Guest Voz: Barack Obama Promises to Address Immigration Reform in 2009

From the blog:
Latina Lista
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
By Barack Obama

Last fall, Latina Lista sent an invitation to the major presidential candidates of both parties to "blog" on Latina Lista as a way to address our readers. As the campaigns are regrouping after what can only be described as a successful night for both of the Democratic frontrunners during the Super Tuesday elections, one Democratic candidate, who has yet to address Latina Lista readers, decided to forego some sleep and contribute a post.

By now in this campaign season, Senator Barack Obama is a familiar face. This Illinois Senator with a degree from Harvard was the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. He spent his early days after law school graduation practicing civil rights law and teaching constitutional law.

His experience in grassroots organizing helped lead to his bid for the Illinois State Senate where he served for eight years. In 2004, he became the third African American since Reconstruction to be elected to the U.S. Senate.

Today, Senator Obama shares his vision of the future and what he plans to bring to all the people who call the United States home.



I want to thank Latina Lista for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the blog and to talk about change in this great country with the Latina community.

Since the day I was born, I have been surrounded by strong women. I was raised by a single mother, have married a strong independent woman who has blessed me with two beautiful girls and now I'm trying to raise them to pursue their dreams no matter how big, and become future leaders.

As a son, husband and parent I am well aware that women are the core of family. Mothers, wives and sisters are the ones who protect us, care for us, teach us and encourage us.

I also know that for women of all backgrounds, keeping their families together is a top priority. It is no secret that Latino families are being separated from their families every day in this country because of raids and deportation policies that do not take family and humanity into account when trying to enforce laws.


That's why when I'm President, I will put comprehensive immigration reform back on the nation's agenda during my first year in office, and I will not rest until it is passed once and for all.


We must create an immigration system that strengthens our security while strengthening our families and reaffirming our heritage as a nation of immigrants -- a nation dedicated to giving weary travelers from around the world the chance to achieve their dreams.

That's the America that answered my father's letters and his prayers and brought him here from Kenya so long ago.

But the struggle does not end there.

At 21 percent, the national Latino high school dropout rate is more than twice the national average. Once more, under current law students who do excel in and out of school that were brought here as undocumented immigrant children have no hope of attending college with affordable in-state tuition.

We need to close the achievement gap between Latino and other students, reduce the high school dropout rate, and finally enact the DREAM Act so that every child can have the chance to attend college.

An Obama administration will also reflect the great diversity of our nation, and I'm proud that my campaign team is similarly diverse. I am lucky to have the support of Gloria Romero, Democratic Majority Leader of the California State Senate, Maria Elena Durazo, Rep. Linda Sanchez and Rep. Xavier Becerra. Federico Peña, former Energy Secretary, serves as a National Campaign Co-Chair.

I have also worked closely with Congressman Luis Gutierrez here in Illinois and consider him an amazing leader in the struggle to pass immigration reform and ensure that immigration application fees are reasonable and fair.

While we recognize our diversity of background and experiences, what makes this country great are the common goals and dreams we as Americans share. We all fundamentally want the same things in life: the best opportunities for our children, a decent job and the knowledge that our government will not stand by while families are being separated, while people lose their livelihoods and their homes because of an illness their insurance will not cover.

It is not only important, but urgent, that we come together this election and ensure that as one nation, we change the direction of politics in this country. Let us together bring about a politics of hope and change.

President Felipe Calderón (Photo: Guillermo Arias/Associated Press)

Mexican President's Whirlwind Visit

By Fernanda Santos
February 11, 2008, 6:27 pm
New York Times

One very rushed president, 50 community leaders, dozens of concerns and under 30 minutes of face time: that, in a nutshell, is what characterized the meeting this afternoon between President Felipe Calderón of Mexico and a group of Mexican activists from across the New York region, held behind closed doors at the New York Marriott Downtown Hotel in Lower Manhattan.

