This legislation had strong bi-partisan support in Senate for years.
Whether it will pass or not remains to be seen, but it definitely has better chances than CIR.

Business owner grop says illegal-hire law will hurt Anglos, too

By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
Tucson, Arizona 07.18.2007

PHOENIX — A new state law intended to deny work to those here illegally will end up costing a lot of Anglo Arizonans their jobs.

That's what a group of Arizona business owners hope to convince the state's non-Hispanic majority of — that it's in their own best interest to quash laws punishing companies for knowingly hiring undocumented workers.

Mac Magruder who heads the Wake Up Arizona coalition, said Tuesday the new law will have "devastating unintended consequence" on the state's economy, and will do far more than just drive out the possible 500,000 people in Arizona illegally.

"When brown people lose their jobs, white people will lose their jobs," he said.
He noted that the law, which takes effect Jan. 1, allows a judge to suspend a firm's license to do business for up to 10 days. A second violation in three years means permanent revocation. "When a business shuts down, where are they going to work?" asked Magruder.

Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox said fears of "racial profiling" may result in "a mass exodus of workers." Wilcox, who also owns a Mexican restaurant in Phoenix, said companies that lose some of their work force will be unable to stay in business and have to lay everyone else off.

Besides backing court action to overturn the law, the coalition, which now has about 15 members, hopes to persuade voters to defeat an even tougher measure that may be on the 2008 ballot, possibly by launching a competing initiative more favorable to employers.

The campaign, however, started with some name calling. Magruder, who owns seven McDonald's franchises, said Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, architect of the law, would not negotiate in good faith during the legislative session.

"You can't reason with hatred," Magruder said. Asked later if he believes Pearce is a racist, Magruder said, "I mean, something walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, I wonder if it is."

Pearce, however, noted the law punishes only firms that knowingly or intentionally hire undocumented workers, which Pearce said protects other companies that hire only legal U.S. residents from unfair competition.

He said Magruder "wanted employer amnesty."
"Anytime they run out of arguments . . . they throw out the race card," Pearce said. "These are folks who simply don't want the law enforced."

Magruder said companies try to follow proper procedures, checking Social Security numbers and filling out federal hiring checklists. But he conceded someone must be hiring people who crossed the border illegally.

"What happens is, if you even start questioning those documents you can be sued for profiling," Magruder said. "The business guy is really between a rock and hard place."

Coalition members said the state should stay out of issues surrounding illegal immigration. But Gov. Janet Napolitano, who signed the measure, said that isn't an option.

"The failure of this administration, this Congress to pass immigration reform in a comprehensive manner has serious repercussions for the states," she said Tuesday.

'Virtual fence' is planned for border High-tech towers, sensors, lights to stretch 262 miles

By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona 07.18.2007

The Border Patrol announced plans Tuesday evening for future construction of a "virtual fence" of high-tech towers, sensors and lights along 262 miles of the Arizona-Mexico border.

The agency didn't provide a timetable or divulge details about where the towers and lighting will go but Tuesday's meeting in Tucson marked the beginning of an environmental assessment process required by federal law for the Department of Homeland Security's latest high-tech border solution: SBInet.

The SBInet pilot project, Project 28, is installed in a 28-mile stretch flanking Sasabe. The Boeing Co.-led effort has yet to become operational due to software programming problems.

The system includes nine towers equipped with cameras, sensors and radars that will send information to computers in two command centers and agent vehicles.

The agency would likely use similar combinations of technology along the border in the Tucson Sector except for in Yuma. The sector covers all of Arizona except for Yuma, La Paz and Mohave counties.

Those details, though, will be made available later when the final environmental assessment document is published.

Tuesday's meeting didn't last long. The agency presented an outline of the process and plans and then opened it for the public to leave written comments.

About 50 people attended the meeting. Many expressed appreciation that the agency is bringing the public aboard early in the process and that it's considering a more environmentally friendly virtual fence.

Those same people, though, said they were disappointed in the lack of details and said they still have concerns with the towers and lighting.

"A swath along the border doesn't give us enough information to provide substantive feedback," said Matt Clark, southwest representative with Defenders of Wildlife, referring to a graphic put on a screen showing where the project would be.

