About Immigration

This page contains an archive of the last 100 entries posted to ProgressNow.org Daily News Digest in the Immigration category. They are listed from newest to oldest. You can find older entries using the search box below.

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February 29, 2008

Officials Split on Viability of Border-Fence Project - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/washington/29fence.html?ref=washington...
A top Homeland Security Department official said Thursday that a pilot project to create a virtual fence along parts of the Mexican border had been a success, but he said the technology was never intended to be used — and would not be used — across the entire length of the border. “It is working, and it met the requirements,” Jayson P. Ahern, deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, said of the pilot project during a briefing with reporters in Washington. Mr. Ahern’s assessment was in line with an announcement last Friday by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff but contradicted testimony on Wednesday by an official from the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan watchdog arm of Congress.
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Appeals court denies injunction against controversial Arizona law - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-arizona29feb29,1,1408759.st...
A federal appeals court Thursday refused to block a controversial Arizona law that shuts down businesses for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. The action by the three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco clears the way for the statute to be enforced beginning Saturday. In a brief order, the judges said that business and immigrant rights groups had not shown an adequate need for delaying enforcement of the law. After the measure went into effect Jan. 1, county prosecutors said they would not file any cases until March 1 to allow the courts time to decide whether to issue the injunction. A trial court judge earlier this month found the law to be constitutional. The 9th Circuit panel will consider that issue at hearings this spring but is not expected to rule for many months.
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Deportee torn between two countries - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-deport29feb29,1,4887904.sto...
A Salvadoran is returned to his native land, leaving one family behind and reuniting with another.
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Visas for War Zone Translators Halted - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/28/AR2008022803809....
The State Department has stopped processing the applications of 551 Iraqi and Afghan translators seeking special visas to come to the United States, because the current legal quota of 500 visas for the program this year is about to be reached, according to department officials. The applicants, all of whom have worked for U.S. military forces, received an e-mail notice from the State Department's National Visa Center last week. "We have temporarily stopped processing cases," the message said, adding that "the applicant should NOT make any travel arrangements, sell property or give up employment until the US Embassy or Consulate General has issued a visa." The halt is the latest obstacle for many of the several thousand translators who have worked for U.S. military units in Iraq and Afghanistan, risking their lives and leaving their families vulnerable to retaliation from insurgents who see them as accomplices of American troops. More than 250 interpreters working for U.S. forces or their contractors have been killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Many American service members have worked to help their former translators gain a visa to come to the United States under a 2006 congressional program initially designed to admit 50 translators per year, a quota later increased to 500.
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February 28, 2008

Border Patrol Agent’s Trial in Killing of Illegal Immigrant Starts in Arizona - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/us/28agent.html?ref=us...
In a patch of desert just north of Mexico, what began as a relatively routine interception a year ago ended when a Border Patrol agent shot and killed an illegal immigrant at close range. Whether the agent’s action was murder or self-defense is being resolved at a trial that began this week in the heated atmosphere over illegal immigration. The agent, Nicholas W. Corbett, 40, was charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide for a shooting that prosecutors say was unprovoked as the immigrant, Francisco Javiér Domínguez, 22, was surrendering. The prosecutor, Grant Woods, a former state attorney general, said Wednesday at the trial that Agent Corbett had lied to supervisors about what occurred. Scientific evidence, Mr. Woods said, overwhelmingly supported the accounts of Mr. Domínguez’s companions, all relatives. “We all respect the Border Patrol and law enforcement, but you don’t kill somebody who is trying to surrender,” he told the jury.
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Wrongly deported man sues U.S. - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-27-wrongfuldeportation_N.htm...
A wrongly deported U.S. citizen who was missing for months in Mexico sued the Department of Homeland Security and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on Wednesday. Pedro Guzman, 30, who is mentally disabled, was deported last May after he was arrested and jailed on a misdemeanor trespassing charge. For nearly three months, his family searched for him in shelters, jails and morgues in Tijuana, Mexico, and the surrounding area. During that time, he rummaged for food in garbage cans, washed himself in rivers and walked as far south as Ensenada — more than 60 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the lawsuit. Guzman tried to return to the United States several times, but was turned away. He was found near the Calexico border crossing in August and reunited with his family. "I will never forget what Peter looked like when he finally returned to the U.S. — exhausted and in terrible shape," said Guzman's brother, Michael. "Peter's life is forever changed by what his government did to him."
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'Virtual Fence' Along Border To Be Delayed - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/27/AR2008022703747....
The Bush administration has scaled back plans to quickly build a "virtual fence" along the U.S.-Mexico border, delaying completion of the first phase of the project by at least three years and shifting away from a network of tower-mounted sensors and surveillance gear, federal officials said yesterday. Technical problems discovered in a 28-mile pilot project south of Tucson prompted the change in plans, Department of Homeland Security officials and congressional auditors told a House subcommittee. Though the department took over that initial stretch Friday from Boeing, authorities confirmed that Project 28, the initial deployment of the Secure Border Initiative network, did not work as planned or meet the needs of the U.S. Border Patrol.
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February 27, 2008

