'PRIVATE' BILLS ARE ILLEGAL ALIENS' LAST SHOT

Dearborn woman among those seeking asylum via individual federal legislation when all other routes fail.

Karin Brulliard
Washington Post
Aug. 09, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Congress has repeatedly snubbed plans that would hand out green cards to millions of illegal immigrants. But how about one for Genevieve Vang?

Vang's 17-year quest to gain political asylum through normal channels has been frustrated at every turn. But under Senate Bill 1648, permanent U.S. residency would be granted to Vang, her husband and two of their children -- Laotians living in Dearborn -- and to them alone.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Carl M. Levin, D-Detroit, is one of nearly 60 pending "private" bills that would grant permanent residency, or green cards, to specific immigrants battling deportation, including a Bangladeshi man facing a death sentence in his homeland, a Kenyan woman whose American husband died before he could make her a legal resident and a German teen who has spent half his life in Ohio.

For those whose requests have been denied by federal officials and rejected by immigration judges, Congress is the court of last resort. Touched by their stories and convinced of the need for occasional flexibility, lawmakers have introduced more than 500 private immigration bills since 1996.

The method has critics. Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin calls it "instant amnesty." Some immigrant advocates call it special treatment for people with common problems. Those concerns have contributed to a low success rate. Since 1996, just 36 private immigration bills have passed.

Still, dozens of bills are introduced, sometimes several sessions in a row. Immigration authorities typically postpone deportation while a private bill awaits action. The most prolific sponsors are Democrats. Levin has eight pending; Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has nine.

Among the Republican sponsors is Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., who helped prepare this year's Senate immigration bill and later cast a vote that contributed to its defeat. Another is Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., an outspoken critic of "amnesty" for illegal immigrants and champion of the Mexican border fence.

Jason Peltz, the Vangs' attorney, said their case is without parallel.

Genevieve Vang, 42, and her husband fled Laos' communist government for France in the 1970s. After Guy Vang learned that his siblings were in the United States, the Vangs came to this country with their two daughters in 1990. They applied for asylum and were told for the next decade that their case was pending. When their file was unearthed, Peltz said, the Vangs were told that their application was rejected because they were already citizens of a "safe haven" -- France. Their appeals were denied.

Meanwhile, they opened a popular Dearborn restaurant and had two more children. The delay forced them to put down roots, Peltz said.

"When an immigrant messes up, the government can deport them," Peltz said. "When the government messes up, there's no remedy."

Vang said she is not sure whether other illegal immigrants should be helped. But she is sure about her family, which she said has no ties to France. "This is a mistake of paperwork, but it's not from my side," Vang said. "They should know that and just fix it."

NEXT BATTLEGROUND ON ILLEGALS: State Aid

By Brad ***sted
STATE CAPITOL REPORTER
Thursday, August 9, 2007

HARRISBURG -- Just weeks after a federal judge struck down Hazleton's ordinance on illegal immigration, the state Senate's top Republican on Wednesday announced that he is pushing legislation to prevent illegal aliens from receiving state benefits in Pennsylvania.
"This is a straightforward matter of Pennsylvania citizens not having to sacrifice their hard-earned dollars to subsidize immigrants who are in this country illegally," said Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, a Jefferson County Republican.

States must act "because Congress continues to do nothing on this," Scarnati said. Scarnati introduced the bill in March but said yesterday he is pursuing the legislation as priority this fall to prohibit illegal immigrants from receiving benefits such as welfare and Medicaid.

U.S. District Judge James M. Munley last month struck down Hazleton's ordinance, which imposed penalties on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and businesses that hire them. The ruling was interpreted by some as meaning that immigration is the sole purview of the federal government.


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But Scarnati said he believes the state can legally restrict state benefits to illegal immigrants.
It's not clear how many illegal aliens are receiving state benefits or how much that is costing taxpayers. Scarnati said the cost has been estimated at $285 million in Pennsylvania by a group opposing illegal immigration. Recent studies show about 100,000 illegal immigrants living in the state, the senator said.

