Ineffective, and Costly. Co-authored by Marielena Hincapié and Tyler Moran of the National Immigration Law Center and Michele Waslin of IPC, this new paper provides the most comprehensive analysis of the no-match program and the Administration's new proposed regulations to use the program as an immigration enforcement mechanism. The new report is "one-stop shopping" for the most up-to-date research and data, including government...Read More

5/5/2008, On the Eve of an EVVS Hearing: What Should We Be Listening For?, Immigration Policy Center
This week, the House Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing on electronic employment verification systems (EEVS) -- Washington's latest magic potion for dealing with the nation's broken immigration system...Read More

5/4/2008, Who Will Tell the People?, by Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times
Traveling the country these past five months while writing a book, I've had my own opportunity to take the pulse, far from the campaign crowds. My own totally unscientific polling has left me feeling that if there is one overwhelming hunger in our country today it's this: People want to do nation-building. They really do. But they want to do nation-building in America...Read More

5/2/2008, Census: Hispanics largest ethnic group, by Jennifer Harper, Washington Times
Hispanics remain the largest ethnic group in the nation with their numbers approaching 46 million, or more than 15 percent of the population, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released yesterday. Blacks total close to 41 million and Asians more than 15 million...Read More

5/1/2008, Business joins May Day reform cry in L.A., by Teresa Watanabe And Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times
As thousands of immigrant workers and their supporters prepared to march through downtown Los Angeles today, some powerful new allies -- business leaders -- will be joining the call for an end to blanket immigration raids on work sites...Read More

5/1/2008, ELECTION 2008: North Carolina - The Importance of Latinos and Immigrants to the Economy and Electorate of the "Tar Heel State" New Numbers for North Carolina New Numbers for IPC, Press Release, Immigration Policy Center
In anticipation of the North Carolina primary on March 6, 2008, the Immigration Policy Center presents ELECTION 2008: North Carolina. The Importance of Latinos and Immigrants to the Economy and Electorate of the 'Tar Heel State.'...Read More

4/30/2008, Raid unraveled lives and deflated dreams, by James Pinkerton, Houston Chronicle
He was too immersed in his early morning routine at work to be alarmed by the chopper's spotlight piercing the darkness above him. It wasn't until he heard a co-worker's frantic words that Gilberto Lopez Gonzalez knew something terrifying loomed...Read More

4/30/2008, Nuñez denounces ICE raids on businesses, by Tiffany Hsu, Los Angeles Times
Decrying what he called the federal government's "overboard meat-ax approach," California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez joined executives of American Apparel Inc. on Tuesday to condemn escalating raids on businesses to look for undocumented workers...Read More

4/28/2008, STATE BAR SHUTS DOWN ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION PRACTICE, State Bar of California
In a coordinated effort with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, The State Bar of California today shut down operations of RZ Services, Inc. in Montebello, which had been providing immigration legal services without a law license...Read More

4/28/2008, Work is Criminal for Mississippi Undocumented, New America Media
On March 17, Mississippi Governor Hayley Barbour signed into law the farthest-reaching employer sanctions law of any on the books in the U.S....Read More

4/22/2008, U.S. to Insist That Travel Industry Get Fingerprints, by Spencer S. Hsu and Del Quentin Wilber, Washington Post
The U.S. government today will order commercial airlines and cruise lines to prepare to collect digital fingerprints of all foreigners before they depart the country under a security initiative that the industry has condemned as costly and burdensome...Read More

4/22/2008, 9th Circuit Upholds Border Agent’s Laptop Search, by Molly McDonough, ABA Journal
A federal appeals court panel ruled Monday that border agents didn't violate a traveler's rights when they searched his laptop, finding child porn in the process...Read More

4/21/2008, Lack of skilled workers will lead to fiscal crisis, experts say, by Teresa Watanabe
Los Angeles Times
With baby boomers preparing to retire as the best educated and most skilled workforce in U.S. history, a growing chorus of demographers and labor experts is raising concerns that workers in California and the nation lack the critical skills needed to replace them...Read More

4/21/2008, For Visas, The Demand Outstrips The Supply, by Pamela Constable, Washington Post
"Welcome to the United Nations!" says Roy Higgs as he ushers visitors into his architectural design firm in Baltimore, where more than half of the 125 employees are foreign-born...Read More

4/20/2008, Pope Speaks Up for Immigrants, Touching a Nerve, by Daniel J. Wakin & Julia Preston, New York Times
Even as he was flying to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of protecting immigrant families, not dividing them...Read More

4/20/2008, Migrants send less money back to Mexico, by Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times
The U.S. economic downturn and tightened border controls have begun to alter the rhythms of undocumented migrants who used to move back and forth with regularity, which has crimped the flow of money sent home to Mexico, one of the nation's main sources of foreign income...Read More

4/18/2008, Immigrant Troops Important To Military, by keith Morelli, The Tampa Tribune
Arturo Huerta-Cruz gave his life for a country he was still working to make his own.
Huerta-Cruz, a 23-year-old soldier from Clearwater who was killed Monday by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad, didn't enjoy all the rights and privileges of an American citizen...Read More

4/18/2008, Mexicans Get Less Aid From Migrants, by Manuel Roig-Franzia, Washington Post
The effects of the subprime mortgage crisis and the downturn in the U.S. economy have cascaded into Mexico, causing a sudden, precipitous drop in the flow of money sent home by Mexican immigrants and highlighting this country's dependence on its wealthier northern neighbor...Read More

4/18/2008, Tally of those arrested in immigration raids at Pilgrim's Pride plants climbs to 311, by Dianne Solís and Stella M. Chávez, The Dallas Morning News
The tally of those arrested at Pilgrim's Pride poultry plants on various immigration-related offenses climbed Thursday to 311. Workers at Pilgrim's Pride, one of the world's largest poultry processors, have been the target of a criminal investigation into identity theft for at least a year, and Wednesday, workers employed at five plants, including Mount Pleasant operations, were arrested by federal immigration agents...Read More

4/17/2008, Subject: Fabian Núñez, Assembly Members Call on Chertoff to Halt Unconstitutional Raids
Click here to read letter.

4/17/2008, Immigration Laws Hit Businesses Hardest, by Suzanne Manneh, New America Media
Legislation meant to crack down on undocumented immigrants will have the greatest impact on businesses, activists asserted on Access Washington, a New America Media-sponsored conference call with ethnic media...Read More

4/17/2008, How Errors in Basic Pilot/E-Verify Databases Impact U.S. Citizens and Lawfully Present Immigrants, Immigration Policy Center
The Basic Pilot/E-Verify employment eligibility verification program is being sold as an easy fix that would curb unauthorized employment by undocumented immigrants. But state laws mandating businesses to use Basic Pilot/E-Verify, federal administrative efforts to expand the program, and congressional proposals to require its use by all employers entirely ignore the effect the program will have on U.S. citizens and lawfully present noncitizens...Read More

4/17/2008, Does the “SAVE Act” Save Anything? The Real Price of “SAVE”, Immigration Policy Center
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently released an estimate of the costs of the “Secure America Through Verification and Enforcement Act” (“SAVE Act,” HR 4088), and concluded that the “SAVE Act” would decrease federal revenues, increase government spending, and create an unfunded mandate for states and private employers...Read More

4/17/2008, Hispanic lawmakers join call for Arpaio investigation, by Scott Wong , Arizona Republic
Showing a unified front, Latino state lawmakers said Thursday they are backing Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon's call for a federal probe into Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's recent crime sweeps in Hispanic neighborhoods...Read More

4/16/2008, Department of Justice Joint Operation Targets Identity Theft at Poultry Process Plants in Five States, US Immigration & Customs Enforcement
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in coordination with the U.S.Department of Justice and an array of other local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, today arrested more than 280 foreign nationals employed at Pilgrim's Pride plants in five states who are suspected of committing identity theft and other criminal violations in order to obtain their jobs...Read More

4/16/2008, Nearly 300 arrested in immigration raids at poultry plants, by Anabelle Garay, Assiciated Press
Nearly 300 people were arrested Wednesday in immigration and identity theft raids at Pilgrim's Pride poultry plants in five states...Read More

4/15/2008, Crossing the Line? The economic price of Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigration, by Terry Greene Sterling, Newsweek
A year ago Roberto promised to pay a smuggler $1,400 for safe passage from the Mexican border to Arizona, where he heard there was plenty of work. After a punishing three-day trek through the desert, the 30-year-old Mexican citizen arrived in Phoenix and quickly obtained two jobs, one as a baker and one as a dishwasher. With his $580 weekly earnings, he paid off the smuggler and began sending money home to his wife and two children. He expected to live and work in Phoenix for years...Read More

4/14/2008, Drug violence in Mexico prompts travel advisory, by Marion Lloyd, Houston Chronicle
The U.S. State Department reissued a travel advisory for Mexico on Monday, warning Americans of increased drug-related violence and kidnappings, particularly in the embattled border region...Read More

4/12/2008, Citizens Twise as Likely to land in NJ Prisons as Legal, Illegal Immigrants, by Brian Donohue, The Star Ledger
Citizens twice as likely to land in NJ prisons as legal, illegal immigrants by Brian Donohue/The Star-Ledger Saturday April 12, 2008, 9:33 PM U.S. citizens are twice as likely to land in New Jersey's prisons as legal and illegal immigrants, according to new data that counter some of the most widely perceived notions about the link between immigration and crime...Read More

4/11/2008, Company ordered to stop selling licenses to immigrants, by R.G. Ratcliffe and James Pinkerton, Houston Chronicle
A state judge has issued a restraining order against a Houston-based business that sold international driver's licenses to unsuspecting Hispanic immigrants for $225 each with the promise they would allow them to drive legally...Read More