The agency said the project will be constructed along the Tucson Sector border as far as 25 miles from the border.

A virtual fence of technology is a better alternative than a steel fence but the increase in human activity and lighting is a concern for many because of the effects on animals, including the jaguar and the pronghorn antelope, Clark said.

Matt Skroch, executive director of Sky Island Alliance, a Tucson conservation group, said he's encouraged the agency is considering less invasive techniques.

"For our environment, our wildlife, for our natural heritage, the virtual fence is far better than a real fence that an animal can't cross through," Skroch said.

Robert L. Gent, president of the Tucson-based International Dark-Sky Association, hopes the lights on the fence will resemble the ones originally constructed in Naco and not the glaring stadium lighting recently constructed near San Luis.

His group recommended the agency shield the lights, use lower wattage and consider motion detectors, he said.

● Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com.

GOVERNMENT REVERSES ITSELF ON GREEN CARDS

The Associated Press
Tucson, Arizona
07.18.2007

WASHINGTON — The government did an about-face Tuesday and announced it is accepting applications for green cards filed by skilled immigrant workers.

Citizenship and Immigration Services, a
division of the Homeland Security Department, said in a news release that it will accept the applications through Aug. 17. Applications already filed, which the agency planned to reject, also will be accepted.

The decision was good news for skilled immigrants.

"We are elated. It's good to see a government
agency see it's made a mistake, acknowledge a mistake and fix a mistake," said an American Immigration Lawyers Association spokeswoman.

In June, the State Department said all eligible skilled workers could submit applications to become legal residents. But on July 2, it said the 60,000 visa numbers were no longer available because CIS had suddenly reduced its backlog of green-card applications.

Border agents' prosecution defended Unarmed migrant was shot in back, U.S. attorney says

Cox News Service
Tucson, Arizona
07.18.2007

WASHINGTON — U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton from San Antonio fiercely defended the prosecution of two former Border Patrol agents in a case that has become a cause célèbre among conservatives and groups advocating for tougher border controls.

Appearing before Congress on Tesday, a sometimes emotional Sutton said that the two agents — Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos —are solely responsible for their fate.

"They are not heroes. They deliberately shot an unarmed man in the back ... and lied about it," Sutton told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In addition, he said the prosecution was "not about illegal immigration" but about "upholding the law, pure and simple."

Compean and Ramos are serving 12 and 11 years in prison, respectively, for shooting a suspected drug dealer and trying to cover up the incident.

Supporters say the agents were wrongly convicted for protecting the border against criminal intruders and that they were railroaded by an overzealous prosecution. Many are incensed that the suspected drug dealer, Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, was given immunity to testify against the agents and given a visa that allowed him to re-enter the United States legally.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who testified at Tuesday's hearing, said the agents received a harsher sentence than "the average convicted murderer" and that the case was "the most severe injustice I've ever seen" imposed on uniformed officers.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., who also testified about the case, said that the decision to give immunity to Aldrete was a "prosecutorial travesty."
"This whole episode stinks to high heaven," he said.

Rohrabacher and Hunter are among the strongest advocates of building walls along the U.S.-Mexican border and tightening immigration controls.

The Compean and Ramos case stems from an incident in February 2005. Aldrete had entered the United States illegally in a van that contained more than 700 pounds of marijuana.

According to the prosecution, Compean shot at him 14 times and Ramos fired once, hitting Aldrete in the buttocks as he tried to run away on foot.

The agents contend that they saw an object in Aldrete's hands that looked like a gun and that he was pointing it towards them.

Sutton told the Senate committee that the agents did not bring up the alleged gun until one month after the shooting, when Ramos was arrested.

Arrested men linked to Mexican town, cocaine ring Customers in U.S. could be charged, too

By Anna Cearley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 18, 2007

SAN DIEGO – U.S. authorities arrested five men this month suspected of being part of a cocaine distribution network made up primarily of people from the Mexican coastal town of Nautla.

Although the arrests focused on the distribution side, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration investigators also obtained information about some of the group's customers.

“The bulk of the users tend to be middle-class, white-collar professionals who live (in) or frequent coastal San Diego,” DEA spokesman Dan Simmons said.