Stacey Witalec, a state Department of Public Welfare spokeswoman, said federal law already requires that the state verify the citizenship and identity of applicants for medical assistance. A Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency spokeswoman said there aren't any illegal immigrants receiving state grants or loans.

"Does he (Scarnati) have a plan for what he's going to do? Is he going to kick them out of the state?" said Rep. Jake Wheatley, D-Hill District. "As long as they are in the state, we have a responsibility to deal with them."

Wheatley called the legislation "a simplistic approach to a complex scenario that's a national issue."

Scarnati's concept is not new. Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry, pushed similar legislation. But Metcalfe serves in the minority in the state House. Republicans control the Senate, and Scarnati is one of the most powerful lawmakers in Harrisburg.

Scarnati's prominent position appears to ensure some exposure and action on the issue this fall.

"They can pass what they want (in the state Legislature), and if someone wants to challenge it, they can. That's the way it works," said Bev Cigler, a political science professor at Penn State's Harrisburg campus.

"It's state by state, judge by judge," she said.

Thomas Baldino, political science professor at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, said he believes the Hazleton ruling "was clear that immigration is primarily and strictly the federal government's domain."

Many other states are trying to enact laws restricting benefits to illegal immigrants, he said.

"The state is attempting to fill in where the federal government has failed," Baldino said.

Scarnati said he decided to pursue the legislation after negotiating the recent $27.5 billion state budget. Three state agencies account for the bulk of state spending: the Department of Public Welfare, Education and Corrections.

"If we don't get our arms around DPW, Corrections and Education, we'll never get spending under control," Scarnati said. "It's an issue of fairness ... and of dollars and cents."

MAN DIES WHILE IN ICE CUSTODY

Thursday, August 9, 2007
By Karen Lee Ziner
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — Federal authorities are investigating the death of Edimar Alves Dearaujo, a Brazilian national who died Tuesday at Rhode Island Hospital 78 minutes after being taken into custody in Woonsocket by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, according to an ICE spokeswoman in Boston.

Dearaujo was taken to the hospital emergency room after he began showing “physical signs of distress” while being processed at Providence ICE headquarters on Dyer Street, said Paula Grenier, the ICE spokeswoman.

Grenier declined to disclose Dearaujo’s age and address yesterday, or any details beyond a chain of events.

The state medical examiner’s office could not be reached after hours for information on the cause of death.

Woonsocket police provided no information.

Grenier gave this chain of events:

Sometime before 3 p.m. on Tuesdsay, Woonsocket police stopped Dearaujo “somewhere in the city, on a car stop.” After discovering that Dearaujo had an outstanding warrant of deportation from 2002, officers contacted immigration authorities at Providence ICE headquarters.

At 3 p.m., immigration agents took Dearaujo into custody at the Woonsocket Police Department and brought him to the ICE facility on Dyer Street in Providence.

During processing, Araujo began showing “physical signs of distress.” ICE officers immediately called 9-1-1.

ICE officers attended to Daraujo’s care while waiting for emergency rescue personnel to arrive.

Dearaujo was taken to Rhode Island Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival at 4:18 p.m.

Said Grenier, “That is the extent of releasable information.”

According to a recent New York Times story, 62 immigrants have died in ICE administrative custody since 2004. The Times article stated that “no government body is charged with accounting for deaths in immigration detention,” and noted that a Senate amendment to the proposed immigration bill that was defeated this summer called for establishment of an office of detention oversight within the Department of Homeland Security.

MONTGOMERY WON'T MOVE TO CUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS' SERVICES -

ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) -

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett says the county won't join others in the area that are denying public services to illegal immigrants, but it won't enact any sanctuary policies, either.
The Democrat spoke at a forum in D.C. on local immigration ordinances.

Prince William and Loudoun counties in Virginia passed measures last month limiting access to county services for illegal immigrants. But neither county has decided which services it can legally deny.

