CONTRACTOR BLAMED IN DHS DATA BREACHES



Unisys, which builds and manages the computer networks for the Homeland Security Department, has been accused of failing to detect and covering up cyber-intrusions at DHS. (By Mike Mergen -- Bloomberg News)



By Ellen Nakashima and Brian Krebs
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, September 24, 2007; Page A01

The FBI is investigating a major information technology firm with a $1.7 billion Department of Homeland Security contract after it allegedly failed to detect cyber break-ins traced to a Chinese-language Web site and then tried to cover up its deficiencies, according to congressional investigators.

At the center of the probe is Unisys Corp., a company that in 2002 won a $1 billion deal to build, secure and manage the information technology networks for the Transportation Security Administration and DHS headquarters. In 2005, the company was awarded a $750 million follow-on contract.

Unisys, which builds and manages the computer networks for the Homeland Security Department, has been accused of failing to detect and covering up cyber-intrusions at DHS. (By Mike Mergen -- Bloomberg News)

On Friday, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) called on DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner to launch his own investigation.

As part of the contract, Unisys, based in Blue Bell, Pa., was to install network-intrusion detection devices on the unclassified computer systems for the TSA and DHS headquarters and monitor the networks. But according to evidence gathered by the House Homeland Security Committee, Unisys's failure to properly install and monitor the devices meant that DHS was not aware for at least three months of cyber-intrusions that began in June 2006. Through October of that year, Thompson said, 150 DHS computers -- including one in the Office of Procurement Operations, which handles contract data -- were compromised by hackers, who sent an unknown quantity of information to a Chinese-language Web site that appeared to host hacking tools.

The contractor also allegedly falsely certified that the network had been protected to cover up its lax oversight, according to the committee.

"For the hundreds of millions of dollars that have been spent on building this system within Homeland, we should demand accountability by the contractor," Thompson said in an interview. "If, in fact, fraud can be proven, those individuals guilty of it should be prosecuted."

A Unisys spokeswoman, Lisa Meyer, said that "no investigative body has notified us formally or informally of a criminal investigation" on the matter and added that she could not comment on specific security incidents.

She said that Unisys has provided DHS "with government-certified and accredited security programs and systems, which were in place throughout 2006 and remain so today."

The DHS intrusions are especially disturbing in light of a rash of attacks on government computer systems linked to Chinese servers, Thompson said. Since last year, hackers have penetrated e-mail and other systems at the Defense, State and Commerce departments. Unisys was not providing information-security services in those cases.

National security and cyber-security experts say the U.S. government and its contractors are the target of a growing cyber-warfare effort that they suspect is being conducted by the Chinese government and its proxies with the aim of stealing military secrets and accessing the computer networks of the world's only military superpower. The trend, they say, reflects the convergence of cyber-crime and espionage, abetted by the availability of hacker tools on the Internet and lax information-technology security.

"This is a warning that our networks are porous and vulnerable to the new breed of hackers," said James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

DHS, which oversees agencies critical to domestic security, including the TSA and Customs and Border Protection, has insufficiently secured its networks, Thompson said. He said he is "troubled" by what he sees as DHS officials' indifference to the problem.

DHS spokesman Russ Knocke rejected the assertion. "We've taken the committee's allegations very seriously," he said. "At the committee's request, we have provided them with copies of every incident report since the department was created. . . . We have today fully operational security operations capability. That means that every incident, no matter how small, is reported to our operations center."

The FBI is investigating Unisys for criminal fraud, according to a committee aide. The panel began its inquiry into the matter in April. And Homeland Security's Internal Affairs division is conducting a probe as well.

Unisys, which builds and manages the computer networks for the Homeland Security Department, has been accused of failing to detect and covering up cyber-intrusions at DHS. (By Mike Mergen -- Bloomberg News)

FBI spokesman Richard J. Kolko said he could not confirm or deny whether the FBI is investigating the matter.

In the 2006 attacks on the DHS systems, hackers often took over computers late at night or early in the morning, "exfiltrating" or copying and sending out data over hours -- in one case more than five hours, according to evidence collected by the committee.

The House panel said its investigation has yielded the following results:

It is not clear how the hackers breached the DHS systems. But once inside, they used special software to crack a user account password for a network administrator who had privileges to modify key system files on thousands of computers on the DHS network.

Then the attackers began installing malicious software on dozens of computers that not only masked the intrusion but also copied and transferred files to an outside Web site.