4/10/2008, At Tax Time, "Illegal Immigrants" are Paying Too, Associated Press
The tax system collects its due, even from a class of workers with little likelihood of claiming a refund and no hope of drawing a Social Security check...Read More

4/10/2008, Tenn. AG Says Pay Ban Illegal, by Erik Schelzig, Associated Press
A legislative proposal to make it a crime for illegal immigrants to accept pay for work done in Tennessee is unconstitutional, the state's attorney general said in a legal opinion released Wednesday...Read More

4/9/2008, Foe of anti-illegals law ousts mayor, United Press International
A veteran politician was ousted from the mayor's office Tuesday in Valley Park, Mo., in a race that was partly a referendum on illegal immigration...Read More

4/8/2008, CBO Score Of Shuler Bill Erects Pay/Go Barrier In House, by Fawn Johnson, Congress Daily
CBO has placed a 10-year, $23 billion price tag on an immigration enforcement bill sponsored by Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., that Republicans want to force to the House floor...Read More

4/7/2008, Dems Look To Contain Hot-Button Issue, by Fawn Johnson & Christian Bourge, Congress Daily
With congressional Democrats unable to come to terms on a comprehensive immigration bill, House Democratic leaders have hatched a plan to hold a series of hearings aimed at keeping control of the issue...Read More

4/4/2008, Letter from CBO Director Orszag to the Rep. Conyers on the Cost of Implementing the SAVE Act (H.R. 4088), by Peter Orszag, AILA Infonet
Click here to read letter

4/4/2008, The Consequences of Federal Failure: Raids' Impact on Families and Hate Groups On the Rise, Immigration Policy Center
Last summer's failure by the federal government to reform the nation's broken immigration system has had strong and lasting repercussions. The Administration's stepped up raids and door-to-door operations while not denting the overall size of the undocumented population is causing tremendous upheaval on the families and communities caught up in raids...Read More

4/2/2008, ERROR! Electronic Employment Verification Systems: What Will Happen When Citizens Have to Ask the Government For Permission to Work?, Immigration Policy Center
Many on Capitol Hill are eyeing favorably bills that create a massive electronic employment databases. While proponents of the Shuler-Tancredo "SAVE Act" (HR 4088) and the Johnson "New Employee Verification Act of 2008" (HR 5515) talk tough about cracking down on illegal immigrants, the truth is their bills' nationwide mandatory electronic employment verification system require all American workers, foreign- and native-born alike, to seek the government's permission to work...Read More

4/1/2008, MALDEF CALLS ON BUSH ADMINISTRATION TO SUSPEND LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OF IMMIGRATION LAWS AND INVESTIGATE CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATION IN ARKANSAS, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
Today, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), the nation’s leading Latino civil rights organization, called on Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff to suspend local law enforcement of immigration laws in the wake of the disturbing treatment of a Latina immigrant placed in a holding cell for 4 days without food, water or bathroom facilities in Arkansas...Read More

4/1/2008, The Immigrant Gap, by Matthew J. Slaughter, Wall Street Journal
April 1 is a critical day for immigration policy. Today, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) begins accepting new H1-B visa petitions for the next fiscal year...Read More

4/1/2008, Border fence will skirt environmental laws, by Nicole Gaouette, Los Angeles Times
In an aggressive move to finish building 670 miles of border fence by the end of this year, the Department of Homeland Security announced today that it will waive federal environmental laws to meet that goal...Read More

3/29/2008, 'No-match' regulation does not correspond to reality, by Bill Hammond, Telegram.com
What would you call a federal regulation that gives U.S. employers no choice but to fire workers if they are unable to resolve discrepancies over records kept by the Social Security Administration and the Social Security number submitted on an employee's Form W-2?...Read More

3/24/2008, NPR - This American Life - Widow Penalty Show This Week!
National Public Radio’s This American Life with Ira Glass will be talking about the widow penalty starting Friday! I encourage you to take a listen to the 30 second introductory trailer on This American Life’s website...Read More

3/24/2008, In visa dispute, businesses face summer worker gap, by Matthew Hay Brown, Baltimore Sun
With Congress at an impasse over visas for seasonal laborers, the owners of Eastern Shore businesses that have counted on foreign workers to pick crabs, wash dishes and can corn are bracing for a difficult summer ahead - with consequences that they warn will spread throughout the state economy...Read More

3/24/2008, Letter to the Editor, by H. Nolo Martinez, written to the Winston-Salem Journal
Those who reject illegal immigrants rally to study how much illegal immigrants cost. Scholars, reporters and interest groups have studied the costs and contributions of undocumented workers extensively. However, we have yet to enact immigration reform in the United States...Read More

3/23/2008, Stalwart Service for U.S. in Iraq Is Not Enough to Gain Green Card, by Karen DeYoung
Washington Post
During his nearly four years as a translator for U.S. forces in Iraq, Saman Kareem Ahmad was known for his bravery and hard work. "Sam put his life on the line with, and for, Coalition Forces on a daily basis," wrote Marine Capt. Trent A. Gibson...Read More

3/18/2008, Missouri treasurer misread illegal immigration study, by Kit Wagar, Kansas City Star
In her first big policy foray since jumping into the race for governor, Missouri Treasurer Sarah Steelman last week went after a familiar target — illegal immigrants...Read More

3/14/2008, Senate Passes FY09 Budget Resolution; Considers Immigration-Related Amendments, AILA InfoNet Doc. No. 08031442 (posted Mar. 14, 2008)
Early Friday, March 14, the Senate adopted its fiscal year 2009 budget resolution (S Con Res 70) after a 15-hour amendment marathon session. Though this resolution is based on non-binding budgetary assumptions and does not become law (therefore not requiring the President's signature), it is does require Congress stay within its limits and serves as a blueprint for the actual appropriations process...Read More

3/14/2008, Co. Farm Worker Bill May Be Scaled Back, by Colleen Slevin, Associated Press
A proposal to help farmers hire temporary workers from Mexico is running into more opposition at the state Capitol which could force it to be scaled back...Read More

3/14/2008, Top Immigration Official to Resign in April, by Julia Preston, New York Times
Emilio T. Gonzalez, the immigration official who promised to bring an ethos of corporate efficiency to the immigration bureaucracy but instead found his agency overwhelmed in record backlogs and delays, announced Thursday that he would resign on April 18...Read More

3/14/2008, Tennesseans get softer on illegal immigration, by Janell Ross, The Tennessean
More Tennesseans say they would support a path to legal employment and residency for illegal immigrants, a Middle Tennessee State University poll released this month revealed.
Nearly half polled — 47 percent — supported and 42 percent opposed the idea of a "guest worker" program. That's compared to the 50 percent who opposed such a program in last year's polling. This year, 63 percent polled said they would support a path to legal residency for guest workers, up from 54 percent...Read More

3/10/2008, Two attorneys at immigration law firm sentenced for roles in visa fraud scheme, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement
A name partner and an attorney at one of the West Coast’s largest immigration law firms were sentenced today for filing fraudulent employment visa applications on behalf of foreign nationals, including more than a dozen of the law firm’s own workers...Read More

3/6/2008, Tennessee Attorney General Sues To Stop Alleged Unauthorized Practice of Law By Individual and Company in Middle Tennessee Immigrant Community, Office of the Attorney General Robert E. Cooper, Jr. & Department of Commerce and Insurance Commissioner Leslie Newman
Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper, acting on behalf of the Division of Consumer Affairs, filed a civil law enforcement action against a Middle Tennessee man for allegedly providing legal services without a license to members of the Hispanic immigrant community...Read More

3/5/2008, GOP senators to introduce toughest-yet immigration package, by Nicole Gaouette, Los Angeles Times
Senate Republicans are set to announce today the hardest-hitting package of immigration enforcement measures seen yet -- one that would require jail time for illegal immigrants caught crossing the border, make it harder for them to open bank accounts and compel them to communicate in English when dealing with federal agencies...Read More


2/29/2008, New Immigration Reform Proposal Being Prepared, by Jim Forsyth, WOAI
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus says it is prepared to introduce a new immigration reform bill later this year which will confront Congress with the tricky issue of legal residency for 12 million undocumented workers in the middle of an election season, 1200 WOAI news reports...Read More

2/27/2008, Coming to America, by Bernd Debusmann, Reuters
The United States has been displaced by China as the world's third most-visited country. In 2007, overseas visitors to the U.S. numbered 23.2 million, 11 percent fewer than in 2000. Visits from Britain, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Brazil are all still down....Read More

2/27/2008, Bush Administration Outlines Plans for Stepping Up Immigration Enforcement, by Bill Leonard, Society for Human Resource Management
The Bush administration has announced plans to stiffen and revise its worksite enforcement rules to catch and punish employers that knowingly hire undocumented immigrants. U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff held a joint press briefing on Feb. 22, 2008, to announce several new initiatives to step up the enforcement of federal immigration laws. Chertoff told reporters that the failure of Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform had forced the administration to act...Read More

2/26/2008, Study finds immigrants commit less California crime, Reuters
Immigrants are far less likely than the average U.S.-born citizen to commit crime in California, the most populous state in the United States, according to a report issued late on Monday...Read More

2/26/2008, House panel urges faster deportation of jailed illegal immigrants, by Chris Strohm, CongressDaily
In their first budget hearing of this year, members of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Tuesday demanded that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau give much higher priority to the deportation of criminal illegal immigrants held in U.S. jails and behaving more humanely in conducting operations...Read More

2/26/2008, Immigration Agency Accused of Illegal Searches, by N.C. Aizenman, Washington Post
A privately convened commission of labor and immigrant advocates held the first of several planned nationwide hearings yesterday to publicize allegations that U.S. immigration officials routinely violate constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure during workplace raids...Read More