The Prince William law also calls for police to check the immigration status of anyone they detain, with probable cause. The Loudoun County measure punishes landlords who rent to illegal immigrants.

Arlington County Board member Walter Tejada also spoke at the forum and said his county won't crack down on illegal immigrants.

--- Information from: The Washington Times, http://www.washtimes.com

Minorities Are Majority in Manassas Park

Aug 9, 2007 3:00 AM (11 hrs ago)
by Dan Genz, The Examiner

Washington DC (Map, News) - Minority residents outnumber whites in Manassas Park for the first time in the city’s history, according to a new census report being released today.

In the city of 11,642, there were 64 more people listed as black, Hispanic, Asian or as members of another minority group the number counted as white. The figures come from the annual update of the U.S. Census, slated to be released today.

Manassas Park was one of eight independent cities or counties where minorities became the majority in 2006, and the only one east of Louisiana.

“The contributing factor is the Hispanic population,” said Qian Cai, director for demographics and work force at the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for public services. “It’s No. 1 in the state, followed by Manassas City, followed by Prince William County.”

The news comes as tensions between Hispanics and whites are boiling over in the region, with neighboring Prince William County approving a review of a new illegal immigration resolution last month that would direct police to check the immigration status of some crime suspects.

“It’s not going well for immigrants anywhere in the area,” said Nancy Lyall, a spokeswoman for Mexicanos Sin Fronteras, a Hispanic-immigrant organization in Prince William County. “The atmosphere of fear that has been developed in Prince William County does spill over into Manassas Park.”

The city’s reputation has been hurt by its increase of illegal immigrants, said Greg Letiecq, president of the anti-illegal-immigration group Help Save Manassas.

“Folks are fed up and moving out, and you’ve got a new immigrant community that has come in,” Letiecq said, “many of which are clearly illegal, who are overcrowding the city.”

Council Member Keith Miller said he expected there would be an official reaction to the new census data at the next city meeting Aug. 21, but said he could not comment now.

CANTWELL SEES TOUGH GOING TO PASS AGJOBS BILL

By PAT MUIR
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
08.09.2007

The political divisions that killed the U.S. Senate's comprehensive immigration reform proposal earlier this year may prevent any progress on the issue in the near future, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said Wednesday during a Yakima visit.

Opponents to immigration reform are now coordinated because of their fight against the proposal, she said. That was clear last month when they torpedoed attempts to add aspects of it to the Homeland Security bill.

"It was really clear that the same forces were ready to pounce and do nothing," Cantwell said during a meeting with the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board. "And they did, and they prevented some of those things from being on the Homeland Security bill. So my guess is if we try to bring them up in September or October as separate bills ... I don't know if we're going to be successful."

That does not mean Cantwell won't try, she said.

She would like to get AgJobs legislation passed, which would streamline the guest worker process for immigrant farm workers and provide some a path to residency. That's the sort of thing both conservatives who care about agricultural companies and
liberals who care about immigrant rights have agreed on, Cantwell said. Local growers are among the supporters, arguing that strict border control has left them with a shortage of labor.

She would also like to expand the H-1B visa program, which allows highly educated foreign workers to come to the United States.

Getting those reforms as well as tighter border security included in the comprehensive proposal meant a big compromise from people like Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on the right and Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., on the left, she said.

"You really had some people who put their neck on the line," Cantwell said.

The proposal would have given millions of undocumented workers in the United States legal status and a path to citizenship, set up a guest worker program and increased border security. President Bush supported the measure as did lawmakers from both sides of the aisle. But opponents -- bolstered by conservative talk shows and a dedicated grassroots effort -- led a successful campaign against it, saying it amounted to amnesty for illegal immigrants.

The failure of the comprehensive bill and the groundswell of opposition could mean that those items are politically difficult to advance, she said.

Reform opponents "may prevent us from getting any kind of basic reform on an AgJobs bill or on an H-1B reform," she said. "And so while I appreciate how broad and expansive the change proposal was, I think it was probably too much to digest."