In July 2006, a Unisys employee detected a possible intrusion but "downplayed it and low-level DHS security managers ignored it," the committee aide said.

It was not until Sept. 27, 2006, that two DHS systems managers noticed that their machines had been accessed with a hacking tool.

Unisys information technology employees began a probe and determined that the break-in affected more computers. They discovered that it reached back as far as June 13 that year and had continued through at least Oct. 1, eventually reaching 150 computers.

Among the security devices Unisys had been hired to install and monitor were seven "intrusion-detection systems," which flag suspicious or unauthorized computer network activity that may indicate a break-in. The devices were purchased in 2004, but by June 2006 only three had been installed -- and in such a way that they could not provide real-time alerts, according to the committee. The rest were gathering dust in DHS storage closets and under desks in their original packaging, the aide said.

Although the hackers lifted data from unclassified systems, Paul Kurtz, a former White House cyber-security adviser, said that even unclassified data, if stolen in large enough quantities, could provide important clues about U.S. military and corporate trade secrets.

"Clearly there's cause for concern as to how Unisys has conducted itself and the security it has provided," committee member Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.) said in an interview. "There were some basic things that should have been done -- installation of these intrusion-detection devices -- that very well would have given us a strong indication and an alert that our systems were penetrated."

Unisys spokeswoman Meyer disputed the committee's version of events. She said that Unisys had installed five network-intrusion devices and added a sixth in September 2006. Moreover, she said, under the follow-on contract, "DHS, citing lack of funding, elected to stop paying for security monitoring services," but that the firm continued to provide the monitoring anyway.

Knocke said that the claims are "entirely baseless and disingenuous." He added that although "Unisys is not prohibited" from bidding on the next IT contract, "previous performance can be a factor" in selection.

The committee obtained documents indicating that Unisys was trying to "hide gaps" from the government in an apparent attempt to obscure the scope of the network security breaches, an aide said. Unisys also failed to disclose to DHS that the data were being sent to the Chinese-language Web site, the aide said.

Langevin, who chairs the panel's subcommittee on emerging threats and cyber-security, complained that senior DHS officials failed to recognize the situation's gravity. In a letter sent Friday to Skinner, Langevin and Thompson also said that DHS officials "preferred to complete the fiscal year's financial transactions rather than immediately take steps to mitigate the problem."

Knocke disputed that assertion. "We have spent innumerable man hours responding to the committee's inquiries and requests. . . . We are aware of, and have responded to, malicious cyber-activity directed at the U.S. government over the past few years. We remain concerned that this malicious activity is growing more sophisticated and frequent."

In fact, the techniques and tools used in the DHS break-ins were similar to incidents at the Defense and Commerce departments, the lawmakers said.

Experts said the attacks, which have also hit Germany, Britain and France, are part of a series that began several years ago, when U.S. officials reported that the unclassified Pentagon and contractors running national labs had been under relentless attack from computers in China. The intelligence and computer-security communities remain divided over whether the intrusions, code-named Titan Rain by federal investigators, were carried out by state-sponsored cyber-spies or merely opportunistic hackers.

A senior military technology officer warned last fall that China downloaded "10 to 20 terabytes of data" from the Pentagon's non-classified Internet Protocol router network. "They are looking for your identity so they can get into the network as you," Maj. Gen. William Lord, Director of Information Services and Integration in the Air Force Office of Warfighting Integration, said at an Air Force technology conference. "There is a nation-state threat by the Chinese."

The Chinese government has vigorously denied the charges of cyber-espionage and Chinese officials have leveled their own allegations of cyber-hacking against the United States.

Krebs is a staff writer for washingtonpost.com. Staff researcher Richard Drezen contributed to this report.

N.Y. NINTH STATE TO GIVE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS LICENSES

Corruption Chronicles
September 24, 2007

New York’s Democrat governor has proudly announced that illegal immigrants can obtain drivers’ licenses in his state, a policy that clashes with a 2005 federal law requiring proof of legal status in the U.S. to get state identification cards or licenses.

New York’s new rule, a landmark victory for the state’s estimated half a million illegal aliens, eliminates a decades-old proof of citizenship requirement to get a license. New York joins eight other states

(Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico, Utah, Oregon and Washington)

that do not require drivers to prove legal status in the country to obtain a license.

The exemptions for illegal immigrants contradict a 2005 federal law passed at the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission to establish minimum standards for state-issued driver’s licenses and identification cards. Created to enhance the security and integrity of the state-issued cards, the Real ID Act specifically requires states to verify applicants’ identity and lawful status in the United States.

