Interest Groups

Business


Some business groups have called the temporary-worker program impractical and protest a provision that would force employers to verify the legal status of every worker in the country. Of concern in some sectors is the bill's point system for permanent-residence visas, or green cards, which would deprive them of the ability to bring in foreign workers with distinct skills they need. Industries needing highly skilled, well-educated workers and industries employing lower-wage, minimally skilled workers have both identified problems with the compromise.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce backs the proposal as "the countours of a sound compromise." Of particular concern to the chamber is a backlog in the immigration bureaucracy that impedes the movement of legitimate cargo and travelers. The group advocates the expansion of temporary visa programs for essential workers, while ensuring that temporary workers would not take jobs being filled by U.S. citizens.

The National Association of Home Builders issued a statement rejecting the reform bill, saying that its problems are "grave and extensive" and if enacted "would do irreparable harm to America's small businesses." The trade association, whose members employ thousands of immigrant workers, says the bill could hurt employers who unwittingly hire illegal immigrants. The group is also concerned about language that would limit the number of permanent-resident green cards for low-skill workers needed by many construction crews.

The National Association of Manufacturers supports exempting foreign nationals who are graduates of U.S. universities with advanced degrees from a visa cap and backs an amendment by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and John Cornyn (R-Tex.) that would keep the existing green card system largely intact, arguing that it would keep employers' flexibility in selecting workers with needed skill sets.

Immigrant Advocacy Groups


Several immigrant groups fault the proposed guest-worker program for denying them rights and a path to citizenship. Some also say the point system may limit the diversity of immigrants and allow bias in favor of immigrants from English-speaking countries.

National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil rights and advocacy organization, applauds the bill under consideration though it said it has "serious concerns about the specifics." It supports the DREAM Act, which would allow certain alien students to meet residency requirements for higher education, and the AgJOBS bill, which would open the way to legal status for some agriculture workers.

The League of United Latin American Citizens opposes the reform because it says the temporary workers program does not provide "a meaningful pathway to permanent legal residence" and eliminates some family-based green card categories. It supports the DREAM Act and AgJOBS bill.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), a nonprofit Latino litigation, advocacy and educational outreach institution, is pushing hard for family reunification and to eliminate some provisions that would bar illegal immigrants from becoming legalized



Labor


The Service Employees International Union, representing 1.3 million workers, supports a wider legalization program and stricter workplace enforcement to deter employers from skirting the law for competitive advantage. In a letter to Sen. Kennedy, the SEIU criticized the bill's legalization provisions as "unacceptable and unworkable," claiming that undocumented workers will not leave the country voluntarily. Service workers would like to create a path to citizenship for these temporary workers, such as the STRIVE Act in the House version of the bill. They also call for increasing the number of visas available for family reunification.

The AFL-CIO and the Laborers' International Union of North America oppose the immigration bill, arguing that workers here on a temporary basis are more vulnerable to labor violations. The AFL-CIO, whose members have historically viewed illegal immigrants as competitors, contends that some temporary workers will stay in this country illegally rather than go home when their visa expires.

The UNITE HERE International Union, representing 450,000 workers in the textile, hotel, casino, foodservice and restaurant industries, supports the legalization of undocumented workers and replacing employer sanctions with labor law enforcement. It is concerned about the creation of an underclass of temporary workers who have no chance of gaining citizenship.

Other Groups


The Roman Catholic Church is concerned about the separation of families and the potential for the exploitation of temporary workers who cannot get full rights and supports an earned legalization program for the country's undocumented workers. Catholicism is the religion of the majority of Latin Americans, the population most central to the immigration debate. In a May 17 statement, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops expressed "significant reservations" about the proposal with regard to these issues. During his May 22 testimony before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law, Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando, representing U.S. bishops, said: "From the church perspective, a family member from Central America, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean or elsewhere could well offer the country as much as a computer software engineer. Wenski proposed a new worker visa program agreed on by U.S. and Mexican bishops as a way to safeguard the rights of migrant workers.

The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials does not support the compromise because the group believes the law reduces the emphasis on family reunification, does not provide a clear path to legal permanent residency for temporary workers and considers the legalization requirements of returning to one's home country and paying a penalty to be "unfair and burdensome." It supports the compromise's "earned" legalization program, the DREAM Act and the temporary worker program that provides workers with legal status and labor protections.

U.S. Border Control, a lobbying group dedicated to ending illegal immigration, issued an action alert against the "Amnesty Bill" calling it "a betrayal of everything America stand[s] for."

July 9, 2007
EMPLOYERS TO FACE MORE HEADACHES ON IMMIGRATION

Kent Hoover Washington Bureau Chief

The collapse of federal immigration reform means businesses can expect more state and local laws aimed at preventing them from hiring undocumented workers or renting apartments to illegal aliens.