Attacks against border agents on record pace - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-26-Borderviolence_N.htm...
Violence against government agents working along the U.S.-Mexican border is escalating in response to government efforts to crack down on illegal drug and human smuggling rings, Homeland Security officials say. Since 2004, the number of assaults has more than doubled, from 384 that year to 987 in fiscal 2007. And this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, is set to significantly outpace the last one: 409 to 275. Most of the assaults involve so-called "rockings," in which drug and human smugglers throw rocks, bricks and other objects at agents. But Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said more serious incidents have been reported. "We've had occasions of people shooting at agents, trying to run agents down with vehicles, throwing large rocks or pieces of brick or concrete at agents, which actually can be fatal, and I've seen some pretty serious injuries that have resulted from it," he said. "The levels have consistently increased."
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U.S. Steps Up Deportation Of Immigrant Criminals - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/26/AR2008022603705....
Immigration officials are increasingly scouring jails and courts nationwide and reviewing years-old criminal records to identify deportable immigrants, efforts that have contributed to a steep rise in deportations and strained the immigration court system. Long accused of failing to do enough to deport illegal immigrants convicted of crimes, federal authorities have recently strengthened partnerships with local corrections systems and taken other steps to monitor immigrants facing charges, officials said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that in the 12-month period that ended Sept. 30, it placed 164,000 criminals in deportation proceedings, a sharp increase from the 64,000 the agency said it identified and placed in proceedings the year before. The agency estimates that the number will rise to 200,000 this year.
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U.N. official: Helping Iraqi refugees is urgent - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2008-02-26-refugees_N.htm...
A top U.N. refugee official warned on Tuesday of the possibility that Iraqi refugees might be expelled from their sanctuaries unless the United States, Iraq and other countries act quickly to help them. L. Craig Johnstone, deputy to the U.N. High Commissioner of Refugees, said a "window of opportunity" now exists to provide for their care because of "a clear improvement in the security situation" following a recent buildup of U.S. troops in Iraq. "This window of opportunity should not be taken for granted, as it is difficult to predict what the security environment will be like following the 'surge' and the current pause in sectarian violence, ... or how long the generosity and tolerance of Iraq's neighbors, particularly Syria and Jordan, will last," he said. Johnstone testified before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee. The panel is examining whether the United States could do more to help the refugee problem. "It is believed by many that this is an American-made crisis," said Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., the subcommittee's chairman. "Our response must therefore be timely, decisive and fully resourced — not simply because it is right and reflects our values, but because it will prevent the further erosion of how we are viewed in the region."
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February 26, 2008