New York officials claim that granting illegal immigrants a license to drive is necessary to protect public safety since hundreds of thousands of undocumented, unlicensed and uninsured drivers are on the state’s roads contributing to accidents and often fleeing from them. They believe that putting those illegal aliens into the system will help enhance law enforcement efforts.

Governor Eliot Spitzer calls it a common sense change that deals practically with the reality that undocumented immigrants live among us. Allowing them the opportunity to obtain a driver’s license in a responsible and secure manner will certainly help increase public safety, according to the governor.

Spitzer predicts that roads will be safer because he chose to confront the situation rather than bury his head in the sand and pretend the problem doesn’t exist. The problem, according to Spitzer, is that too many drivers are unlicensed and uninsured simply because they do not have a Social Security number. Not that they are in the country illegally.

This is smart. The results will be more drivers will be insured and the other result will be more drivers trained on our streets and trained in our traffic laws rather than driving without ever passing a drivers test in this country.

FEDERAL LAWSUIT FILED IN NEW YORK CHALLENGING IMMIGRATION RAIDS ON HOMES AS UNCONSTITUTIONAL

Higher Education News
by Associated Press
Sep 23, 2007, 15:46

Immigration authorities violated Hispanic families' civil rights by raiding their homes without court warrants, sometimes bursting in before dawn to look for people who didn't live there, according to a federal lawsuit.

The suit was filed Thursday on behalf of 15 people including seven U.S. citizens who say their suburban homes were raided earlier this year.

Arguing that the raids violate constitutional protections against unreasonable searches, the suit seeks unspecified damages and a halt on the home raids until Immigration and Customs Enforcement develops legal guidelines for them.

Mark Thorn, an ICE spokesman, said the agency does not comment on pending lawsuits.

According to the lawsuit, a program dubbed Operation Return to Sender dispatched armed federal agents to homes in search of illegal immigrants thought to have lingered after being ordered to leave the country. But the people sought often weren't there and couldn't "reasonably" have been expected to be, the lawsuit said.

In one case, authorities raided a home in East Hampton on Long Island around 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 20 in search of a man who had moved out in 2003, according to the lawsuit. The family still living there were U.S. citizens, except for a child who is a legal resident awaiting naturalization.

"Because the immigrant communities are afraid to publicly challenge these home raids, they've been getting away with it," said Foster Maer, an attorney with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.

--Associated Press

© Copyright 2007 by DiverseEducation.com

SCHIP INVADED BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS? HOUSE VOTES TODAY.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007, 12:36 PM
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

With the House set to vote today to reauthorize the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga.) has found a new reason to hate the bill. Illegal immigrants.

All of Georgia’s Republican congressmen voted against a similar bill in August that would have added at least $35 billion to the program, known locally as PeachCare, despite the program’s success and popularity at home. The vote today is on a compromise bill worked out by House and Senate negotiators

Taking their lead from President Bush, Georgia GOPers argue that SCHIP is a first step toward socialized medicine, a wild expansion of governmental powers and no longer doing what it was designed to do a decade ago.

Just hours before the House vote Tuesday, however, Deal warned his fellow congressmen in a “Dear Colleague” letter that the “deeply flawed” Democratic SCHIP bill would allow illegal immigrants to enroll in SCHIP and Medicaid at the cost of $3.7 billion over the next decade.

How would these illegal immigrants get into the program? Simple. A provision in the bill allows potential enrollees to show only a Social Security card - not documents proving citizenship - when they apply at the state level to get in the programs.

“While I am a strong supporter of the SCHIP program, I simply cannot vote for a bill that flagrantly encourages illegal aliens to break our immigration laws and fraudulently enroll in taxpayer-funded public assistance programs,” Deal wrote.

'HOUSTON CHRONICLE READERS PROTEST DROPPING OF 'LA CUCARACHA' COMIC

By E&P Staff
Published: September 25, 2007 10:50 AM ET

NEW YORK A number of readers are upset about the Houston Chronicle dropping "La Cucaracha" from its print edition.

"Encouraged by the strip's creator, Lalo Alcaraz, along with the League of United Latin American Citizens, supporters started a campaign to get us to restore 'La Cucaracha' to our comics' lineup," wrote Chronicle Readers' Representative James T. Campbell.

The Chronicle replaced Alcaraz's Universal Press Syndicate comic with "Arctic Circle" by Alex Hallatt of King Features Syndicate, but kept "La Cucaracha" on the Chron.com Web site.