2/26/2008, Study: Incarceration rate lower for immigrants, by Jill Tucker, San Francisco Chronicle
Immigrants in California are far less likely to land in prison than their U.S.-born counterparts, a finding that defies the perception that immigration and crime are connected, according to a study released Monday...Read More

2/25/2008, Immigration debate snares seasonal businesses, by Andy Sullivan, Reuters
John Graham's crab company has held its own for 65 years as the local catch has dwindled and cheap Chinese crabmeat filled the supermarkets. It might not survive the immigration debate in the U.S. Congress...Read More

2/24/2008, Op-Ed: State looks unsophisticated in license flap, by Jack Lessenberr, Traverse City Record-Eagle
Nobody doubts that Michigan, the state with the worst unemployment rate in the nation, badly needs jobs. Gov. Jennifer Granholm has proven she is perfectly willing to dash to the airport and fly off to Germany or Bhutan if she thinks there's a reasonable chance of bringing back even 100 jobs...Read More

2/22/2008, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey Announces Higher Civil Fines Against Employers for Immigration Violation, U.S. Department of Justice
Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey today announced higher civil fines against employers who violate federal immigration laws. The announcement was made in a joint briefing today with Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff about newly enacted border security reforms put in place by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security...Read More

2/22/2008, Obama, Clinton would consider suspending immigration raids, by Eunice Moscoso, Statesman.com
During a Democratic presidential debate in Austin, Texas, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton said they would consider suspending work site immigration raids until Congress passes an immigration overhaul which includes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants...Read More

2/21/2008, GOP lobbyist had no work permit, by Lance Williams,Carla Marinucci, San Francisco Chronicle
A former California Republican Party official who resigned last year in a controversy over his immigration status had no valid visa or work permit during his high-profile career as a Washington lobbyist for conservative icon Grover Norquist, newly filed court records show...Read More

2/20/2008, Courts unable to keep up with border arrests, by Sean Holstege, The Arizona Republic
The government has started cracking down on illegal border crossers in the Tucson Sector. But limited resources in Arizona's federal-court system are blocking the goal of prosecuting everyone who enters the country illegally...Read More

2/20/2008, Pew Hispanic Center Releases Fact Sheets on Latino Electorate in Texas, Hawaii, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, Pew Hispanic Center
The Pew Hispanic Center today released fact sheets on the demographics of Hispanic eligible voters in the states of Texas, Hawaii, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. Each state fact sheet contains data on size and social and economic characteristics of the Hispanic and non-Hispanic eligible voter populations....Read More

2/19/2008, U.S. set to avert mass Cuban migration, by Tom Brown, Reuters
U.S. authorities are set to prevent Cubans from flooding toward the United States if Fidel Castro's retirement triggers any attempt at a mass migration from the communist-ruled island, authorities said on Tuesday...Read More

2/18/2008, $280 means a ride, assistance and a visa, by Purva Patel, Houston Chronicle
Amid the stream of Indians, Germans and other foreign workers passing through his border hometown needing help getting to the U.S. Consulate in Matamoros for work visas, Mark Lehmann saw a business opportunity in the making...Read More

2/18/2008, Student's deportation roils New Mexico town, Los Angeles Times
This conservative city on the barren eastern plains of New Mexico long had been spared the acrimonious debates over illegal immigration that have racked so much of the Southwest. That is, until December, when immigration enforcement entered the murky terrain of the local high school...Read More

2/17/2008, More illegal immigrants are rushing to file taxes, by Maria Sacchetti, Boston Globe
Illegal immigrants are pouring into tax-preparation offices and nonprofit agencies across Massachusetts and the nation to file state and federal income taxes, taking a step that some might deem unthinkable: giving their name, address, and financial information to the government...Read More

2/17/2008, Citizenship Blues, New York Times
Three bits of news from the first two months of 2008 highlight the galling inconsistency and inadequacy of the federal government’s system for turning immigrants into citizens.
The first is that the wait for citizenship and green cards is up — way up. Citizenship and Immigration Services reported in January that the average time to process a citizenship application had risen to 18 months, from seven, and that green cards would now take a year, instead of six months or less...Read More

2/15/2008, Nevada School District Agrees To Allow Students To Speak Spanish On Bus, American Civil Liberties Union
After receiving a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Esmeralda County School District has agreed to make it clear that students are allowed to speak Spanish while they ride the school bus and will send a letter to parents - in both Spanish and English - explaining the district’s language policy. The new policy rescinds a ban on speaking Spanish on the bus that was approved by the Esmeralda County School Board in October 2007...Read More

2/15/2008, Illegals found to pay $400 million in taxes, by Dena Potter, Associated Press
Illegal aliens contribute an estimated $400 million to Virginia's economy annually in taxes, according to a study released yesterday by a group hoping to counter some illegal-alien criticism in the legislature...Read More

2/13/2008, Seasonal Struggle, Associated Press
The bitter standoff in Congress over immigration reform is hitting home in ski country this winter. Vermont's Stowe Mountain Resort, for example, usually relies on about two dozen seasonal foreign workers as ski instructors. Not this year. Stowe had to do "heavy duty recruiting" for its ski school, including a first-ever hiring clinic in January, said human resources director Julie Frailey...Read More

2/13/2008, Wife of deployed Marine faces battle at home, by Edward Sifuentes, NCTimes.com
Immigration struggles could mean having to leave the country. This should be a happy time for Denisse Harris. The 20-year-old wife of a Marine deployed to Iraq is expecting her husband's return to Camp Pendleton this week. But her mind is preoccupied with the possibility that she could be deported to her native Mexico, she said...Read More

2/13/2008, American Samoan baby dies after customs holdup in Honolulu airport, by Greg Small, Associated Press
The mother of a 2-week-old boy said her son would be alive today if they and his traveling nurse hadn't been held up at Honolulu International Airport by customs personnel...Read More

2/12/2008, U.S. farmers short on migrant workers move to Mexico, by Mica Rosenberg, Reuters
Like other California vegetable growers, Larry Cox oversees hundreds of Mexican farm workers picking green onions, asparagus and cauliflower in the fertile Colorado River valley. But this farm is not in California, where illegal immigration raids are causing labor shortages and strict environmental regulations are increasing costs...Read More

2/12/2008, Lesson: immigration is a dud issue, by David Hill, The Hill.com
Many Republican pollsters and strategists have a blind spot on immigration. Yes, immigration often shows up as a top concern when we ask the “most important issue” question.But is it really salient to voters? Or are they just paying lip service to an issue they feel obligated to salute because of conservative media attention? After all, Rush talks about it. Hannity obsesses over it. Fox News is on top of it constantly. So a lot of conservatives and even independents feel obligated to affirm the issue’s importance. But does it control their votes like fiscal or moral issues might? I say not...Read More

2/12/2008, Federal Court Ends County Official's Policy Of Denying Marriage Licenses Based On Immigration Status, American Civil Liberties Union
A federal court in Pennsylvania yesterday approved a consent order ending a Luzerne County official's policy of denying marriage licenses based upon applicants’ immigration status. The order, issued in the case of Buck v. Stankovic, makes permanent a previous court ruling holding that the Luzerne County Register of Wills violated the constitutional rights of marriage license applicants by requiring that they show a green card or current visa in order to obtain a license...Read More

2/12/2008, Arizona Seeing Signs of Flight by Immigrants, by Randal C. Archibold, New York Times
The signs of flight among Latino immigrants here are multiple: Families moving out of apartment complexes, schools reporting enrollment drops, business owners complaining about fewer clients...Read More

2/11/2008, Immigration Moves Eyed, by Steven T. Dennis, Roll Call
House Democrats are crafting scaled-down immigration reform legislation despite the political minefields that surround the issue, with Hispanic Members seeking five-year visas for illegal immigrants who pay fines and pass criminal background checks...Read More

2/11/2008, Igniting A Latino Groundswell, by Andres Oppenheimer, Courant.com
Get ready for a tsunami of Hispanic votes in November's general election: If Super Tuesday primary results were any indication, angry Latino voters will flood the polls, energized by what many see as a growing anti-immigrant sentiment in the country...Read More

2/10/2008, Officers hobbled in alien policing, February 10, 2008, by Matthew Barakat
The decision to give Prince William County police officers federal training on handling illegal aliens was perceived as one of the toughest crackdowns on illegals in the country, but more than 500 of the officers are learning they can do little to confront the problem directly...Read More

2/8/2008, ICE executes federal search warrant at Van Nuys, Calif., manufacturing plant in ongoing probe, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents executed a federal search warrant yesterday afternoon at a Los Angeles-area computer printer cartridge manufacturing plant, arresting eight current and former company workers on criminal charges and another 130 employees on administrative immigration violations...Read More

2/6/2008, Mich.: Immigrant Driver Bill Passes, by Tim Martin, Associated Press
The state Senate took a step Wednesday toward allowing legal immigrants to resume getting driver's licenses in Michigan.The Republican-led chamber approved by a 28-9 vote a bill that would allow legal immigrants to get temporary licenses. Some Democrats voted against the measure because it has become embroiled in a broader debate about whether the state should quickly comply with measures of the federal Real ID Act...Read More

2/6/2008, Hispanics boost Clinton in California, by Juliet Williams, Associated Press
Hillary Rodham Clinton rode a wave of Hispanic voter turnout to victory and John McCain benefited from voters concerned about the economy and Iraq as the nation's most populous state wielded its influence in the presidential nominating process for the first time in decades...Read More

2/4/2008, Rich illegal immigrants in U.S. hide in shadows, by John Buchanan, Reuters
Many illegal immigrants in the United States are manual laborers on low wages. But there's another group that attracts much less attention: entrepreneurs who have set up businesses, created jobs and grown affluent...Read More