Immigration attorneys also think the Department of Homeland Security will move forward with a proposed federal regulation that would increase a business' liability for employing workers whose Social Security numbers don't match government databases.

"There will be mass layoffs as soon as that regulation is published," said Laura Reiff, an immigration attorney at Greenberg Traurig's McLean, Va., office and co-chair of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition.

State immigration legislation
Number of bills in 2007: 1,169
Top policy areas:
Employment: 199 bills
Benefits: 149 bills
Law enforcement: 129 bills
Education: 105 bills
Health: 92 bills
Source: National Conference of State Legislatures, tally as of April 13

"In Florida, it could be catastrophic," said Wendy Smith, an employment lawyer at the Tampa office of Fisher & Phillips.

Business groups like EWIC contended immigration reform was needed to fix a dysfunctional system. Employers in many industries can't find enough legal workers, document fraud makes it hard to determine a worker's status, and the failure of Congress to address these problems has prompted states and localities to pass their own immigration laws.

By putting off action on immigration reform, the Senate just made the status quo worse, Reiff said.

'Green light' for state action
State legislators around the country have introduced around 1,200 bills and resolutions related to immigration so far this year, up from 570 last year. States will see Congress' failure to address immigration as "a green light to go forward and do more," Reiff said.

"I don't think there's any question that it will energize more efforts at the state and local level," said EWIC Co-chair Randy Johnson, vice president of labor, immigration and employee benefits at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Many of these efforts are aimed at employers. In Georgia, a new law went into effect July 1 that requires businesses that receive state contracts to participate in the federal government's Basic Pilot program, an electronic system that checks workers' Social Security numbers against federal databases. Colorado enacted similar legislation this year.

A new law in Oklahoma requires all employers to participate in the Basic Pilot program. Similar legislation was introduced this year in Missouri and South Carolina.

Many localities also are fighting illegal immigration by targeting businesses. Hazleton, Pa., for example, enacted an ordinance last year that enables the city to suspend a company's business license if it employs undocumented workers. The city also requires landlords to verify the legal status of their tenants.

These ordinances, however, have been challenged in the courts. Business groups contend they violate the U.S. constitution because only the federal government has jurisdiction over immigration. The same argument applies to state laws that would force companies to participate in the Basic Pilot program, they contend.

The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately will have to decide this issue, said Irv Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which supports stronger enforcement of immigration laws. FAIR contends states and localities have the right to regulate how business is conducted in their jurisdictions, and to decide how their own tax dollars are spent.

When a landlord rents an apartment or house to a family of illegal immigrants, he or she is committing everyone else in the community to pay for their education and other services, Mehlman said.

'No match' rule coming?

A bigger threat to businesses could come from the federal government. Business groups had urged the Department of Homeland Security to wait for immigration reform legislation before it issues a final regulation outlining what steps businesses should take when they receive letters notifying them that an employee's name and Social Security number don't match federal records. Now that Congress has punted on the issue, the department may soon implement that regulation, immigration attorneys predict.

As proposed last summer, businesses who receive these "no match" letters should follow certain steps, such as checking the accuracy of their own records and notifying the employee of the problem. If the discrepancy can't be resolved within two months, the employer must fire the employee or risk being charged with violating immigration laws.

The regulation won't "let people ignore problems that have stared them in the face before," Smith said.

Many workers who have been using fake Social Security numbers will lose their jobs, but "they're not just going to pack up their bags and go back to Mexico," Reiff said.

Many will stay in the United States and work in the underground economy instead, she predicted.

Employers should prepare for increased federal enforcement of immigration laws by going through the I-9 forms that workers fill out when they're hired and see if there are any obvious problems, Smith said. Employees whose Social Security numbers don't match federal records should be told to resolve the problem "or we've got to say adios," she said.

July 11, 2007, 6:08PM
19 Arrested in Swift Immigration Raids

By MIKE WILSON Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa — Nineteen people were arrested at Swift & Co. meatpacking plants around the country as part of a sweep involving illegal immigrant workers at the plants, according to a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Raids were conducted Tuesday and Wednesday in Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado .

Officials with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union said that agents did not appear to use the "same level of intimidation and overkill" as they did in December raids in six cities that resulted in more than 1,200 immigrant workers being arrested.

Dan Hoppes, president of the local United Food and Commercial Workers Union in Grand Island, Neb., said immigration officials came to the plants with five warrants but only three of the workers were present.

Hoppes characterized the operation as far less aggressive than the raids in December that resulted in 261 arrests at the plant.

"It was done the right way this time," Hoppes said. "Not like last time, for crying out loud."