Immigration Agency Accused of Illegal Searches - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/25/AR2008022503369....
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. At the gathering at the Hay-Adams hotel in the District, witnesses and members of the 10-person panel accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials of using arrest warrants for a limited number of illegal immigrants who work at a given company as a pretext to detain the entire workforce, including many U.S. citizens, while agents determine whether there are additional illegal immigrants among them. "Tens of millions of workers in America go to work every day without . . . an awareness that at their workplaces, without any warning, they could be swept up in a massive raid conducted by heavily armed government agents," said Joe Hansen, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and chairman of the National Commission on ICE Misconduct and Violations of 4th Amendment Rights. "Workers are not aware that they could be detained at gunpoint. That they could be handcuffed. . . . That they could be denied any contact with family members or legal counsel."
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Mexicans Barely Increased Remittances in ’07 - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/business/worldbusiness/26mexico.html?ref=busin...
Mexicans working in the United States sent back almost $24 billion to their families at home last year, almost the same amount as the year before, the Mexican central bank reported on Monday. The bank said the economic slowdown and the crackdown on illegal immigrants in the United States helped to explain sluggish growth in money transfers, known as remittances. Remittances grew 17 percent in 2006, in line with the annual double-digit growth over much of this decade. But in 2007, they increased by just 1 percent, to $23.98 billion. The sharp contraction in the United States housing industry last year had a particularly noticeable effect on remittances because many Mexicans are employed in construction.
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February 22, 2008

Immigrants sue to speed citizenship applications - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-21-namecheck_N.htm...
Mohammad Barikbin came to the USA in 1988 and says he has spent every day since then fulfilling the American dream. The Iranian immigrant started a catering business in Philadelphia, then a taxi company and a taxi call center, all while investing in real estate. His 26-year-old son, Mehrdad, is a Marine. His 16-year-old son, Bijan, plays high school football. But there's a critical piece missing from Barikbin's American dream: He's not an American yet. Barikbin, 57, is a legal permanent resident, known as a "green card" holder. He is among nearly 68,000 legal immigrants whose citizenship applications have been stalled for six months or more by an FBI background check of their names. Some have been waiting for years with little or no information about the status of their applications or the reasons for the delay.
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Arizona 'Virtual Fence' to Get Final OK -- chicagotribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-border-fence,1,1260544.sto...
A 28-mile "virtual fence" that will use radars and surveillance cameras to try to catch people entering the country illegally has gotten final government approval. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Friday was to announce approval of the fence, built by the Boeing Co. and using technology the Bush administration plans to extend to other areas of the Arizona border, as well as sections of Texas. These projects could get under way as early as this summer, officials said. The virtual fence is part of a national plan to secure the southwest border with physical barriers and high-tech detection capabilities intended to stop illegal immigrants on foot and drug smugglers in vehicles. As of Feb. 8, 295 miles of fencing had been constructed.
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February 21, 2008

Union Says Immigration Policy Doesn’t Go Far Enough in Phoenix - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/us/21brfs-UNIONSAYSIMM_BRF.html?ref=us...
The union representing 2,500 rank-and-file Phoenix police officers said Tuesday that a new policy requiring the police to ask the immigration status only of people under arrest does not go far enough and could allow illegal immigrants to commit more crimes. The policy announced Friday by Mayor Phil Gordon and an advisory panel applies to misdemeanor and felony arrests but not civil traffic stops. The police would have the option to send written notification to Immigration and Customs Enforcement on people detained but not arrested. Mark Spencer, president of the union, the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, said a suspect’s immigration status was already checked at the county jail under a sheriff’s department policy, making the Phoenix policy moot.
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February 18, 2008