Simmons said prosecutors will eventually decide whether to pursue drug-possession charges against the customers, who could face probation or prison time if convicted.

U.S. authorities said Rene Palacios Correa, who remains at large, is the suspected leader of those who were arrested this month. Palacios Correa is known to travel between San Diego and Veracruz, where Nautla is located.

The cell is one of about a dozen groups operating in San Diego with ties to Nautla, a fishing village. The enterprises are an example of the convergence of illegal immigration and drug trafficking.

Residents from the small town are smuggled into San Diego to work for the drug rings. The drugs, brought into the United States separately, are obtained from wholesalers.

Earlier this month, Ramiro Sanchez Davila was arrested in San Diego's North Park after a small amount of cocaine was found in his car, according to U.S. authorities.

Online: To learn more about the Nautla connection: tinyurl.com/2a5s76

A search warrant was then issued for a house in the 4000 block of 48th Street in San Diego, where U.S. authorities arrested three men July 10: Fernando Cobos Palacios, Javier Verjel Ochoa, and his brother, Pablo Verjel Ochoa.

Authorities said they found more than half a kilogram of cocaine and $24,787 inside the home.

A day later, the group's suspected local manager, Armando Correa Gutierrez, was arrested in National City. All five men face drug-trafficking charges, Simmons said.

U.S. authorities said the group's delivery workers were paid about $500 a week, and the manager about $1,000 a week. They apparently were sending back as much as $5,000 a week to Palacios Correa, U.S. authorities said.

By the end of 2004, more than 100 people with ties to the Nautla distribution groups had been arrested, most of those during a two-year comprehensive investigation into the powdered-cocaine networks.

“Apparently there is a prevailing feeling in Nautla, Mexico, that cocaine trafficking in San Diego is the road to riches,” said Alan Poleszak, the DEA's acting special agent in charge in San Diego, in a written statement condemning the groups' activities.

Loudoun Approves Measure Targeting Illegal Immigrants

By Sandhya Somashekhar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 18, 2007; Page A01

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution yesterday that would limit illegal immigrants' access to county services and penalize employers who hire them, becoming the second county in the region to adopt a hard-line position in the wake of Congress's failure to enact immigration reform.

One week after Prince William County officials took a similar step, Loudoun's supervisors voted unanimously for the resolution, which they said was necessary to stop blight and curb crime, especially on the county's border with Herndon and Fairfax County.

Supervisors also said they wanted to prevent tax dollars in the fast-growing county from going to those who have settled in Loudoun illegally.

"We need help in Loudoun. We are struggling. We are a small county, and we can't handle the hordes that are coming here and using up our services," said Eugene A. Delgaudio (R-Sterling), the main sponsor of the resolution. "Illegal immigration is taking a greater and greater toll on our community."

Although no one is sure how many of Loudoun's 270,000 residents are illegal, supervisors say the county has experienced an influx of undocumented Hispanic workers looking for jobs in the construction industry, which has boomed during the county's rapid growth over the past decade. According to the census, about 10 percent of Loudoun's population was Hispanic in 2005, up from about 6 percent in 2000.

The resolution is similar to the one Prince William passed but more vague, with a plan to enact strict new policies after a more detailed discussion in September. It requires the county's staff to study which services can legally be denied to those who are in the country unlawfully and to look for ways to cut off business with employers that hire illegal workers. It also calls for the Loudoun sheriff's office to work more closely with federal immigration authorities to quickly deport criminals who do not have papers.

Supporters of the resolution say the illegal immigrants' presence can be felt most acutely in the eastern part of the county, where they say crowded homes are falling into disrepair and gang violence is rising. Last year, the sheriff's office arrested nearly 50 people who were later deported because of their legal status. Some believe the problem will worsen if Prince William goes forward with its plan and ends up pushing illegal immigrants over its northern border into Loudoun.

"I think this is the first step of Virginians taking back their state," said Joseph W. Budzinski, spokesman for Help Save Loudoun, a group that opposes illegal immigration.

