<This is what I originally wrote to someone, but I would like to share with all of you.>
USCIS (formally called INS), Tampa office does not take any phone calls. I didn't know there are offices in U.S. that answer questions by phone.
When I first arrived to U.S. back in 1998 before we hired a lawyer, I tried to fill all the paper works by myself. It wasn't easy...too many questions to ask, but I can't call USCIS to ask, so I had to make a trip to Tampa which is about a hour from Bradenton to talk to a officer at Immigration office.
I arrived real early in a morning, probably like around 8 am. They made us wait outside for a long long time.... Finally I got inside building was close to noon and they told me it will be a while, and go ahead take a lunch and come back. So I did....
Finally my turn came was close to 4 p.m. I went to the counter, asked my questions. The officer did not take much time, it was like tong twister, I could not understand what she said at all. I asked her again, and this is what she said to me
" I already spend enough time on you. Next Please! "
The next person came to the counter, and I was pushed to the side.
I came home....I told Keith I would never want to deal with USCIS in person. we hired a lawyer within a week.
Group Against Illegal Immigration Wants County To Stop Funding Facility
By Ernesto Londoño Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, July 22, 2007; Page C04
A group opposed to illegal immigration held a two-hour protest yesterday in front of a day-laborer center in Montgomery County, calling on elected officials to stop funding the center that the county set up near Gaithersburg.
"Other counties are pushing legislation to stop this," Brad Botwin, one of the organizers, said at the protest yesterday morning. "We're becoming a sanctuary."
Botwin, a federal employee who started Help Save Maryland last year to advocate cutting benefits for illegal immigrants, said he has been hearing from more people who have joined his cause.
"You're seeing PTA members, government workers saying enough is enough," Botwin said. "I'm getting e-mails from across the county, across the state."
Gaithersburg officials, faced with considerable political resistance, had rejected several sites for a center where day laborers could gather to meet employers. In April, the county set up the site just outside the city limits.
One of the protesters who attended yesterday's rally, Gretta Patten, 41, of Rockville used her dachshund, Schroeder, in what she said was her debut as an activist against illegal immigration. The pet, which scurried around protesters who were waving flags and signs looking for spots of shadow, wore two signs fastened to a vest.
One said: "I've got a bone to pick with Ike," referring to County Executive Isiah Leggett (D), who supports the day-laborer center and has said Montgomery will not follow in the footsteps of Prince William and Loudoun counties, where ordinances against illegal immigration have been enacted recently. The dog's other sign said: "This hotdog's got a beef with illegal immigration."
Patten, 41, said her main gripe is about the county's financial support for groups such as Casa de Maryland, an immigrant advocacy group that operates the day-laborer center.
"It's knowing my tax dollars go to people who are breaking the law," she said.
The protest drew members of the Minutemen, a national group founded in Arizona to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border and limit immigration. While the group of about 20 protesters waved to passing motorists near the Shady Grove Metro station, day laborers planted flowers on an unkempt patch of land in front of the center, which operates in a trailer.
Across the street, a slightly larger group of counter-protesters challenged and at times taunted Botwin's group.
"Minutemen, KKK, racist bigots, go away!" the immigrant activists yelled.
Gustavo Torres, executive director of Casa de Maryland, said the anti-illegal immigration protesters represent the view of a "small minority." He said that the center has been a success and that he thinks most people in the county support it and acknowledge the need for it.
"Any organization doing the type of work we do is going to become a target," he said.
Sara Pellecer, an immigrant from Guatemala who was with the day laborers yesterday, said she and other immigrants worry about the anti-immigrant sentiment that appears to be spreading in the region, especially in the wake of the new ordinances in Virginia.
"The measures aren't wise," she said. "They push people toward poverty and despair."
Oklahoma is tackling uninsured drivers with a new insurance-verification program scheduled for next summer, but the system doesn't address an obvious contributor to the problem -- illegal immigrants.
The real-time verification system allows law enforcement to immediately determine if a driver has car insurance.
Right now, officers on traffic stops can't determine if proof of insurance is valid.
The verification system aims to reduce the problem of uninsured drivers that ratchets up insurance premiums and drives up danger on the roads.
But the system won't unwind a legislative pickle that indirectly prevents illegal immigrants from obtaining car insurance by denying them driver's licenses.
"We know we have a lot of illegal residents who cannot get a driver license," said Lonnie Jarman, director of financial responsibility at the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety.
"Here we have a problem until we get this thing resolved because they have cars."
UF3 Defining the problem: Insurance industry experts say many people drive on state roads in violation of state liability insurance mandates. Most of them are U.S. citizens, and all of them are a problem.
"When people go without insurance, those of us who do buy insurance are the ones who ultimately end up paying," said Elizabeth Sprinkel, senior vice president of the Insurance Research Council.
Jarman estimates up to one-quarter of Oklahoma drivers don't have car insurance, which violates a state requirement of liability coverage for all cars on the road.
Other estimates are lower, like the 15 percent of uninsured motorists reported in 2004 by the Insurance Research Council.
"No one can tell you what the number is because it's a constantly moving target," Jarman said.
"Cars are bought and sold, and insurance plans are sold and canceled every day."
Based on the higher estimate, 800,000 of the 3.2 million privately owned and registered vehicles in Oklahoma are without insurance, according to Department of Public Safety statistics.
The number of illegal immigrants driving without insurance is far more elusive than the number of uninsured motorists altogether.
That's because the state doesn't know exactly how many illegal immigrants are within its borders.
The number was recently estimated at 40,000 to 60,000 by U.S. Rep. John Sullivan, a Republican from Tulsa who has made policing illegal immigration a political passion.