2/5/2008, Immigration Misfire, by Rosa Rosales, Wall Street Journal
Political pundits used to maintain that the American electorate was galvanized around the issue of illegal immigration. Voters, they claimed, would punish any candidate who failed to take a tough stance on immigrants and did not adamantly oppose the "A" word -- Amnesty -- in all its tortured definitions...Read More

1/30/2008, McCain and the Failure of Anti-Immigrant Politics, by Nathan Newman, TPM Café
Immigration was the issue that many on the Right-- especially panderers like Romney -- thought would define the 2008 elections. And it was the issue that was supposed to help doom McCain among GOP voters. Instead, it was the issue that in the end probably killed Romney's last hope of getting the nomination. And the GOP will likely nominate one of the key authors of the supposedly hated comprehensive immigration reform legislation...Read More

1/30/2008, Where Is 'The Back of The Line'?, by Luis Rumbaut, The Washington Independent
Republican presidential hopefuls Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney agreed on at least one thing at the California debate Wednesday night: the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States need to go to the "back of the line" if they want to become American citizens...Read More

1/29/2008, Citizenship backlog to curb Latino vote, by Dianne Solis, Dallas Morning News
The unprecedented 1.4 million surge in U.S. citizenship applicants won't translate into an equal number of new voters come November's presidential election because of a processing backlog. But U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials said Monday that the agency is hiring more staff and pressing the FBI for more efficient background checks and that delays of weeks just to open mail are behind them...Read More

1/28/2008, Obama takes big risk on driver's license issue, byCarolyn Lochhead, San Francisco Chronicle
Sen. Barack Obama easily won the African American vote in South Carolina, but to woo California Latinos, where he is running 3-to-1 behind rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, he is taking a giant risk: spotlighting his support for the red-hot issue of granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants...Read More

1/28/2008, Clinton Irks Immigrants' Advocates, by Josh Gerstein, New York Sun
Immigrant-rights advocates and some Latino leaders are voicing concern at Senator Clinton's campaign-trail rhetoric about swiftly deporting immigrants with a criminal past. A vow to give the boot to criminal aliens has become an almost daily part of the New York senator's presidential campaign spiel on overhauling the immigration system...Read More

1/26/2007, 'Hispanic panic' as Arizona immigration crackdown bites, by Scott Seckel, AFP
One month after Arizona introduced a law cracking down on businesses which employ illegal immigrants, Latino workers are fleeing the state and companies are laying off employees in droves, officials and activists say.
Arizona has become one of the frontlines of the US immigration debate and broke new ground on January 1 with a law that threatens to put of business companies which knowingly hire undocumented workers...Read More

1/23/2008, 2008 Federal Poverty Guidelines
On January 23, 2008, the Department of Health and Human Services published the updated poverty income guidelines for 2008. These guidelines determine financial eligibility for certain public benefit programs, in addition to serving other purposes...Read More

1/23/2008, Farmers Branch bans illegal immigrants from renting houses, by Stephany Sandovol, The Dallas Morning News
City officials whose previous attempts to keep out illegal immigrants have been blocked by the courts took another shot Tuesday, adopting an ordinance that would not only ban them from renting apartments but also from renting houses....Read More

1/22/2008, ID Rules To Change For Canada Crossings, by Spencer Hsu, Washington Post
Defying Congress, the Department of Homeland Security is pushing to tighten identification requirements at U.S. land borders starting Jan. 31, when it no longer will allow Americans or Canadians to enter the country by presenting a driver's license or declaring their citizenship...Read More

1/20/2008, Mount Rainier Council to Vote On Becoming 'Sanctuary' City, by Jackie Spinner, Washington Post
The tiny city of Mount Rainier is considering whether to declare itself a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, entering a regional and national debate over enforcement of immigration law. If the City Council approves the proposal, the eclectic city of 9,000 in Prince George's County will join nearby Takoma Park in prohibiting police officers and city workers from checking the immigration status of residents or reporting those who lack legal residency documents to federal immigration authorities. Takoma Park has been a "sanctuary" city since 1985...Read More

1/14/2008, MATT.org Develops New Immigration TV Ad, Business Group in Virginia Airs it on CNN, MATT.org
On Tuesday, November 6, 2007 a powerful new television ad on immigration policy, produced by Mexicans & Americans Thinking Together (MATT.org), hit the airwaves in northern Virginia with some spots airing during CNN’s "Lou Dobbs Tonight" show, a program known for the host’s outspokenness and conservative views on immigration policy...Read More

1/14/2008, Author says U.S. should learn immigration lessons of a century ago, by Anastasia Ustinova, San Francisco Chronicle
With the heated debate over undocumented workers poised to take center stage in the November election, a historian who researched the ethnic cleansing of Chinese Americans cautions against repeating the dark chapter of the American history...Read More

1/13/2008, Five myths of anti-immigration talk, by Andres Oppenheimer, Miami Herald
It's time to debunk the biggest myths of the antiimmigration movement that has swept this country over the past two years, and may still have an impact on the 2008 presidential race: that they are not anti-Hispanic nor oppose legal immigration, but are only against ''illegal'' immigration...Read More

1/12/2008, San Diego Minutemen adopt a freeway, by Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times
The Knights of Columbus have adopted a highway. So have the Japanese American Citizens League, biker groups, Indian casinos and the International House of Pancakes. Now add the San Diego Minutemen. Caltrans has granted an Adopt-A-Highway stretch of Interstate 5 to the ardent foes of illegal immigration -- and not just any stretch. The two miles of freeway the Minutemen will be charged with beautifying include the U.S. Border Patrol Checkpoint near San Clemente...Read More

1/10/2008, Businesses Face Seasonal Worker Shortages as Visa Cap Is Reached, by Caitlin Webber, CQ Today
Representatives of industries that rely on seasonal workers say they are facing a critical and imminent labor shortage because Congress last year failed to extend an exemption to the ceiling on a specific type of temporary work visa...Read More

1/10/2008, Anti-immigration strategy fails, by Andres Oppenheimer, Miami Herald
Here are the three things that I found most interesting about Tuesday's New Hampshire primary in which Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton and Republican Sen. John McCain won upset victories that threw the 2008 presidential race into uncharted territory...Read More

1/9/2008, Illegal immigrants cost state $1.4B in lower wages, report says, by Ronald J. Hansen, The Arizona Republic
Illegal immigrants cost Arizonans at least $1.4 billion in lower wages in 2005, a prominent Harvard labor economist estimates in a report released this week.The report by George Borjas is the latest academic attempt to quantify the impact of illegal immigrants on the Arizona economy. It offered not-so-subtle criticism of a University of Arizona report last summer that found illegal workers overall made a slight positive economic contribution to the state...Read More

1/6/2008, 2007 DMN Texan of the Year: The Illegal Immigrant, Dallas Morning News
Dallas Morning News has chosen the illegal immigrant to be 2007 Texan of the Year, saying "He is at the heart of a great culture war in Texas - and the nation, credited with bringing us prosperity and blamed for abusing our resources. How should we deal with this stranger among us? He breaks the law by his very presence. He hustles to do hard work many Americans won't, at least not at the low wages he accepts. The American consumer
economy depends on him. America as we have known it for generations may not survive him."...Read More

12/20/2007, Tancredo Drops Out, Endorses Romney, by Jason Pulliam, Des Moines Register
U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo announced today he's ending his long-shot bid for the White House. The Colorado Republican made his exit from the race official at a press conference this afternoon in downtown Des Moines. He'll throw his support behind GOP candidate Mitt Romney, he said...Read More

12/18/2007, Mother detained at Oakland elementary school by immigration, by Katy Murphy, Oakland Tribune
Immigration agents detained a pregnant mother Tuesday morning at an East Oakland elementary school. The woman's frightened 6-year-old daughter was told to go to class as her mother was led away for questioning, according to staff at Melrose Bridges Academy...Read More

12/18/2007, Blazing Arizona, New York Times Editorial
On Jan. 1, Arizona intends to become the first state to try to muscle its way out of its immigration problems on its own. That is when, barring a last-minute setback in court, it is to begin enforcing a new state law that harshly punishes businesses that knowingly hire undocumented immigrants. It is a two-strike law, suspending a business’s license on the first offense and revoking it on the second. It is the strictest workplace-enforcement law in the country...Read More

12/18/2007, When Anti-Immigrant Is Anti-Business, by Moira Herbst, Business Week
Mark Gould has been a lifelong Republican. The self-described libertarian and president of Gould Construction in Glenwood Springs, Colo., has been a registered Republican for 30 years, and he served a six-year stint as the chairman of his county's Republican Party. But Gould is a Republican no longer. Exasperated over the GOP's increasingly harsh rhetoric about restricting immigration, Gould switched his registration to Independent two weeks ago...Read More

12/14/2007, Tijuana enclave feels sting of escalating border strife, by Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times
In an escalation of clashes between U.S. Border Patrol agents and rock-throwing smugglers, agents have begun launching pepper spray and tear gas into densely populated Mexican border neighborhoods, according to witnesses, Mexican authorities and human rights groups...Read More

12/13/2007, Hire an Illegal Worker, Lose Your Business, by Jane Sasseen, Business Week
In the 20-plus years since starting out as a cook, Jason LeVecke has built up one of the biggest restaurant chains in Arizona. He now boasts 1,200 employees manning 57 Carl's Jr.s across the state--ten of them added this year alone. But on Jan. 1, a new law takes effect in Arizona that would severely punish businesses caught hiring illegal immigrants. So LeVecke is looking for growth outside his home state, and will build 25 new restaurants in Texas. Unless the legal situation improves, he says: "We won't add any new sites in Arizona. It's too great a risk."....Read More