In Iowa, a union representative and human resources worker were arrested at the Swift meatpacking plant in Marshalltown on charges of bringing in and harboring illegal immigrants, said Richard Rocha, a spokesman with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The arrests were part of the ongoing investigation into identity theft and illegal employment, Rocha said.

The U.S. attorney's office said two other people in Iowa were charged with immigration and identity theft-related charges and were being sought. No other information on those individuals was released.

Three other people at the plant were detained to determine if they are in the country legally, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Dave Minshall, spokesman for the Food and Commercial Workers union Local No. 7 in Greeley, Colo., said Tuesday that agents had at least 40 arrest warrants for suspects in Greeley; Cactus, Texas; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn.

In the December raids, no charges were filed against Swift, a Greeley-based company that bills itself as the world's second-largest beef and pork processor.

July 11, 2007, 11:08AM
New Arrests at Swift Plant

By OSKAR GARCIA Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. — Three workers at a meatpacking plant in Grand Island were arrested on suspicion of identity theft, the local union president said Wednesday.

The arrests Tuesday were part of a scaled return to Swift & Co. plants in six states by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, who arrested 1,200 immigrant workers at the plants on Dec. 12.

Dan Hoppes, president of the local United Food and Commercial Workers Union, said immigration officials came to the plants with five warrants but only three of the workers were present.

Hoppes characterized the operation as far less aggressive than the raids in December that resulted in 261 arrests at the Grand Island plant.

"It was done the right way this time," Hoppes said. "Not like last time, for crying out loud."

Immigration officials were expected to give details of arrests in Grand Island and at the other plants later Wednesday, spokesman Tim Counts said. Counts said he could not confirm Hoppes' totals Wednesday morning.

"We believe you have to obey the law, but at least they didn't go in and round up 400 or 500 people in the cafeteria and scare everybody to death," Hoppes said. "I don't like to see any arrests happen, of course, but they have to happen in order to keep our legal system going."

The Washington-based union released a statement Tuesday in support of the operation.

"To the extent this is the case, the union supports law enforcement efforts that abide by the law and respect the rights of workers," the union said.

Union officials Tuesday said immigration officers had arrest warrants for suspects in Greeley, Colo.; Cactus, Texas; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn.

In the December raids, no charges were filed against Swift, a Greeley-based company that bills itself as the world's second-largest beef and pork processor.

ICE Agents Arrive at Swift Plants

July 10, 2007, 10:38PM

© 2007 The Associated Press

GREELEY, Colo. — Agents with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement returned to at least one Swift & Co. meatpacking plant Tuesday with arrest warrants for people suspected of identity theft in an operation that garnered union support.

Officials with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union said agents did not appear to use the "same level of intimidation and overkill" as raids in December that resulted in more than 1,200 immigrant workers being arrested at plants in six cities.

"To the extent this is the case, the UFCW supports law enforcement efforts that abide by the law and respect the rights of workers," the Washington-based union said in a statement.

ICE regional spokesman Carl Rusnok confirmed one "worksite enforcement operation" in Greeley, but would not say how many people were arrested.

Dave Minshall, spokesman for Local No. 7, said agents had at least 40 arrest warrants for suspects in Greeley; Cactus, Texas; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn. Five people were taken into custody, though it was unclear where the arrests were made.

Four people were questioned at the Greeley plant, Minshall said.

Rusnok said details will be released in a news conference Wednesday.

In the December raids, no charges were filed against Swift, a Greeley, Colo., which bills itself as the world's second-largest beef and pork processor.

Published: 07.12.2007


Economic impact of immigrants on AZ
Report: Immigrant work force worth billions All migrants, legal and illegal, considered in UA calculations
The Arizona Republic

If all noncitizen workers were removed from Arizona's workforce, economic output would drop annually by at least $29 billion, according to a University of Arizona study released Wednesday.

That group, which is mostly illegal immigrants, represents 8.2 percent of the state's economic activity, the study found.

The report also found that Arizona's legal and illegal immigrants generated nearly $44 billion in output.

"Output" includes the value of goods produced in industry, wages and profits.

"I'm not making a stand on what policy should be," said author Judith Gans, a program manager at the university's Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy. "This just shows what's at stake."

The study is based on Census Bureau and other data from 2004, the most complete year available. It assumed most noncitizens in the state are illegal immigrants.

Gans conceded that the research does not capture all costs associated with illegal immigrants, but claims it caught significant expenses.

"It is not the purpose of this study to address the myriad issues surrounding illegal immigration or to imply in any way that illegal immigration is not a problem," Gans wrote in the study, funded by the Thomas R. Brown Foundation in Tucson.

The group funds academic research and promotes education about the economy.
Their findings did not surprise Jack Camper, president and CEO of the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.

Tucson businesses have long known immigrants provide an economic spark. The trick is to make more immigrants legal, Camper said.