The resolution drew sharp criticism from Hispanic advocates, who said it would foster fear in the community and encourage racial profiling. Laura Valle, executive director of the nonprofit group La Voz of Loudoun, added that it was no simple matter determining who is legal.

"We are not experts. We don't have the capacity to determine the difference between false and real green cards," said Valle, whose group does not inquire about legal status when providing translation and referral services to the Spanish-speaking community.

The new standards could affect those who are in the country legally. Valle's husband, an immigrant from El Salvador, lost his green card and is awaiting a new one. In the meantime, Valle said, he worries what would happen if he were pulled over by police.

"He feels this sort of a gut fear, and this is someone who is fairly well established in the community," she said.

Loudoun Approves Measure Targeting Illegal Immigrants

Some supervisors voted reluctantly in favor of the resolution, which was a last-minute addition to the agenda. The proposal was announced in an e-mail sent by Delgaudio on Monday afternoon. By late Monday, all six Republicans on the nine-member board had signed on as co-sponsors. But the board's two independents and lone Democrat were not contacted, and they hurried to study the resolution before yesterday's vote.

Loudoun Supervisor James Burton (I-Blue Ridge) complained that he was being "railroaded" on a complex and sensitive issue. "To be handed a resolution on the day we meet, and to be asked to vote on it without understanding the consequences or the content of that resolution, is irresponsible," he said.

But the resolution's co-sponsors said putting it off until the next meeting in September was unnecessary. The county administrator and attorney will have six weeks to study the issue, they said, allowing the board to make clear-headed decisions in the fall.

"It's time for people like us to stand up and start defending and preserving the communities that we represent," said Mick Staton Jr. (R-Sugarland Run). "Hopefully, if enough local governments in this region and other regions start doing this, maybe the message will get up to those folks on Capitol Hill, and maybe they'll start doing something."

Opponents pointed out that all board seats are up in the fall election, and illegal immigration has become a key campaign issue.

"It's all politics trying to create fear in people," said Thom Beres, chairman of the Loudoun County Democratic Committee. "Where do you draw the line? How do you enforce it? Do you spend millions of dollars trying to enforce it?"

Budzinski and others believe some of the problems in eastern Loudoun stem from the Herndon day-laborer center, where workers -- legal or not -- can go to find landscaping and construction jobs. The site sits on the border with Loudoun. Although Herndon officials have promised to keep clients from entering the building from the Loudoun side, Loudoun residents say the clients often loiter at a 7-Eleven and elsewhere within the county limits.

Yesterday, the board voted to send a letter to Herndon officials urging them to check the immigration status of workers there before providing services.

Illegal-Immigrant Strategy Isn't Inspiring Optimism

By Marc Fisher
Sunday, July 15, 2007

In Cardinal Glen, a young development in Woodbridge where the builder is busy carving the next set of cul-de-sacs out of the rich clay of Prince William County, kids leave their bicycles lying on the driveway all day long and some folks don't bother to lock their doors.

But there's also a house with way too many cars parked outside and way too many people living inside. And then there's a moment like one Craig Vitter suffered in December: Vitter returned from Christmas shopping about 7 in the evening, pulled into his driveway, watched his wife take their daughter inside, and then, while he stayed out on the lawn to have a smoke, a man in a ski mask pulled a pistol on him and got away with about $20 Vitter had in his wallet.

"You wouldn't think there'd be much of that in this neighborhood," said Vitter, 34, a software programmer. "But these are $500,000 houses that become boarding houses, with 10 or 12 cars out front in various states of disrepair. And you see lots of gang graffiti."

So when Prince William supervisors last week ordered county agencies to figure out which services they can deny to illegal immigrants, Vitter was among the many residents who urged them on -- regardless of whether his own assailant was legal.

"Illegal immigration is a crime and it is a crime that begets more crime," he wrote to county supervisors. (The county's overall crime rate has decreased steadily in recent years, but juvenile arrests are way up, and so are street robberies. There are enough facts out there for everyone.)

Things have gotten to the point where Vitter -- who grew up in Fairfax and moved to Prince William in search of the holy grail of affordable housing in a place with good schools -- has thought of leaving, though he doesn't know where he'd go.

