WITH LESS THAN 24 HOURS UNTIL MYERS CONFIRMATION VOTE, MCCASKILL'S REQUESTS FOR INFORMATIONN STILL UNANSWERED

All American Patriots
Wed, 09/26/2007 - 15:14 — newsdesk

September 25, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill has made repeated requests for the number of prosecutions of employers who hire illegal immigrants during the tenure of Secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Julie Myers. When McCaskill suggested at Myers’s confirmation hearing on September 12th that her vote hinged on obtaining the statistics, Myers said she would provide the information at a later date. With less than 24 hours before the scheduled committee vote, McCaskill is still waiting.

“Frankly, I don’t understand how the person responsible for immigration enforcement can tout her record of going after employers who hire illegal immigrants, but not have a shred of proof that a single employer has gone to jail even for a day,” McCaskill said.

Six days after the Myers hearing, McCaskill sent a letter formally requesting the information Myers had promised during the hearing. Shortly thereafter, staff at ICE indicated during verbal conversations with McCaskill’s staff that the information would require significant time to obtain. Therefore, McCaskill asked that the committee to delay the vote on Myers’s confirmation until adequate information had been supplied.

McCaskill also asked for the total number of persons charged criminally as a result of ICE workplace enforcement actions at the hearing on September 12th. Myers confirmed at that time that there had been a total of 716 arrests made during fiscal year 2006, including illegal immigrants and any alleged arrests made of employers. Friday, McCaskill requested that Myers turn over the names of those individuals, so McCaskill's staff could try to determine if any employers had been charged. ICE has yet to provide that basic information as well.

McCaskill continued, “I’ve been more than patient. Information about a case in Missouri was requested this past summer. My staff gave ICE time to come up with statistics about employer arrests before the hearing two weeks ago. We even asked for the names Ms. Myers cited in her hearing so that we could attempt to investigate these cases ourselves. Still, nothing. This is unacceptable.”

Specifically, McCaskill has asked for the number of employers who, as a result of ICE’s workplace enforcement actions, were arrested in 2007, served jail time in 2007, or were fined in 2007. She also requested similar statistics for the entire Bush Administration.

Source: Senator Claire McCaskill

N.Y. GOVERNOR, MAYOR FEUD OVER DRIVER'S LICENSES FOR ALIENS

By BEN DOBBIN | Associated Press Writer
4:47 PM EDT, September 27, 2007

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Gov. Eliot Spitzer tore into New York City's mayor for lambasting the state's new driver's license policy for illegal aliens, calling it "legally wrong, morally wrong" for critics to say it will weaken national security and make it tougher for New Yorkers to fly.

Spitzer has been besieged by officials at all levels recently over his plan to allow illegal immigrants with valid foreign passports to get driver's licenses. Many local county clerks are incensed over the policy. One has already pledged not to follow it.

"Many of us think the whole idea is crazy and ill-fated," said Rensselaer County Clerk Frank Merola. "I myself will not process any driver's license renewal or driver's license verification for someone who cannot prove legal status."

The Democratic governor's decision comes as the Department of Homeland Security is pushing all 50 states to tighten their identification standards. Merola said Spitzer's approach "is going just the opposite way" as the federal government.

DHS has been working with New York's neighbor Vermont, as well as Arizona, Washington and Michigan, to toughen driver's license standards in order to comply with new border security rules.

New York's policy starts in December but is already under fire from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a pro-immigration politician who said the change could lead to the state's licenses not being acceptable proof of identification for air travel.

Bloomberg said Wednesday that the city's lawyer "does believe that in fact this would make New York's state driver's licenses ineligible to be used to get on an airplane. People would need other form of identification, generally a passport, and that would be a very big problem."

"I'm really skeptical that we should be issuing driver's licenses willy-nilly," he added Thursday, "because it then leads to lots of other problems in terms of voter registration and other things. But it's the governor's call."

The governor struck back at Bloomberg during a visit to an elementary school in Rochester.

"He is wrong at every level _ dead wrong, factually wrong, legally wrong, morally wrong, ethically wrong," he said.

Under the new state policy, immigrants _ regardless of their status _ will be permitted to provide a current, verifiable foreign passport in applying for a license. Similar policies have been adopted in Utah, New Mexico and other states.