"You replaced a comic with biting commentary on the political and social scene with a strip about penguins? I'm disappointed beyond words," said a reader quoted by Campbell. "I have always found 'La Cucaracha' to be humorous, while also socially relevant .... I can only hope that like the L.A. Times, you have enough sense to return 'La Cucaracha' to the print edition of the Chronicle."

Campbell wrote that the comic's "political slant was never the issue; objectionable content was. Editors often had to call the syndicate editor and request that the strip be modified, or that a substitute be sent because the strip's language was offensive to some readers generally, but some Latinos as well." He also noted that the Chronicle previously dropped the conservative "Mallard Fillmore" (by Bruce Tinsley of King) from its print edition.

"The Chronicle is aware of the city's Latino population," continued Campbell. "We offer several Spanish-language publications, and we have not cowered away from reporting on immigration rights and other issues important to the Latino community (some readers accuse us of pandering to Latinos)."

And Campbell concluded: "It's not my call to make as to whether 'La Cucaracha' will be returned to the print edition."

Alcaraz could not be immediately reached for comment this morning by E&P.


E&P Staff (letters@editorandpublisher.com)

FB SEEKS NAMES, ADDRESSES OF PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS

SOME SUSPECT REQUEST LINKED TO ANTI-ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION LAWS

12:00 AM CDT on Tuesday, September 25, 2007
By KATHERINE LEAL UNMUTH
The Dallas Morning News
kunmuth@dallasnews.com

Attorneys representing the city of Farmers Branch have asked the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district for the names and addresses of every child living in the city and enrolled in public schools.

City Manager Gary Greer said the City Council directed him to make the request on Sept. 11. Council members are not elaborating much on why they asked for the information.

"When we were discussing stricter code enforcement in our meetings, some of the council members asked if our city attorney could get those statistics from the school districts," Mayor Bob Phelps said. "I assume that's what it's for."

City code calls for a minimum sleeping area in single-family homes of 70 square feet per adult and an additional 50 square feet for each additional adult occupant. Each child must have an area of at least 35 square feet. Apartment ordinances allow two people per bedroom plus one additional person.

Some social activists say illegal immigrants tend to crowd into too little space in apartments and houses, creating unsanitary or dangerous conditions.

Presumably, a list of student names and addresses would provide information about how many children live at an address.

Another reason could be the city's research into the possibility of creating its own charter school or private school as an alternative to the school district.

Dr. Annette Griffin, school superintendent, said more than 100 requests come in each year for so-called student directory information from colleges, the armed forces, the media and from companies who want to develop mailing lists.

Dr. Griffin said she does not recall the city ever asking for student names and addresses in the past.

"I really don't know why they would want that information or what they would want to do with that," she said.

School districts and other governmental bodies are allowed to assess clerical fees for gathering information under the state open records act.

The school district has sent a bill to the city's attorney and is awaiting a response before turning over the information.


Not talking

Farmers Branch City Council member Tim O'Hare has become the public face of those in the city who oppose illegal immigration. He did not return phone calls for this story.

Mr. O'Hare has speculated that enforcement of ordinances banning illegal immigrants from renting apartments might cause school enrollment to change.

A judge has put enforcement of those ordinances on hold, and this year's enrollment in the Farmers Branch portion of Carrollton-Farmers Branch public schools remained steady at 3,853. An estimated 26,302 students attend district schools.

The student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic, classified as economically disadvantaged and limited in English proficiency.

Council member Tim Scott, whose child attends a Farmers Branch school, said the city's request for student names and addresses was a simple one: "Don't read too much into it."

Mr. Scott is generally seen as Mr. O'Hare's ally on immigration issues.

"The request was made just to get an idea of where the students are in Farmers Branch and what students we have in Farmers Branch," he said. "It's just about gathering information. There's no real mystery here. We just wanted to know if the kids are in the schools."

He said the request is designed to lead to improvement of educational opportunities in the city.

Some children in Farmers Branch attend Dallas public schools. Mr. Greer, the Farmers Branch city manager, said he intends to make the same open records request to Dallas ISD

Dallas and Irving city officials said they don't ask their school districts for such information.


Speculation

School board member Frank Shor said the City Council clearly wants more than statistics because it's asking for names and addresses.

"I believe it could have something to do with the immigration issue," said Mr. Shor, who pointed out that the state's open records law does not allow the school district to ask the city why it wants the names and addresses.

"If that question is not being answered by the folks asking for the information, my skeptical mind causes me to think they're not proud of their motivation."