12/13/2007, The Immigration Swamp, The Washington Post
THE IDEA that 12 million illegal residents of the United States can be induced to quit the country en masse within four months is absurd on its face -- a non-starter in logistical, humanitarian, political, diplomatic, commercial and economic terms that would leave an indelible stain on this country for years. Yet that is the wrathful centerpiece of Mike Huckabee's "Secure America Plan," which the Republican presidential candidate issued the other day in the course of his party's escalating enthusiasm for nastier-than-thou prescriptions to deal with illegal immigrants....Read More

12/13/2007, Non-Immigrant Visa Fees to Increase World-wide on January 1, 2008, US Embassy, Mexico
On January 1, 2008, the fee to apply for any non-immigrant visa to enter the United States, including tourist, business, student and other visas, will increase to $131 dollars world-wide. This same fee increase will also apply to Border Crossing Cards (commonly known as “Laser Visas”) for applicants in Mexico. Mexican nationals under the age of 15 applying in Mexico for a tourist visa or border crossing card will continue to have the option to pay an application fee of $13.00 for a visa that will not extend past their 15th birthday...Read More

12/13/2007, Suit Accuses Ariz. County of Profiling, Associated Press
A Mexican citizen who is legally in the United States has sued the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, claiming its aggressive immigration enforcement has led to racial profiling...Read More

12/12/2007, Civil Rights Coalition Files New Lawsuit Challenging Arizona Employer Sanctions Law,
American Civil Liberties Union
A coalition of civil rights groups filed a new lawsuit in a Phoenix federal court today charging that the so-called Legal Arizona Workers Act unlawfully requires businesses to participate in a flawed work authorization verification database, lacks due process protections, improperly threatens businesses with a “business death penalty” that interferes with federal law, and would lead to discrimination against workers who are perceived as being foreign born...Read More

12/10/2007, U.S. agency looks at eliminating old green cards, by Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is considering a proposal to eliminate hundreds of thousands of green cards issued years ago without expiration dates, a move that would help the agency track down individuals who have committed crimes and might be eligible for deportation...Read More

12/10/2007, HR Initiative Urges Continued Challenge to Arizona Employment Verification Law, HR Initiative for a Legal Workforce
The Human Resource Initiative for a Legal Workforce today urged continued pursuit of a legal challenge to a new Arizona law requiring all employers to use the federal employment verification system known as “Basic Pilot” (also known as “E-Verify”). The case was dismissed on Friday by the U.S District Court for Arizona on procedural grounds...Read More

12/9/2007, Employer sanctions foes want start delayed, by Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services
Running out of time, groups challenging the new employer sanctions law said Saturday they will ask a federal judge to temporarily block the state from enforcing the measure until they get another day in court. David Selden, lead attorney for businesses seeking to void the law, said foes of the law decided Saturday to refile the case. The decision came one day after U.S. District Court Judge Neil Wake threw out the case - at least in part because Selden's clients did not sue the right people...Read More

12/8/2007, Judge tosses lawsuit vs. employer-sanctions law, by Mary Jo Pitzl, The Arizona Republic
A federal judge late Friday tossed out the lawsuit challenging Arizona's employer-sanctions law, setting the stage for a quick second round of legal action before Jan. 1, when the law is set to take effect...Read More

12/7/2007, Mexican national wins new chance to fight deportation, by Henry Weinstein, Los Angeles Times
A federal appeals court in San Francisco on Thursday excoriated a federal immigration judge and a Los Angeles lawyer for their conduct during a deportation hearing in 2003. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals accused Judge Thomas Y.K. Fong in Los Angeles of "badgering" Jorge Mario Mendoza Mazariegos during the hearing and said that the judge had, in effect, forced the Mexican national to proceed without a lawyer after his attorney, Steven S. Paek, "deserted" him...Read More

12/7/2007, El origen mexicano del republicano Mitt Romney, por José Ángel Gutiérrez, Diario La Estrella
Sí, el candidato republicano Mitt Romney para la Presidencia de EU es mexicano por el lado de su padre, George. El viejo Romney nació en la Colonia Dublan, Galeana, Chihuahua el 8 de julio de 1907. La historia de los mormones de Utah y México está ligada como uña y carne...Lea Más

12/6/2007, Remember Manuel Cordova, Arizona Republic
Illegal immigrant...Fighting words...Unwelcome people...But people, nonetheless.
The act of one of those people on Thanksgiving Day saved a little boy's life...Read More

12/6/2007, Pew Hispanic Center Releases Report on Hispanics and the 2008 Election
The gains that the Republican Party had been making this decade in partisan affiliation among Latinos have dissipated in the past year, according to a new Pew Hispanic Center survey of Latino registered voters. The Democratic-over-Republican partisan affiliation edge (identifiers and leaners included), which had been 33 percentage points in 1999, then fell to 21 percentage points by 2006, is now back up to 34 percentage points...Read More

12/5/2007, U.S. Gets Tougher on Illeagal Hiring, by Nicole Gaouette, Los Angeles Times
The Bush administration on Tuesday ratcheted up its effort to crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants, part of a broader attempt to deal with immigration and enforcement despite legal challenges and congressional inaction...Read More

12/4/2007, Phoenix Mayor Shifts on Officers’ Asking for Immigration Status, by Randal C. Archibold, New York Times
Under pressure from advocates for stricter immigration laws, the mayor of Phoenix said on Monday that he no longer backed a Police Department order barring officers from routinely asking the immigration status of people it arrested and announced a panel to study a policy change...Read More

12/4/2007, Groups Sue to Stop Excessive Citizenship Delays, NILC Press Release
Many immigrants who have satisfied the requirements to become U.S. citizens are left in limbo for months or years due to slow processing of FBI name checks, according to a class-action lawsuit to be filed in federal court. The delays violate time limits in the law that are meant to reduce naturalization backlogs while ensuring national security...Read More

12/4/2007, Statement by President Lancaster, NC Community Colleges on the NC Community College Systems Admission Policy for Undocumented Immigrants
Since 1958 when the first Industrial Education Center (the predecessor to the community colleges) was established, community colleges have had an open-door policy. This has meant from day one that anyone, without regard to educational background or attainment, race or ethnicity, social or economic standing, would be admitted to benefit from our programs. Our primary mission has been taking persons from wherever they are personally or educationally and helping them go as far as they can go. When questions were raised about a handful of colleges having policies which excluded some students based on immigration status, I asked our General Counsel, David Sullivan to research our policies and the law...Read More

11/29/2007, Immigrant Advocates Coach on Avoiding Arrest, by Jennifer Ludden, NPR--Morning Edition
In the past two years, the immigration agency has dramatically stepped up arrests of illegal immigrants in workplaces and in their homes. In response, immigrant rights advocates have been holding "know your rights" seminars that coach people on how to avoid arrest...Read More

11/29/2007, Identification test for citizenship shot down, by Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News
A plan for police to routinely ask stopped drivers for proof they're American citizens -- or are legally visiting the United States -- died this week when it came before the Anchorage Assembly. Assemblyman Paul Bauer had pitched the idea, which he said would pull Anchorage from a list of so-called "sanctuary cities" that tolerate or welcome illegal immigrants. Critics lined up against the plan, saying it would only foster racism and wasn't needed...Read More

11/29/2007, Pew Hispanic Center Releases Report on English Usage Among Latinos in the United States
Nearly all Hispanic adults born in the United States of immigrant parents report they are fluent in English. By contrast, only a small minority of their parents describe themselves as skilled English speakers. This finding of a dramatic increase in English-language ability from one generation of Hispanics to the next emerges from a new analysis of six Pew Hispanic Center surveys conducted from 2002 to 2006 among a total of more than 14,000 Latino adults...Read More

11/28/2007, Immigration: The Hottest Issue, by Joe Klein, Time
A few days after thanksgiving, I asked Mike Huckabee what had surprised him about voters over the past six months of campaigning. "The intensity of the immigration issue," he said immediately, and then added, "I honestly don't know why it's gotten so hot." Huckabee gets points for candor: most of the presidential candidates I've spoken with in recent months feel the same way but aren't about to say so. It is difficult to spend a day on the trail and not see the anger explode...Read More

11/27/2007, Immigrant who saved boy in desert thought of his own children, by Amanda Lee Myers, Associated Press
An illegal immigrant who rescued a 9-year-old boy from the southern Arizona desert said Wednesday he was thinking of his own four children when he halted his two-day walk from Mexico to help the boy.
Manuel Jesus Cordova Soberanes told The Associated Press that he never could have left the boy to continue his journey, even though he was just eight hours from reaching Tucson...Read More

11/26/2007, Dems guilty of 'political cowardice' on immigration, Chicago Sun-Times
Remember Willie Horton? He was the convicted rapist who was allowed out on a weekend pass and attacked another woman while Michael Dukakis was governor of Massachusetts. Playing to white America's fear of black men, Horton was used in a campaign ad against Dukakis when he ran for president in 1988. It probably cost him the election...Read More

11/25/2007, Revised Rule for Employers That Hire Immigrants, by Julia Preston, New York Times
The Bush administration will suspend its legal defense of a new rule issued in August to punish employers who hire illegal immigrants, conceding a hard-fought opening round in a court battle over a central measure in its strategy to curb illegal immigration, according to government papers filed late Friday in federal court...Read More

11/19/2007, Immigration consultant charged with grand theft, by Susan Shroder, San Diego Union-Tribune
An immigration consultant suspected of bilking undocumented immigrants in San Diego County out of thousands of dollars has been arrested and charged with three counts of felony grand theft. Federal agents arrested Gladys Escobar, 62, Friday at her home in the Los Angeles area...Read More

11/23/2007, Illegal Border Crosser Saves Boy, 9, Associated Press
Federal agents arrested an illegal border crosser who cared for a 9-year-old boy found wandering alone after his mother died in a canyon crash in southern Arizona...Read More