The encounter had a decidedly grassroots tone, which, from the looks of his official agenda, seems to be exactly the tone that Mr. Calderón is trying to strike during his first official visit to the United States since he took office on Dec. 1, 2006.

The agenda includes meetings with Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York and community leaders here, in Chicago and in Los Angeles, as well as a stop in Boston tonight for a speech at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where Mr. Calderón received a master's degree. Mr. Calderón arrived on Sunday and his last official engagement is on Thursday, in California.

This afternoon, he did not speak with the reporters from Spanish-language newspapers and television stations based in New York and Mexico, some of whom arrived at the hotel three hours before the start of the meeting at 1:30 p.m. In fact, before Mr. Calderón's motorcade pulled up, hotel security kicked the reporters onto the cold street and police officers pushed them to the corner. "Presidente! Presidente!" the reporters screamed and Mr. Calderón responded with a quick wave of the hand before he disappear behind the hotel's revolving doors.

Joel Magallán, executive director of Asociación Tepeyac de New York, an education and advocacy group, called the meeting "una entrada," or an entryway, meaning it was not meaningful enough to produce any results, but could mark the start of a relationship.

"Yes, the meeting was important so he could see the faces of the people who have been working for the Mexicans in the United States," Mr. Magallán said in Spanish after the encounter. "But we didn't have time to talk. There were a lot of people, and we all had a lot to say, and there was no time to say it all."

Mr. Magallán and a handful of the other activists who attended the event had two minutes each to express their concerns to Mr. Calderón – a diverse roster that ranged from the reverberations of tighter immigration enforcement within the Mexican community to the long delays Mexicans in New York face when applying for a new passport (six months on average, a consular official said) and the need for those who have become American citizens to register to vote.

"Those who have the ability, that they register to vote, that they exercise their right to vote so that they can influence the future of this country," said Mexico's ambassador to the United States, Arturo Sarukhan, who attended the meeting and shared Mr. Calderón's position on electoral participation with reporters afterward.

Mr. Calderón didn't make many promises; mostly, he just listened, the community leaders said. Manuel Guerrero, a union organizer and a member of the Mexican Institute Abroad, founded by the administration of former Mexican President Vicente Fox in 2006 to build relations among Mexican groups in the United States, said that when asked about illegal immigration, Mr. Calderón told the audience that America's "conservative right has not succeeded in pushing its anti-immigrant agenda."

"He said that what happened to Tom Tancredo was an example of that," Mr. Guerrero said, referring to Mr. Tancredo's failed bid to galvanize support for the Republican presidential nomination on a platform that revolved almost exclusively around the issue of illegal immigration.
Mr. Calderón also talked about the inter-dependence that has characterized U.S.-Mexico relations, with Mexico providing much of the low-wage labor needed in the United States and the United States providing Mexicans who are here the opportunity to work and sending billions of dollars each year to support their families back home.

To alleviate the delays at the consulate, Mr. Calderon announced that two mobile consular offices will be put in operation starting Tuesday, so that Mexicans who live outside of New York City will no longer have to come to the city for services, like getting a new passport or arranging to transport a dead relative for burial back home.

Norberta Díaz of Asociación de Mujeres Poblanas, a Brooklyn-based organization that educates Mexican women about America's health and educational systems, said that she understands if Mr. Calderón can't influence immigration policies in the United States. "But he can apply pressure," she said.

"We're not asking for amnesty. All we ask for is reform," she added. "We hope he won't do like President Fox did when Bush came to Mexico, when he had this big party with ranchera music and food. When he hosts a visit from the next president of the United States, we hope that Calderón talks about immigration and shows that he's interested, that he cares about what happens to the Mexicans who are here."

This PYGMY needs to round up his illegal aliens and their anchors, fix his freaking economy and stay the hell out of America's business. WE DO NOT NEED OR WANT MEXICO'S POVERTY STRICKEN MASSES.