City Council member Jim Smith said the topic came up in a discussion several weeks ago.

"Somebody said, 'I'd like to know how many kids that live in Farmers Branch go to the school district,' " he said. "I don't know what the purpose would be, why we would want a list of kids."

The city is still in litigation over the ordinances banning illegal immigrants from apartment occupancy.

Hector Flores, immediate past president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said the city's request concerns him because the information could be used for profiling and selective use of code enforcement.

"It seems very highly unusual in the racially charged atmosphere that prevails in Farmers Branch for the city and their lawyers to be asking for information about children that reside in that community," he said.

"What wrong have these children done to deserve this – because they're Hispanic and their parents might be here without any documents? Shame on those that would retaliate against children."


School rating affected?

The 1982 Plyler vs. Doe Supreme Court ruling guarantees illegal immigrant children the right to a free public education. That case originated from a Texas law that had denied free public education to such children.

Mr. O'Hare has said ordinances directed at illegal immigrants were motivated, in part, by his concern about the impact of immigration on public schools. He has said increased dropout rates and a focus on teaching English to Spanish-speaking children hold other children back.

On his blog, Mr. O'Hare blamed illegal immigrants for the district's recent drop in rating from recognized to academically acceptable. It fell because of the performance of Hispanic students on the TAKS science test.

He also criticized the district for making itself "attractive" to immigrants through the programs it offers.

Tension between the city government and the school district dates back more than 10 years. Back then, city officials accused the district of segregating poor Hispanic children in Farmers Branch schools.

The school district has maintained it is committed to neighborhood schools.

School board member James Goode, who has advocated for better education for Farmers Branch children, said he hopes the city wants the student names and addresses for positive reasons, such as funding more programs.

"I have no earthly idea of what they're trying to do," he said.

FARMINGTON HILLS

LOVE CAN'T CONQUER IMMIGRATION

Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Laura Berman

Jeremy Tracy loves his wife. He loved her when he met her three years ago at the Novi restaurant where they both worked.

He loved her when he was working armed security at a Detroit Pizza Hut and she stayed up and cooked dinner for him at 2 a.m. He loved her needlework -- she liked to embroider -- and her careful personal habits (no smoking, no drinking). She went to church. She read books.

When he lost the security job, she supported him with her earnings at Capital Billing Systems in Farmington Hills, where her employer Diane Amendt describes Puro Tracy as "one of the best workers I've ever had. Everyone here dearly loved her."

Her desk is waiting for her.

Her husband is waiting for her.

Homeland Security officials handcuffed her in June at the Detroit headquarters of the Citizenship and Immigration Service, as she tried to renew her work visa. Her husband had stepped outside to smoke a cigarette. "When I came back in," he says with bitterness, "she was gone."

Since June, she's been living at the Calhoun County Jail, which leases space for detained illegal immigrants.

New rules

Puro Tracy left her native Indonesia in 1998, after riots in Jakarta that singled out the nation's ethnic Chinese for arson, looting and rape. She was 20, and by the time she understood the rules about filing for political asylum, the law had changed and she'd missed the one-year deadline.

In 2005, as immigration became a hot issue, she lost her bid to stay in the United States. But she got a work visa, a job she excelled at, and an American husband who believes she loves him as much as he loves her.

"Just about any woman could find somebody richer than me," says Jeremy Tracy, who has a straightforward way of looking at life. He thinks of his wife as "the perfect American girl, if it weren't for a few technical details."

Always, she kept working and paying her taxes. After her work visa expired last Dec. 14, she tried without success to get it renewed. But officials didn't tell her she would be deported or that the order of removal was still in force -- instead, they encouraged her to reapply, which she did.

But Jeremy's lawyer believes it's likely that authorities encouraged her to visit the downtown office as a ruse to arrest her.

"They're interfering with my life, my liberty, and my pursuit of happiness," says Jeremy Tracy, who works at Cafi Sushi in Troy as a cook. He's lost 20 pounds and his life-savings since June.

Awaiting deportation

After 90 days in jail, she has exhausted her legal remedies, short of a full-scale court appeal -- which Jeremy Tracy cannot afford.

Now her taxes, and yours, are paying for her room and board at a Battle Creek jailhouse, for the administrative work of coordinating her deportation with the Indonesian government.

Everyone agrees that Puro Tracy is just the kind of person this country needs: Hard-working, resourceful, educated, and law-abiding. "We empathize with her," says Greg Palmore, a spokesman for Homeland Security's immigration office. "The crux of this is that a final order of removal has been issued."