Border Fence Would Slice Through Private Land - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021503303....
In the 240 years since the Spanish Crown granted Eloisa Tamez's colonial ancestors title to this flat, grassy expanse along the Rio Grande's northern bank, her family has steadily lost its holdings to the Mexican War of Independence, the U.S. annexation of Texas and the Great Depression. Now Tamez faces what could prove the final blow: The Department of Homeland Security has proposed building a section of the U.S-Mexico border fence mandated by Congress directly through the last three acres of the family's original 12,000-acre tract. But the 72-year-old nursing professor has a message for any government officials who expect her to leave quietly. "I'm not going down without a fight," Tamez said, her dark eyes narrowing as she gazed beyond her back yard toward a field where she used to pick tomatoes as a child. "My father, my grandfather and my great-grandfather farmed this land. This is the land that gave me my life and my spirit. . . . I will fight this all the way." Across South Texas, dozens of landowners and municipal leaders are making similar vows, mounting a concerted effort to prevent government surveyors from even examining their properties, let alone erecting the fence on them.
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Student's deportation roils New Mexico town - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-school18feb18,1,431443.stor...
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. A school security officer stopped Karina Acosta, an 18-year-old pregnant Roswell High School senior, and discovered she was in the country illegally. He called federal immigration authorities, who swiftly deported her. The district superintendent protested and the officer was removed from the school and transferred back to the city Police Department. About three dozen angry students and parents marched on police headquarters -- a notable event in a town not accustomed to controversy -- and were met by a handful of counterdemonstrators who backed the officer. The schools suffered a sudden drop in attendance as students whose parents were in the country illegally kept them home. The local newspaper was peppered with angry letters to the editor denouncing illegal immigrants. And even two months later, unease permeates the community.
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February 15, 2008

48 indicted for immigrant smuggling in Ariz., Mexico - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-15-immigrant-smuggling_N.htm...
Forty-eight people accused of taking part in an immigrant trafficking ring have been indicted on human smuggling and money laundering charges, authorities said. The group brought in as much as $130,000 a week moving people from Naco, Mexico, to its center of operations in Phoenix and then to destinations across the United States, Phoenix police Lt. Vince Piano said Thursday. Piano said the ring was believed to be one of the biggest operating in Arizona, the busiest illegal entry point into the country. "It's not the end of the game, but we believe we have made some very important intelligence directions in the fight against the smugglers," said Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, whose office was prosecuting the case. Ten of the 48 suspects were arrested. An additional 10 people who are expected to face charges in the future also were netted in the sweep, authorities said.
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Major Immigrant Smuggling Ring Is Broken in Phoenix, Police Say - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/15/us/15smuggle.html?ref=us...
In a case highlighting this city’s prominent role in the smuggling of illegal immigrants across the border, the authorities conducted a series of raids on Thursday, arresting what they said were the leaders of a ring that helped transport hundreds of people to way stations in Phoenix. In some ways, it was just a typical day here, where the police regularly discover houses with dozens of people held by smugglers until they can pay their passage from Mexico. In a separate operation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and the Maricopa County sheriff here announced the arrests of more than 100 people suspected of being in the country illegally who were on probation for various crimes. But the raids on Thursday morning, by a task force of state, local and federal officers, provided a glimpse behind what the authorities described as one of the more elaborate operations that bring thousands of people across the border in this state, which has more illegal crossings than any other.
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February 12, 2008

