Immigration Reform

One of Barack Obama’s key campaign promises to Latino voters was to make comprehensive immigration legislation a priority in his first year in office. With Obama’s nomination of Latina Judge Sonia Sotomayor, more Latinos than ever are supporting Obama. Obama’s goal is a “policy reform that controls immigration and makes it an orderly system.” The system may, as some reports suggest, involve recognizing millions of illegal immigrants who have been already working here, giving them permanent access to jobs. The problem with that strategy is that, especially in our feeble economic condition, there are just as many unemployed Americans without jobs. But if Obama goes the route of sending illegal immigrants back to their native country, the question of amnesty will arise. Most reports indicate that Obama will not take a such conservative path, because it’s sure to anger many of his constituents.

Obama has, though, recently continued one of George W. Bush’s immigration programs, causing at least a little worry among Democrats. Expanding the program (30% increase in funds), which is what the Obama administration is doing, could result in a substantial increase in identifying illegal immigrants for deportation. The program aims at routinely checking the immigration status of inmates at local jails, something that isn’t done all that often. One of the problems of immigration is that it innately causes a bigger government that hands out benefits like food stamps and social security. For fiscal conservatives and small government libertarians, this can be quite an issue because it expands the welfare state. Immigrants know of these benefits, for sure, and that’s a major reason why they decide to come.

Arizona Man Sued By Mexican Nationals

An Arizona man who has waged a 10-year campaign to stop a flood of illegal immigrants from crossing his property is being sued by 16 Mexican nationals who accuse him of conspiring to violate their civil rights when he stopped them at gunpoint on his ranch on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Roger Barnett, 64, began rounding up illegal immigrants in 1998 and turning them over to the U.S. Border Patrol, he said, after they destroyed his property, killed his calves and broke into his home.

His Cross Rail Ranch near Douglas, Ariz., is known by federal and county law enforcement authorities as "the avenue of choice" for immigrants seeking to enter the United States illegally. - The Washington Times

Technically, the illegals don't have civil rights. They have human rights, but not "civil rights" protection under U.S law.

Ayers Turned Away from Canada

William Ayers, the 1960s radical whose ties to President-elect Barack Obama caused trouble for his campaign, was turned away from Canada Sunday night as he tried to enter the country for a series of educational events.

Jeffrey Kugler, the executive director for the Center for Urban Schooling at the University of Toronto, said Ayers was deemed not admissible after being pulled aside by Canadian immigration officials while trying to clear customs at the Toronto airport.

Ayers had been invited to speak before the center. He was also scheduled to meet with the Toronto District School Board and do interviews with Canadian television and radio stations, Kugler said. - Faux News

The past is the past.

Travelers Laptops To Be Seized

Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.

Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"The policies . . . are truly alarming," said Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), who is probing the government's border search practices. He said he intends to introduce legislation soon that would require reasonable suspicion for border searches, as well as prohibit profiling on race, religion or national origin.

DHS officials said that the newly disclosed policies -- which apply to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens -- are reasonable and necessary to prevent terrorism. Officials said such procedures have long been in place but were disclosed last month because of public interest in the matter. - Washington Post

This is tricky because the DHS is just trying to do its job. If security is too tight then people start to cry out that their liberties are being taken away, but if there is no security people become worried that their government isn't doing its job. It's a zero sum game.

Immigrants Deported By Hospitals

JOLOMCÚ, Guatemala — High in the hills of Guatemala, shut inside a one-room house, Luis Alberto Jimenez has no idea of the legal battle that swirls around him in the lowlands of Florida.

Beaming at his toothless mother, his sole caregiver, Jimenez remains cheerily oblivious that he has come to represent the collision of two flawed U.S. systems, immigration and health care.

Eight years ago, Jimenez, now 35, an illegal immigrant working as a gardener in Stuart, Fla., suffered devastating injuries in a car crash with a drunken Floridian. A community hospital saved his life, twice, and, after failing to find a rehabilitation center willing to accept an uninsured patient, kept him as a ward for years at a cost of $1.5 million.

What happened next set the stage for a legal battle with nationwide repercussions: Jimenez was deported, not by the federal government but by Martin Memorial Hospital. After winning a state court order that would later be declared invalid, Martin Memorial leased an air ambulance for $30,000 and "forcibly returned him to his home country," as one hospital administrator described it. - Seattle Times

Cheap little bastards. I can hear it already: "Universal health care would..."

EU cracks down on illegal immigration

Europe has an illegal immigration problem, too.

New European Union rules have been approved against illegal immigrants. They could be held in custody for up to 18 months now, children included.

Americans = Pro-Immigration

Well, I have a theory, and it is that Americans are basically pro-immigrant but ambivalent about it. This ambivalence is reflected in polls, which of course provide different results based on how questions are asked. For example, last year a CBS News poll asked, "Should illegal immigrants be prosecuted and deported or shouldn't they?" And 69% of respondents favored deportation. When the same interviewers asked the same respondents what should happen to illegal immigrants who have lived and worked in the U.S. for at least two years, and then offered a specific alternative to deportation, only 33% favored deportation; 62% said they should be given a chance to keep their jobs and eventually apply for legal status.

When a separate Gallup poll asked a similar question but offered four alternatives, just 13% favored deportation, and 78% said illegal immigrants should be allowed to keep their jobs and apply for citizenship. - Wall Street Journal

Nobody likes deportation.