New York officials say the policy shift is geared toward enhanced security, safer streets and a reduction in insurance premiums for all New York drivers by an anticipated $120 million a year.

Michael Balboni, New York's homeland security chief, said the new system actually improves security because it creates public records that police and others can use to ensure true identities.

Allowing illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses would cut directly against a major anti-terror goal of the Bush administration to beef up ID standards _ unless states were to issue one sort of license for U.S. citizens and another for illegal immigrants.

The debate over standards for New York driver's licenses comes amid a long-running dispute between the state and the federal government about new rules requiring passports or equivalent federal identification for all land and sea border crossings next year.

That requirement, which Congress passed as a security measure after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, worries those along the U.S.-Canada border where families frequently cross the border to shop, socialize, or play sports. Many complain the rule will be prohibitively expensive for families that have to pay $100 per passport.

Russ Knocke, a DHS spokesman, said the agency has been talking to New York officials about new federal ID standards due to be announced soon for state-issued drivers licenses.

"There is a known vulnerability in state-issued driver's licenses today and shame on us if we don't fix that vulnerability," Knocke said. "Anything that would complicate the enforcement of our immigration laws would be concerning, and anything that would frustrate efforts for more secure identification would be troubling."


Associated Press Writers Sara Kugler in New York and Devlin Barrett in Washington contributed to this report.

CUFFED KIDS DRIVE BORDER PATROL CAR OVER BORDER

MEXICANS DETAINED ON DRUG SUSPICIONS ESCAPE IN U.S. AGENT'S VEHICLE

MONTERREY, Mexico - Three Mexican minors detained in California on suspicion of smuggling drugs stole a U.S. Border Patrol car while still wearing handcuffs and drove it back across the border to Mexico.

Police in the Mexican border city of Mexicali said on Tuesday the three boys had been driving a pickup truck on a remote Californian highway when a Border Patrol agent stopped them.

Suspicious they were carrying marijuana, he handcuffed them and put them in his patrol car while he searched their truck.

"As the agent was doing his search, he left the vehicle running and the keys in the ignition, so one of the lads, still wearing handcuffs, grabbed the steering wheel and they headed back to Mexico," a police spokesman said.

The Border Patrol, which plays cat and mouse around the clock with illegal Mexican migrants and drug traffickers, confirmed the vehicle was stolen in Southern California on Sunday and driven over the border near Mexicali.

Mexican police used a helicopter to locate the patrol vehicle in a remote agricultural area near the border.

In the global community of men, under GOD, can we call this victory? Rough Neighbor


"Sept. 27, 2007, 8:22AM
Along the U.S.-Mexico border, a dilemma of the dead

By SUSAN CARROLL
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Dilemma of the dead

LAREDO — The yellowing skeletons are stored in filing boxes in the hallway of the old prison outside Laredo. Under fluorescent lights, the dead are stacked in a bay of metal lockers, two high and three across. The walk-in cooler across the hall is larger, but all of the tables are full, too.

At the makeshift morgue, Dr. Corinne Stern, the Webb County medical examiner, started storing bodies on rolling gurneys in the walk-in refrigerator when she ran out of space. Less than ideal, she thought, but temporary. It started with just one or two bodies, but by late last week, there were at least half a dozen.

"We try to make space the best we can," she said, "but we are completely full."

Soon, though, at least one spot will open up. Stern is preparing to release for burial a suspected illegal immigrant whose partially mummified, naked body was pulled from the Rio Grande months ago.

Like many medical examiners and county officials along the U.S.-Mexico border, Stern faces a complicated and delicate problem — what to do with dozens of John Does, many believed to be illegal immigrants, who end up in county coolers and eventually in anonymous pauper's graves, all at the expense of local taxpayers.

The scope of the problem is difficult to judge. No agency is charged with tracking what happens to the remains of illegal immigrants who die along the U.S.-Mexico border — whether they are identified or buried, whether their families are ever informed. U.S. immigration officials recently announced a decrease in the number of deaths reported along the border since October 2006.

But the statistics don't necessarily reflect what's happening in Texas border cities and towns.

The number of deaths increased in the Border Patrol's Laredo sector, which includes 171 miles of the Rio Grande and thousands of square miles of remote ranches. The agency reported 45 deaths from October through August, up from 35 for the previous fiscal year and from 15 in all of 2002.