"That just speaks to the need for a guest worker program," Camper said. "We need to provide some way to bring 12 million illegal immigrants out of the shadows."

However, the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C., research group that advocates slowing immigration, said such studies don't pay enough attention to the basic services that illegal immigrants in Arizona cost the state.

"What about roads, fire protection, police?" research director Steven Camarota said. "There should be some benefit for the native-born population (from immigrants working in the economy). It just appears to be very small and come at the expense of less-educated natives."
Illegal immigrant workers are a drain on the economy, he said.

"But most 40-year-old males in Arizona without a high school diploma who are white are a fiscal drain also," Camarota said.

The study also looked at what would happen to specific industries that lost most noncitizen workers. The figures assumed unskilled citizens would fill some positions.

Without most noncitizen immigrants, the simulations showed:
● $6.56 billion in lost construction output
● $3.77 billion lost in manufacturing
● $2.48 billion lost in service sectors
● $600.9 million lost in agriculture

"Filling the specific jobs in question would require large numbers of low-skilled workers, and the U.S. education system produces relatively few of them," Gans said. "There simply aren't enough additional workers in Arizona to fill the jobs."

Experts do not expect that companies will fire illegal workers on Jan. 1, the day the state's employer-sanctions bill goes into effect.

There are an estimated half-million such immigrants in Arizona.

"If they think their folks are illegal, I think they have to address that," said Troy Foster, an employment lawyer with Ford & Harrison in Phoenix.

"But they have to be cautious. You can't just be approaching people because they are Hispanic."

Foster advises clients not to be too aggressive in going after suspicious workers unless they have knowledge of their illegal status, but said the new law will keep companies from hiring more undocumented workers.

"The real impact will be on the back end," Foster said. "In four or five years we will see an impact because of the growth-restraint issue."

Illegal Immigrant Parents Stay 1 Year

Jul 12, 9:26 PM EDT
By JULIANA BARBASSA
Associated Press Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The illegal immigrant parents of a toddler with a little-known genetic abnormality were granted a one year stay in the United States, U.S. Customs and Immigration officials said Thursday.

Victor and Maria Roa, who entered the country illegally in 1990, want to stay in the United States because their daughter's condition requires specialized care she would likely not be able to get in their native Mexico. Before officials accepted their request, filed earlier this month, the Roas were under order to leave by July 26.

Their daughter, 17-month-old Hazelle Roa, was scheduled for an exploratory heart procedure Thursday that would seek to open up a constricted heart valve - one of the consequences of her genetic disorder - and help doctors decide whether she would need further heart surgery.

Immigration officials said the one-year stay was based on what ICE believed was in the best interest of this family, given their circumstances.

The Roas want their immigration case to be reopened. They also want permanent residency under a rule that allows undocumented immigrants to remain if their departure would cause extreme hardship to an American citizen.

Hazelle was born in the United States and has been followed by a team of physicians at the University of California, San Francisco's Medical Center.

Her doctors have written letters in support of keeping her family in the United States, saying the child was unlikely to get the medical attention she needs to live a full life elsewhere.

"Her condition is essentially unique," said Stephen Wilson, medical director for the pediatric unit at UCSF, just before the toddler was checked in for the procedure. "She's really dependent on the technical intervention we're providing here. It's quite critical for her ongoing survival."

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.

Calderon's Offensive Against Drug Cartels Use of Mexican Military Increasingly Criticized

By Manuel Roig-Franzia
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, July 8, 2007

MEXICO CITY -- Every Monday morning, President Felipe Calderón settles in at the head of the table in the presidential library at Los Pinos, Mexico's fortresslike chief executive's compound.

Calderón presides over strategy sessions with the leaders of Mexico's army and navy, key players in the centerpiece initiative of his seven-month-old presidency: a military assault against drug cartels. No Mexican president in recent history has convened his security council with such regularity, but few of his modern-day predecessors have faced such a daunting security crisis.

Calderón is betting his presidency on a surge of Mexican troops -- one of the country's largest deployments of the military in a crime-fighting role -- to wage street-by-street battles with drug cartels that are blamed for more than 3,000 execution-style killings in the past year and a half. Sending more than 20,000 federal troops and police officers to nine Mexican states has made Calderón extremely popular; his latest approval ratings hit 65 percent.

But as the campaign drags into its eighth month and the death toll mounts, Calderón is facing a growing cadre of critics, including the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights representative in Mexico, who opposes the use of the military in policing. Calderón is also contending with foes in Mexico's Congress who want to strip him of the authority to dispatch troops without congressional approval. The Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights organization, has faulted him as quick to use the military but slow to reform Mexico's corrupt police.

All this is familiar territory for Calderón, a former congressman and energy secretary who appears comfortable in the role of political scrapper.