However, while conventional wisdom has held that the immigration reform push would subside until after the 2008 presidential election, Cwantwell said the nation can't afford to wait. The thing that worries her is the possibility the larger debate poisoned the climate for any change at all.

"The battle got so embroiled and so political -- and not along party lines," she said.

IMMIGRANTS A SCAPEGOAT FOR BLACKS' UNEMPLOYMENT

By DeWayne Wickham

One of the most interesting, and possibly decisive, tugs of war in the immigration policy debate is happening largely beneath the radar of this nation's media organizations.

Back in May, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, sent a letter to the heads of four civil rights groups that he hoped would change the political landscape of this debate. He urged them to join him in speaking out against the immigration reform bill backed by President Bush and Senate Democrats.

"The simple law of supply and demand dictates that flooding the job market with cheap foreign labor will undermine any initiatives that help the African-American population," wrote Smith, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee. Though the Senate proposal would have provided a pathway to citizenship for many of this country's 12 million illegal immigrants, Smith said it would "devastate job opportunities for millions of African-Americans."

While this argument — that blacks are disproportionately losing jobs to illegal immigrants who take low-paying jobs — has been around for some time, it hadn't gotten any traction among mainstream civil rights groups. That seemed to change on May 9, when the head of Miami's Urban League affiliate tied illegal immigration to unemployment of black men.

"Immigration isn't the whole reason for the drop in employment of black men; it's not even half the reason. But it is the largest single reason," T. Willard Fair testified before a House panel on immigration.

Out of step

That's powerful stuff, coming as it did from a capo of a civil rights organization that devotes most of its efforts to finding jobs and economic opportunities for blacks. But as Smith quickly learned, Fair's view was out of step with that of the group's national leadership. He "does not speak for the National Urban League ... or the Urban League movement," Marc Morial, the organization's national president, wrote to Smith.

But that wasn't the end of it.

Fear over fact

During an appearance last week on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, nationally syndicated radio host Joe Madison — a former NAACP board member who narrowly lost an election to become the organization's board chairman in 1998 — was asked by Dobbs whether there is rising tension "over jobs, over wages as a result of illegal immigration?"

Warning that there is a "smoldering situation in urban America," Madison said the willingness of some employers to hire illegal immigrants for low wages is the cause of the high unemployment among young blacks. His words gave credence to the idea that there's a strong link between illegal immigration and black unemployment — which is the point Smith tried to make to civil rights leaders.

If the anti-immigration forces can win over some black leaders, Democrats might have to back away from their support for the kind of comprehensive immigration reform legislation that died in Congress. And that might prove to be a victory of fear over fact.

"We examined the overall question of black economic fate in the labor market, and there is not a clear link between the presence of immigrants and those adverse economic outcomes for African-Americans," says Steven Pitts, a labor policy specialist at the University of California-Berkeley's Labor Center.

For example, despite a steady increase in foreign-born immigrants from 1980 to 2000, Pitts says, U.S. black unemployment dropped sharply during those years.

While this fact may not completely debunk Fair's contention that illegal immigration is the single biggest cause of black unemployment or Smith's appeal to civil rights leaders, it strongly suggests the case they make is weak, at best.

DeWayne Wickham writes on Tuesdays for USA TODAY.

DAD TRIES TO AVOID DEPORTATION AFTER FAMILY DIES IN FIRE

By STEPHEN MANNING
Associated Press Writer
August 8, 2007

BURTONSVILLE, Md. - Of all the horrors Ignatius Foncham suffered from a June fire that killed his three young girls, one that haunts him is a photograph that fire officials showed him of his 4-year-old's body. One eye was open, her mouth agape, as if she was still trying to speak.

"I believe she was trying to say, 'Daddy, daddy, help me,'" Foncham said.