'Like society doesn't care': The state does not knowingly issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, and insurance companies rarely issue coverage to unlicensed drivers.
Neither a driver's license nor auto insurance is needed to buy a car, although insurance is required to register a vehicle with the state.
The stories are perennial about friends or family members involved in car accidents with uninsured and undocumented immigrants. Even Jarman from the Department of Public Safety shared one about his daughter in Texas.
Kay Thompson Keithline's story began May 2 near 61st Street and Sheridan Avenue. The 72-year-old woman's Mercedes was rear-ended by a Ford Taurus that witnesses said was driven by a "heavy-set Hispanic male," according to the Tulsa Police Department's collision report.
It said the driver and passenger of the Ford fled on foot, leaving the car at the scene.
Police did not find any insurance verification in the car, and a representative from Keithline's insurance company, Farmers Insurance Group, confirmed he was uninsured.
The driver's immigration status was not addressed.
Keithline said her car was repaired for $7,000, which insurance paid minus a $500 deductible.
Her trust in the system remains damaged.
"It makes me feel like society doesn't care anymore," she said.
Hit and run: The number of uninsured drivers nationwide increased from 12.7 percent in 1999 to 14.6 in 2004, the Insurance Research Council reported.
When asked if immigration influenced the increase, Sprinkel said the answer is "beyond the scope of the study."
No true measure exists to know how, if at all, immigration has affected the problem of uninsured drivers.
The Tulsa Police Department last month issued 1,111 citations for no proof of insurance. That was slightly up from 1,007 in the same month last year.
The drivers cited might have been insured but didn't have up-to-date proof, or proof at all.
Roughly 240 hit-and-runs occur each month, but drivers leave accident scenes for a variety of reasons, including lack of insurance.
"Illegal immigration is one of our issues (with uninsured drivers)," said Jarman from Public Safety.
"Until the federal government reaches a decision and that is dealt with, it is going to be a problem."
With an estimated 12 million illegal aliens now on U.S. soil and with America on terrorism alerts, isn't it time to get serious about our open borders?
Here are seven steps that could go a long way toward securing them.
1. Make it a federal crime to feed, house, employ or otherwise provide aid to an illegal alien.
2. Provide illegal aliens a 90-day window to return to their native country or face long imprisonment.
3. Impose a $1,000 reward to anyone reporting an illegal alien, following the 90-day grace period.
4. Overhaul the U.S. Immigration Service from top to bottom.
5. Impose a three-year moratorium on legal immigration, followed by stringent regulations for anyone desiring to enter the U.S.
6. Use the military or national guard to police and secure our borders.
7. Announce worldwide through broadcast media as well as posted signs universally that anyone crossing U.S. borders illegally is subject to being shot when not responding to police commands.
With these seven steps in place, the number of illegal aliens on U.S. soil would decrease swiftly, entirely and permanently. With acts of terrorism by those abusing our liberal immigration policies reduced substantially, American citizens could resume their lives without fear of being maimed or murdered by religious fanatics.
Virgil Hensley, Tulsa
This message has been edited. Last edited by: explora,
Our View On Immigration: Long Waits, Onerous Rules Invite Immigrants To Break Law Delays Can Last Decades. And If You Don't Have Connection, Forget It.
In 1989, Mohamad Abdo and his family, living in Lebanon, took their first step toward a dream of living in the USA. A relative, already here, petitioned for the family to join him.
Then they all waited. And waited and waited.
First came the inevitable delay caused by quotas that limit family immigration. Ten years passed before they even got permission to apply for visas.
Then the real frustrations started. For the next four years, they lived a paperwork nightmare as their application bounced around the immigration bureaucracy. In 2003, the Abdos finally were told they could come to the USA as permanent residents, with just one catch: Their eldest son, Raed, who was 8 years old when the process began, would have to stay behind. Because he had just turned 21, he no longer qualified to immigrate with them as a minor.
Welcome to the legal immigration system "” a Byzantine world of bureaucratic bungling and unconscionable waits for those who try to play by the rules.
Unless you have a relative here, or a job waiting for you, or you're granted political asylum, there's virtually no legal way in. And if you do have a connection, you'll probably wait for a long, long time. Some people have stood on line for more than 20 years.
Small wonder so many people just skip the process and enter the country illegally, or come here on temporary visas and then stay. For all the screaming about illegal immigration, now focused on a bill in the U.S. Senate, the truth is that legal immigration is so difficult that it gives normally law-abiding people potent incentives to cheat. No immigration reform will work unless that changes.
Of those who choose the legal route, by far the largest group is people such as the Abdos, who have relatives here. At the moment, the waiting list is more than 4 million people long, allocated by country.
The Senate compromise attempts to deal with this by promising to clear the backlog within eight years. Until then, no green cards would be given to people now here illegally.
That's not entirely fair. It's still a long wait, and in the interim, immigrants here illegally could get safe harbor while those seeking legal entry wait outside. But it's at least a start. The 12 million people here illegally aren't going to be rounded up and deported in any case.
The Senate could do better, though. The bill fails to address the nonsensical age-21 glitch leaving Abdo and his family in Memphis and his now-adult son in war-torn Lebanon.
More broadly, it does nothing to help legal residents bring their children and spouses here more quickly, which is heartless. Nuclear families should be able to stay together.
An even larger question is whether the glacial immigration system is capable of trimming the backlog. The money is supposed to come later.
As Congress tries to fix the immigration mess, it needs to remember that any system of legal immigration as onerous and time-consuming as the current one is doomed to undermine respect for the law and encourage even greater levels of illegal immigration. And that people such as the Abdos, who've followed the rules, deserve fair treatment and an opportunity to realize their dreams.