A Little Bit of Homeland Security

McALLEN, Texas -- The federal government and a south Texas county have finalized an agreement to build a combination of levees and border fence, a project aimed at addressing national security concerns and local flood-control needs at the same time.

The agreement announced Monday calls for the federal government to pay about $65.7 million of the $113.9 million project along 22 miles of the Rio Grande. It also puts Hidalgo County's long-awaited levee improvements on a fast-track to finish in less than a year.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced the plan in February, hailing it as a rare compromise in the contentious fight between local and federal government on the border fence. - Los Angeles Times

Two things at the same time? Nice!

Illegals Outlawed In Arizona

PHOENIX -- As it has become the favorite entry point for undocumented migrants trying to sneak into the United States, Arizona has become a laboratory for whether a state can single-handedly combat illegal immigration.

In recent years it has barred illegal immigrants from receiving government services, from winning punitive damages in lawsuits and from posting bail for serious crimes. A new state law shuts down businesses that hire illegal workers. And the sheriff of Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and three-fifths of the state's population, dispatches his deputies and volunteer "posses" to search for illegal street vendors or immigrants being smuggled through the county.

"What I love about what Arizona is doing is we don't have to rely on the federal government," said state Rep. Russell Pearce, a Mesa Republican who has authored most of the toughest measures. "It has truly woken up the rest of America that states can fix that problem."

The campaign has had an effect: Illegal immigrants complain it's impossible to find good work and are leaving the state. - Los Angeles Times

Businesses shut down for hiring illegals...that is a start, I guess.

Picking the President: More Immigration

Citizenship eligibility for illegal immigrants here now who meet certain conditions	McCain, Clinton, Gravel, Obama
No citizenship eligibility for illegal immigrants here now	Huckabee, Paul

One of the reasons why there are so many illegal immigrants is because it's so hard to do it the legal way. I don't condone illegal immigration, but if someone who's been here for decades came illegally, give that someone a break. Points to McCain and the Democrats.

Sizing Up The Candidates Part 5

Topic: Immigration
Voter's Guide:
• A nation should seek to accommodate the immigrant
who, for just reasons, seeks greater access to the basic goods
of life.
• Political leaders and citizens should recognize the reality
of human interdependence that crosses all borders and all
national identities.
• The immigrant is a person who deserves the same protection
of law and social benefits afforded to citizens.
- Essentially, Guide teachings love LEGAL immigrants. The guide
does not really make mention of illegal immigrants. The Church
seems to be in favor of illegal immigrants because most of them
are Mexican Catholics. Personally, I am split.

Ron Paul (Republican) - 25%

Build a border fence?	Yes
Citizenship eligibility for illegal immigrants?	No
Guest worker program?	No

Mike Huckabee (Republican) - 25%

Build a border fence?	Yes
Citizenship eligibility for illegal immigrants?	No
Guest worker program?	No

Mass Immigration Backlog

Immigrants in Massachusetts and nationwide could wait 16 to 18 months - more than double the usual period - to become US citizens because of a massive backlog, leaving thousands possibly unable to vote in November.

The backlog is the result of millions of applications for citizenship, green cards, and work permits that swamped immigration offices last summer before hefty fee increases went into effect July 30.

Federal immigration officials across the nation are hiring hundreds of staff members, paying overtime, and streamlining bureaucracy to process the applications more quickly. In Boston, officials will add more officers and in March will add an extra day, Saturday, to help break up the backlog in citizenship interviews.

Officials in Massachusetts had hoped the delays would be shorter. But after opening hundreds of applications that came in before the fee increases, a process they finished just recently, they realized the wait could be as long as 18 months, which is also the national average. Before the fee change, the wait here was four to five months, and about six months nationally. - Boston Globe

Ha, get it? Mass immigration.

Tear Gas Fired At Mexicans

SAN DIEGO - Border Patrol agents are firing tear gas and powerful pepper-spray weapons across the border into Mexico to repel what the agency says are an increasing number of attacks by assailants hurling rocks, bottles and bricks.

The counteroffensive has drawn complaints that innocent families are being caught in the crossfire.

"A neighbor shouted, 'Stop it! There are children living here," said Esther Arias Medina, 41, who on Wednesday fled her Tijuana, Mexico, shanty with her 3-week-old grandson after the infant began coughing from smoke that seeped through the walls. - Associated Press

Dubya's plan shot down

The Senate dealt a fatal blow on Thursday to President George W. Bush's planned overhaul of immigration policy, dashing the hopes of millions of immigrants seeking legal status.

It's okay, George. You win a few, you lose a lot. Especially when most of the Senate disagrees with you.

Two immigrants say they were drugged

Two immigrants who are appealing deportation orders claim they were forcibly sedated as the U.S. tried to fly them out of the country.

According to their attorneys, Raymond Soeoth of Indonesia was injected with anti-psychotic drugs, and Amadou Diouf was sedated while on a plane last year.

Demonstators support illegals

From the Boston Globe:

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in New Haven Tuesday as part of nationwide marches demanding a path to citizenship for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, who many said have been unfairly targeted in raids and deportations.

Can't anyone immigrate the legal way?

Illegal migrants in the US Virgin Islands

From the Boston Globe:

Some 400 illegal migrants have been intercepted entering the U.S. Virgin Islands over the past six months, officials say.

Does anyone LEGALLY migrate anymore?