She's going to be shipped back to Indonesia, where Muslim extremists have made life precarious for Christians and Americans.

"I'll go with her if I have to," says Jeremy Tracy. He doesn't understand why so many dollars, so much energy, is being spent to rid the United States of the hard-working, English-speaking, taxpaying wife of an American citizen.

But then, who would?

SUPPORTERS: CALL YOUR SENATOR NOW!!!

IMMIGRATION DEBATE ROILS ANEW

By: Carrie Budoff Brown
Sep 25, 2007 05:59 AM EST


As the Senate prepares to vote on an immigration measure this week, senators are being forced back into politically treacherous territory on the controversial question of amnesty. In many ways, the debate is a mini-version of the free-for-all that consumed the doomed comprehensive bill in June.

Legalization opponents and supporters are picking up where they left off earlier this year, flooding congressional offices and Internet blogs with talking points on the latest legislation.

Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) has been trying for years to stitch together a bipartisan coalition for a narrower measure that he calls the DREAM Act. It would give illegal immigrants who were brought to the country at 15 years old or younger — and have remained here for at least five years — a path to citizenship if they go to college or enter the military.

“The fundamental premise,” Durbin said on the floor last week, “is that we shouldn’t punish children for the mistakes their parents made. That isn’t the American way. The DREAM Act says to these students: America is going to give you a chance. It won’t be easy, but you can earn your way into legal status.”

Durbin is offering the measure as an amendment to the Department of Defense authorization bill, in part because it could ease strains on military recruiting.

An opponent of the most recent comprehensive bill, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), signed on as a co-sponsor last week, joining Sen. **** Lugar (R-Ind.), Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and a dozen Democrats.

But with anti-immigration groups calling the amendment “amnesty on the installment plan,” passage is far from assured in a chamber that operates on a 60-vote threshold.

NumbersUSA, the group that helped derail the comprehensive bill that would have offered legal status to the existing 12 million illegal immigrants, posted on its website a tally of its “anti-amnesty champions.” So far, 21 senators have signaled to NumbersUSA that they will oppose the amendment. The group is looking for 20 more senators to block it.

“If you were to pass another amnesty, you would only encourage more illegal behavior because it is seen as a reward,” said Caroline Espinosa, a spokeswoman for NumbersUSA, which claims credit for more than 260,000 faxes sent by its supporters to Congress in the past week.

Proponents of the measure dispute the amnesty argument, saying it applies only to illegal immigrants who have been in the country for five years at the time of the bill’s enactment.

The Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan organization, estimates that 360,000 undocumented students would become immediately eligible for conditional legal status. An additional 65,000 could be added to the pool annually, the group found.

Like previous battles, advocates on both sides of the issue have been pressing Congress, blasting e-mails to supporters and asking them to contact senators. The office of Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), one of the members being targeted by both sides, reported a spike in calls starting last Monday.

The Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform attempted to counter its opponents, pleading with members in an e-mail last Tuesday: “We need your calls beginning NOW, before senators get the idea (again) that they only hear from anti-immigrant constituents, and that they should play it safe and vote against the amendment.”

N.J., RIVERSIDE

TOWNS RETHINK LAWS AGAINST ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

By KEN BELSON and JILL P. CAPUZZO
Published: September 26, 2007

RIVERSIDE, N.J., Sept. 25 — A little more than a year ago, the Township Committee in this faded factory town became the first municipality in New Jersey to enact legislation penalizing anyone who employed or rented to an illegal immigrant.

Within months, hundreds, if not thousands, of recent immigrants from Brazil and other Latin American countries had fled. The noise, crowding and traffic that had accompanied their arrival over the past decade abated.

The law had worked. Perhaps, some said, too well.

With the departure of so many people, the local economy suffered. Hair salons, restaurants and corner shops that catered to the immigrants saw business plummet; several closed. Once-boarded-up storefronts downtown were boarded up again.

Meanwhile, the town was hit with two lawsuits challenging the law. Legal bills began to pile up, straining the town’s already tight budget. Suddenly, many people — including some who originally favored the law — started having second thoughts.

So last week, the town rescinded the ordinance, joining a small but growing list of municipalities nationwide that have begun rethinking such laws as their legal and economic consequences have become clearer.

“I don’t think people knew there would be such an economic burden,” said Mayor George Conard, who voted for the original ordinance. “A lot of people did not look three years out.”