The dead have taken a toll on the local budgets of Texas' smaller and poorer border counties. And news of the latest technology for identifying bodies, such as Baylor University's DNA databank for dead immigrants, hasn't reached much of South Texas.

Problem for decades

The dilemma posed by illegal immigrant deaths dates back decades in South Texas. Outside Sarita, a town of a few hundred residents in Kenedy County, a burial ground for unidentified immigrants sits off a caliche road a few miles from Interstate 77.

The cemetery is overgrown with knee-high grass and sunflower stalks. Wooden crosses mark about 30 graves, dating back to the 1980s.

Under some crosses, there are small metal signs marked with what little was known about the dead: "John Doe, 6-24-98." "Unknown skeletal remains, 2000."

"Nobody wants to take responsibility for cleaning this place up," said Joe Recio, who saw three of the immigrants go into the ground years ago when he worked for the county. "It's sad to see it like this."

Since the Border Patrol started cracking down on illegal immigration in major cities from Brownsville to San Diego in the mid-1990s, the traffic has shifted. People have tried to cross through increasingly remote areas, leading to a record-setting death toll in 2005, with 494 bodies reported that year.

Immigrant deaths reported along the border have dropped from 453 in fiscal year 2006 to 375 so far in this fiscal year, which ends Sunday.

But the government's system for counting the dead has been scrutinized recently, and researchers who study border deaths said the number is likely higher, particularly in Texas.

"Those numbers are probably somewhat underreported," said Lori Baker, a forensic anthropologist at Baylor.

Baker has assembled a database that matches dead immigrants' DNA with samples submitted by family members of the missing. In the past two years, that partnership between Baylor and the Mexican government has led to the testing of 175 samples and has made 50 positive matches, but nearly all of the cases were submitted by medical examiners in Arizona.

"We need to do a much better job in Texas," she said. "It's really a mess down here."

Arizona's Pima County works closely with the Mexican Consulate, keeps computerized data on each immigrant death and contributes samples to the Baylor database. Stern has a similar set of procedures but sends DNA off to a databank maintained by U.S. law enforcement.

In some smaller Texas counties, a $1,000 price tag for an autopsy can be prohibitive, said Nestor Rodriguez, a University of Houston professor who has researched deaths along the border.

"These are some of the poorest counties in the country," Rodriguez pointed out. "They have no resources."

In some border towns, the immigrant deaths have become part of everyday life, he said.

"When death becomes so common it could be that a lot of people kind of become numb, so the deaths aren't a priority anymore. It's not an excuse, but I could see how it could happen," Rodriguez said.

Dead men's tales

On Stern's office wall, a faded sign reads: Mortui Vivis Praecipant. It's Latin for "Let the Dead Teach the Living."

But some bodies don't share their secrets. She tried everything she could think of to identify the naked man with skeletonized fingers. Another was pulled from the river wearing only blue briefs.

Stern kept the body longer than usual because a woman swore he was her husband, even though his face was unrecognizable, because of the blue underwear. Stern sent off samples for DNA testing.

She waited for months, but no one has spoken for him.

"We just have too many bodies," said Frank Salinas, the county's indigent health care director, who is in charge of the burials. "The state of Texas says the county is responsible for those burials. It's an unfunded mandate."

This year, officials in Webb County set aside $95,000 for indigent burials, and estimated that most of that money would be spent burying immigrants. Before Stern signed on as the medical examiner in January, bodies were shipped up to Bexar County for autopsies, at a cost of more than $1,000 each.

Stern has put in place a new process for handling bodies and is working to clear the backlog of skeletons, remnants from the old system, which was run mainly by justices of the peace.

In a 24-hour span this week, starting Monday evening, Stern's morgue received the bodies of three suspected illegal immigrants, two from heat exposure and one drowning.

She said the Mexican Consulate helped to quickly identify one of the bodies and is working on the others, but the only hope for the man pulled from the Rio Grande may be an old scar.

She keeps each body in the morgue for 60 days, just in case someone comes forward, and she takes samples of blood and bone before burial. The samples are submitted to a University of North Texas laboratory, and inputted into a U.S. law enforcement database.

"Of course, we'd like to get everyone ID'd. We try to be as respectful as possible," Stern said. "What else can we do? Who wants to think that their loved one would spend eternity on a gurney in a cooler?"

susan.carroll@chron.com"

UNDOCUMENTED GUATEMALEN STUDENT ORDERED TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY

By Jennifer W. Sanchez
The Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated: 09/27/2007 10:39:21 AM MDT


Former Utah college student Edgar Monroy Jr., right,...