On the fringes of the debate over illegal immigration, the loudest voices cry out for drastic action. On the right, the shouts are for Lou Dobbsian measures: massive deportations, a big fence on the border, random inspections like you see in World War II movies -- "Your papers, please!" On the left, the reply is equally hysterical: Children will be deprived of schooling, families will go without medical care, police will run amok.

But here's the thing about most of the people I talked to as I wandered the county the other day. They're upset about the changes in the place they chose to live, yet they are under no illusion that anything politicians can or would do will make much of a difference.

Middle-class people moved to Prince William because it was a rare patch of relative affordability in a metropolitan area where housing prices are stratospheric. They saw the county as a place where families of modest means could still find a house, a decent yard and good schools. And now they find themselves suffering from many of the problems that plague places they would not choose to live in -- crime, crowding, people who don't speak English and don't know the rules.

"This is the land of opportunity, but they're supposed to abide by our rules," said Ned Natale, a retired federal worker who has lived in Prince William since 1967. He supports the county's new effort to crack down on illegal immigrants but says the simple fact is that deportations in any significant numbers are "just never going to happen."

Vitter wrote in favor of the crackdown on his blog, Craig's Musings, but when I asked what the county's effort to identify illegal immigrants and report them to federal authorities would accomplish, he replied: "Very little. All the county can do is make illegals feel less at home here, which isn't necessarily a good or bad thing."

Like most people I spoke to in Dale City and Woodbridge, Vitter faulted both those who view illegal immigrants as the root of their own problems and those who prefer to do nothing while illegal immigration strains county services.

"If I were in a poor Central American country and had no economic prospects, I would probably try like hell to get over the border to the United States," he said. "And I'm a parent and I know these children in our schools didn't choose to have parents who are illegal immigrants. They need to be educated, and they need medical care. The problem is, who's paying the taxes to support these children?

"I came to this county with the understanding that the schools here would be as excellent as the Fairfax schools, and now I don't know if that's going to be the case."

LaShawn Hayes, who moved to the county from New York City seven years ago, sees the graffiti and the gangs and knows something must be done. Yet she worries about giving the police expanded powers to check immigrants' status. "I'm a U.S. citizen and I'm African American, but I do look Hispanic," she said, "and they could stop me for that, and I would be offended. I don't know -- I go up and down on the whole issue."

People know there's a problem, and they want something done. But they don't think much is likely to change, and they know our economy depends heavily on illegal immigrants and they don't want to be seen as racists. And they want the rules to be enforced. They're conflicted.

Just like the politicians in Washington.

E-mail:marcfisher@washpost.com

Fear Seizes Pr. William Immigrants -- Legal and Not

By Nick Miroff
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 15, 2007; Page A01

Some cowered indoors, wary of police sweeps. Others said they'd leave for another county, or state -- anywhere that didn't seem as unwelcome as Prince William suddenly did. One father gave his sons copies of their green cards to carry to summer classes in elementary school, worried they'd be stopped and questioned.

Although the anti-illegal-immigrant measures approved last week in Prince William County were less severe than proposed originally, Hispanic residents there say a clasp of fear has gripped their community in recent days, as anxiety and confusion over the policies ripple through supermarkets, job sites, hair salons and living rooms.

"Everyone is scared to go outside," said Jorge Villarta, a Salvadoran immigrant who spoke in Spanish as he waited for his wife at the Salon Hispano beauty shop in Woodbridge, dropping his voice to a whisper. "They think the police will grab them, and they'll be deported," said Villarta, who added that he is a legal resident but still fears arrest.

Elsewhere across the region and beyond, Hispanic immigrants kept close tabs on events in Prince William this week, wondering whether other jurisdictions would follow suit. "A lot of our students think this [resolution] is one of many that are going to pass in our local cities and counties," said Amy White, director of the English as a Second Language program at Catholic Charities' Hogar Hispano program in Falls Church. Legal residents are worried about racial profiling, she added.

To date, Herndon, Manassas and Culpeper are the only jurisdictions in the Washington region to enact or consider policies targeting illegal immigrants, and none is as extensive as what Prince William is attempting.