Study Foresees the Fall of an Immigration Record That Has Lasted a Century - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/us/12immig.html?ref=us...
If present trends continue, within two decades the nation’s foreign-born population will surpass the historic 19th-century peak of nearly 15 percent of all residents, according to projections released Monday. Further, because a vast wave of baby boomers will be swelling the ranks of the elderly, the so-called dependency ratio — the number of people below 18 and above 64 compared with the number of those in the prime working years —will rise to 72 per 100 by 2050 from about 59 per 100 in 2005, according to the projections, by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. The ratio will be even higher if immigration subsides, the report found. What such an outcome could portend, other analysts have said, is a nation riven politically between older, whiter, voting retirees who are increasingly supported by a younger, darker, working population that, as immigrants, may be disproportionately ineligible to vote.
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U.S. growth spurt seen by 2050 - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-11-population_N.htm...
The U.S. population will soar to 438 million by 2050 and the Hispanic population will triple, according to projections released Monday by the Pew Research Center. The latest projections by the non-partisan research group are higher than government estimates to date and paint a portrait of an America dramatically different from today's. The projected growth in the U.S. population — 303 million today — will be driven primarily by immigration.
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Study: By 2050, nearly 1 in 5 U.S. residents to be immigrants -- chicagotribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-immigration-study_13feb12,1,2...
By 2050 nearly one in every five U.S. residents will be an immigrant, far exceeding any ratio of immigrants the nation has seen in at least a century and a half, according to a new projection released Monday. The estimate by the Washington-based Pew Research Center reflects the steady train of upward adjustments many population experts have made in recent decades, both in the total U.S. population expected and in the proportion of immigrants. Demographers have long monitored U.S. census data in an effort to project current trends forward, providing a snapshot of the future that could help lay out policy questions facing the country.
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U.S. Latino Population Projected To Soar - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/11/AR2008021101294....
The number of Hispanics in the United States will triple by 2050 and represent nearly 30 percent of the population if current trends continue, according to a report released yesterday. The study by the nonpartisan, Washington-based Pew Research Center also found that nearly one in five Americans will be foreign-born in 2050, compared with about one in eight today. Asian Americans, representing 5 percent of the population today, are expected to boost their share to 9 percent. Blacks are projected to maintain their current 13 percent share. Non-Hispanic whites will still be the nation's largest group, the report says, but would drop from 67 percent of U.S. residents to 47 percent.
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U.S. to Skirt Green-Card Check - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/11/AR2008021103132....
Facing a rapidly growing backlog of immigration cases, the Bush administration will grant permanent residency to tens of thousands of legal U.S. immigrants without first completing required background checks against the FBI's investigative files. The change affects a large but unknown number of about 47,000 permanent residency, or green-card, applicants whose cases are otherwise complete but whose FBI checks have been pending for more than six months, U.S. officials said. Overall, about 44 percent of the 320,000 pending immigration name checks before the FBI -- including citizenship as well as green-card requests -- have waited more than six months. The delays have been called "the most pervasive" processing problem in the U.S. immigration system, according to Prakash Khatri, the ombudsman of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
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Arizona Seeing Signs of Flight by Immigrants - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/us/12arizona.html?ref=us...
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. While it is too early to know for certain, a consensus is developing among economists, business people and immigration groups that the weakening economy coupled with recent curbs on illegal immigration are steering Hispanic immigrants out of the state. The Arizona economy, heavily dependent on growth and a Latino work force, has been slowing for months. Meanwhile, the state has enacted one of the country’s toughest laws to punish employers who hire illegal immigrants, and the county sheriff here in Phoenix has been enforcing federal immigration laws by rounding up people living here illegally.
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Illegal workers targeted in R.I. - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/02/12/illegal_workers_targeted_in...
Rhode Island, facing a budget crisis that will lead to massive cutbacks, is engulfed in the most intense battle over illegal immigration in New England, with Republicans and Democrats alike calling for a crackdown on unauthorized workers. In the past few weeks, state lawmakers and the governor have proposed a battery of measures targeting unauthorized workers, from expelling undocumented children from the state's healthcare system to making English the official language to jailing business owners and landlords who harbor illegal workers. Even the father of the state's first baby born in the New Year was caught up in the issue. Days after a beaming Mynor Montufar appeared in the news, the illegal immigrant was picked up for deportation to Guatemala.
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February 11, 2008

In Reversal, Courts Uphold Local Immigration Laws - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/us/10immig.html...
After groups challenging state and local laws cracking down on illegal immigration won a series of high-profile legal victories last year, the tide has shifted as federal judges recently handed down several equally significant decisions upholding those laws. On Thursday, a federal judge in Arizona ruled against a lawsuit by construction contractors and immigrant organizations who sought to halt a state law that went into effect on Jan. 1 imposing severe penalties on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. The judge, Neil V. Wake of Federal District Court, methodically rejected all of the contractors’ arguments that the Arizona law invaded legal territory belonging exclusively to the federal government. On Jan. 31, a federal judge in Missouri, E. Richard Webber, issued a similarly broad and even more forcefully worded decision in favor of an ordinance aimed at employers of illegal immigrants adopted by Valley Park, Mo., a city on the outskirts of St. Louis.
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February 8, 2008