But Foncham wasn't there to know for sure. He was in jail, awaiting deportation back to his native Cameroon for immigration violations, when the fire sparked by an unattended bottle sterilizer ate through his Burtonsville apartment early June 28, killing the girls and their mother. Had he been there, Foncham is convinced he could have saved his family.

Foncham and leaders of the Washington area Cameroonian community are now asking the federal government to allow him to remain in the country on humanitarian grounds. Foncham is currently out on a short-term release to settle his family affairs.

Those included burying the three children; 4-month-old Makenzie Foncham, 2-year-old Megan and 4-year-old Chanelle. He was able to see their mother, Elsie Nuka, 30, but she never came out of a coma before she died July 11. Her body was flown back to Cameroon for burial. Foncham said he and Nuka lived together and planned to marry.

Foncham visits his daughters at least three times a week at the Suitland cemetery where they are buried. And he doesn't want to leave his family again.

"If they take him to Cameroon, he is totally separated from any close memory of his children," said Christmas Ebini, a board member of the All Cameroonian Cultural Festival Foundation, which is trying to help him stay in the country.

Leaders of the group circulated a petition last month to Maryland's delegation in Congress and local politicians calling on Immigration and Customers Enforcement to reopen the case. His attorney, Ronald Richey, planned to meet this week with ICE officials. If the case is reopened, Richey hopes to seek a green card for Foncham. Such a move would be unusual, the lawyer said, but the bid could succeed because of the extraordinary nature of the case.

Ernestine Fobbs, an ICE spokeswoman, said Foncham is under a removal order, meaning he is ready for deportation. He is under close supervision during the temporary release, and after it expires, "a decision will be made regarding the court order," Fobbs said, noting it will be up to a judge to make the final call.

Foncham, 39, came to the United States in late 1999. He worked as a carpenter, first for a builder, later on his own. He applied for political asylum, based on his membership in an English-speaking separatist party in the largely French Cameroon. Foncham said some of his friends were arrested because of their ties to the movement, prompting him to leave.

His sister, Alice Ashu, said Foncham's lawyers bungled his asylum case, missing deadlines. A removal order was first filed in 2001, according to ICE, and Foncham appealed. He eventually ran out of money for appeals, Ashu said. Foncham was detained May 31 as his family moved to the apartment where the fire later occurred.

Foncham was sent to a detention center on the Eastern Shore to await deportation. His family visited him, but could only speak to him through a glass partition.

The morning of the fire, investigators believe Nuka placed a plastic device used to sterilize baby bottles near the stove, then went to sleep. Awoken by the fire alarm, she threw the burning materials into a bathtub in an attempt to douse the flames, but was overcome by smoke. When firefighters arrived, the three children were not breathing and Nuka was in critical condition.

News of their deaths crippled Foncham, Richey said. He collapsed when shown the photos to identify his children, screaming on the floor.

He was deeply involved in their care and the girls were devoted to him, Foncham said. He took them swimming and to the zoo. The eldest girl loved to dance. He took care of their basic needs, like bathing and feeding. It would have been him who prepared the bottles for the children the morning that they died.

"If I was there, it could not have happened," Foncham said. "I could have smelled the smoke."

Returning to Cameroon would expose him to persecution, Foncham said, a major reason that he left. And most importantly, it would cut him off from his children. He said he wants to be near them to make up for the fact he wasn't there when they needed him most.

"I want to be close to my girls," Foncham said. "I wasn't there before they died. But I am still here to put down flowers for them and pray for them."


(Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
By STEPHEN MANNING
Associated Press Writer

BURTONSVILLE, Md. - Of all the horrors Ignatius Foncham suffered from a June fire that killed his three young girls, one that haunts him is a photograph that fire officials showed him of his 4-year-old's body. One eye was open, her mouth agape, as if she was still trying to speak.

"I believe she was trying to say, 'Daddy, daddy, help me,'" Foncham said.

But Foncham wasn't there to know for sure. He was in jail, awaiting deportation back to his native Cameroon for immigration violations, when the fire sparked by an unattended bottle sterilizer ate through his Burtonsville apartment early June 28, killing the girls and their mother. Had he been there, Foncham is convinced he could have saved his family.