This is the fourth in an occasional series of editorials about this year's immigration debate. View the previous editorials at blogs.usatoday.com/oped/immigration_editorial.
Languishing in lines Depending on their origin, spouses and minor children of legal U.S. residents, eligible this month for visas to become legal residents, have waited:
* Mexico "” six years.
* Other "” five years.
Siblings of U.S. citizens, eligible this month, have waited:
* Philippines "” 22 years.
* Mexico "” 13 years.
* Other "” 11 years.
Source: State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs
Posted at 12:22 AM/ET, June 18, 2007 in Family - Editorial, Foreign policy general - Editorial, Immigration - Editorial, Law/Judiciary - Editorial, Lifestyle issues - Editorial, Politics, Government - Editorial, USA TODAY editorial | Permalink
By ANDREW MIGA The Associated Press Sunday, July 22, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney praised the virtues of faith, family values and immigration as he courted Hispanic voters.
"If you say, name people who are hardworking, seek education, love God, love their families and value freedom, -- it's Hispanic-Americans, just like other Americans," Romney told a crowd at the Republican National Hispanic Assembly's annual convention.
Life Along 'La Linea' The U.S.-Mexico border is at the forefront of a growing debate over U.S. immigration and border security reform.
Praising Hispanics as "quintessentially American," the former Massachusetts governor said the nation's immigration policy should help open doors for people with such strong beliefs.
"I want to make sure we continue an open door in immigration that welcomes people who come here with those kinds of values," he said.
During an Iowa visit last week, Romney struck a hard line on illegal immigration. He criticized GOP rival and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani for making the city "a sanctuary city for illegal aliens" by failing to enforce the immigration laws on the books. Also in his Iowa remarks, Romney noted that as governor, he deputized state police to enforce immigration laws and denied driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
Candidates in both major parties are reaching out to Hispanic voters, underscoring their status as the largest and fastest-growing minority group in the 2008 campaign.
Romney said Republicans should not cede the Latino vote to Democrats. Though Hispanics tend to favor Democrats in national elections, President Bush got about 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004.
"It's very important that we as a party communicate how much we value immigration," he told the breakfast audience.
Romney has been seeking support from the Hispanic community in Florida and elsewhere. He hired a Spanish-language media adviser in Florida. He also ran a radio ad targeting Spanish-speaking voters.
By Lucy Nalpathanchil Reuters Sunday, July 22, 2007
NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (Reuters) - As many U.S. cities and states arrest illegal immigrants in raids and toughen laws against them, a Connecticut city is offering to validate them under a controversial, first-in-the-nation ID card program.
Starting Tuesday, New Haven will offer illegal immigrants municipal identification cards that allow access to city services such as libraries and a chance to open bank accounts.
Supporters say the cards will improve public safety and give undocumented workers protections now afforded legal residents. Critics contend it will unleash a flood of illegal immigration, straining services and wasting taxpayer money.
New Haven officials overwhelmingly approved the program last month in a 25 to 1 vote.
Backers and detractors alike say the program appears to fill a vacuum after Congress failed to act on immigration reform, leaving many towns and cities to struggle with how to deal with a growing undocumented population.
Kica Matos, a leader of local Latino advocacy group Junta for Progressive Action, said undocumented workers are often targeted by thieves and robbed because they carry cash, a result of not being able to open a bank account.
"Part of the reason they can't open bank accounts is because they don't have forms of identification that were valid," she said.
She said two banks had already agreed to accept the new city card, which will be offered to all New Haven residents, as legitimate identification sufficient for opening an account.
Matos estimates 3,000 to 5,000 illegal immigrants live in the city of 124,000 people, many from Mexico, Ecuador and Guatemala.
Yale University Law School, based in New Haven, helped research the city's idea and volunteered legal services. Several immigrants' rights groups also helped build up local support for the identification cards.
PROTESTS
Opponents hope to rally the public against it. Southern Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Reform says the ID cards will change "the entire country as we know it" and is organizing a protest on Tuesday at city hall.
"There are millions of illegal aliens right around us that when these ID cards are available to them, they will rush to them and get some identification that will allow them to go to other cities," said Ted Pechinski, who leads the group.
North Carolina-based Americans for Legal Immigration PAC has circulated a flier in 40 states urging illegal workers to move to New Haven, said its president William Gheen.
"Maybe New Haven needs to learn, if they want the illegals, then they'll get the illegals," he said.
His flier, in English and Spanish, says: "Come to New Haven CT for sanctuary. Bring your friends and family members quickly."
Officials in several cities including New York and San Francisco have expressed interest in possibly starting similar programs, said Matos at Junta for Progressive Action.
The new ID, she added, does not easily identify a person as an illegal immigrant. "That is the last thing that we want to have happen," she said. The card was created with several features to appeal to all residents, including a debit component and access to city services such as parks.
Fatima, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, said she is eager to apply for the card. "The ID will help me because it's a way to be in this country and get people to know who you are, especially for people who crossed the border and lost their papers," she said. "I feel safe here in New Haven."
By Krissah Williams Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, July 23, 2007; Page D01
The iPod-carrying lifeguard watching over the rooftop pool at the posh Park Connecticut apartments, the physics teacher at Suitland High School and several laborers all have one thing in common: They are among the foreign workers who keep the local economy running, turning up more and more often in unexpected jobs.
Arlington's High Sierra Pools, which once counted on eager American teenagers to occupy its lifeguard chairs, now fills nearly half of its 500 jobs with young people from Bulgaria, Poland, Peru and elsewhere.
Almost all of the 80,000 horses in Maryland are now bathed, brushed and fed by migrants.