Pundits predicted he would struggle in office after collecting barely more than a third of the vote in last July's election and being forced into a two-month legal battle -- twice as long as the Bush-Gore electoral crisis in 2000 -- before being declared president by Mexico's Supreme Electoral Tribunal.

But Calderón has not only pounced on the drug violence. He also has pushed through a controversial reform of Mexico's corrupt and antiquated pension system, and he is gaining momentum for a massive fiscal initiative aimed at reducing the country's dependence on oil revenue.

"This seems to be his political destiny," wrote Ramón Alberto Garza, editor of the weekly Indigo. "To sail with the wind against him, a storm on the horizon, with a mutinous crew but to finish the journey safe in port."

Calderón inherited Mexico's drug problem, which was beginning to rival in scope and savagery the 1980s drug wars in Colombia. Drug lords, who make their riches trafficking in cocaine, but also methamphetamines and marijuana, were beheading rivals and killing police officers, municipal officials and journalists who got in their way. Some municipal governments and police forces were so infiltrated by organized crime that they essentially ceased to function as public service entities and became virtual arms of the cartels.

A War Over 'Plaza'

As far back as mid-July 2006, with the election outcome still in doubt, Calderón began laying the groundwork for the military campaign, Mexico's attorney general, Eduardo Medina Mora, said in an interview. With corruption raging throughout local governments and only 27,000 federal police officers available, Medina Mora said, the military seemed to be the only viable option.

"The size of the problem was large enough to understand that using the full federal deployment of police was not enough," Medina Mora said as a Beethoven piano sonata played in the background at his high-rise headquarters in Mexico City.

By the time Calderón took office in December, Mexico's two most powerful drug organizations -- the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels -- were deep into a war over "plaza," as Mexicans call drug territory. Carnage led the news almost every night. It was then that Calderón, a careful, wonkish public speaker not known for soaring rhetoric, started hitting verbal home runs.


"My hand won't tremble" in acting firmly to stop the crime that is holding Mexicans hostage, Calderón said repeatedly.

On Dec. 11, 10 days after taking office, Calderón launched the first of six military operations, sending more than 6,000 federal troops and police officers to his home state of Michoacan. The next day, a cousin of first lady Margarita Zavala was found murdered in the trunk of a car outside Mexico City -- a killing that some suspect was retribution by drug gangs. Undaunted, Calderón sent a force of 3,000 to Tijuana three weeks later.


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The day after the Tijuana raid became a signal moment in Calderón's drug war. He donned a khaki hat and military uniform to review his troops in the city of Apatzingan, purportedly the first time in a century that a Mexican president had dressed in military attire. Columnists fretted that he would turn Mexico into a military state. Others mocked the hang of a baggy uniform on the diminutive, unathletic Calderón.

"He looked pathetic," Sen. Graco Ramírez -- a Calderón nemesis who is the son, grandson and brother of Mexican army generals -- sniffed during a recent interview at Mexico's legislative palace.

Ramírez is more than a fashion critic; he and other members of the Democratic Revolutionary Party are among the leaders of a push to declare the use of the military in drug raids unconstitutional. Medina Mora counters that under the Mexican constitution, the armed forces "have not only the power but the duty to preserve internal order."

Calderón dismissed the criticisms. In February, he announced a 45 percent pay increase for the army, a move that contrasted neatly with a decision to lower his own salary by 10 percent and abolish pensions for Mexican presidents.

Admirers in the U.S.

In the six months since he first appeared in a military uniform, Calderón has sent thousands of troops to the infamous drug zones of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua, known as the Golden Triangle, and to Acapulco, Veracruz and the states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, home to Mexico's industrial capital, Monterrey. The soldiers operate roadblocks, cordon off urban areas for house-to-house searches and often engage heavily armed drug dealers in gun battles.

The troops have arrested more than 580 people, according to the government, though only one would qualify as a major figure. Since the military campaign began, 19 troops and 168 police officers have been killed; more than 1,080 civilian deaths have been recorded, though most of those were the result of infighting among cartels.

Analysts say it is too soon to tell whether the military operations will have a long-term effect. Execution-style killings have decreased somewhat in recent weeks, but some news reports attribute that to what they call a truce between warring cartels; Medina Mora credits the military and said there was no evidence of such a truce.

None of the deaths has resonated like five that occurred mistakenly June 2, when soldiers shot two unarmed women and three children at a roadblock in the northern state of Sonora. The killings set off fierce criticism in Mexico, but Calderón has kept to his military strategy.

The approach has won admirers in the United States, where law enforcement agencies have long pushed for Mexico to confront drug cartels more aggressively.

That positive reception comes at a potentially critical moment in U.S.-Mexico talks to dramatically increase American aid.