GO BACK TO YOUR CRIMINAL CESSPOOL EMPIRE KNOWN AS MEXICO PYGMY WE ARE SICK OF YOU AND ALL OF YOUR CRIMINAL, BREEDERS, MURDERERS, RAPISTS, CHILD MOLESTORS, DRUG PEDALERS AND INVADERS S-UC-KING AMERICA DRY.

Easy on the bold please, per Sam.

STFU AND MYOB PER ME . . Please . . . .

quote:

STFU AND MYOB PER ME . . Please

Uh Oh...Foul language, whether it is in text form or full length wording, it is still foul language.

Please note the above Sam .

quote:

Originally posted by Sprint_girl07:

quote:

STFU AND MYOB PER ME . . Please

Uh Oh...Foul language, whether it is in text form or full length wording, it is still foul language.

Please note the above Sam .

Really? Tsk . . such a dirty mind, there's nothing foul about telling someone to Shut the Freak Up and Mind Your Own Business. . . , which BTW (that's short for BY THE WAY ) the same applies to you.

See ya tag team s]

Time to PM each other with the next lame harrassment scheme

Is that what you've done all your life - scream harrassment?

BTW, don't saddle a dead horse.

QUOTE]Originally posted by explora:


spam (v)

espamear, amorcillar, amorongar


spam

un bombardeo (m) de grandes cantidades de correo con el propósito de bloquear el servidor, espam (m), morcilla (f), moronga (f)


Please don't spam!
¡No spam por favor!


Don't be a spammer!
¡No seas un spammer!

Please don't duplicate newspaper articles into various threads of our ilw discussion board.
No dupliques por favor los artículos periodísticos en los varios hilos de rosca de nuestro tablero de la discusión del ilw.[/QUOTE]

quote:

Originally posted by explora:


This is soooooo good!!!

SUPERMAN DEPORTED

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/846148fcb0

I haven't watched, but since you think its so good I think it's only right that I copy it to all of your threads. [/QUOTE]Originally posted by explora:


This is soooooo good!!!

SUPERMAN DEPORTED

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/846148fcb0[/QUOTE]

.9 quake hits U.S.-Mexico border region


Updated 6h 56m ago
usatoday.com

CALEXICO, Calif. (AP) "” A magnitude-4.9 earthquake rocked the northern Baja California region of Mexico near the U.S. border on Monday, just days after the region was hit by a magnitude-5.4 temblor, authorities said.
Monday's quake, which occurred around 10:30 a.m. PT, was centered about 20 miles southeast of the border town of Mexicali at a depth of nearly 4 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The epicenter was 23 miles south-southeast of the U.S. city of Calexico.

The magnitude was revised down from an initial magnitude of 5.1.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries on the U.S. side, according to the Imperial County Sheriff's Department and Calexico police.

The quake was felt in California in parts of San Diego, Imperial and Orange counties and as far away as Yuma, Ariz., about 50 miles from Calexico, according to the USGS.

Early Saturday, the Mexicali area was shaken by a magnitude-5.4 quake that shut down factories and knocked out electricity for 400,000 people.

The latest temblor was likely an aftershock of the magnitude-5.4 event last week, said Julie Martinez, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.

A swarm of smaller quakes, ranging from magnitudes 2.5 to 2.9, preceded Monday's temblor. At least five aftershocks were recorded including one registering a magnitude-3.6, the USGS said.

I wonder if places like Westmont IL get quakes?

Forecast Conditions High/Low ˚F Precip.
Chance High Temperatures Low Temperatures Precipitation Wind Speed
Tonight
Feb 11 Snow Late
N/A/12˚ 80%