Foncham and leaders of the Washington area Cameroonian community are now asking the federal government to allow him to remain in the country on humanitarian grounds. Foncham is currently out on a short-term release to settle his family affairs.

Those included burying the three children; 4-month-old Makenzie Foncham, 2-year-old Megan and 4-year-old Chanelle. He was able to see their mother, Elsie Nuka, 30, but she never came out of a coma before she died July 11. Her body was flown back to Cameroon for burial. Foncham said he and Nuka lived together and planned to marry.

Foncham visits his daughters at least three times a week at the Suitland cemetery where they are buried. And he doesn't want to leave his family again.

"If they take him to Cameroon, he is totally separated from any close memory of his children," said Christmas Ebini, a board member of the All Cameroonian Cultural Festival Foundation, which is trying to help him stay in the country.

Leaders of the group circulated a petition last month to Maryland's delegation in Congress and local politicians calling on Immigration and Customers Enforcement to reopen the case. His attorney, Ronald Richey, planned to meet this week with ICE officials. If the case is reopened, Richey hopes to seek a green card for Foncham. Such a move would be unusual, the lawyer said, but the bid could succeed because of the extraordinary nature of the case.

Ernestine Fobbs, an ICE spokeswoman, said Foncham is under a removal order, meaning he is ready for deportation. He is under close supervision during the temporary release, and after it expires, "a decision will be made regarding the court order," Fobbs said, noting it will be up to a judge to make the final call.

Foncham, 39, came to the United States in late 1999. He worked as a carpenter, first for a builder, later on his own. He applied for political asylum, based on his membership in an English-speaking separatist party in the largely French Cameroon. Foncham said some of his friends were arrested because of their ties to the movement, prompting him to leave.

His sister, Alice Ashu, said Foncham's lawyers bungled his asylum case, missing deadlines. A removal order was first filed in 2001, according to ICE, and Foncham appealed. He eventually ran out of money for appeals, Ashu said. Foncham was detained May 31 as his family moved to the apartment where the fire later occurred.

Foncham was sent to a detention center on the Eastern Shore to await deportation. His family visited him, but could only speak to him through a glass partition.

The morning of the fire, investigators believe Nuka placed a plastic device used to sterilize baby bottles near the stove, then went to sleep. Awoken by the fire alarm, she threw the burning materials into a bathtub in an attempt to douse the flames, but was overcome by smoke. When firefighters arrived, the three children were not breathing and Nuka was in critical condition.

News of their deaths crippled Foncham, Richey said. He collapsed when shown the photos to identify his children, screaming on the floor.

He was deeply involved in their care and the girls were devoted to him, Foncham said. He took them swimming and to the zoo. The eldest girl loved to dance. He took care of their basic needs, like bathing and feeding. It would have been him who prepared the bottles for the children the morning that they died.

"If I was there, it could not have happened," Foncham said. "I could have smelled the smoke."

Returning to Cameroon would expose him to persecution, Foncham said, a major reason that he left. And most importantly, it would cut him off from his children. He said he wants to be near them to make up for the fact he wasn't there when they needed him most.

"I want to be close to my girls," Foncham said. "I wasn't there before they died. But I am still here to put down flowers for them and pray for them."

LAWYERING UP

By Megan Feldman
Published: August 9, 2007

Most people arrested and imprisoned in the United States are assigned lawyers to help them navigate the legal process. Not so for immigrant detainees facing deportation. The proceedings are civil, but many people are detained while their cases wend through immigration court. Some detainees find lawyers through nonprofits such as Catholic Charities, but most go unrepresented.

A trio of Dallas immigration attorneys has launched a project that aims to educate North Texas detainees held hours away at the Rolling Plains Regional Jail and Detention Center in Haskell.