The resolution approved unanimously by the Prince William Board of County Supervisors on Tuesday orders police officers to verify the residency status of anyone in custody whom they suspect to be an illegal immigrant. The resolution also seeks to block access to public services and benefits for illegal immigrants, claiming they are causing "economic hardship and lawlessness" in the county. The measures -- the toughest in Virginia -- apply to all illegal immigrants, but in Prince William that means mostly Hispanics.

Support for the measures among the county's non-Hispanic residents appeared to be broad, and county supervisors said their offices have been flooded by calls and e-mails backing the resolution. "This country is founded on the basis of laws," said Tom Brown, at a Borders bookstore on the Prince William Parkway. "Illegal means illegal."

Others said they were torn. "I can see the benefit to county taxpayers. But these are very hardworking individuals," said Marilyn Koshetar of Woodbridge. "It's a no-win situation."

Police and other county agencies have yet to establish procedures for the stepped-up enforcement, but the practical impact was in plain view last week along Route 1 in Woodbridge, a usually busy commercial strip lined with Hispanic-owned businesses.

Markets and restaurants were nearly empty, with slow sales reported at almost a dozen shops and restaurants. "What's going on?" wondered one manager of a Popeye's who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Why is it so slow?"

A nearby KFC popular with Hispanics was nearly deserted at lunchtime. Meanwhile, business was booming at Pizza Hut, where the manager reported a spike in home delivery calls.

No one is sure how many illegal immigrants live in Prince William, Virginia's second-most-populous county, or what would happen if many of them left. Thousands of migrants from Latin America -- legal and illegal -- have arrived in the past decade to fill a voracious demand for jobs in construction and other services, drawn by the county's building boom and relatively low housing costs. Since 1996, the percentage of Hispanic students in the county's school system has soared from 6.6 to 24.2 percent.

Prince William's Salvadoran community has grown so fast that the Salvadoran government opened a Woodbridge consulate in 2005. Many Hispanic newcomers have settled there and elsewhere in the county's eastern half, establishing communities and commercial strips in such places as Dumfries and Dale City.

Large Mexican and Central American communities have formed in and around Manassas. But relatively few Hispanics live in the county's more affluent western areas, such as the Gainesville district represented by Supervisor John T. Stirrup Jr. (R), who authored the resolution.

Hispanics who have lived in Prince William for years said they felt blindsided by the measures and the stinging comments they heard from county residents who blame them for ruining their neighborhoods, parks and schools.

"It seems like it came out of nowhere," said Woodbridge resident Silvia Leiva, 18, who was born in Arlington County. She said members of her family and friends -- some legal, others not -- were "flipping out."

Leiva also said the resolution's success exposed the political weakness of the county's Hispanic community, which does not vote in proportion to its numbers. "People are saying they should do more to learn the language and register to vote," she said.

Villarta and other immigrants interviewed last week described Tuesday's vote as the latest in a litany of disappointing signs about their future in the United States. "People have been watching the news, hoping something good would happen in the Senate," he said, referring to the proposed immigration reforms that died in Congress. "Now we watch the news expecting to hear the worst."

Although the measures approved last week were less harsh than first proposed, a cloud of confusion hung over Prince William's Hispanic community long after the board meeting. The scope of the resolution remains largely undetermined: County staff will have 90 days to figure out which services can be denied to illegal immigrants lawfully, and the police department will take 60 days to establish how residency will be verified and what will constitute probable cause.

The uncertainty appeared to extend all the way to Prince William's top elected official, who seemed to interpret the resolution differently from the county's police department. "If you're pulled over and you're a citizen or legal immigrant, you've got nothing to worry about," said board Chairman Corey A. Stewart (R-Occoquan), explaining the policy's intended reach. Those lacking a valid U.S. driver's license would be checked, Stewart said. "If we determine you are an illegal immigrant, we are going to do what we can to initiate deportation proceedings."

Yet the resolution appears to stop short of requiring that level of police scrutiny. It directs officers to check residency when probable cause is established and "when such inquiry will not expand the duration of the detention" -- language crafted to avoid conflict with Fourth Amendment protections against unlawful search and seizure. Sgt. Kim Chinn, a police spokeswoman, said the person would have to be under arrest, not simply pulled over for a traffic violation.