High not valid after 2pm
Tue
Feb 12 Snow
21˚/9˚ 100%
21˚F

Plan Your Escape From the Cold
Wed
Feb 13 Partly Cloudy
21˚/17˚ 20%
21˚F

Thu
Feb 14 Partly Cloudy
36˚/19˚ 10%
36˚F

Fri
Feb 15 Partly Cloudy
22˚/7˚ 20%
22˚F

Plan Your Escape From the Cold
Sat
Feb 16 Partly Cloudy
23˚/15˚ 10%
23˚F

Sun
Feb 17 Mostly Cloudy
28˚/22˚ 20%
28˚F

Mon
Feb 18 AM Clouds / PM Sun
29˚/15˚ 20%
29˚F

Learn How Cold Affects Your Health
Tue
Feb 19 Partly Cloudy
24˚/14˚ 20%
24˚F

Wed
Feb 20 Partly Cloudy
32˚/19˚ 10%
32˚F


Last Updated Feb 11, 11:06 PM CT Printable Forecast


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Duh Bev!

Group to educate on immigration

By MAURA POSSLEY
mpossley@bradenton.com

A band of immigration activists, including New College students and alumni, are forming a local immigrant rights coalition aimed largely at educating the community on the controversial topic.

"The most important part will probably be to educate people about the issue and form some sort of consensus on how to pressure either local leaders or whoever's involved to do something about the issue," said Jose Godinez Samperio, an organizer of the group, dubbed the Manasota Immigrant Rights Coalition. "We want to have a very well spread-out movement."

Samperio and New College alumnus Adam Roca, among other campus activists, have picked up on the issue locally, planning protests and forums as comprehensive immigration reform has repeatedly been debated in Congress.

Most recently, they protested an appearance in Sarasota last year by CNN commentator Lou Dobbs, who has become an outspoken national voice on immigration. They described as biased, his reporting on the country's undocumented population.

"It's really hard to get anything through when so many people are adamantly against it (immigration)," Samperio said. "It usually comes down to explaining to other people who are anti-immigrant the importance of the pro-immigrant movement."

They are hoping for the participation from local immigrants, residents or anyone who is seeking to get involved, Samperio said.

"The general idea is to have some sort of organization or structure so that we can continue to work on the issues surrounding immigration," Roca said.

Goals for the group that Roca has brainstormed include stepping up sit-ins or protests, networking with national immigrant organizations and possibly pushing for the city of Sarasota to become a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants, a move he said would be mostly symbolic in nature.

What they don't plan on, Roca said, is to sit around and simply talk about the issue.

"There's also this element of taking things to street and making the message more lively, more vibrant," he said.

Maura Possley, Herald reporter , can be reached at 748-0411, ext. 2640.


If you go

What: Manasota Immigrant Rights Coalition meeting

When: 7 p.m. Feb. 20

Where: At New College's Hamilton Center, in the Fishbowl, 5800 Bay Shore Road, Sarasota

Thousands protest ICE in Danbury

Submitted by WW4 Report on Mon, 02/11/2008 - 21:16.

An estimated 3,500 people attended a rally on Feb. 6 in Danbury, Connecticut, to protest a partnership between Danbury police and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). While the demonstrators voiced their opposition outside City Hall, inside the Common Council voted 19-2 to invite ICE to train and deputize Danbury police as immigration agents. Mayor Mark Boughton, who backs the plan, said it will start with the training of two detectives to carry out investigations of immigrants suspected of human trafficking, drug smuggling or document fraud. (News-Times, Danbury, Feb. 7; Hartford Courant, Feb. 7)

Protesters carried signs and chanted "Stop 287," a reference to Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows ICE to train and deputize state and local enforcement agents to identify and detain people for violating immigration law. (AP, Feb. 6) Section 287(g) was introduced as part of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA). (ICE Fact Sheet: "Section 287(g) Immigration and Nationality Act," Aug. 16, 2006)

City officials decided in advance to limit attendance at the council meeting to 120 people, not including council members, news reporters and city employees. More than 30 police officers were deployed outside the building, but police reported no arrests. (News-Times, Feb. 7; Hartford Courant, Feb. 7) Some city businesses closed their doors for the day to protest the enforcement plan. (AP. Feb. 6)