News accounts originally compared the Mexican initiative to the multibillion-dollar Plan Colombia, an extensive aid package designed to eradicate coca and erode support for Marxist rebels. Mexican diplomats scrambled to note that their proposal differed in one key way: It does not contemplate a U.S. military presence similar to the one in Colombia. Any hint that U.S. troops would operate in Mexico is wildly inflammatory here; people still bear historical wounds from the Mexican-American War of 1846-48.

María Eugenia Campos Galván, chairwoman of the Foreign Relations Committee in the lower house of Mexico's Congress, said in an interview that Mexican authorities have considered asking for as much as $1 billion. U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.), chairman of the House intelligence committee, is pushing for a major commitment of U.S. dollars.

"If we're smart, it'll be very high," Reyes said in an interview.

Mexican authorities say they've demonstrated cooperation by sharply increasing extraditions -- already in 2007 breaking Mexico's annual record with 63 extraditions in the first six months of the year. They are hoping the United States will reciprocate by paying for additional training and equipment, including technology that would allow for instant transfer of information between law enforcement officials on each side of the border. Calderón, in particular, is suggesting that the United States has an obligation to help with Mexico's law enforcement costs because of the extent of Americans' illegal drug use.

The talks have been complicated by sensitivities in the United States related to Mexico as Capitol Hill lawmakers were debating immigration proposals.

"When there was a school shooting over in Russia, I got e-mails saying, 'That's why we need a wall on the Mexican border,' " Reyes said. "Regardless of what we do, there are going to be those who try to politicize it."

Mexican authorities are well aware that political tensions could delay or scuttle proposals for more U.S. aid. For now, they are preparing for months, maybe years, of military battles with drug leaders without more help from the United States and for long Monday mornings in the presidential library.

Getting Latinos to vote GOP becomes an uphill battle

09:04 AM CDT on Saturday, July 7, 2007
Mercedes Olivera molivera@dallasnews.com

When the comprehensive immigration reform bill died in the Senate last week, many believe the GOP's successful courtship of Latino voters also stalled.

Will President Bush be the last GOP president to garner 40 percent of the Latino vote – as he did in 2004 – for the near future?

Some political observers now predict Republicans may be able to muster only 20 percent to 30 percent of those voters in the coming presidential election. Others, however, don't see Latino voters as being any different from the rest of the U.S. electorate.

Latino issues are American issues. When U.S. voters moved to the right, so did Latinos, though never in any large numbers. Latinos consistently vote Democratic, as much as 60 percent or more.

Republicans had always stressed the "natural ties" between Republicans and Latinos – family and religious values, entrepreneurship and social traditions.

But much of that rhetoric changed during the heated national debate over immigration. And Latinos felt much of that heat directed at them.

"If there was any movement towards the Republican Party by Latinos, this [failure to pass the immigration bill] would have stopped it dead in its tracks," said Andy Hernandez, a Latino politics scholar at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

"But the case is overstated. Immigration reform is not the only reason. The war in Iraq has had a huge impact on the Latino community. The war and immigration have had a cluster-bomb effect on the GOP."

Harold Stanley, a history professor at Southern Methodist University, agreed and said it's uncertain what the defeat of immigration reform this year will mean to the 2008 election.

"The immigration marches of spring 2006 vividly showed that political potential of the Latino community. Yet that potential has been more latent than actual," Dr. Stanley said.

"Other issues matter greatly to Latinos – education, jobs, the war in Iraq, the war on terror – and concerns with immigration alone neither displace these other issues nor paper over the divisions on these other issues."

Jason Villalba, chairman of the Dallas chapter of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly, said he opposed the failed immigration bill because it was "too complicated and didn't solve the problems of immigration."

But he acknowledged it would be "an uphill battle to convince Hispanics to come out and vote for the GOP" in 2008.

"We got the largest number of Hispanic votes in 2000 and 2004, but we won't see it this time," he said. "And I don't know how to prevent this."

But he believes that concern over border security among the general electorate will trump losing Latino voters.

Mr. Hernandez said security is also a concern for many Latinos, but for a different reason.

"Many Latino legal immigrants don't want their situation threatened here in the U.S.," he said. "And they have always been practical. That's what's driving the increase in citizenship applications now."

And while many Latino leaders now stress citizenship as crucial for future political growth, it may not necessarily be felt at the ballot box next year.

Citizenship applications are up 77 percent since January, and some attribute it to the fee increase slated to take effect at the end of this month.

The average waiting time for legal residents to become citizens, if all background checks and paperwork run smoothly, is now eight months, according to the Department of Homeland Security. But the surge in citizenship applications could cause unexpected delays in the process, as was seen with the surge in passport requests.