Edgar Monroy Jr. stayed up until 3 a.m. studying for a college exam, but a few hours later he was in handcuffs.

In February, Monroy and his younger sister were awakened about 6:30 a.m. by knocking on their trailer door by four men wearing "Police" vests. Thinking it might be an emergency, Monroy let them in. Instead, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were looking for his father, who had been ordered to return to Guatemala in 2002.

ICE agents, Monroy said, claimed that they would not arrest him and his sister if they disclosed their dad's whereabouts. So Monroy, an undocumented college student, told them they could find his dad working at a construction site.

"They said they'd make a deal with us, but they still took us," Monroy said. "It was pretty tricky what they did."

Monroy now has deportation orders to leave the country in October and his goal of graduating from a Utah university is over. Still, he and others want Congress to approve a proposal that would allow tens of thousands of undocumented students to become eligible for a pathway to citizenship.

"I hope it can help other students who are in my situation," Monroy said.

The Senate this week is expected to debate whether to add the Dream Act of 2007 to a Department of Defense appropriations bill.

Under the measure, undocumented immigrants would be eligible to apply for a conditional permanent resident card if they:
* Are under 30;
* Entered the country at age 15 or younger;
* Have been in the country at least five years;
* Have a high school diploma or GED; and
* Have no criminal record.

Within six years of receiving the card, they would have to complete either two years of college or military service to be eligible to transfer into permanent resident status.

U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is co-sponsoring the proposal.

"I believe that good kids who were brought here at a young age, through no fault of their own, certainly deserve a chance for a brighter future through education," Hatch said in a statement. "The Dream Act would go a long way toward helping these individuals. And if these individuals have shown, as the Dream Act requires, a willingness to learn English and get an education or serve in the military, then I believe we should help them."

Anti-illegal immigration activists say the immigration reform measure is quietly being tucked into the defense appropriations bill and would provide amnesty for undocumented immigrants.

The proposal is more "like a nightmare act" that would reward lawbreakers, said Eli Cawley, Utah Minuteman Project Board of Directors chairman. Undocumented immigrants have to take responsibility for their parents' actions and return to their native country. The United States is not obligated out of compassion to make the pathway to citizenship easier for kids of undocumented immigrants, Cawley said.

"Life is tough. That's just the way it is," he said.

However, Cawley said he would support a measure that would allow people from other countries to get on a path to citizenship if they served in the U.S. military.

"If they go and serve in Iraq, that's another story," he said.

For Monroy, the proposed Dream Act can't help him, so he's contemplating alternatives.

It's hard for him to give up his life in Logan and return to Guatemala, a country he barely knows. He remembers taking a bus ride in 1995 with his dad, mom and sister from Esquipulas, Guatemala, through Mexico to the California border. There, they hid in bushes and tried walking across the desert four times before they finally made it. They didn't have any water or food.

Monroy, then 8 years old, almost didn't make it, said his mother, Alma Corina Guevara. He was pale and vomiting saliva. Guevara said she went to beg for food from some ranchers, who gave the group stacks of scrambled-egg sandwiches. Guevara said she and her ex-husband paid coyotes $10,000 to get from Guatemala to Logan.

Monroy started his U.S. education in the third grade. He learned English. He earned good grades. He later took college classes in high school. He said his parents and teachers always encouraged him to go to college.

Monroy eventually earned a four-year tuition scholarship to a local university. Then, with more than half of his bachelor's degree completed and a 3.2 G.P.A., immigration officials came knocking on his door.

After his arrest in February, he spent about three weeks in jail - and celebrated his 21st birthday - while he went through immigration proceedings. His sister was let go by ICE. His father was returned to Guatemala in March.

"When this happens to you, all your plans go down the hill," Monroy said.

His father's deportation is part of an ICE initiative called Operation Return to Sender that seeks to enforce deportation orders by immigration judges. This year, some 45 undocumented fugitives have been arrested each month in Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Montana under the operation, said ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice.

Cases are prioritized, with those deemed to be threats to national security or having criminal backgrounds at the top of the list, ICE officials have said.

Kice declined to discuss the Monroy cases in detail.