Most of the demonstrators were from Danbury, but the crowd also included people who came by bus from Hartford and New Haven. "This is what being an American is all about, fighting for your rights," said Fernanda Franco, of Bethel, a legal Brazilian immigrant who sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the rally. "I waited 20 years to get my papers," Franco said. "Some of these people have waited even longer." (News-Times, Feb. 7)

Danbury has a greater proportion of foreign-born residents than any other community in Connecticut, according to US census estimates. Ted Duarte, a union carpenter who works in Danbury and traveled to the rally from Wallingford to support fellow union members, motioned to the chanting. "This says it all," he said. "For a city council that supposed to represent the city of Danbury, they should take a look out here"”this is Danbury." (New York Times, Feb. 7)

WEST COUNTY TODAY
west county today
Contra Costa Times
Article Launched: 02/12/2008 03:02:46 AM PST

Free legal workshop -- 6-8 p.m.

"What You Need to Know About Immigration Law."


Bring all legal papers.

Richmond Library, 325 Civic Center Plaza. Free. 925-370-2548.

TRANSLATED FROM:
http://www.laopinion.com/ciudad/?rkey=00000000000003247910

Diverse organizations of southern California prepare events to declare their nonconformity with the management of the president of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, during the visit that the president will carry out this Wednesday and Thursday in the city of Los Angeles.

Alfonso Gutiérrez, member of the Front Extensive Progressive of Los Angeles (FAPLA), told La Opinion that his and other groups plan a great protest, although they have not specified when and where it will be carried out, due to the changes in the President's agenda. As of now, he said, nearly a hundred people have declared their intention to be added to the demonstration.

"Mainly, there are three themes that we are going to undertake: the review of NAFTA, the detentions without court order under what already is known in Mexico as the 'Gestapo law ', and the imminent privatization of Mexico", the activist said, being referred to the proposals to permit the private and foreign investment in the Mexican government owned Oil (Pemex).

Alfonso Gutierrez:
E-Mail: alfcdjz@yahoo.es
Telephone: (323) 309 96 13

Originally posted by explora:


spam (v)

espamear, amorcillar, amorongar


spam

un bombardeo (m) de grandes cantidades de correo con el propósito de bloquear el servidor, espam (m), morcilla (f), moronga (f)


Please don't spam!
¡No spam por favor!


Don't be a spammer!
¡No seas un spammer!

Please don't duplicate newspaper articles into various threads of our ilw discussion board.
No dupliques por favor los artículos periodísticos en los varios hilos de rosca de nuestro tablero de la discusión del ilw.



Just returning this post to its rightful POSTER. YOU CAN ONLY FOOL SOME OF THE PEOPLE SOME OF THE TIME. YOU CHILDREN OF THE CORN ARE HILARIOUS . .



Posted 02-12-2008 02:47 PM Hide Post
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080212/sc_livesci...nodiscoveredinmexico

New Duck-Billed Dino Discovered in Mexico

A new species of duck-billed dinosaur unearthed in Mexico is helping scientists fill in gaps in the fossil record of the Age of Dinosaurs.

The creature, dubbed Velafrons coahuilensis, was a massive plant-eater belonging to a larger group of duck-billed dinosaurs called hadrosaurs.

The dino's species name comes from the region of Mexico where it was found, Coahuila. Little is known about the region's ancient animal and plant life because low rates of erosion have kept fossils hidden under layers of rock. But V. coahuilensis and other fossil finds are helping to shed light on this murky part of North American history.


"Dinosaurs from this particular period are important because this is a time that is relatively poorly understood," said Don Brinkman, a project researcher from Canada's Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology who is studying the non-dinosaur vertebrates found at the site, including turtles, fish and lizards. "The locality in Mexico goes a long way to filling in a gap in our knowledge of the record of changes in dinosaur assemblages throughout the Late Cretaceous era."


The new species of dinosaur is fully described in the December issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.


Split continent


V. coahuilensis, one of the first dinosaurs to be named from Mexico, was discovered in the early 1990s in a rock unit known as the Cerro del Pueblo Formation, which dates from about 71.5 to 72.5 million years ago, in the late Cretaceous.