In the past two years, more than 30 towns nationwide have enacted laws intended to address problems attributed to illegal immigration, from overcrowded housing and schools to overextended police forces. Most of those laws, like Riverside’s, called for fines and even jail sentences for people who knowingly rented apartments to illegal immigrants or who gave them jobs.

In some places, business owners have objected to crackdowns that have driven away immigrant customers. And in many, ordinances have come under legal assault by immigration groups and the American Civil Liberties Union.

In June, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against a housing ordinance in Farmers Branch, Tex., that would have imposed fines against landlords who rented to illegal immigrants. In July, the city of Valley Park, Mo., repealed a similar ordinance, after an earlier version was struck down by a state judge and a revision brought new challenges. A week later, a federal judge struck down ordinances in Hazleton, Pa., the first town to enact laws barring illegal immigrants from working or renting homes there.

Muzaffar A. Chishti, director of the New York office of the Migration Policy Institute, a nonprofit group, said Riverside’s decision to repeal its law — which was never enforced — was clearly influenced by the Hazleton ruling, and he predicted that other towns would follow suit.

“People in many towns are now weighing the social, economic and legal costs of pursuing these ordinances,” he said.

Indeed, Riverside, a town of 8,000 nestled across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, has already spent $82,000 defending its ordinance, and it risked having to pay the plaintiffs’ legal fees if it lost in court. The legal battle forced the town to delay road paving projects, the purchase of a dump truck and repairs to town hall, officials said. But while Riverside’s about-face may repair its budget, it may take years to mend the emotional scars that formed when the ordinance “put us on the national map in a bad way,” Mr. Conard said.

Rival advocacy groups in the immigration debate turned this otherwise sleepy town into a litmus test for their causes. As the television cameras rolled, Riverside was branded, in turns, a racist enclave and a town fighting for American values.

Some residents who backed the ban last year were reluctant to discuss their stance now, though they uniformly blamed outsiders for misrepresenting their motives. By and large, they said the ordinance was a success because it drove out illegal immigrants, even if it hurt the town’s economy.

“It changed the face of Riverside a little bit,” said Charles Hilton, the former mayor who pushed for the ordinance. (He was voted out of office last fall but said it was not because he had supported the law.)

“The business district is fairly vacant now, but it’s not the legitimate businesses that are gone,” he said. “It’s all the ones that were supporting the illegal immigrants, or, as I like to call them, the criminal aliens.”

Many businesses that remain are having a hard time. Angelina Guedes, a Brazilian-born beautician, opened A Touch From Brazil, a hair and nail salon, on Scott Street two years ago to cater to the immigrant population. At one point, she had 10 workers.

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Challenge in Connecticut Over Immigrants’ Arrest (September 26, 2007)

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Go to City Room » Business quickly dried up after the law against illegal immigrants. Last week, on what would usually be a busy Thursday afternoon, Ms. Guedes ate a salad and gave a friend a manicure, while the five black stylist chairs sat empty.

“Now I only have myself,” said Ms. Guedes, 41, speaking a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese. “They all left. I also want to leave but it’s not possible because no one wants to buy my business.”

Numerous storefronts on Scott Street are boarded up or are empty, with For Sale by Owner signs in the windows. Business is down by half at Luis Ordonez’s River Dance Music Store, which sells Western Union wire transfers, cellphones and perfume. Next door, his restaurant, the Scott Street Family Cafe, which has a multiethnic menu in English, Spanish and Portuguese, was empty at lunchtime.

“I came here looking for an opportunity to open a business and I found it, and the people also needed the service,” said Mr. Ordonez, who is from Ecuador. “It was crowded and everybody was trying to do their best to support their families.”

Some have adapted better than others. Bruce Behmke opened the R & B Laundromat in 2003 after he saw immigrants hauling trash bags full of clothing to a laundry a mile away. Sales took off at his small shop, where want ads in Portuguese are pinned to a corkboard and copies of the Brazilian Voice sit near the door.

When sales plummeted last year, Mr. Behmke started a wash-and-fold delivery service for young professionals.

“It became a ghost town here,” he said.

Immigration is not new to Riverside. Once a summer resort for Philadelphians, the town became a magnet a century ago for European immigrants drawn to its factories, including the Philadelphia Watch Case Company, whose empty hulk still looms over town. Until the 1930s, the minutes of the school board meetings were recorded in German and English.

“There’s always got to be some scapegoats,” said Regina Collinsgru, who runs The Positive Press, a local newspaper, and whose husband was among a wave of Portuguese immigrants who came here in the 1960s. “The Germans were first, there were problems when the Italians came, then the Polish came. That’s the nature of a lot of small towns.”