Judge upholds Arizona hiring law - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-arizona8feb08,1,3760034.sto...
A federal judge Thursday upheld a controversial new Arizona law that mandates the closure of businesses that knowingly hire illegal immigrants. U.S. District Judge Neil Wake rejected the arguments of business and immigrant-rights groups, which sued saying the law was an unconstitutional usurping of the federal government's right to regulate immigration. "The act does not make employers conform to a stricter form of conduct than federal law," Wake wrote in his 37-page decision. Under the law, a company is placed on probation the first time it is found to have knowingly hired undocumented workers. The second time, its license is revoked, essentially ending its ability to operate in Arizona.
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Mexican Robin Hood Figure Gains a Kind of Notoriety in U.S. - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/us/08narcosaint.html?ref=us...
Jesus Malverde has been revered for almost a century in northwestern Mexico. According to folklore, he was a Mexican Robin Hood who took from the rich and gave to the poor until he was killed by the police in 1909. Now, immigrants have brought his legend to the United States. His image, which is thought to offer protection from the law, can be found on items that include T-shirts and household cleaners.
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February 7, 2008

White House Moves to Ease Guest Worker Program - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/washington/07immig.html?ref=washington...
The Bush administration announced plans on Wednesday to overhaul the notoriously inefficient federal guest worker program for agriculture, seeking to provide more legal workers to American farmers who now rely primarily on illegal immigrants. Since legislation to give legal status to illegal immigrant farm workers failed last year in Congress, the administration is now taking action that does not require Congressional approval to streamline the existing guest worker program. Most farmers have shunned the program, known as H2A for the type of visa the foreign farm workers receive, because it was too cumbersome to meet their fast-moving harvest labor needs. Growers cautiously welcomed the proposed changes, saying they would be helpful but would fall far short of solving the shortage of legal workers. Advocates for farm workers warned that the measures would lower wages for those who are already in the United States.
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Changes Planned In Visa Program For Farmworkers - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/06/AR2008020604246....
The Bush administration proposed changes yesterday to a little-used agricultural guest-worker program that would provide incentives for farmers to hire foreigners legally. The proposed changes include a system for calculating how foreign workers are paid and centralizing the application process under the federal government. Immigration advocates said the changes would weaken rules that protect workers under the program. The administration defended the proposal as a direct response to Congress's failure last year to change the nation's immigration laws and as a way to address a shortage of legal farmworkers. "It is precisely because Congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform that the president directed executive agencies to take a closer look at the programs they administer," said Leon R. Sequeira, the assistant secretary of labor for policy. "Our goal here is to make the program work so that agricultural employers will use it to hire more workers legally." The proposed rules do not require congressional action and can take effect after a 45-day public comment period.
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February 6, 2008

Overhaul set for guest-worker plan - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immig6feb06,1,2077970.story...
The Bush administration today plans to announce the most significant overhaul in two decades of the nation's agricultural guest worker program, in a bid to dramatically increase the number of legal foreign laborers available to harvest crops. The revised regulations, many months in the works, would make it easier for growers to bring foreign workers to the United States and could alleviate the critical farmworker shortage largely caused by the U.S. crackdown on illegal border crossings. After Congress failed to overhaul immigration laws last summer, the White House announced a 26-step plan to tackle immigration issues through administrative fixes. Altering the legal-farmworker program would mark the most significant achievement to date. "There is huge potential here to replace the massive illegal workforce with a legal one," said Leon Sequeira, an assistant secretary at the Department of Labor. The greatest effect would be in California, the nation's largest agricultural state. Some farmers have had to plow rotting crops back into their fields for lack of workers at harvest time. But lawmakers and growers said Tuesday that more than an administrative fix was needed to solve the state's chronic farm labor shortages.
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February 5, 2008