When he got out of jail, Monroy dropped out of college, trading in his books for a $12-an-hour job installing drywall.

He is now the man of the house. He can't bear the thought of leaving behind his sister and his mother - who is waiting for word on immigration paperwork she filed in 2003 - to fend for themselves.

"I feel sad because I want to keep studying but I can't . . .. I have to support my mom and sister," he said.

Regardless of what happens, Monroy said he plans to earn a college degree because he knows how much his parents suffered to make sure he had better opportunities. He remembers them coming home tired after working 12-hour days in construction and child care.

"I want to show my parents that I'm very grateful for all they've done for me," he said.

____________

[COMMENT BY EXPLORA: This is a 'Heads Up':

if you know anybody that is under a deportation order or any other issues with immigration, please be aware that ICE might attempt some type of scheme such as the following states.]

ICE agents, Monroy said, claimed that they would not arrest him and his sister if they disclosed their dad's whereabouts. So Monroy, an undocumented college student, told them they could find his dad working at a construction site.

CLERKS BALK AT PROPOSAL ON LICENSES

NY Times
By DANNY HAKIM
Published: September 28, 2007

ALBANY, Sept. 27 — Gov. Eliot Spitzer is facing a groundswell of opposition from Republicans to his plan to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, with some upstate county clerks even balking at the policy in a prelude to a potential legal showdown.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has also voiced opposition to the plan, prompting the governor on Thursday to call the mayor “wrong at every level — dead wrong, factually wrong, legally wrong, morally wrong, ethically wrong,” The Associated Press reported. And Steve Levy, the Democratic Suffolk county executive who has been outspoken on immigration issues, said on Thursday there was “intense, passionate opposition” to the policy among Long Island voters.

“It has hit a nerve,” Mr. Levy said.

While Republican leaders across the state expressed concern that the new policy could potentially give anyone, even a terrorist, access to a driver’s license, it is the opposition among county clerks that could lead to a legal battle.

In 51 of the state’s 62 counties, county clerks operate Department of Motor Vehicles offices as agents of the state, and many do not want to process applications of illegal immigrants. In New York City, Long Island and Westchester, the state operates the facilities. Frank J. Merola, a Republican and the county clerk of Rensselaer County, which borders Albany County, says he will not carry out the policy.

“I’m not going to process a driver’s license for someone who cannot prove they are here legally,” he said. Mr. Merola said he was not thinking about the legal ramifications about whether he could defy the state, but added, “I know I’m not going to do it.”

Kathy Marchione, the clerk of Saratoga County, who is a Republican and president of the New York State Association of County Clerks, said she was “leaning toward Mr. Merola’s stand, but I will certainly check with our county attorney.”

“We certainly have a responsibility to our county to obey the law,” said Ms. Marchione, who is holding a teleconference of clerks next week to discuss how to proceed. “I need to do some checking about our legal rights.”

The Spitzer administration is taking a firm line. Clerks are legally considered agents of the commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles.

“The county clerks must respond and adapt to D.M.V. policy, and not doing so would be a flagrant violation of state law,” said Christine Anderson, the governor’s press secretary. Turning away eligible applicants, she added, “would violate his or her constitutional oath of office” and make them “subject to suit by the state and license applicants.”

If nothing else, the controversy has helped the governor accomplish something he has been unable to do for the last two and a half months: get Republicans to talk about something besides the attorney general’s finding that members of the governor’s staff misused the State Police in an effort to discredit Joseph L. Bruno, the Senate majority leader. By tacking left, Mr. Spitzer is also shoring up his support among Hispanic lawmakers.

The governor has said the plan is a “common sense change” to improve public safety by bringing people out of the shadows. It would also lower insurance costs, he said, if more immigrants had valid licenses and insurance.

The policy will be phased in starting in December. Under the rules, foreign passports will be accepted as proof of identity without also requiring a valid yearlong visa or other evidence of legal immigration. The policy runs counter to trends in many other states cracking down on identity fraud by adding requirements effectively preventing illegal immigrants from obtaining driver’s licenses.

Mr. Bloomberg and a number of county clerks said the new policy also conflicted with changes to federal rules that will eventually require more secure driver’s licenses. Critics say the state’s plan could mean that New Yorkers will eventually have to use passports as identification to board planes.