And Leroy Dixon's family-owned tent company in Glen Burnie employs a half-dozen Mexican workers through a visa program for circus laborers because, Dixon said, local workers usually quit when they are asked to put up a tent on a Sunday night or hoist a canopy before dawn.
Employers who say they are feeling the pinch in a region marked by low unemployment and relatively high wages more often are turning to foreign workers, who have gone far beyond jobs they dominate such as cutting lawns and programming software.
They are here on a variety of visas, some reserved for students, others for professionals and laborers permitted to work for nine-month stints. A Washington Post review of a Department of Labor database of companies that petitioned for foreign workers last year revealed that thousands of employers in the District and its suburbs sought tens of thousands of guest workers, most with little shot at permanent residency.
Employers in the District requested 4,904 foreign workers through the H-1B program, which allows U.S. employers to hire foreign professionals, and 107 of those requests were made by the city's school system. In Maryland, 399 employers requested 8,209 temporary foreign workers through the H-2B and H-2A programs, which allow seasonal industries and farms to hire guest workers. Six Flags America in Mitchellville alone requested permission to hire 225 temporary workers to keep its roller coasters roaring at peak season. In Virginia, 1,029 employers requested temporary foreign workers through the H-2B and H-2A programs last year.
Not all requested workers are approved, but their numbers, along with those of immigrants on long-term visas, keep expanding. From 1990 to 2000, the region's foreign-born population grew by about 70 percent. Since 2000, it has grown by at least 23 percent, to more than 1 million. About 300,000 other foreigners work here illegally, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.
Local employers who import foreign workers said they are heavily dependent on the migrants they employ. A half-dozen said they will continue hiring through the government's guest-worker program, keeping the local economy churning despite last month's congressional failure to overhaul immigration law.
Illegal Immigration Dominates Conversation In Prince William
Monday, July 23, 2007
Virginia Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (R) stopped in Prince William County last week to discuss his "100 Ideas for Virginia" initiative with the chamber of commerce, but the conversation quickly turned to the county's biggest gripe: illegal immigration.
During the one-hour forum, audience members, who had a chance to present ideas on any subject related to the direction of the state, spent most of the time talking about the impact of illegal immigrants on their community.
"Don't underestimate Prince William County. We've have just begun on this illegal immigration issue," said Lois Battistoni, a 73-year-old retiree and resident of Lake Ridge to nods among dozens of business leaders and residents at the town hall meeting.
Prince William, which has one of the fastest-growing Hispanic populations in the region, has been among the most aggressive jurisdictions on the matter. This month, the county's board of supervisors approved a measure that would curb illegal immigrants' access to public services and require local police to verify residency status of anyone in custody suspected of being in the country illegally.
Battistoni, a volunteer in the Help Save Manassas anti-illegal immigration group, said undocumented immigrants pose a burden on hospitals, schools, jails and other public services. She fears crime is going up in the county because of an influx of illegal immigrants, prompting an increased demand for police officers.
Some business owners expressed frustration over difficulties in ensuring that the workers they hire are legal.
Stephen C. Nelson, chairman-elect of the Prince William County-Greater Manassas Chamber of Commerce, asked Bolling for the state to help business owners verify the immigration status of potential employees.
"Sometimes, we'll send in the paperwork to check on a Social Security number, and it will take up to nine months for any reply from the government. It needs to be much quicker," said Nelson, who owns Junction Travel in Manassas.
Bolling, who has been touring different cities since last year to hear ideas from Virginia residents on the future course of the state, said he has heard similar concerns about illegal immigration from other parts of the state. Last week, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution that would limit public services for illegal immigrants and penalize employers who hire them.
"I think you're going to see more of the state take this kind of action," Bolling said.
The Tent-Builders 'Their Work Ethic Is Phenomenal'
Monday, July 23, 2007; Page D07
Leroy Dixon built his party company from the ground up 13 years ago by putting one stake in the ground after the other and tying together a roster of events which includes big Chesapeake Bay festivals and small backyard weddings. Mostly he builds tents and canopies, labor-intensive work that must often be done at odd hours.
As Party Plus grew, Dixon, his wife, Lauri, and their son, Lee, quickly identified the largest obstacle to their success: finding reliable workers.
related information
Industry: Tent-building
Visas: H2-B for foreign workers in the United States on temporary stints
Pay:$8 per hour, starting
Employees' countries of origin: primarily Mexico, and countries in Central and South America
"People only rent tents in the warm weather," said Dixon, whose company is based in Glen Burnie. It was next to impossible, he said, to recruit and retain workers willing to stick with a job that pays $8 an hour plus overtime and promises long hours of physical labor in the spring and summer and a virtual work stoppage in the winter.
For the first time last year, Dixon hired a lawyer to help him apply for a government program that lets seasonal businesses hire foreign nationals for nine months each year.
The program, known as H-2B for its legislative designation, admitted 121,000 foreign workers last year on temporary visas. Six were Mexican men working for Dixon -- under the H2-B title of circus laborer -- putting up tents, loading and unloading chairs, some days from sunup to sundown.
"The fellas that come up here, they work extremely hard," said Dixon, who has been in the party business with his wife since the mid-1980s. "Their work ethic is phenomenal. They can literally do the work of two people we get from a temporary day-labor source, and that is not an exaggeration."
With his belated discovery of the 17-year-old H-2B worker program, Dixon believed he had a solution -- until his request for workers last year got caught in a bureaucratic snag among the three federal agencies that must approve every request for foreign workers.
By the third week in May, the six Mexican workers Dixon requested still had not been approved to enter the United States and bus up to Maryland. They were nearly a month behind schedule, and Party Plus was in one of its busiest and most lucrative periods. In a two-week span, Dixon is responsible for preparing the tents, setting the chairs, building the staging and putting up the lighting and video projection for the graduation ceremonies of Montgomery College and community colleges in Anne Arundel, Howard and Hartford counties.