Issues Start Rush to Citizenship by Hispanics - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/us/politics/05hispanic.html?ref=us...
Spurred by the widespread crackdown on illegal immigration and by the contentious tone of the national immigration debate, Latinos are gearing up for Tuesday’s voting with an eye toward making Hispanics a decisive voting bloc nationwide in November. After decades of relatively low Hispanic electoral participation, last year more than a million legal Latino immigrants applied to become citizens, with many saying they had done so to be able to vote. Since then, newly naturalized Hispanic-Americans and citizens since birth have turned out at voter registration fairs and political discussion groups, and pressed relatives to register. Last week’s primary in Florida, the first state with a big Hispanic population to vote, gave a demonstration of their potential clout. Hispanic voters, who were 12 percent of those voting — a strong turnout for a primary — handed the decisive edge in the Republican contest to Senator John McCain of Arizona over Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, according to exit polls by Edison/Mitofsky.
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Visa rule spells out 'help wanted' for some businesses - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-04-visas_N.htm...
Businesses that rely on seasonal workers are scrambling to fill positions, and some are shutting down, because there are fewer visas for the foreign workers who usually fill the jobs. Industries from coast to coast say the reduction in visas for temporary workers will hurt them and the economy. "We're thinking about shuttering the daggone thing," says John Graham of his crab processing company Graham & Rollins in Hampton, Va. Graham couldn't get visas this year for 110 Mexican workers who work from April to November alongside 18 locals. Graham says he's the last crab processor in town. "I've survived where the other 17 didn't," he says. "Now something out of my control is going to take me out."
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US May Not Meet Iraq Refugee Goal -- chicagotribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-us-iraq-refugees,1,7490013...
The Bush administration conceded Monday it may not meet its goal to admit 12,000 Iraqi refugees by the end of September, although officials stressed that remained their target. With the monthly admissions rate hovering in the low hundreds for the past four months despite pledges to improve refugee processing, officials said they expected a boost in numbers toward the end of spring and hoped for a significant surge in the summer. While January admissions improved slightly over December, to 375 from 245, the United States must still accept 10,568 Iraqi refugees in the next eight months if it is to reach 12,000 -- the number the administration has pledged to resettle in the current budget year, which began in October 2007 and runs until Sept. 30.
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U.S. Program Accepted 1,324 Iraqi Refugees in Past Four Months - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/04/AR2008020402808....
Bush administration officials said yesterday that 1,324 Iraqi refugees entered the United States from October through January, as part of a U.S. program aimed at bringing in 12,000 by Sept. 30. Ambassador James B. Foley, the State Department's senior coordinator of Iraqi refugee issues, told reporters yesterday that he still hopes the goal for the 2008 fiscal year will be met, but he acknowledged it is "not guaranteed." Since the program was launched in mid-2007, more than 3,000 Iraqi refugees have been admitted to the United States, with 375 arriving last month. Most of the estimated 2.2 million Iraqi refugees -- who have fled primarily to Syria and Jordan -- want to return home and are becoming a "looming problem" financially for the region, Foley said. Meanwhile, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has identified only about 17,000 as eligible for admission to the United States based on dangers they would face upon returning to Iraq.
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February 4, 2008

3-year-old incident in Texas remains a hot immigration issue -- chicagotribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-border_bd_georgefeb03,1,17342...
With its pecan groves and dusty cotton fields, the calm surrounding this stretch of the U.S.-Mexican border belies its role in one of the country's fiercest immigration dramas, one that has led to congressional hearings, impassioned protests and outrage from conservative media. It all began three years ago, when U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos and Jose Compean chased a van driven by Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, a Mexican national. Davila ditched the van about 100 yards from the border and sprinted across the Rio Grande toward Mexico, but not before Compean fired his gun at him and missed, and Ramos hit Davila with a single shot that sliced his buttocks and urethra. As Davila disappeared across the border, agents found nearly 800 pounds of marijuana in the van he was driving. On other points, the narrative diverges: Ramos and Compean say they fired their weapons only because they believed Davila had flashed a gun at them, and they insist they informed their supervisor about the shooting. Other agents disputed this claim during a federal trial, saying Ramos and Compean shot an unarmed man from behind, tried to cover it up and failed to report it properly. A jury in El Paso convicted the two agents of assault, obstruction of justice and civil rights violations, and each received lengthy federal prison sentences: 11 years for Ramos, 12 for Compean.
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February 1, 2008