“I’m really skeptical that we should be issuing driver’s licenses willy-nilly,” Mr. Bloomberg said Thursday, adding that doing so “leads to lots of other problems, in terms of voter registration and other things, but it’s the governor’s call, and if we have some problems we’ll work with him and his staff.”

Ms. Anderson said the mayor’s comments “reveal his misunderstanding of the law in this area.” The governor’s harsh response suggested a surprisingly bitter policy rift between the two men, who generally work closely together. New Yorkers can still use their license to board planes until at least May of 2013, Ms. Anderson said, and details of the federal regulations after that are not yet clear.

Republicans announced an online petition drive on Thursday to fight the plan. Joseph N. Mondello, the state Republican Party chairman, called the plan “dangerous” and “misguided.”


Cheryl Dinolfo, a Republican who is clerk of Monroe County, which encompasses Rochester, said, “I do believe that the state D.M.V. is asking my office to help illegal immigrants to break the law, and this policy is one that cannot stand.”

John Woodward, the county clerk of Schenectady County and a Democrat, did not take a position on the issue, but said, “I’m going to follow the law.”

“I don’t think we have much choice; we serve as agents of the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles,” he added.

Moves by Republican lawmakers to overturn the policy will face tough sledding in the Legislature, where a two-thirds vote in each chamber would be needed to override a veto. That would be unlikely in the Assembly, where the speaker, Sheldon Silver, supports the policy and Democrats hold a substantial majority.

Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat, a Manhattan Democrat and another supporter, said “to implement measures that will further drive people underground does not enhance public safety.”

Among Republicans, the only counter note came, oddly enough, from Mr. Bruno, who said on Monday that he could “understand the merits” of the proposal. But by Tuesday, he was closing ranks.

“This is a political move on the part of the governor to get these people beholden to him,” he said during an interview on WROW radio in Albany. “And when they go and vote, who are they going to vote for?”

Ray Rivera contributed reporting.

IMMIGRATION ELITISTS

The Washington Times
Editorial
By Mark Cromer
September 28, 2007

Was it really just three months ago that the powerful bipartisan architects of the Senate's so-called Grand Compromise on immigration reform watched as their sweeping legislation imploded in that august chamber? The bitter rage that flowed from Sen. Ted Kennedy and the resentful smirks of President Bush — who had defiantly vowed he would see America "at the bill signing" shortly before the compromise collapsed — looked like reassuring signs for citizens that this time around the stake had been properly driven through the heart of mass amnesty for illegal immigrants.

That stunning accomplishment seemed to herald a rare but critical triumph of Middle America's common sense over an increasingly detached Washington culture that's now more accustomed to governing by imperial fiat than an honest representation of the majority's will.

What a difference a few months makes.

Far from being chastened by the angry rebuke they were dealt by the American people, the Senate's elite went right back to work with the strange alliance of labor-intensive business interests and radically ethnocentric Latino activists.

The lesson they took from the defeat of their grand amnesty was not that a vast majority of American citizens demand real border security and sustained enforcement of our immigration laws, including aggressive deportations, before any consideration can be given to the status of some illegal immigrants.

No, the lesson they drew on amnesty was: Think big, but start small.

Thus Sen. Richard Durbin has retooled — as quietly as possible — an initial amnesty to be offered to illegal immigrants who crossed the border when they were 15 or younger. With Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's blessing, Mr. Durbin hoped to attach the measure to a massive defense bill, rather than thoroughly debate the proposal and conduct a vote on its merits alone.

While not as biblically epic in its scope as the "Grand Compromise," Mr. Durbin was cynical enough to imbue it with a wholesome title that could wistfully be evoked by its proponents: The Dream Act. (This is the soundbite-friendly acronym for its full title, The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act.) After all, who would vote against a child's dreams? Of course, in order to dress it up as something other than a mass amnesty, the legislation is salted with requirements that apparently are supposed to amount to something Mr. Durbin can claim is "earned legalization." Sound familiar? Among them are stipulations that illegal immigrants would have to "prove" that they arrived in the United States when they were 15 or younger, have lived here for at least five consecutive years, have graduated from an American high school (or obtained an equivalence certificate) and have no significant criminal record.

Given the massive counterfeit document industry illegal immigrants have now established in the United States — bogus driver's licenses, Social Security cards, birth certificates and even passports are as readily obtained on the street as drugs — these requirements are just more vintage fiction from the same senators who wanted us to believe they were serious about securing the border and enforcing the law last summer.