"If I don't get it done, I'm in breach of contract," Dixon said.
As the graduations hit, the foreign workers still had not received the government's required approvals, and Dixon had to hire temporary day-laborers from recruiters who charge a hefty fee.
"My profit for the graduations goes right out the window, and typically when you are hiring folks from temporary agencies they don't have the same desire that we do to get the job done," Dixon said.
He slogged through the graduations but called the office of his senator, Barbara A. Mikulski, to complain. Mikulski and her staffers, who had intervened in the past for crab houses on the Eastern Shore, helped push his application along, Dixon said. By June his temporary workers had their approvals.
Party Plus's Mexican workers are to return to their homeland in early December. Dixon hopes to bring them back next year.
FRESNO– To listen to right-wing talk radio or the fear-mongers on cable TV, you would think that the only people upset by the unraveling of immigration reform are open-border liberals or left-leaning Latino activists.
Nope. Farmers and ranchers are as conservative as they come. Yet right about now, they're angry enough to spit nails.
American agribusiness is fighting off foreign competition from Asia and Latin America while losing workers to other industries. Someone who grows peaches in the Central Valley might pay workers about $7 per hour, while construction firms often pay twice that.
The reason for the disparity is wrapped up in how much people are willing to pay for what they consume. A lot of Californians won't think twice about forking over a million dollars for a house, but they'll balk at the price of an apple, especially when they have the option of going to another store where the apples are cheaper because they come from China.
And given that California agribusiness generates more than $30 billion annually, the labor shortage is a concern for everyone in the state – whether they realize it or not.
That point is not lost on the community leaders associated with the Kenneth L. Maddy Institute at California State University Fresno. The institute, named after a former state senator who cast a long shadow on local and state politics, sets out to train new leaders and find creative solutions to public policy issues.
We need both. So when the institute invited me to my hometown to participate in a forum on immigration reform, I gladly accepted.
The economy of the Central Valley hums in the summer months and then suffers a downturn in winter. It's all tied to the harvest. A grape grower has a good year, and he buys himself a new pickup truck. The person who sold it to him then has money to afford private school tuition for his daughter. And then the school has enough money to add a new wing. And then the construction company that gets the contract to build it lures away workers from the farmer who set the whole thing in motion.
Now what is the farmer supposed to do? Think the average American college student wants to do those jobs? As one of the other forum participants put it: "Of course no one wants their kids to become farm workers. Not even farm workers want their kids to become farm workers."
Some farmers in Colorado and Idaho have turned to prison inmates to fill the void. It's a cute stunt but not a long-term solution.
So farm groups pressed Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform. They were especially interested in the Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits and Security Act of 2006, or AgJobs, which would have created a new guest-worker program and granted legal status to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who work in agriculture.
Instead, farmers watched Republicans push racist hot buttons over how we shouldn't have to "press one for English" and how any illegal immigrant who gets legal status would go on welfare. Then they watched Democrats attack the guest-worker plan in order to pander to organized labor desperate to protect union members from having to compete with foreign laborers. Meanwhile, pundits in Washington and New York showed their ignorance. The city folk suggested that farmers use machines to pick crops, but farmers maintain that could bruise fruits and vegetables and destroy their profit margin. Try picking blueberries with a machine – you'll wind up with puree. Do it with strawberries and, before you know it, you'll have jam.
Then there's the money. Congress' failure to pass immigration reform is especially galling since many in agriculture have forked over millions in campaign contributions to officeholders from both parties. And when farmers asked for one thing in return, they got the runaround. They also got insulted; the anti-reform lobby painted them as greedy growers hungry for more illegal immigrants to exploit.
Not true, farmers say. They want a legal work force, they insist, but Congress won't even create a tamperproof ID card so that employers can be sure that their workers are legal. They say they are running out of options. And they've already run out of patience.
They admit that as many as 90 percent of agricultural workers are illegal immigrants. But they wonder, just where are the Americans who are supposedly desperate to have these jobs?
I bet at least some of them are trying different supermarkets, shopping around for the best price for a piece of fruit.
JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 48 minutes ago
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Dozens of people lined up at City Hall on Tuesday for municipal identification cards, the first city-issued ID cards specifically designed to bring illegal immigrants out of the shadows and give them access to community services.
The cards, available to New Haven's entire population, are meant to help anyone without a state- or federal-issued ID open a bank accounts and use other services that would otherwise be inaccessible. Advocates argue that if immigrants can open bank accounts, they will be less likely to carry large amounts of cash, a practice that makes them easy targets for robbers.
An estimated 10,000 to 12,000 of New Haven's 125,000 residents are believed to be in the country illegally.
"The simple straightforward purpose here is to build a stronger community," Mayor John DeStefano said. "You can't police a community of people who won't talk to our cops."
The mayor said the federal government had failed to address immigration-related issues, forcing cities to find ways to manage them. New Haven is simply acknowledging the people who already live there, he said.
"I think New Haven is doing something that makes sense for New Haven," DeStefano said. "Service to one another in community, more than waving an American flag, defines the spirit of our soul."
Ray Sanchez, a 36-year-old laborer waiting in line at City Hall with more than 100 others, said the card would also let him get a library card, use banks and learn English. It also would make him feel more safe, he said.
"We need to send money to the places we come from. For me, I feel better. If the police catch me, I have identification now," Sanchez said.
There also a contingent of protesters at City Hall on Tuesday. Bob Luciani, a teacher from Woodbridge, said he is concerned that that other cities may do what New Haven has done.