Group: Immigration talks rouse hate - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-01-31-hatespeech_N.htm...
A national Hispanic advocacy organization said Thursday it is fighting back against what it considers to be "hate speech" that has emerged from the debate over immigration. National Council of La Raza President Janet Murguia announced plans to pressure television network executives and candidates seeking their parties' presidential nominations to clamp down on such remarks. The group launched a website to counter the speech, www.wecanstopthehate.org, with clips of what it considers offensive comments made on television, as well as a tracking of hate crimes. "Hate groups and extremists have taken over the immigration debate in an unprecedented wave of hate," Murguia said. Although some comments could be considered free speech, "there is a line that sometimes can be crossed when it comes to free speech," she said. Some of the remarks the Hispanic group identified included referring to immigrants as an "army of invaders" or an "invading force," associating immigrants with animals, accusing immigrants of bringing crime and diseases such as leprosy to the U.S., and purveying a conspiracy theory that Hispanics are trying to take back parts of the United States once ruled by Mexico.
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Bush seeks 19% increase in border spending - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-border1feb01,1,554474.story...
The Bush administration wants to spend 19% more on border security and immigration enforcement in the next federal budget year, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday. In his annual budget request on Monday, President Bush will ask Congress to allocate $12.1 billion to construct more border fencing, hire more Border Patrol agents and expand the teams that conduct raids on businesses using illegal immigrants. Conservatives and the president's fellow Republicans have consistently attacked the administration for its record on border security. And lawmakers from both parties have criticized the Homeland Security Department's management of the fence construction project. Chertoff pointed out Thursday that the request for the 2009 fiscal year marks an increase of more than 150% on border security and immigration enforcement spending since Bush took office. "We will be continuing to build on the progress that we have made with respect to securing the border and enforcing the interior," Chertoff said.
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January 31, 2008

Tighter U.S. border ID rules begin - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-01-31-border-security_N.htm...
New rules for the types of identification U.S. or Canadian citizens must present to cross into the country shouldn't cause significant delays and won't be strictly enforced at first, a senior federal official said. Under the rules going into effect Thursday, people will no longer be allowed to simply declare to immigration officers at border crossings that they are citizens, Jayson Ahern, deputy commissioner with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said Tuesday. Instead, those 19 and older will have to show proof of citizenship — a passport, trusted traveler card or a birth certificate and government-issued ID such as a driver's license. "We'll be asking those who cross our borders to present to us secure, more reliable documents to prove citizenship and to confirm their identity," said Ahern, who is heading a national effort to call attention to the changes. "Those who do not present those documents ... may be delayed in entering the country as we try to verify the identity as well as determine the citizenship of the individual," he said.
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A 'sanctuary' for immigrants in Mexico - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-sanctuary31jan31,1,7357626.s...
The mayor of Ecatepec says those on their way north illegally are safe and welcome in his city.
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January 30, 2008

More states to deny illegal migrants driver's licenses - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-01-29-illegal-immigrants-licenses_N.htm...
States that have been issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants are making U-turns. Beginning Monday, illegal immigrants in Oregon no longer will be able to get driver's licenses. Last week, Michigan stopped issuing new licenses to all but citizens and legal permanent residents. Maryland announced this month that starting in 2010, it will require applicants to prove they're in the USA legally. In four of the five remaining states that allow illegal immigrants to drive — Hawaii, Maine, New Mexico, Utah and Washington — there have been attempts to reverse course, according to the National Immigration Law Center (NILC). The exception: Hawaii. "Oregon is one of the few states in the country that didn't have these ID requirements for driver's licenses," says Patty Wentz, spokeswoman for Gov. Ted Kulongoski. "That made us one of the weak links."
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January 25, 2008

Border Patrol ex