Here's a reality check: The security wall that American citizens were promised along hundreds of miles of the southern border remains nonexistent, the high-tech virtual fence is a bust, the National Guard is being withdrawn and the Border Patrol remains overworked and completely unsupported by the Bush administration.

With the passage of the Dream Act, the message that will resonate across Latin America will simply be: Get your kids across the Rio Grande, get them into free public school and within a few years they will be on their way to a Social Security account.

Just how many illegal immigrants will be ushered toward citizenship should Mr. Durbin's bill be passed and signed into law is unclear, but what is clear is this: Taxpayer-funded services, from education to healthcare, are among the most potent "pull factors" that draw illegal immigrants into the United States.

Mr. Durbin's Dream Act manages to ice that cake even further by promising parents that we'll not only educate their children at no cost to them, but will fast-track them to citizenship.

The message is clear: Just get here.

A dream for Mr. Durbin and Co., perhaps, but for the American citizen struggling to get by and living with a public education system already badly eroded, it is now a recurring nightmare.

Mark Cromer is a senior writing fellow for Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS.)

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Rough Neighbor:
In the global community of men, under GOD, can we call this victory? Rough Neighbor


"Sept. 27, 2007, 8:22AM
Along the U.S.-Mexico border, a dilemma of the dead

By SUSAN CARROLL
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Dr. Corinne Stern, the Webb County medical examiner, is re-examining skeletal remains found in the area years ago. Some bones are stored in boxes in the hallway of an old prison outside Laredo because there is not enough room in a walk-in cooler.
MAYRA BELTRÁN PHOTOS: CHRONICLE

KC-AREA CHURCHES PLEDGE TO SHELTER ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

http://www.kcstar.com
The Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. --Several churches in the Kansas City area are offering sanctuary to illegal immigrants facing deportation if they have American-born children, clean criminal records and have worked for years in the United States.

The churches are part of the New Sanctuary Movement, through which churches nationwide have let illegal immigrants live on their properties in the hope that immigration officials won't raid churches to make arrests.

Tuesday night, about 100 people gathered near a billboard on Interstate 70 to announce the New Sanctuary Movement Coalition of Greater Kansas City.

"It is the very soul of our nation that is at stake" in how we treat families in which one or both parents are illegal immigrants but the children are American citizens, said the Rev. Rick Behrens of Grandview Park Presbyterian Church. "We are losing our soul as we separate children from parents."

None of the Kansas City churches has sheltered an illegal immigrant yet.

The churches say providing shelter isn't against the law because church members wouldn't interfere with agents coming onto church property.

But Kris Kobach, a University of Missouri-Kansas City law professor and chairman of the Kansas Republican Party, said it is a violation of federal law to knowingly harbor an illegal immigrant.

"There are many points of view about the role of churches in our society and how much civic engagement there should be," said Kobach, of Kansas City, Kan. "But I think one area that until very recently has been pretty clear is, churches shouldn't themselves violate federal law."

Last month, immigration agents arrested Elvira Arellano, an illegal immigrant, after she left a church in Chicago where she had lived for about a year after being scheduled to be deported. Agents arrested her in Los Angeles with her American-born son after the two traveled there to participate in a pro-immigration rally.

Arellano was sent to Mexico, while her son stayed in the United States.

Last weekend, immigrant advocates and anti-illegal immigration activists clashed outside a California church that is protecting an illegal immigrant from Mexico who is married to a U.S. citizen and has three American-born children.

The woman went into hiding after immigration officials ordered her deported.

Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com

NEW JERSEY

CORZINE PENS BILL TO STOP ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FROM DRIVING

By Herald Staff

MILLVILLE -- On Sept. 27, Gov. Jon Corzine signed Assembly bill 3372 into law. That bill requires all vehicles owned by a New Jersey resident to be registered within 60 days.

Fines range from $250-$500 dollars with possible impoundment of the vehicle. Half of the fines would be distributed to the town and one half would be distributed to the county in which the violator was caught.

“There are a limited number of tools that can be utilized by state and local officials to control illegal immigration. This represents a more affective means of controlling illegal immigrants who are illegal drivers.