"It's going to metastasize across all over the country. I think this is totally illegal," he said. "If we don't go by laws, then we're going to have anarchy."
Another protesters held a sign reading: "You have cheated on those who have been waiting to enter the country legally."
The ID cards stand in contrast to new laws or proposals in more than 90 cities or counties around the nation prohibiting landlords from leasing to illegal immigrants, penalizing businesses that employ them or training police to enforce immigration laws.
New Haven already offers federal tax help to immigrants and prohibits police from asking about their immigration status. The new ID cards cost $5 for children and $10 for adults.
Shortly after city officials approved the program, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted raids that led to about 30 arrests. City officials said the raids appeared to be retaliatory, but ICE officials have said the raids had nothing to do with the city's approval of the ID program.
They would not comment on the prospects of more raids.
"ICE is mandated by Congress to enforce a wide range of immigration and customs laws and we will continue to enforce those laws in Connecticut and throughout the U.S.," the agency said in a statement.
DeStefano acknowledged that some immigrants may be reluctant to apply for an ID card because of the raids, but predicted most will still seek the ID cards.
Junta For Progressive Action, an advocacy group for Latinos, quickly ran out of 50 applications for the cards on Friday, executive director Sarahi Almonte said.
DALLAS -- Federal agents and local police have rounded up more than 100 members of street gangs in raids in North Texas cities, immigration officials announced Monday.
More than half of the 121 suspects were arrested on criminal charges, said ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok. The others were taken into custody on administrative, or immigration, violations.
Some gang members who were in the country illegally have been deported or are being processed for deportation. Others are being prosecuted for re-entering the United States after deportation, said ICE agent John Chakwin Jr.
Those arrested during the seven-day operation were members of 27 gangs, including the Asian Boyz, Latin Kings, Mexican Mafia and MS-13, officials said. They included 45 U.S. citizens with pending charges.
"Working in close partnership with federal and local law enforcement agencies, we removed from our communities many fugitive criminals and violent street gang members," Chakwin said.
Arrests were made in Arlington, Irving, Fort Worth, Dallas, Gainesville and Wichita Falls with the help of police in each city. Also participating were other federal and state agencies, as well as the police in Farmers Branch, a Dallas suburb that has drawn attention for passing a law prohibiting apartment rentals to illegal immigrants.
The arrests came as part of Operation Community Shield, a national initiative targeting gangs that was launched more than two years ago after federal officials identified the MS-13 gang, or Mara Salvatrucha, as one of the nation's largest and most violent.
Human Rights Watch Defending Human Righs Worldwide http://hrw.org/reports/2007/us0707/
Forced Apart Families Separated and Immigrants Harmed by United States Deportation Policy
Related Material
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More on Human Rights Watch's work on immigration in the United States
Acknowledgements
I. Summary
II. Recommendations
To the President of the United States To the United States Congress To the Department of Homeland Security To the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration To the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services To Criminal Defense Attorneys
III. Deportation Law Based on Criminal Convictions Before 1996
Early History of the Deportation Power Crimes of Moral Turpitude and Aggravated Felonies
IV. Deportation Law Based on Criminal Convictions After 1996
Specific Crimes Rendering Non-Citizens Deportable Aggravated Felonies Crimes of Moral Turpitude Definitions Include Relatively Minor Crimes Elimination of Defenses to Deportation Elimination of 212(c) Waiver of Deportation Limits on Withholding: Returns to Persecution
Retroactive Effects
Congressional Regrets
V. National Statistics on Deportation for Crimes
VI. US Deportation Policy Violates Human Rights
The Right to Raise Defenses to Deportation
Proportionality
Family Unity
Children's Rights
Ties to a Country
Length of Legal Residence
Legal Residence in the United States Since Childhood
Military Service
Training and Employment
Protection from Return to Persecution for Refugees
VII. Conclusion: The Need for a Legislative Solution
Appendix: A History of Human Rights Watch's FOIA Request for Deportation Data PDF file - 3 pages, 55 kb
July 2007 Volume 19, No. 3(G)
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U.S. Mandatory Deportation Laws Harm American Families Legal Residents Often Deported for Minor Crimes
(Washington, DC, July 18, 2007) – The mandatory deportation of legal immigrants convicted of a crime, even a minor one, has separated an estimated 1.6 million children and adults, including US citizens and lawful permanent residents, from their non-citizen family members, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
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?
Alison Parker, senior researcher with the US Program at Human Rights Watch
Forced Apart: Families Separated and Immigrants Harmed by United States Deportation Policy Report, July 18, 2007
Human Rights Watch Amicus Curiae Brief for the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights Amicus Briefs, July 18, 2007
Forced Apart Audio Commentary Audio Clip, July 18, 2007
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US immigration officials have deported 672,593 immigrants because of criminal convictions since 1997, after Congress passed legislation making deportation a mandatory penalty for a long list of crimes, including minor, non-violent offenses committed years before the laws went into effect. Many of those deported arrived in the US as children and were lawful permanent residents who had lived legally in the country for decades.
"The laws are not only cruel in their rigidity, they are senseless," said Alison Parker, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch's US Program and author of the report. "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?"
Prior to 1997, immigrants who committed a crime were permitted to go before an immigration judge, who could exercise his or her discretion in imposing penalties. However, the legislation Congress passed in 1996 precluded immigration judges from considering whether deportation would be excessively harsh in light of the immigrants' family relationships, community ties, US military service records, or the possibility of persecution if returned to their country of origin. The deportation takes place after the non-citizen has completed the terms of the sentence imposed for the crime.