During this period, a warm, shallow sea covered the central, low-lying portions of North America, splitting the continent in two.


The region of Mexico where V. coahuilensis was found was at the southernmost tip of the peninsula-like western landmass, called Laramidia. Now a desert, the area was then a humid estuary, where ocean sal****er met freshwater from rivers.


Large bonebeds of jumbled dinosaur skeletons suggest some of the animals died en masse during periodic powerful storms, like those that pummel the southern tips of Africa and South America today.


"The region was periodically hammered by monstrous storms, devastating miles of fertile coastline, apparently killing off entire herds of dinosaurs" said project team member Scott Sampson of the Utah Museum of Natural History.


North American first


The discovery of V. coahuilensis marks the first crested duck-billed dinosaur ever found in North America. Based on the development of its bones, paleontologists think the specimen was not yet fully grown. Still, the youngster would have spanned an imposing 25 feet in length, suggesting adults grew to a whopping 30 to 35 feet long.


Unlike other animals whose nose bones lie in front of their eyes, crested duck-bills' noses rested atop their skulls.


"The crested duck-billed dinosaurs are an extraordinary example of vertebrate evolution," said project member Terry Gates, also of the Utah Museum.


Scientists are unsure what the fan-shaped crest on V. coahuilensis's head was used for, but some think it could have been for attracting mates, with the animal's complex series of nasal passages acting like a musical instrument.


Along with V. coahuilensis, recent expeditions to the Cerro del Pueblo Formation have uncovered the remains of a second kind of duck-billed dino "” a Triceratops-like plant-eating horned dinosaur, large tyrannosaurs, small Velociraotor-like predators and the largest assemblage of dinosaur tracks known in Mexico.

Avian Ancestors: Dinosaurs That Learned to Fly
A Brief History of Dinosaurs
Images: Dinosaur Fossils
Original Story: New Duck-Billed Dino Discovered in Mexico

Visit LiveScience.com for more daily news, views and scientific inquiry with an original, provocative point of view. LiveScience reports amazing, real world breakthroughs, made simple and stimulating for people on the go. Check out our collection of Science, Animal and Dinosaur Pictures, Science Videos, Hot Topics, Trivia, Top 10s, Voting, Amazing Images, Reader Favorites, and more. Get cool gadgets at the new LiveScience Store, sign up for our free daily email newsletter and check out our RSS feeds today!

Florinda Gonza*** and her daughter Yury meet with bilingual volunteer Roberto Quantero at Ramsey Memorial United Methodist Church in Chesterfield County.
photo by Scott Elmquist


Illegals Risk Deportation to ... Pay Taxes?


by Amy Biegelsen
styleweekly.com
February 13, 2008


Modesta Tadeo and her four children moved from Mexico to join her husband in Chesterfield County three years ago. Depending on where you fall politically, the family of immigrants is either "undocumented" or "illegal." They don't have Social Security numbers, but last Thursday night they stopped by Ramsey Memorial United Methodist Church on Hull Street Road to pay their taxes.

They started paying taxes three years ago, Tadeo says through an interpreter while waiting in line with her husband and nephew. At first, just pulling all the documents together was nerve-racking. Now it's routine, and not just for them.

"Many people are paying their taxes," Tadeo says.

For four years Ramsey Memorial has hosted tax preparation clinics staffed with bilingual volunteers. Tanya Gonza***, head of Richmond's Hispanic Liaison Office, helps organize the sites as part of a larger regional effort headed up by the Greater Richmond Earned Income Tax Credit Coalition.

"For the IRS, legal status and working are two separate things," Gonza*** says. When people who don't have Social Security numbers come in, volunteers help them register for an ITIN, or individual tax identification number, allowing them to file with the IRS. The IRS does not share information with federal immigration enforcement agencies.

Gonza*** says they prepare returns for roughly 150 families each year. She's seen a slow increase since the program started, but perhaps more telling has been the rise of people coming in who already have ITIN numbers from previous years.