“While state government can’t control our borders throughout the United States we have the responsibility of using every mechanism at our disposal to control the problem within the borders of the State of New Jersey,” said Assemblyman Jeff Van Drew (D-1st).

“For too long this issue has plagued New Jersey and specifically Cumberland County this legislation may not represent the cure to the problem but certainly does represent a step in the right direction,” said Assemblyman Nelson Albano (D-1st).

OFFICIALS: IMMIGRANT HOSTILITY FUELS DISCRIMIINATORY HOUSING LAWS


Kim Kendrick, right, assistant secretary of fair housing at the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, meets with other HUD officials to talk about fair housing issues. With her are Pam Walsh, acting director of the Office of Policy, Legislative Initiatives and Outreach, and Bryan Greene, deputy assistant secretary for enforcement and programs.

USA TODAY
By Deborah ****ield Berry
Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON — Federal housing officials and civil rights groups are challenging city and town ordinances they say discriminate against minorities, particularly Hispanics.
Some of the laws reflect the impact of illegal immigrants on communities where they're blamed for overcrowding, crime and strains on local budgets, the laws' supporters say.

"The illegal population has become more diffuse, so some communities have more of a stake in it," said Steven Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that advocates reduced immigration. "There is deep public dissatisfaction with the status quo."

But civil rights groups say local housing ordinances are not the proper way to enforce immigration laws.

"People think the federal government is not doing its job of enforcing immigration," said Kristina Campbell, a lawyer with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). "True or not, you can't deny a whole class of people the ability to live in your town because you don't think they have legal status."

At least 41 state legislatures have passed 170 housing and other laws targeting illegal immigrants this year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. About 100 communities have proposed similar ordinances.

Local housing laws that have been challenged for allegedly violating the Fair Housing Act include:

• A law adopted last year by the city of Hazleton, Pa., to fine landlords who rent to illegal immigrants. The law was copied by other towns and cities across the country.

A federal judge stuck down the law in July. Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta has vowed to appeal.

"We have the right to regulate licenses and permits," Barletta said. "The federal government has failed in enforcing immigration law. We could no longer wait for Washington to act."

• An ordinance in Farmers Branch, Texas, requiring landlords of apartment complexes to verify that prospective tenants are in the country legally. MALDEF and the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit challenging the measure.

The ordinance "illegally puts landlords in the untenable situation of serving as federal law enforcement agents," MALDEF officials said.

In June, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction stopping the city from enforcing the ordinance until a trial, possibly early next year.

Farmers Branch city council member Tim O'Hare, who led the fight for the ordinance, has said he acted because he believes illegal immigrants have damaged the town's quality of life.

• An ordinance passed by St. Bernard Parish in Louisiana last year banning owners of many single-family homes from renting to non-relatives.

Backers of the ordinance said it was designed to protect home values by preventing investors from buying damaged homes and then renting them out.

But fair housing groups said the measure was aimed at preventing minorities from living in the overwhelmingly white parish.

Parish officials repealed the ordinance in December under pressure from the fair housing groups.

• An ordinance in Manassas, Va., that limited the number of unrelated people who could live in a house. City officials said the measure was necessary to address overcrowding.

Private housing groups and Housing and Urban Development officials said the city appeared to be enforcing the ordinance only against Hispanics and threatened to sue. The city later repealed the ordinance.

Federal Justice officials are weighing whether to take Manassas to court for allegedly violating the Fair Housing Act.

"When you're enforcing those provisions, you must do it uniformly to all people," said Kim Kendrick, assistant secretary for HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.

She noted that anyone looking for a home, even people in the country illegally, "still have the protections of the Fair Housing Act."

NEVADA, RENO



ICE

OVER 40 ARRESTS IN NEV. IMMIGRATION RAID

Sept. 28, 2007
Associated Press
By SCOTT SONNER – 43 minutes ago

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Federal agents raided 11 McDonald's restaurants in northern Nevada and made dozens of arrests Thursday as part of an investigation into illegal immigration.

Agents for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement made at least 56 arrests in Reno, Sparks and Fernley after raids at the restaurants and a franchise corporate headquarters in Reno, agency spokesman Richard Rocha said.

"They are people suspected of being in the country illegally. As far as I know, they were all McDonald's employees," he told The Associated Press.

The investigation began five months ago and was sparked by an identity theft complaint, Rocha said. A local law enforcement agency then gave ICE information that illegal immigra