The 88-page report, "Forced Apart: Families Separated and Immigrants Harmed by US Deportation Policy," is the first comprehensive assessment of the deportation of non-citizens with criminal convictions and the impact on families and communities in the US. The deportation cases documented in the report include:
"¢ A 52-year-old man who lived in the US as a lawful permanent resident for 40 years, served in the US military, has four US citizen sons, and was convicted of possession and sale of small amounts of drugs;
"¢ A father of three US citizen children convicted of breaking into a car and stealing a $10 bottle of eye drops from a drug store;
"¢ A young man who had lived in the US legally as a refugee from Laos since the age of four.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data included in the report, 64.6 percent of immigrants deported for crimes in 2005 had been convicted of non-violent offenses, including non-violent theft offenses such as shoplifting; some 20.9 percent were deported for offenses involving violence against people; and 14.7 percent were deported for "other" crimes.
Human Rights Watch used census data on immigrant family size to estimate the number of spouses and children left behind in the US after their spouse or parent had been deported because of a criminal conviction.
Reform of the 1996 laws was not included in the comprehensive immigration legislation Congress considered this year. However, in January 2007, Congressman Jose Serrano introduced a bill (HR 1176), which would allow immigration judges to consider the interests of US citizen children during deportation hearings. The bill would not, however, protect spousal relationships or other links immigrants have to the US, such as longstanding lawful residence or service in the US armed forces.
"Most members of the European Union and other major democracies take family relationships and other links to the country of immigration into account before a final deportation decision is made," Parker said. "But immigration judges' hands are tied in the US; there is nothing they can do to protect families or to acknowledge the many contributions non-citizens have made to their communities or the nation."
Two immigrants deported because of criminal convictions, Wayne Smith and Hugo Armendáriz, have brought a claim against the US government before the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights. Smith and Armendáriz, both of whom have wives and children in the US, lived in the country as lawful permanent residents for 25 and 28 years respectively, before their deportations for drug offenses to Trinidad and Mexico.
A hearing in the case, for which Human Rights Watch submitted an amicus curiae brief prepared by the Stanford Immigrants Rights Clinic, will be held this Friday July 20, at the Inter-American Commission in Washington, DC.
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- The body of a 16-year-old suburban Philadelphia boy was recovered Tuesday from an abandoned mine in central Mexico, four days after he fell to his death.
Taylor Crane was found about 555 feet below ground level in water contaminated with arsenic and lead, and had suffocated, said Juan Manuel Ibanez, police chief in the town of San Luis de la Paz, where the mine is located.
A full autopsy was to be conducted later Tuesday.
The boy's father, Christopher Crane, said in an e-mail message to newspapers that his son fell while playing tag with children. Taylor Crane jumped on a thigh-high wall as part of the game without knowing the mine shaft was there, the father said.
Mexican police earlier quoted witnesses as saying the youth tried to jump over the 10-foot-wide shaft of the Cinco Senores mine in Guanajuato state.
Taylor Crane and about 30 other U.S. ***** were in Mexico with a community service program working with about 80 young children, his father said.
Christopher Crane said he was impressed with the rescue effort, which included government officials and residents.
WASHINGTON - The nation's largest association of police chiefs, International Association of Chiefs of Police, is distributing an unusual primer on immigration enforcement to thousands of law enforcement agencies, saying the absence of a national immigration policy has left local communities with an "overwhelming" burden.
The publication offers instruction on when state and local officers may intervene in cases involving illegal immigrants. It stops short of urging local authorities to enforce federal laws but says agencies can no longer ignore the local troubles posed by illegal immigrants.
I received my passport back from U.S. Embassy this morning.
I finally have a Immigrant Visa in my hand.
Keith is coming to Japan next month to help us coming back to U.S., and also he will be with me to make sure that I can go through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with no problem.
The letter that came with my passport says....
At your port of entry, the CBP officer will determine your immigration status, and if admitted, the CBS officer will stamp your passport showing admission into the U.S. as an immigrant. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) will send an Alien Registration Receipt Card (I-551, commonly called a "green card") to your address in the U.S. 2 to 3 months after your admission into the U.S. The Immigration stamp in your passport is normally valid for 1 year and may be used to apply for readmission to the U.S. should you travel prior to receiving our I-551.
Hope everything goes okay.
I will probably be able to let you know my flight schedule next time!
I will see you guys soon! (finally I can say this)
ON THE RIO GRANDE, Texas (Reuters) - The riot of green vegetation that lines both sides of the Rio Grande river along the southeast Texas and Mexican border can give a canoeist the impression of gliding past unbroken wilderness.
But the strip of riparian forest that runs a few miles between the Texas towns of Fronton and Roma is deceptive.
In reality one of the most ecologically diverse corners of the United States has been diced up by farming and urban sprawl into isolated fragments of habitat that support far less wildlife than when they were whole.
Now, conservationists are concerned that a planned border security fence to stem illegal immigration from Mexico could cut this delicate area up even more and possibly remove the corridor of vital riverbank habitat that remains.
"We know as habitats become fragments whether by roads, fences or walls animals become much less capable of roaming widely," said Dr. Joel Berger, a senior scientist with the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society.
"As these restrictions occur animals become isolated and with isolation the risks of local extinctions greatly increase," he said.
Animals at risk of local extinction include the U.S. population of the ocelot, a wild cat that is down to a few dozen animals, and several species of birds. Rare native plants such as sabal palm trees are down to a few isolated patches.
Driving along Route 281 which hugs this section of the Rio Grande reveals what lies behind the forested facade on the river's edge -- fast-growing border towns and cultivated fields of corn, sugar cane and other crops.
At stake is the sheer diversity of life in a region of lush subtropical vegetation threaded by a great river, lying between vast arid landscapes to the west and the Gulf of Mexico to the east.