11/16/2007, Attorneys, lawmakers see court leaning in favor of immigration law, by Jim Small, Arizona Capitol Times
Four hours of oral arguments in the federal constitutional challenge of Arizona’s employer sanctions law bolstered the hopes of the law’s supporters who felt the proceedings boded well for the law’s defense. Meanwhile, legislators who opposed the law say they are now less confident the legal challenge will be successful...Read More

11/16/2007, Dueling Democrats Ignore, Ignite the Angry Brown Voter, Of America
As he watched tonight’s broadcast of the Democratic Debate at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV), Antonio Gonzalez didn’t much like what he saw and heard. “I’m pissed off at all of them” he said. “I’m mad.”
Like the growing number of Latinos disgusted with increasing discrimination that a majority (54%) say they experience mostly because of anti-immigrant racism, Gonzalez is dismayed at, how, for example, the top candidates responded to the ‘Yes or No’ question about drivers licenses for immigrants: Clinton “No”, Edwards “No” and Obama “Yes, but…” ...Read More

11/14/2007, S.F. supervisors approve ID cards for residents, by Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Staff
The Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to issue municipal identification cards to city residents - regardless of whether they are in the country legally - and to double the amount of public money available to candidates running for supervisor...Read More

11/14/2007, Spitzer Dropping His Driver’s License Plan, by Danny Hakim, New York Times
Gov. Eliot Spitzer is abandoning his plan to issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, saying that opposition is just too overwhelming to move forward with such a policy. The governor, who is to announce the move formally on Wednesday, said in an interview Tuesday night that he did not reach the decision easily...Read More

11/12/2007, New visa may aid boy in teacher sex case, by Oskar Garcia, Associated Press
A 13-year-old illegal immigrant who fled to his native Mexico amid a sex scandal with his schoolteacher could be eligible to return to the United States under a new visa the government started granting the week before he disappeared...Read More

11/12/2007, Fast-track citizenship aids soldiers, military, by Amy Driscoll and Trenton Daniel, Miami Herald
When Staff Sgt. Luis Garcia joined the U.S. Army, he was deployed first to Afghanistan and then to Iraq -- all before he became a citizen of the country he swore to defend and serve. It wasn't for lack of trying. The Honduran-born soldier, who came to Miami with his family when he was 6, had filed his papers just before he joined the military in 2000. But deployments made it difficult for him to meet with immigration officials to pursue his citizenship case...Read More

11/11/2007, Immigration reform stalled until 2008 vote, by Lisa Friedmand, Washington Bureau
Despite nationwide protests and rallies this year demanding an overhaul of U.S. immigration laws, congressional leaders acknowledge little change is likely for at least another year. Two leading lawmakers who have been key negotiators on immigration bills said last week that no measures legalizing any of the country's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants likely are to come up for a vote until after the 2008 presidential election...Read More

11/11/2007, A Clash of Cultures, by Juan Castillo, American-Statesman
Remembrances of U.S. history are often cast in the lore of the Great Melting Pot, the nostalgic notion that Americans not only tolerated differences, they embraced them. But immigration has from the start created flash points over whether newcomers were becoming American enough, fast enough. Beginning with Germans in the 17th century and continuing through the Irish, Italians, Chinese and others in the 19th century, successive waves of immigrants arrived to a welcome of resentment and fear...Read More

11/11/2007, Veterans Day is a time for forgotten Latinos to be recognized, by Tyche Hendricks, Chronicle
William Carrillo had just started ninth grade at San Francisco's High School of Commerce in 1933 when he was forced to leave. "The principal decided I was Mexican. ... He threw me out," said Carrillo, now 88 and a decorated World War II veteran...Read More

11/11/2007, A fine line for Democrats on border issues, by Peter Wallsten, Los Angeles Times
Top Democratic elected officials and strategists are engaged in an internal debate over toughening the party's image on illegal immigration, with some worried that Democrats' relatively welcoming stance makes them vulnerable to GOP attacks in the 2008 election. Advocates of such a change cite local and state election results last week in Virginia and New York, where Democrats used sharper language and get-tough proposals to stave off Republican efforts to paint the party as weak on the issue...Read More

11/2/2007, Got $500,000? The U.S. Awaits, by Miriam Jordan, Wall Street Journal
An obscure immigration program is pumping millions of dollars from foreign investors into dilapidated inner cities and employment-starved rural areas across the U.S. These investors aren't focused on financial returns, however: They're in it to get green cards...Read More

10/28/2007, Illegal Immigrants Will Be Allowed to Get a Version, a Move Homeland Security Secretary Criticizes, by Associated Press, New York Times
The Bush administration and New York announced an agreement yesterday to create a generation of super-secure driver's licenses for U.S. citizens, but also to allow illegal immigrants to get a version.
New York is the largest state to sign on so far to the government's post-Sept. 11 effort to make identification cards more secure. The agreement with the Department of Homeland Security will create a three-tiered license system...Read More

10/26/2007, Robbers Stalk Hispanic Immigrants, Seeing Ideal Prey, by Dernesto Londoño and Theresa Vargas
By the time they set upon Victor Hernandez, knocking him to the pavement and kicking him furiously, the teenagers were deep into a weeks-long spree of robbing Hispanic immigrants. They coined a term for the assaults, one that reflected the uniformity of the victims they selected: "amigo shopping." The teenagers recorded some of the attacks with a cellphone camera, saving one of the videos under the file name "amigo," a source familiar with the case said...Read More

10/24/2007, Two Immigration-Related Amendments Attached to Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill (H.R. 3043), AILA InfoNet Doc. No. 07102467 (posted Oct. 24, 2007)
On the evening of 10-23-07, during debate on the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2008 (H.R. 3043) two significant immigration-related amendments were passed by voice vote...Read More

10/24/2007, Thompson stirs rivals with immigration plan, by Michael Levenson, Boston Globe
Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson yesterday staked out one of the toughest plans on the campaign trail to curb illegal immigration, trying to reignite the issue among the GOP faithful who rose up in revolt against a more moderate approach in Congress earlier this year...Read More

10/24/2007, ICE facility's abrupt closure causes distress, by Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times
Attorneys scrambled to locate their clients Tuesday after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement temporarily closed its detention center on Terminal Island and transferred more than 400 immigrant detainees to other facilities around the nation...Read More

10/24/2007, Statement of Administrative Policy, Executive Office of the President
The Administration continues to believe that the Nation’s broken immigration system requirescomprehensive reform. This reform should include strong border and interior enforcement, a temporary worker program, a program to bring the millions of undocumented aliens out of the shadows without amnesty and without animosity, and assistance that helps newcomers assimilate into American society. Unless it provides additional authorities in all of these areas, Congress will do little more than perpetuate the unfortunate status quo...Read More

10/24/2007, Senators reject legal status for children of immigrants, by Nicole Gaouette and Johanna Neuman, Los Angeles Times
The Senate today rejected a bill that would have allowed young people brought to the United States as children by their illegal immigrant parents to gain legal status provided they attended school or entered the military...Read More

10/23/2007, Senate Sets Test Vote on Immigrant Education Bill, CQ Today
Senate Democrats will resume the immigration debate tomorrow with an effort to call up legislation to allow some children of illegal immigrants to remain in the United States and earn legal status.
Wednesday’s vote on whether to proceed to debate on the so-called DREAM Act is a test to see if the chamber is ready to support a piecemeal approach to legalization of some of the 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States...Read More

10/23/2007, Blackwater's run for the border, by Eilene Zimmerman, Salon.com
There are signs that Blackwater USA, the private security firm that came under intense scrutiny after its employees killed 17 civilians in Iraq in September, is positioning itself for direct involvement in U.S. border security. The company is poised to construct a major new training facility in California, just eight miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. While contracts for U.S. war efforts overseas may no longer be a growth industry for the company, Blackwater executives have lobbied the U.S. government since at least 2005 to help train and even deploy manpower for patrolling America's borders...Read More

10/21/2007, Miami migrant officers decry working conditions, by Alfonso Chardy, Miami Herald
There are so many applications and so much pressure to process them quickly at the Miami immigration office that employees often work through lunch and after hours to complete the job, according to a union that has filed a complaint...Read More

10/20/2007, Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida leaves his GOP post after frustration with the party's immigration stance, by Peter Wallsten, Los Angeles Times
The Republican Party's highest-ranking Latino official abruptly resigned Friday, marking the latest casualty in the GOP's bitter internal fight over immigration and dealing another setback to President Bush's years-long effort to court Latino voters...Read More

10/16/2007, Dole Announces that N.C. Sheriffs to Partner with Federal Immigration Officials to Identify, Apprehend and Remove Criminal Illegal Aliens, US Senate
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole today announced that North Carolina has been designated as the first state in the nation to have a statewide plan for sheriffs to partner with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to effectively handle illegal aliens who have committed crimes. Under the plan, ICE will provide programs and services that will support the specific needs of sheriffs throughout North Carolina...Read More

10/14/2007, No Need for a Warrant, You’re an Immigrant, by Julia Preston, New York Times
Long Island officials protested when federal agents searching for immigrant gang members raided local homes two weeks ago. The agents had rousted American citizens and legal immigrants from their beds in the night, complained Lawrence W. Mulvey, the Nassau County police commissioner, and arrested suspected illegal immigrants without so much as a warrant...Read More

10/12/2007, Guatemalan man sentenced to 38 months in prison for identity theft, US Immigration & Customs Enforcement News Release
A Guatemalan man was sentenced here Thursday to more than three years in prison for illegally assuming the identity of another man. This sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Gregory White, Northern District of Ohio; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigated this case...Read More

10/9/2007, Chiefs: Migrant law not our duty, by Michael Kiefer and Allison Denny, The Arizona Republic
Valley police chiefs spoke out Monday against a groundswell to make local police departments enforce immigration law. They cited limited resources and a mind-set that puts serious crime ahead of routine immigration enforcement...Read More