"That means people are putting roots down," Gonza*** says.

Last summer's federal immigration reform bill might also be encouraging the response. Although the bill failed, it included a provision that would have required evidence that the person had been paying taxes as part of the application for citizenship. Juan Santacoloma, Chesterfield's Hispanic liaison, is betting that future legislation will contain similar language. "Many people are paying taxes now for later," he says.

The ITIN sign-up effort comes as mixed news to John Kwapisz, media and legislative coordinator for the Virginia chapter of the American Council for Immigration Reform.

"Paying the taxes is a desirable effort of course," Kwapisz says. "On the other hand, assisting the illegals in ways that encourage them to stay or to come here is a bad thing, because the more [illegal immigrants] we have, the more problems we're going to be facing in the future."

The growing market for bilingual tax preparation and help with ITIN sign-up for those without Social Security numbers has not gone unnoticed. H&R Block touts its bilingual services and even ran an ad featuring a pair of flamenco dancers flouncing in to the tax preparer's office.

It's also opened a niche for fraud, warns Paz Ochs, who works with Gonza*** in the city's Hispanic Liaison Office. She says they've put together fliers alerting taxpayers about scam preparers who take advantage of people unfamiliar with the tax system and unable to check paperwork filled out in English.

"It's even worse for a lot of immigrants who have applied for residency or citizenship [when] there's a really big IRS snafu," Ochs says. After all, "no one wants to be on the IRS's bad side."

Clark Van Orden/The Times Leader


Senator recognizes pressure on state, county prisons

Specter: Deportation difficult


EDWARD LEWIS
elewis@timesleader.com
February 11, 2008
WILKES-BARRE – A disruptive inmate in the restrictive housing unit at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility didn't deter U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter from visiting the facility on Monday.

U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter tours the restricted housing unit at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility on Monday morning with officials from Luzerne County. Specter talked about issues associated with the identification and deportation of criminal aliens.


Specter, R-Philadelphia, and federal officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement ignored the inmate who was shouting words in Spanish through a sealed cell door.

The senator spent about an hour with Luzerne County commissioners Maryanne Petrilla, Greg Skrepenak and Stephen Urban, Warden Gene Fischi, Deputy Warden Sam Hyder and Prison Board President Wister Yuhas to discuss problems with deporting convicted illegal immigrants.

Pennsylvania prisons incarcerate an estimated 2,132 criminal aliens, 1,000 of whom may be undocumented aliens, Specter's office said in a news release. There are 20 undocumented immigrants at the county facility.

LCCF Capt. Mark Rockovich said an estimated 180 illegal immigrants were jailed at the county facility in 2007, adding to the overcrowding problem.

"We may not have an overcrowding problem if we didn't have illegal aliens," Rockovich said.

A 2006 report by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security stated thousands of convicted illegal immigrants are released because of the unwillingness of some countries to issue travel documents necessary for repatriation. As a result of these barriers, ICE must provide funds to incarcerate convicted illegal immigrants whose countries are either slow or unwilling to accept their citizens.

Major hurdles law enforcement agencies face include an inability to identify undocumented immigrants, lack of resources to deport them and an inadequate process to compel their native countries to accept them, Specter said.


"Immigration (and Customs Enforcement) takes them but they can only hold them for 180 days," Specter said.

Specter said the recidivism rate – the tendency to commit a criminal act again – of convicted illegal immigrants is extremely high, adding to overcrowding in prisons and jails. He said Egypt has refused to accept one of its citizens who is jailed at the State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill.

Pledging to address the problem, Specter suggested legislation on refusing visas to foreign countries who won't accept their citizens.

"We need to put pressure on those countries to take them back," Specter said.

"We may not have an

overcrowding problem if we didn't have illegal aliens."

Capt. Mark Rockovich

Luzerne County Correctional Facility

Edward Lewis, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 820-7196.