Few Americans are aware of the area's ecological significance, which in four counties includes 300 butterfly species -- more than the rest of the country east of the Mississippi -- and over 500 different birds.
RECONNECT THE DOTS
Ecologists are trying to reconnect the dots by revegetating old farmland with native plants which they hope to link up.
At the Nature Conservancy of Texas' 1,000-acre Southmost Preserve, the contrast is plain along a dirt road with a cornfield on one side and wild bush on the other.
"This side looked exactly like that cornfield seven years ago," said Lisa Williams, a local project director with the Nature Conservancy, as she pointed to the tangle of wild growth which included haunting tepegauje trees -- a key species of the area -- their feathery leaves blowing in the wind.
"These are the pearls in a necklace which we are trying to string together," she said.
A pair of coyotes ran furtively through a field while a coot, an aquatic bird, chattered from a wetland.
When ecologists look at a patchwork of ecosystems cut up by roads or farms they think of islands -- and like islands out to sea, their isolation can be the undoing of their inhabitants.
According to the World Conservation Union, about 800 species have become extinct since 1500, when records began. Most were on islands.
But scientists say that extinctions and steep local population declines are now creeping onshore because continental habitats are being diced up by human activities.
Isolation makes populations more prone to sudden die-offs from disease or drought and also limits their genetic pool.
Other tracts of land besides Southmost are being protected in the area and reverted to their original state -- but there are worries the wall could cut through some of this work.
"There are two dozen species of very specialized birds that only live in the river forest and if that was cleared for the wall they will be lost to the area," said Martin Hagne, the executive director of the Valley Nature Center.
Supporters of the wall say it is needed to stem the tide of illegal immigration into the United States and the government says one green spin off will be a reduction in the mountains of litter which illicit crossers leave behind.
"I think it's well documented the affect that illegal border crossing activity has on the environment. The result in many cases is refuse left behind such as plastic bottles, clothes and discarded rubber rafts," said Michael Friel, a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
He also said that in areas where effective control of the border has been reasserted such as near San Diego, local wild habitat which was trampled by illegal crossers has re-grown.
Elsewhere international fences are being dropped for conservation reasons. The fence between South Africa's famed Kruger National Park and Mozambique is being removed to make more room for elephants and other wildlife.
MISSION, Texas (Reuters) - Driving through the Lower Rio Grande Valley in southern Texas, it is clear that whatever labor is being done on a farm -- be it driving a tractor or weeding a field -- Latinos are doing it.
This is especially true for labor-intensive crops such as citrus fruits, which require unskilled but physically demanding harvesting under a blazing sky, and the mind-numbing task of sorting produce on a conveyor.
As the United States grapples with the fallout of a failed attempt to overhaul immigration policy and set up a migrant worker program, one thing is clear: U.S. agriculture is utterly dependent on migrant labor.
"If the Mexican farm laborers all went back tomorrow, the U.S. farm system would collapse," said Bobbie Brown, a crop farmer in the lower Rio Grande Valley along the Texas/Mexico border.
Of 17 workers sorting limes from 40 pound bags into 2 pound bags on a conveyor belt in Mission, Texas, all were Latino and almost none could speak English. The limes were grown in Mexico and will be distributed in U.S. grocery stores.
"I'll soon go to Oklahoma and Colorado to pick watermelons. Then I'll be back here in September," one of them, who declined to give his name, told Reuters.
Crops ranging from cotton to corn are grown in the area, much of it in the cooler winter months. Fields of sugar cane and some hardy corn were growing under a blazing July sun.
William Kandel, a sociologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, said it was difficult to estimate the numbers of farm workers and the percentage of the labor force which came from south of the border.
"Government surveys suggest that there are roughly 700,000 to 850,000 hired farm workers, on average, at any given point during the year in the United States. There are academic estimates that put the figures substantially higher at between 1 and 1.4 million," he told Reuters.
A recent National Agricultural Workers Study (NAWS) by the department of labor which surveys crop workers in the field found that 75 percent of hired hands in the sector were from Mexico and five percent were born in other foreign countries.
It also found that about half were "undocumented."
IMMIGRATION REFORM SOUGHT
Texas Produce Association president John McClung said that the industry wanted a legal workforce and was on President George W. Bush's attempt to formalize the status of millions of illegal migrant workers, which was killed in June by the U.S. Senate.
"We need immigration reform, not a wall," he said, in reference to a planned security fence that would run for hundreds of miles along the U.S./Mexico border.
Critics of the current system contend that their illegal status makes it easy for the farming industry to exploit many migrants.
McClung said that while some painted the industry as exploitative, the average wage for a field laborer was $9.50 an hour, not great for hard work, but higher than the minimum wage.
The industry view is that Mexico has the labor, Mexicans need the work, and Americans don't want to do these jobs. So some kind of immigration reform is required.
For obvious reasons, farmers did not admit on the record to hiring illegal workers.
One valley farmer said the vast majority of the Mexicans working the land in south Texas at least had documents but admitted that forged papers were not uncommon.
Go to most any grocery store or restaurant in America in the summertime and you will see students stocking shelves or waiting tables. But you won't see them picking crops.
But American students in search of summer work simply do not want to do the hard labor in the fields or the sorting on conveyor belts.
"It's hard work in the hot sun. Americans just don't want to do it anymore," said Betty Perez, a local rancher.
Industry officials maintain that the labor shortage is worsening because the children of migrant workers are enjoying the life their parents toiled for.
"Our labor situation is getting more difficult. More sons and daughters of our workers are getting educated and acquiring skills," said Jeff Brechler, a sales representative with J & D Produce Inc., a grower, packer and shipper of produce in the lower Rio Grande Valley.
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