10/9/2007, Murder in Fort Pierce should prompt Congress
Julio Reyes Paxtore's life ended on Aug. 19, 2005. The sad story of how he died ended last week, when the last of four teenagers was sentenced for robbing Mr. Paxtore, stealing his bicycle and beating him to death on a Fort Pierce sidewalk...Read More

10/7/2007, U.S. lets in more immigrants for farms, by Nicole Gaouette, Los Angeles Times
With a nationwide farmworker shortage threatening to leave unharvested fruits and vegetables rotting in fields, the Bush administration has begun quietly rewriting federal regulations to eliminate barriers that restrict how foreign laborers can legally be brought into the country...Read More

10/6/2007, Immigration arrests spark controversy from coast to coast, by Frank Eltman, Associated Press
Long Island officials complained loudly this week about a series of immigration raids, accusing federal agents of a "cowboy mentality" that could have put local police in harm's way. The attack on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was so sharp that a congressman stepped in to try and broker a peace...Read More

10/6/2007, Court asked to require warrants for immigration raids, by Susana Enriquez, Newsday
Several families and individuals from Suffolk, Nassau and Westchester counties filed a request Friday for a temporary restraining order to prevent federal immigration officials from conducting further raids without court-issued search warrants...Read More

10/5/2007, Pastor denies blame in immigration protests, by Gregory W. Griggs, Los Angeles Times
The pastor of a Simi Valley church that is providing sanctuary to an illegal immigrant accused city officials Thursday of unfairly blaming the church for the actions of anti-immigration protesters. The Rev. June Goudey, leader of the 80-member United Church of Christ in Simi Valley, said the city continues to pressure the church to repay nearly $40,000 spent for law enforcement costs related to a Sept. 16 protest. The church on Royal Avenue has sheltered a 29-year-old Mexican citizen named Liliana who is in the United States illegally...Read More

10/5/2007, State Clerks' Group Votes to Condemn License Policy, by Nicholas Confessore, New York Times
The state association of county clerks voted on Thursday to condemn Gov. Eliot Spitzer's executive order allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses, and at least a dozen said they would not follow the new policy despite state laws obligating them to do so...Read More

10/4/2007, Stop the Raids, Editorial, New York Times
Armed squads bursting into homes in the dead of night with shotguns and automatic weapons, terrorizing families and taking away anyone who lacks identity papers, even if they have raided the wrong house. It may sound like Baghdad, but it is the suburbs of New York City, the latest among hundreds of communities around the country where federal agents have been invading homes and workplaces in search of immigrants to deport...Read More

10/3/2007, U.S. sailor: Don't deport my wife, by Thelma Gutierrez and Wayne Drash, CNN
Eduardo Gonzalez, a petty officer second class with the U.S. Navy, is about to be deployed overseas for a third time. Making his deployment even tougher is the fact his wife may not be around when he comes back...Read More

10/2/2007, Gutierrez: Immigration Reform Vital, by Seanna Adcox, Associated Press
U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said the economy will suffer if Congress doesn't pass comprehensive immigration reform.Gutierrez said during a visit to the University of South Carolina Monday that the United States doesn't have enough workers to keep the economy growing with the nation's working age population expected to grow just 0.3 percent annually over the next decade...Read More

10/2/2007, Immigration Losers, by Richard Nadler, Wall Street Journal
Many conservatives believe that "enforcement first" of existing immigration law must precede any form of guest-worker or earned-legalization legislation to normalize the status of some 12 million undocumented workers. Iterations of this opinion fill the airwaves of talk radio, the speeches of Republican presidential contenders and the opinion pages of conservative publications...Read More

10/1/2007, Court Extends Order That Blocks Government From Implementing Flawed Social Security No-Match Rule, National Immigration Law Center
After a hearing today, a federal judge extended for 10 days an order that temporarily stops the government from implementing a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rule that would cause U.S. citizens and other authorized workers to lose their jobs, and which would illegally use error-prone social security records as a tool for immigration enforcement...Read More

10/1/2007, Chertoff: Illegals 'degrade' environment, by Eileen Sullivan, Associated Press
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Monday defended the construction of a fence along the southwest border, saying it's actually better for the environment than what happens when people illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico line...Read More

10/1/2007, Money for the Masses: Who's Gonna do the Work, by Janet Novack, Forbes
The feds are trying to turn employers into immigration police. Not good if you have any landscaping or
construction projects going...Read More

9/28/2007, Nassau top cop: Department 'misled' in raids, by Susana Enriquez, Newsday
Nassau County's top law enforcement officer said yesterday that his department was "misled" by federal authorities who conducted raids in Latino communities this week, arresting 82 people who were mostly undocumented immigrants...Read More

9/28/2007, Inside the Hispanic vote: Growing in numbers, growing in diversity, by Manav Tanneeru, CNN
As Democratic and Republican presidential candidates scour the country for votes during the 2008 campaign, they'll inevitably court the Hispanic community, a voting group growing rapidly in number and diversity...Read More

9/26/2007, Senate temporarily sidelines immigration legalization bill, by Michelle Mittelstadt, Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
The prospects for immediate Senate action on the DREAM Act, which would grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants, disappeared Wednesday amid Republican opposition...Read More

9/26/2007, Towns Rethink Laws Against Illegal Immigrants, by Ken Belson and Jill P. Capuzzo, New York Times
A little more than a year ago, the Township Committee in this faded factory town became the first municipality in New Jersey to enact legislation penalizing anyone who employed or rented to an illegal immigrant. Within months, hundreds, if not thousands, of recent immigrants from Brazil and other Latin American countries had fled. The noise, crowding and traffic that had accompanied their arrival over the past decade abated. The law had worked. Perhaps, some said, too well...Read More

9/25/2007, U.S. Sues Illinois over Immigration Law, by Nicole Gaouette, Los Angeles Times
The Bush administration took the gloves off Monday in its fight over immigration enforcement, suing the state of Illinois for banning use of a federal system that checks whether workers are in the United States legally...Read More

9/23/2007, Giuliani's migrating position is in dispute, by Janet Hook, Los Angeles Times
After Congress passed a landmark welfare law with support from both parties, one prominent mayor became furious. His concern: a provision that would lead, he believed, to the "inhumane" treatment of illegal immigrants. He promptly dispatched his lawyers to file suit against the federal government...Read More

9/22/2007, N.Y. to allow licenses for everyone, by Karla Schuster and Susana Enriquez, Los Angeles Times
New York will soon become the largest state to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's licenses legally -- a policy that is sure to stoke the national debate about immigrants' rights and domestic security...Read More

9/21/2007, Immigration Raids Single Out Hispanics, Lawsuit Says, by Nina Bernstein, New York Times
A federal lawsuit filed yesterday charges that agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement unlawfully force their way into the homes of Hispanic families in the New York area without court warrants or other legal justification, sometimes pushing down doors in the middle of the night, in search of people who do not live there...Read More

9/21/2007, Mayor to pastor: This one's on your tab, by Darleen Principe, Simi Valley Acorn
Mayor Paul Miller wants the city to hold Simi's United Church of Christ financially liable for law enforcement costs related to maintaining the peace during Sunday's three-hour protest outside the church- a bill in upwards of $39,000...Read More

9/21/2007, Simi bills church targeted by protesters, by Gregory Griggs, Los Angeles Times
Simi Valley officials Thursday stood by a City Council decision to charge a church nearly $40,000 to cover the overtime and other costs for law enforcement officers who monitored an immigration protest last weekend...Read More

9/18/2007, Becoming an American Citizen, the Hardest Way, by Clyde Haberman, New York Times
On an August day when some Iraqi’s homemade bomb tore through him, Cpl. Juan Mariel Alcántara became an American. He never got to appreciate the honor. A little-discussed detail of this war is that some of those fighting in it as soldiers of the United States are not American citizens. Over all, about 21,000 noncitizens are serving in this country’s armed forces, the Defense Department says...Read More

9/18/2007, Misreading the Poverty Data, by Robert Greenstein, Washington Post
In his Sept. 5 op-ed, " Importing Poverty," Robert J. Samuelson assailed the Census Bureau, the American Enterprise Institute, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and the media for missing what he views as the core of the poverty story. When discussing the figures that the Census Bureau released Aug. 28, we all failed, he said, to explain that poverty "is increasingly a problem associated with immigration," driven by the large numbers of poor Hispanics entering the country...Read More

9/16/2007, Born in the U.S.A.: Does that guarantee citizenship?, by John C. Eastman and James C. Ho, Des Moines Register
Differing views on citizenship...Read both views

9/13/2007, U.S. Law Enforcement Gains Direct Access to Interpol Criminal Databases, US Dept. of Justice
The U.S. National Central Bureau of INTERPOL(USNCB) today announced that it has provided the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Law Enforcement Support Center (ICE LESC) in Burlington, Vermont, with direct access to criminal records from law enforcement agencies in 186 INTERPOL member countries...Read More

9/12/2007, ICE: Tab to remove illegal residents would approach $100 billion, by Mike M. Ahlers, CNN
It would cost at least $94 billion to find, detain and remove all 12 million people believed to be staying illegally in the United States, the federal government estimated Wednesday...Read More

9/10/2007, Pa. Hispanic Republican Groups Denouce GOP's Harsh Immigration Rhetoric as Inflicting Irreparable Damage to Party's Future Prospects
Several Pennsylvania Hispanic Republicans groups, including the Pennsylvania Hispanic Republican Coalition ("HRC"), and the newly-reformed Pennsylvania Chapter of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly ("PaRNHA"), announced that they have become increasingly concerned that the persistent harsh and nativist-sounding rhetoric coming from some Party members on the issue of immigration reform is inflicting long-term and irreparable damage to what should be a natural affinity between Hispanics and the core values of the Republican Party...Read More