State Rep. Rafael Anchía, D-Dallas, said the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials has made citizenship a central focus as it promotes more Hispanic political progress.

But Mr. Anchía, who is chairman of the NALEO Educational Fund, said it was part of a two-pronged strategy among Hispanics.

The group also wants to register 18-year-olds, who were jolted out of complacency last year.

"Young voters [18 to 29 years old] are increasing as a size of the electorate, and are increasingly politically motivated by issues like the war in Iraq, college affordability and the economy," he said.

But "in the case of young Latinos, the immigration issue has awakened an entire generation."

Town a haven for immigrants Workers are the lifeblood of Cactus, Texas, but most are there illegally

09:08 AM CST on Sunday, November 19, 2006
By ARNOLD HAMILTON and DEBORAH TURNER / The Dallas Morning News

First of three parts

CACTUS, Texas – He's known in this Panhandle outpost by an unofficial yet majestic title: "El presidente de Cactus."

His two-story Spanish villa – looking over blocks of town-center shanties – is often called "the White House." His portfolio includes the town's only grocery and laundry, at least 18 rental properties and a 575-acre ranch nearby.

It was little more than 30 years ago that Luis Aguilar slipped into this country from Mexico, eventually using a fake name, license and Social Security card to land a job at this town's sprawling beef packing plant. A decade later, he was in the right place at the right time when federal immigration reform granted him amnesty and put him on the path to citizenship.

Cactus, Texas

Part 1
• An immigrant haven on the High Plains
• Identity theft is paper trail to a job
• Cash is king, but corruption reigned

Part 2
• They come to work - and to send money home
• For many in Guatemala, no choice but to leave
• Despite many challenges, school succeeds with youths

Part 3
• Processing plants' dangers don't scare off migrants

Tell Us: Many readers have weighed in with their thoughts on immigration. What's your opinion of the situation in Cactus, Texas?


• City Manager Jeff Jenkins describes Cactus and its people
• Teachers describe efforts to teach English in Cactus
• Law enforcement work is difficult with the increasing number of immigrants

Graphics:
• A closer look at Cactus
• Cactus Elementary School
• A dangerous job

Photos: Coping in Cactus

En español: Read Spanish-language coverage from AlDiaTX.com

Cactus, Texas: Complete coverage
Now, as mayor and arguably the most affluent – and influential – resident in town, he not only rents rooms and sells groceries to a new generation of illegal immigrants, but he also is paid to place them in jobs.

"I'm working like those guys are working," said the native of the state of Chihuahua. "I am helping them make money for their families. I worked just like that."

An hour's drive north of Amarillo, Cactus has an official population of 2,538. But realistically, it's closer to 5,000, and officials here estimate that three of every four residents are illegal immigrants, drawn by work in feedlots or the $11-plus hourly wages at the Swift & Co. plant.

Cactus doesn't register on most U.S. maps, but for some in Mexico and Guatemala who want a better life, it has become a destination town. Their presence has transformed the community, creating national-size problems for its small-town leaders.

As America debates immigration policy in often bipolar terms – amnesty or deportation – Cactus is living the fuzzy, everyday reality of porous borders and the competing interests behind one of the biggest demographic shifts in U.S. history: impoverished millions eager for a better life, industries ready to snap up cheap labor, federal officials impotent to act and local residents left to deal with the resulting troubles.

"We need federal help," Cactus City Manager Jeffrey Jenkins said. "Not knowing the American laws causes a lot of complications that the local government should not have to deal with."

Among those complications:

•Thieves who prey on immigrant workers carrying large sums of cash because banks won't come here

•Fraudulent IDs that make solving crimes by and against immigrants difficult

•Mobile homes, often crowded with more than one family, that sprout seemingly overnight in flagrant disregard of zoning laws;

•Drugs and prostitution;

•And a public school, lacking enough bilingual instructors, that resorts to total English immersion to educate the nearly 77 percent of students who speak little or no English.

The problems of illegal immigration are not unique to Cactus. Across America – especially in rural areas, where workers are sorely needed for difficult, often-dangerous, low-skill jobs – undocumented, south-of-the-border immigrants are rushing in.

But Cactus' challenges are magnified because of its size and remoteness.


Officials here teeter on a political high wire: They know the Swift plant – the town's lifeblood and the county's second-biggest taxpayer – attracts illegal immigrants by the thousands.

But they fear that increased federal and state scrutiny could jeopardize both plant and town, especially if it leads to the roundup and deportation of scores of illegal workers.

Swift officials insist they do all they legally can to verify the authenticity of their employees' documents, even participating voluntarily in a federal program aimed at spotting use of fraudulent Social Security numbers.

But that seems to be little deterrent.