As part of the Know Your Rights Project, sponsored by the Texas chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, volunteer attorneys are stocking the detention center with books on immigration law and giving monthly presentations to detainees via video conference from the Dallas immigration court. Attorney Elizabeth Cedillo-Pereira recently gave the first talk to a group of 17 male Haskell detainees and has since received 11 letters from immigrants held there.

"You know you're just scratching the surface when you're talking via video," she says of the 15-minute presentation and the question-and-answer session that followed. "So many people have questions." One man told her he was an American citizen, while a legal resident with a criminal conviction sought guidance on how to file an appeal by himself. While the talk was only delivered to men since the detainees are separated by gender, word traveled fast. A number of the letters Cedillo-Pereira received weren't from people who attended the presentation, and one was from a woman. The woman may qualify for legal residency because she was married to an American citizen who battered her, Cedillo-Pereira says. Though the Know Your Rights Project isn't meant to provide detainees with pro bono representation, she says she's looking into the woman's case.

Most of the people held in Haskell will ultimately be returned to their countries, but without legal knowledge or representation it's questionable whether those who are eligible for relief actually get it, Cedillo-Pereira says.

The program could even help those without relief. "At least this way they know when it's in their best interest to accept removal instead of waiting, which is good for them, good for the government, less expensive and allows them to get on with their lives," attorney Paul Zoltan says.

"I think this is the least we can do to allow detainees some sense of what rights they have available to them in removal proceedings," Zoltan says. "It scarcely begins to compensate for the fact that these detainees are being held on the dark side of the moon. The real reason why it's so important to have these presentations is that folks are effectively deprived of representation."

Bush To Propose Tighter Migrant Work Rules
Larger Employer Fines and Thousands More Border Agents Are Part of the Initiative.

By Nicole Gaouette
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 10, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration plans to announce a broad new initiative today to sharpen immigration enforcement, including measures to raise fines for employers who hire illegal workers, require federal contractors to use an employment verification system and add thousands more agents at the southern border.

Other provisions will restrict the types of documents employees can use to prove their legal status and speed up background checks for legal immigrants.

Administration officials also intend to streamline a cumbersome agriculture guest worker program.

The 25 measures -- some new and some of which expand upon current policies -- come in addition to the expected announcement today of a plan to crack down on illegal immigrants by forcing employers to fire workers with discrepancies in their Social Security information.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has signaled for weeks that the administration would take independent action to deal with illegal immigration after the Senate failed to pass broad immigration reform in June.

"We are currently looking at all of the tools we have, without congressional action," he told the Associated Press this week. "We're going to see where we can sharpen some of those tools up. We're going to throw every enforcement tool we have into this issue of trying to address our immigration problem."

Business groups expressed dismay at the proposals and suggested they could hurt the economy, particularly in industries like agriculture and construction, which are heavily dependent on immigrant labor.

"I wish that the employer community had been consulted about some of these proposed regulations and had had more opportunity in shaping how they were rolled out and implemented," said Laura Foote Reiff, a co-chair of the Business Immigration Group. "We're still hopeful that the administration will work with us on enforcement."

White House and Homeland Security officials would not comment Thursday.

Today's announcement is expected to paint in broad brush strokes with few details, but an administration outline of the proposals indicates a multipronged effort.

The Department of Homeland Security will ask states to share driver's license photos and records with an electronic employment verification system called E-Verify that federal contractors will be required to use. The administration will encourage states to make more use of E-Verify and will expand the system to allow access to more data sources.

The department will also add more border personnel, adopting figures suggested by Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) during the immigration debate.

Gregg proposed putting 20,000 agents on the border, up from about 12,000.

A Homeland Security funding bill passed by the Senate in July would pay for up to 23,000 border agents.

Other measures include a study to determine how to prevent immigrants from claiming Social Security credits for work done while they were illegal. Social Security officials estimate that illegal immigrants contribute $7 billion a year to Social Security.

The administrative provisions will boost fines by 25% for employers who hire illegally; current penalties range from $250 to $10,000 per violation.