9/5/2007, Short on Labor, Farmers in U.S. Shift to Mexico, by Julia Preston, New York Times
Steve Scaroni, a farmer from California, looked across a luxuriant field of lettuce here in central Mexico and liked what he saw: full-strength crews of Mexican farm workers with no immigration problems...Read More

9/1/2007, Judge Bars Action Against Illegal Hires, by Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times
A federal judge in San Francisco on Friday temporarily blocked the U.S. government from starting its planned crackdown against employers who hired undocumented immigrant workers...Read More

8/31/2007, Judge Issues Order After Lawsuit Is Filed by AFL-CIO, ACLU, and
National Immigration Law Center, NILC
A federal judge today issued an order temporarily blocking the government from implementing a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rule that would cause U.S. citizens and other authorized workers to lose their jobs, and which would illegally use error-prone social security records as a tool for immigration enforcement...Read More

8/31/2007, Immigration raids Koch Foods Ohio chicken plant, by Andrea Hopkins, Reuters
Hundreds of U.S. immigration agents raided the Koch Foods Inc. chicken plant in Fairfield, Ohio, and arrested more than 160 employees as part of a criminal operation against illegal immigrants, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said on Tuesday...Read More

8/30/2007, Planned Crackdown on Immigrants Denounced, by Spencer S. Hsu, TheWashington Post
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO this week separately assailed a new White House-backed crackdown on illegal immigration, warning of massive disruptions to the economy and headaches for U.S. citizens if the proposal goes ahead as planned in the coming days...Read More

8/29/2007, Groups File Lawsuit Charging DHS Rule Would Cause Widespread Discrimination and Harm U.S. Citizens and Other Authorized Workers
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and the Central Labor Council of Alameda County along with other local labor movements today filed a lawsuit charging that a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rule will threaten jobs of U.S. citizens and other legally authorized workers simply because of errors in the government's inaccurate social security earnings databases...Read More

8/28/2007, Latinos Launch Economic Boycott, by Pamela Constable, The Washington Post
Maria Rivera, a hotel maid from Woodbridge, drove her two daughters to Lorton last weekend to buy school supplies. Juan Padilla, who owns a tropical-themed restaurant in Manassas, purchased all his cooking ingredients yesterday in Fairfax County. On the first day of a one-week boycott called by immigrant groups in Prince William County, both of these county residents said they were shopping elsewhere to send a message that Latino immigrants are an important, unified economic force and can't be intimidated...Read More

8/27/2007, Letter from Essential Worker Immigration Coalition,
Click here to read the full 8/27/07 letter from the EWIC to Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security and Michael Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security of the Social Security Administration

8/25/2007, California without a Mexican, by Tamar Jacoby, Los Angeles Times
The 2004 film "A Day Without a Mexican" was a political satire: an exaggerated fantasy about what would happen in California if all the immigrant workers suddenly disappeared. But now it seems that life may imitate art. Federal immigration authorities are readying a new enforcement tool that could indeed, if applied effectively, all but cripple the California economy...Read More

8/23/2007, Feinstein to push Guest-worker Bill, by Michael Doyle, The Fresno Bee
Get ready for another ride on the immigration roller coaster. Today, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein will be assuring a San Joaquin Valley audience that Congress will once more take up a big agricultural guest-worker bill. A top priority for Valley farmers, the bill soon could resurface on Capitol Hill...Read More

8/22/2007, Help wanted in Colorado — from Mexico, by April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News
Two lawmakers from farm districts want Colorado to be the first state to create a guest worker program allowing immigrants to get visas to work here legally...Read More

8/22/2007, War Veteran Who Can't Get Citizenship, byDavid Pomerantz, The New York Times
One of the surest paths to citizenship is to enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces and fight in a foreign war. Sergeant Ramdeo Singh, a Queens resident who treated wounded American soldiers as an Army nurse at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo in 1999, says he picked the wrong war...Read More

8/21/2007, Renewed calls for immigration reform after mother's deportation, by Elliot Spagat, Associated Press
Officials on both sides of the border were renewing calls for changes to U.S. immigration laws after a Mexican woman who stayed in a Chicago church for a year to avoid being separated from her American-born son was deported...Read More

8/20/2007, Immigration activist deported to Mexico, by Sonia Nazario and David Pierson, The Los Angeles Times
Elvira Arellano, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who became a symbol in the nation's immigration wars after she took sanctuary in a Chicago church last year, was deported late Sunday, authorities said...Read More

7/31/2007, Illegal immigration: our best foreign aid, by Gregory Clark, The Los Angeles Times
About 160 million people with incomes a fifth or less than the average U.S. income now reside less than 1,500 miles from our southern border. Given this huge income gap, more border agents and more miles of fence cannot prevent substantial illegal migration. But such migration is actually the United States' most effective foreign aid program, helping some of the poorest people in the world. Some believe such migration should be tolerated, not fought to the death...Read More

7/26/2007, Pa. Immigrant Law Voided, by Michael Rubinkam, Associated Press
A federal judge on Thursday struck down Hazleton's tough anti-immigration law, ruling unconstitutional a measure that has been copied around the country...Read More

7/16/2007, U.S. to Reverse Some Denials Of Work Visas, by Miriam Jordan, Wall Street Journal Online
Looking to resolve a messy immigration tangle, the U.S. government is close to announcing that it will accept at least some applications for work-based green cards that were filed by thousands of skilled workers in early July at the government's invitation and then abruptly rejected...Read More

6/28/2007, USCIS Announces Temporary Suspension of Premium Processing Service for Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker
Effective July 2, 2007, USCIS is announcing the temporary suspension of Premium Processing Service for Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, in accordance with 8 CFR 103.2(f)(2)...Read More

1/20/2007, Hundreds join protest of migrant-tuition law, by Michael Kiefer, The Arizona Republic
Nearly 600 students and their supporters marched toward the site of the BCS National Championship Game in Glendale on Monday to protest a recently passed law denying in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants...Read More

1/11/2007, Patrick rescinds Romney's immigration plan, will instead train correction officers, by Jon Saltzman and Andrew Ryan
Governor Deval Patrick today announced a plan to train 12 correction officers in two state prisons to enforce limited immigration laws as he rescinded a controversial agreement made in the waning days of the Romney administration to have state police hunt for illegal immigrants...Read More

1/11/2007, Resolution for 2007: Comprehensive Immigration Reform Must Pass Congress Now, Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC)
Following Senate Democrat’s announcement to include immigration among their top ten priorities, the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC)—a statewide coalition of over 80 organizations across the state from Latinos Unidos and El Comite in Greeley and Longmont to Western Colorado Committees and Companeros in Grand Junction and Durango—announced today their blueprint for comprehensive immigration reform that would benefit all Colorado communities...Read More

1/11/2007, Legal Status For Immigrants Pushed, by Suzanne Gamboa, Associated Press
Supporters of overhauling immigration rules began a congressional push Wednesday to give temporary legal status to up to 1.5 million illegal immigrant workers to provide a labor pool for U.S. agriculture...Read More

1/10/2007, MSNBC: Will illegal immigration offset a wage hike?, by Tom Curry,MSNBC
As the House votes Wednesday to raise the federal minimum wage by $2.10 per hour, economists are considering the effect of that increase on low-income workers. Will the benefits to such workers of raising the minimum wage be offset by wage-depressing effects of illegal immigration?...Read More

1/10/2007, Sens. Feinstein and Craig re-introduce AgJOBS, by Bob Krauter, Capital Press
The campaign to solve growing labor shortages on many farms in the West renews today when U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Larry Craig, R-Idaho, re-introduce their AgJOBS legislation. The Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits, and Security Act would restructure and reform the current H-2A temporary agricultural worker program. It would also allow undocumented workers to remain in the U.S. if they meet a set of conditions...Read More

1/9/2007, Children Dropping Off Medicaid Rolls, by Kevin Freking, The Associated Press
For several years, there has been a steady increase in the number of children enrolling in Virginia's health insurance program for the poor. Beginning July 1, state officials say, an unprecedented slide began. Over the following five months, about 12,000 children dropped off the state's Medicaid rolls...Read More

1/9/2007, Hispanic leaders call for reform on immigration within 100 days, by Alexander Bolton, The Hill
National Hispanic leaders are pressing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to make immigration reform a top priority within the first 100 days of the new Congress, citing the large numbers of Hispanics who turned out to vote for Democrats in November...Read More

1/3/2007, America's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs
A new study from Duke University indicates that immigrant entrepreneurs founded 25.3 percent of the U.S. engineering and technology companies established in the past decade. Furthermore, foreign nationals contributed to an estimated 24.2 percent of international patent applications in 2006...Read More

Conservatives Decry Terror Laws' Impact on Refugees, by Darryl Fears, The Washington Post
Conservatives who supported President Bush's reelection have joined liberal groups in expressing outrage over his administration's broad use of anti-terrorism laws to reject asylum for thousands of people seeking refuge from religious, ethnic and political persecution...Read More

Congressional Leaders Predict Immigration Law, Reuters
Democratic and Republican leaders predicted on Sunday the U.S. Congress would pass an immigration law this session after scuttling President George W. Bush's plan last year...Read More

AILA Heartened by Congressional Commitment to Congressional Reform
The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), the largest national association of immigration lawyers, established to promote justice and advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policy, applauds the Senate leadership's bipartisan commitment to make comprehensive immigration reform a reality this year...Read More

Immigrant Processors Fall Behind, by Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post
As the White House and Congress prepare to overhaul the nation's immigration laws, U.S. officials have concluded that they lack the technology and resources to handle the millions of applications for legal residency that could result from the changes and that several efforts to modernize computers have gone astray...Read More

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