Hispanic business and community leaders in Prince William said they had been appearing this week on local Spanish-language radio stations to assuage panicked callers, urging them to focus on the resolution's details, rather than the anti-Hispanic message many heard.

"People should not be afraid," said Freddy Ventura, a Salvadoran-born businessman who runs a popular soccer league in the county. "I've got tons of people calling me, telling me they want to move. I told them there's nothing to be scared of. Show them you're not scared."

Others said they thought the week's events would produce a positive result by mobilizing Hispanics to participate in politics and take a critical look at conduct that fuels negative stereotypes about public drunkenness, littering and gangs.

"We have to learn the rules, learn how people live here," said businessman Carlos Castro. "There are certain misbehaviors that irritate a lot of people and we have to fix, but it's not fair for others to see us as a single group.

"In the end," he predicted, "I think it's going to have a positive effect on the community."

The resolution's effect on Hispanic communities has stretched well beyond Prince William.

"They're talking about this in Jefferson County, in Clarke, all the way to West Virginia," Adrian Escobar said in Spanish, sipping from a Big Gulp cup outside a pupusa kiosk on Route 1. He and his brother Antonio dashed across the border from Mexico nearly 15 years ago and have been in the United States illegally since. They live in Winchester and make $17 an hour as flagmen for a Virginia Department of Transportation subcontractor.

The Escobar brothers shrugged at all the fretting they'd been hearing from other Hispanics last week, including workers who commute to Prince William to do its grunt work. "Who else is going to pave the roads here?" Adrian asked, cracking up with laughter. "An American? Ha!"

Antonio said he wasn't fazed. "If you're afraid, they'll just intimidate you more," he said. Besides, he added, the brothers have a plan in case Prince William police and immigration officials send them home for a "free vacation" to their father's farm in Guanajuato.

"We'll be right back here in a month," Antonio said.

Add Loudon County, VA to the list who have enacted their own immigration laws - legislation passed yesterday.

Oops! You already posted this info. Sorry!

Report: Deportation Devastating Families

By SUZANNE GAMBOA
The Associated Press
Wednesday, July 18, 2007; 1:16 AM

WASHINGTON -- An estimated 1.6 million children and spouses have been separated from family members forced to leave the country under toughened 1996 immigration laws, a human rights group said Wednesday.

The separations have taken a toll on families who have sold homes, lost jobs, lost businesses or been thrown into financial turmoil, Human Rights Watch said in a new report.

The widespread impact on American families has been truly devastating, said Alison Parker, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch.

In 1996, Congress toughened immigration laws making immigrants, legal and illegal, deportable according to an expanded list of "aggravated felonies."

Congress made the law retroactive even to those who had served their sentences, and also eliminated hearings in which judges could consider an immigrant's family, community roots, military service or possible persecution in his or her native country.

Since this law was passed, 672,593 immigrants have been deported for crimes, according to statistics cited in the report from Citizenship and Immigration Services, a division of the Homeland Security Department. Human Rights Watch used those numbers and Census data on foreign-born households to estimate how many family members were left behind in the U.S.

According to statistics from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (or ICE), 64.6 percent of immigrants deported in 2005 had been convicted of nonviolent offenses. An additional 20.9 percent were deported for crimes involving violence against people, and 14.7 percent were deported for "other" crimes.

ICE has not released similar statistics for previous years.

"How do you explain to a child that her father has been sent thousands of miles away and can never come home simply because he forged a check?" Parker said.

The statistics don't show the full picture, said Kelly Nantel, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman. "A non-violent offense like drugs can contribute to violence of society."

Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement immigrants who violate the law forfeit their right to be in the U.S.

Steve Camorata, Center for Immigration Studies research director, said family members can leave with the deported immigrants. "Children constantly bear the consequences of their parents' poor decisions," he added.

Chiara, who did not want her last name used, said she and her two children tried to live where her husband was deported on a six-year-old misdemeanor domestic violence conviction. He served three days.

"We became homeless for quite a while. I was out of work when they deported him because I needed back surgery," said Chiara, who is a waitress.