The Office of Citizenship and Immigration Services will organize conferences for volunteers who help immigrants become citizens and the Department of Education will develop a free Web-based program to help immigrants learn English.

Immigrant advocates said the administration also has been quietly sounding them out about creative ways to bring more temporary workers into the country.

The administration has long argued that creating a legal way for foreign workers to enter the country is essential to border security, as it would free Border Patrol agents to concentrate on catching criminals.

"As long as there's jobs here that Americans aren't doing, people are willing to get in the bottom of 18-wheelers and take advantage of this whole coyote system," President Bush said this week, using the nickname for human smugglers.

Bush, who directed Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez to work intensely on the Senate's immigration bill, said he "predicted, after the comprehensive immigration bill went down, that there would be blowback and it would start with employers who are saying, 'Where am I going to get my peach pickers from?' "

The administration will streamline a temporary-worker program for seasonal workers, such as those who shell crabs or staff summer resorts.

It will also extend the length of visas for highly skilled workers from Canada and Mexico from one year to three.

The H2A program for temporary farm workers will also be overhauled.

The program is loathed by the agriculture industry for being heavily bureaucratic.

With farmers nationwide facing an estimated labor shortfall of 35% and estimated crop losses of $5 billion this year, they have little faith the administration's plans will make a difference.

"An easier H2A program? I would have to see it to believe it," said John Baillie, a Salinas vegetable farmer.

"That's like saying they are coming out with an easier income tax form."

Baillie said that, if the administration fails to help businesses find immigrant workers, it may finally impel Congress to act on comprehensive immigration reform.

"Maybe they will do all this, and when the workforce doesn't show up for work, the politicians will finally realize what the problem is. It is not just going to be on the farms -- you will see it in Las Vegas, in construction and in many other industries," Baillie said.


Times staff writer Jerry Hirsch in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

U.S. Border Patrol Agent Kills Man

By ALICIA A. CALDWELL
Associated Press Writer
Thu Aug 9, 11:34 PM ET


EL PASO, Texas - A Border Patrol agent shot and killed a suspected smuggler at a fence that separates the U.S. and Mexico after the agent felt threatened by the man, authorities said Thursday.

Mexico criticized what it described as an "excessive use of force" against immigrants and demanded an investigation.

Jose Alejandro Ortiz Castillo, a 23-year-old man who had been caught crossing the border 28 times since 1999, died in Mexico shortly after the Wednesday night shooting, Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier said.

An unidentified agent spotted Ortiz apparently leading two men and a woman through a hole in the border fence just east of downtown El Paso. Ortiz, who was carrying bolt cutters, picked up a rock as the agent was arresting the woman, Mosier said.

Mosier said the agent "felt threatened by the actions of the assailant who was holding a rock and bolt cutters."

The agent fired several shots, hitting Ortiz "multiple times," Mosier said. It was the agent's first fatal shooting.

Marco Antonio Torres Moreno — public safety director in Ciudad Juarez, the city across the river from El Paso — said Ortiz was shot once in the chest and once in the right forearm.

The Mexican government demanded in a statement that "all the weight of the law be brought to bear against the person or persons responsible."

"The Mexican government expresses a firm protest against the use of lethal weapons in the face of situations that do not represent a proportionate risk," the Foreign Relations Department said.

Ortiz had been deported from the U.S. in 2004, Mosier said.

Jesus Castillo, 43, Ortiz's brother, initially acknowledged that his brother had worked as an immigrant smuggler. But after speaking to investigators, he said his brother worked in construction and occasionally crossed the border to look for work in El Paso.

"The only thing I know is that they shot him head on, as if he were an animal, and neither Mexican nor American authorities had the courtesy to notify me about it until noon," Castillo said.

Wednesday night's shooting is the fifth fatal shooting involving Border Patrol agents in border states this year, federal officials said.

Thanks for keeping us informed, Explora. You're doing a great service by posting these articles. Maybe it will open some minds that were otherwise closed!

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