"I know there are hundreds of illegals working at Swift; I see them every day," said one resident who works for a Swift contractor and agreed to speak on condition of anonymity. "They are from Guatemala and Mexico. Hundreds of them have false documents that allow them to work there."


Building a life

Today's Cactus probably isn't exactly what local leaders envisioned in 1972 when they heralded the beef plant's opening as the town's salvation.

In the beginning, its workforce was mostly local. But it didn't take long for immigrant workers to arrive – shoving aside the locals. Laotians became the dominant employee group ... only to be supplanted by Mexicans ... who are slowly, but steadily, being replaced by Guatemalans.

Mr. Aguilar, for one, slipped into the country near Tijuana, Mexico, on foot.

His goal? "A better life."

It was a treacherous, frightening journey from his home in Chihuahua: "When I cross the border, I think it gonna be my last one. I almost freeze to death."

An articulate man in his native language, Mr. Aguilar speaks a broken English learned on the job.

He spent three years working in a restaurant in Battle Mountain, Nev. In 1976, at the urging of a relative, he journeyed to the Texas Panhandle with his 18-year-old wife, Luz, and their infant daughter, Rosa. He called himself Amador Rivas. And he had the documents – albeit, bogus – to prove it.

In Cactus, he was the stereotypically hard-working, invisible immigrant. Soon after arriving, the couple had their second child, Eva. And he worked 12- to 18-hour days in the packing plant's shipping department for $10 an hour – "good money back then," as he put it.

With his job, he was able to provide for his growing family, send money home to Mexico and save a little.

Later, he was promoted to director of shipping and receiving, enabling him to buy an apartment building. For seven years, he and his family occupied two of the four units and rented the rest.

Then, in 1986, he received an unexpected gift: He was one of 2.7 million illegal immigrants awarded amnesty by President Ronald Reagan under the Immigration Reform and Control Act.

With his green card in hand, Mr. Aguilar escaped the oft-murky world of an illegal immigrant and shed his Amador Rivas alias. He could once again be Luis Aguilar. And he made a name for himself as a successful businessman, buying the Cactus Laundromat and Cactus Grocery in 1988.

Using $11,000 he'd saved from his job at Swift – and borrowing the rest – he bought the store from former Cactus Mayor Leon Graham after a fire devastated much of the structure.

"I asked my brother-in-law," he said. "He loaned me $300. My cousin loaned me $300. So I got altogether about $21,000. ... And I started building."

Over time, he became a force in town – and served as a beacon for other south-of-the-border immigrants pursuing the American dream.

His Spanish-style home with its arched doorways and light-colored stucco walls dominates the center of town, commanding respect from those dwelling in the shanty trailer homes that surround it.

"The people of Cactus built my home for me," he said.

He is open about his role in helping undocumented immigrants who follow his path.

"I work as the middle man for places around the Panhandle," said Mr. Aguilar, 50. "They [feedlots] pay me, and I pay the guys. I keep their timecards here in the store. I am hired to find them."

Mr. Aguilar's willingness to help a new generation of illegal immigrants, though, puts him at odds with other town leaders. They complain that they are swamped with problems created by thousands of often unidentifiable residents.



Climate for crime

Cactus today seems less like a Panhandle burg than a colonia – magically airlifted 600 miles north from the border and dropped into the heart of what once was the Anglo-dominated, farm and ranch South Plains.

Decaying World War II-era barracks each bunk as many as a half-dozen Swift & Co. workers whose families were left back home. Most yards are dirt, weeds and gravel.

There are few flowers and even less grass; a soccer field on the west side of town with homemade goalposts; one park with playground equipment and a basketball court; and three times as many places to get an adult beverage as in the much larger nearby county seat, Dumas.

"Alcohol-related problems are paramount [and] ... a lot of cocaine," said Cactus Police Chief Tim Turley.

"But if I had to say what we run across most is fraudulent use of ID," he added. "That is far and above the number one most encountered incident."

Cultures collide on a variety of issues, from education to ***.

Some of the youngest students from newly arrived families must be instructed, for example, on indoor plumbing and proper hygiene.

Other immigrants are bewildered when advised that it is not only socially unacceptable but illegal for men in their 20s to have *** with young teenage girls.

Zoning regulations are difficult to enforce.

"Folks don't believe you should be able to tell them what to do and where to put things," said Mr. Jenkins, the city manager. "And they'll bring in trailers that the walls are falling in, and they'll want to set 'em up and rent 'em to somebody.

"On the reverse end of it, you get the renters ... they think that if they report it or something, they're going to be deported . ... So, they're getting taken advantage of by the landlords in some places."

Unlicensed food stands pop up all over town – a constant headache for officials.

"The mobile stands are hard to track down because they could be there on Saturday night and then they disappear," said Mr. Jenkins. "The state only has one food officer for this area.