Two immigrants ordered deported, Wayne Smith and Hugo Armendariz, have filed a complaint against the U.S. government with the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights. A hearing is scheduled Friday.

The commission enforces human rights treaties that apply in the Americas.

On the Net: Human Rights Watch report: http://hrw.org/reports/2007/us0707/

U.S. law enforcers move to deport offenders

By Dana Ford
Reuters
Wednesday, July 18, 2007

SANTA ANA, California (Reuters) - The inmate in the Orange County jail had been arrested before, but this time was different. After the first interview, he was led to a second, where he was told that if convicted he could be deported.

The deputy shrugged. "It's not up to me," he said.

The inmate, who cannot be identified because of a privacy protection rule of the Sheriff's department, has good reason to worry.

U.S. authorities are screening record numbers of offenders looking for noncitizens -- both those in the United States legally and illegal immigrants -- for possible deportation, with sharp increases in recent months.

In May alone, agents identified just over 16,000 immigrants in the U.S. prison system, a jump of 65 percent from October, according to figures released by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

The sharp rise highlights a new trend in law enforcement that blends the work of federal immigration agents and state and local authorities. Hailed as a way to fight crime by some, critics say the trend is politically motivated and blurs the line between immigration and criminal law.

'PEOPLE WE DON'T WANT'

A change in the law more than a decade ago allowed federal immigration agents to train members of local law enforcement to identify deportable immigrants.

Until recently, there were few takers.

But as the issue of what to do with 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. has become increasingly contentious and complex, more agencies are signing on.

Now 21 local law enforcement agencies have partnered with ICE in 12 states, more than twice the number of agencies at the end of 2006. A further 60 groups have applications pending.

U.S. law enforcers move to deport offenders
California's Orange County started the program in its jails last January and has so far identified more than 2,000 inmates who are potentially deportable -- either because they are undocumented immigrants or have committed crimes that make them eligible to lose their legal status.

"At the end of the day, we want a program that's going to reduce crime," said Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona.

After they have completed their sentences, flagged inmates are released to ICE for possible deportation.

About 70 percent of the inmates identified in O.C. jails were charged with felonies or aggravated felonies, crimes like drug possession and murder.

"It's very difficult to argue against this program," said Jim Hayes, field director for ICE in Los Angeles.

"We're identifying people in the jails ... that are serious threats. These are people we don't want in our communities."

A POLITICAL ISSUE?

Though officials contend coordination between federal and local agents is just another tool to fight crime, opponents say it blurs the line between criminal and immigration law and is being driven by politics.

"Our concern is that deportation should not be a way to punish someone for committing a crime," said Christian Ramirez, coordinator of the national immigrant rights group of the American Friends Service Committee.

Ramirez thinks politics are behind the increased coordination and points to the sudden surge of immigrants identified in the jails as proof.

"It creates a perception that all immigrants are criminals," said Ramirez about ICE's program in the jails.

That perception, Ramirez contends, is part of a plan to get a bill through Congress that is tough on enforcement.

U.S. law enforcers move to deport offenders
"When policymakers play with the fear of the American public, it becomes a political issue."

Last month, a bipartisan Senate bill seeking a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants was blocked in Congress by adversaries from both parties, essentially killing the chance of immigration reform until next year.

In the absence of federal reform, policymakers are under increasing pressure to show they're taking some sort of action -- and greater enforcement is the path of least resistance.

The House of Representatives passed a measure to increase spending to improve federal and local coordination on matters of immigration and the Senate is expected to pass a similar plan soon.

"They choose something that looks like a concrete accomplishment," said Joan Friedland, immigration policy director at the National Immigration Law Center, referring to members of Congress.

"But they don't deal with the difficult issue of comprehensive immigration reform."

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, ICE's Hayes said he was pleased with progress in the program to identify deportable immigrants in jails and expects coordination with local agencies to grow.

"I don't think we've hit our stride."

Squeezing Legal Immigrants

Letters to The Editor
The Washington Post
Tuesday, July 17, 2007; Page A18

Regarding the July 13 front-page article "Religious Visa Workers Fear Program Overhaul":

The plan to tighten restrictions on religious visas comes as new regulations also make it harder to qua