Immigrants from Latin America began arriving around 2000. The majority were Brazilians attracted not only by construction jobs in the booming housing market but also by the presence of Portuguese-speaking businesses in town. Between 2000 and 2006, local business owners and officials estimate, more than 3,000 immigrants arrived. There are no authoritative figures about the number of immigrants who were — or were not — in the country legally.

Like those waves of earlier immigrants, the Brazilians and Latinos triggered conflicting reactions. Some shopkeepers loved the extra dollars spent on Scott and Pavilion Streets, the modest thoroughfares that anchor downtown. Yet some residents steered clear of stores where Portuguese and Spanish were plainly the language of choice. A few contractors benefited from the new pool of cheap labor. Others begrudged being undercut by rivals who hired undocumented workers.

On the town’s leafy side streets, some residents admired the pluck of newcomers who often worked six days a week, and a few even took up Capoeira, the Brazilian martial art. Yet many neighbors loathed the white vans with out-of-state plates and ladders on top parked in spots they had long considered their own. The Brazilian flags that flew at several houses rankled more than a few longtime residents.

It is unclear whether the Brazilian and Latino immigrants who left will now return to Riverside. With the housing market slowing, there may be little reason to come back. But if they do, some residents say they may spark new tensions.

Mr. Hilton, the former mayor, said some of the illegal immigrants have already begun filtering back into town. “It’s not the Wild West like it was,” he said, “but it may return to that.”

ILLINOIS

U.S. SUES ILLINOIS TO LET EMPLOYERS USE IMMIGRANT DATABASE

NY Times
By JULIA PRESTON
Published: September 25, 2007

The Bush administration sued the State of Illinois yesterday, hoping to block a new state law that bars employers from using a federal database to verify that immigrant job applicants are in the United States legally and are authorized to work.

With the suit, officials said, the administration is going on the offensive in the courts in response to cases intended to stall a crackdown on illegal immigration that the federal authorities announced last month.

“We will vigorously contest any effort to impede our enforcement measures,” the Homeland Security secretary, Michael Chertoff, said yesterday in a telephone interview.

The suit, brought by Mr. Chertoff’s department, seeks to stop Illinois from putting into effect a law that forbids employers from enrolling in the federal worker verification database program.

The program, formerly known as Basic Pilot, was renamed E-Verify last month.

Under the Illinois statute, the ban would remain until Washington certifies that the databases used to verify workers’ eligibility are 99 percent accurate.

Supporters of the law say the Social Security Administration and Homeland Security Department databases used to confirm eligibility are riddled with errors and could result in the denial of jobs to legal workers, including citizens.

The law, which passed with bipartisan support, was signed by Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich on Aug. 13 and is to take effect on Jan. 1.

Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, did not comment yesterday, because he reportedly had not had a chance to read the suit. A spokeswoman for him, Abby Ottenhoff, said he had signed the bill because he “concurred with the General Assembly that the system now leaves too much room for mistakes and abuse.”

Ms. Ottenhoff said lawmakers had determined the verification program had a 50 percent accuracy rate and was slow, taking up to 10 days to respond to employers.

The suit, filed in Federal District Court for the Central District of Illinois, argues that the state statute is unconstitutional because it pre-empts federal laws that established the worker verification program, beginning in 1996.

The program compares job applicants’ identity information against the Social Security and immigration databases. Illegal immigrants often present false names or Social Security numbers when seeking work.

The program, which functions in all states, remains voluntary for most employers. The suit says 22,200 employers are enrolled in the system, which handled 2.9 million inquiries from employers in the current fiscal year.

“We want to be sure that employers can participate without being punished by the state,” Mr. Chertoff said. “We don’t want them to be guinea pigs” in a legal test between conflicting federal and state laws.

With the defeat of a broad immigration bill in the Senate in June, Mr. Chertoff said, “Congress said, ‘We want you to enforce the law first,’ ” before measures could be considered to give legal status to illegal immigrants.

The Illinois law was supported by business and labor organizations. “We have no problem with the program, but the program needs to be accurate,” said Tim Bell of the Chicago Workers’ Collaborative, which helped pass the statute.

Immigration officials said they would begin a system today within the verification program to allow employers for the first time to compare applicants’ photographs against pictures in immigration agencies’ records.

Last month a federal judge in San Francisco temporarily held up a new federal rule that would have forced employers to dismiss illegal immigrants after 90 days.