Originally posted by chuck: Clinton is smart enough to see the importance of the Hispanic vote. I believe any contender that misses this opportunity will reap the consequences. The Republican Party is one of those for being the major reason for the failure to pass Comprhensive Immigration Reform. This and other reasons may result in an extended drought for the Republicans.
ditto Chuck. Hispanics will alienate the Republican party. We already see them as Hispanic unfriendly. Our trend is to vote Democrate. They are losing the Hispanic vote.
Little blowback for illegal worker hires Enforcement shifts toward suspected criminal activity
By MARY LOU PICKEL The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/08/07
It was 2:30 a.m. when federal agents arrived at Jillian's restaurant in Lawrenceville looking for illegal workers.
As the cleaning crew started work on a night last February, agents arrested four Guatemalans who came to mop and vacuum the theme restaurant.
Louie Favorite/AJC Calletano Gutierrez and Unique Environmental foreman Isaac Williams work in Decatur. A spokeswoman for the Metro Atlanta Landscape and Turf Association says the industry employs many immigrants but companies try to hire legal workers.
The arrests were part of sting on a Florida-based janitorial service that provided workers on contract to restaurants around the country.
If the janitors at Jillian's had been garden-variety undocumented workers, they likely would have kept sweeping floors. But their employer was suspected by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of violating a collection of laws.
The janitor bust is the new style of federal work site immigration enforcement. Since about 1999 and definitely since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the government has targeted employers who knowingly break the law by encouraging or participating in immigrant smuggling, abusing workers, not paying taxes or document fraud.
The owners of Palm Beach-based Rosenbaum-Cunningham International were charged with evading $18.6 million in employment taxes.
Agents arrested about 200 illegal workers nationwide in the sting, including 13 at four restaurants in metro Atlanta. All 13 were Guatemalan and were processed for deportation, Smith said.
The new enforcement tactic is a shift away from the 1990s, when the government annually issued hundreds of noncriminal fines to businesses for employing illegal immigrants.
The new direction means ICE has drastically cut enforcement efforts against employers who just hire illegal workers in Georgia and nationally. Now, fines for simply hiring illegal immigrants are rare.
ICE initiated only three such noncriminal fines in the United States in 2004, the last year for which national statistics are available. In the southern region, the government issued one fine in four years, for $123,000, to a restaurant in North Carolina earlier this year.
Noncriminal fines are usually issued to employers who don't complete the paperwork to prove an employee has the right to work in the United States.
Federal immigration officials say it's a shift in policy rather than a retreat from work site enforcement.
Mandate changed
The mandate is two-pronged: the primary goal, since Sept. 11, is to protect sensitive targets such as airports, military bases and nuclear power plants. The next priority is to target abusive employers and those involved in immigrant recruiting, smuggling or fraud.
"The sheer volume of our work requires us to prioritize our response among all our investigative duties," said Ken Smith, special agent in charge of the Atlanta office of ICE.
Under the first mandate, the agency reviewed the employment forms of about 5,000 workers at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and arrested 35 illegal immigrants in the past four years, Smith said. In January, ICE raided Fort Benning, another sensitive site, charging 24 illegal workers with document fraud and ID theft.
On the second score, local ICE agents busted Sin Sin Employment Agency in Chamblee in 2005. The couple who ran the agency placed thousands of illegal workers in restaurants in several states. They were convicted of conspiracy and fraud related to immigrant smuggling and were sentenced to prison.
Such criminal prosecutions and seizures hit an employer harder than noncriminal fines, Smith said.
The government says criminal fines, restitutions and civil judgments this year from work site enforcement nationally total more than $30 million, according to ICE. But ICE has not said how much of that money was actually collected or whether it was from a few employers.
It's hard to tell whether the change in approach is having any effect on illegal immigration or on employers' behavior, partly because ICE says data that could illustrate that is not readily available.
ICE did not provide dollar values of fines collected from the 1990s, when the government issued thousands of fines to employers.
But, in 1992, for example, the government delivered 1,461 notices of intent to fine to employers for violating immigration laws. By 2004, there were three.
The number of people arrested at work sites for being in the country illegally has also declined sharply since the change in policy, from about 17,500 in 1997 to about 4,000 in 2007, according to INS statistics and ICE. There has been a recent uptick in arrests in the last two years.
To some degree, states and counties have stepped into the void left when ICE backed away from grass roots enforcement.
Georgia passed a law requiring anyone contracting with a public entity to run new hires through a federal database to ensure the employee can legally work in the United States. Cobb and Gwinnett counties have similar rules for contractors.
But that only affects companies paid with tax dollars.
The state can only regulate licensing, taxation and contracts, said Chip Rogers, sponsor of the law. It can't prosecute immigration violations criminally, he said.
"I think if [federal agents] would go out and find some employers who were violating the law and put them in jail because of it, then what you would have happen is the other employers would think twice about employing illegal immigrants," Rogers said.
'Contempt for law'
The change in policy has other critics.
"If you don't do the mundane work of enforcement and make that a real possibility that an employer will run afoul of the law, then what you do is you create a general contempt for the rule of law," said Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C. think tank that favors tighter immigration controls.
"Interior enforcement, including going after employers, has had nothing but a precipitous fall over the last 14 years," Camarota said.
Smith said the reason for that is because it's difficult for the government to prove that employers knowingly hired illegal immigrants. Workers show fake IDs that look real, he said.
"The fines became just the cost of doing business for the employer," Smith said. Many levies were bartered down to "pennies on the dollar."
Mary Kay Woodworth, executive director of the Metro Atlanta Landscape & Turf Association, says an employer who is trying to follow the rules but may have some illegal immigrants on the payroll should not be the focus of a federal investigation.
The landscape industry employs many immigrants, but most employers try to hire legal workers, she said.
"Ninety-nine percent of them are filing taxes and filling out the paperwork," Woodworth said. It's not easy to spot fake documents and asking too many questions can violate a worker's rights.
"Do you think the employer can go and ask, 'Do you really think this is a legal document?' You can't do that," Woodworth said. "If it looks legal, that's the most you can do."
1999 marked shift
The shift in thinking on work site enforcement began in 1999.
In July that year, Robert Bach, an executive associate commissioner for the old Immigration and Naturalization Service, told Congress that even if INS tripled its budget it still would "not have a significant impact on illegal workers and certainly not on employers and labor markets."
INS would focus on criminal investigations against employers who engage in patterns of knowingly employing illegal workers, or who seek to hire them through smugglers, or abuse workers, Bach said.
At that time, there were an estimated 5 million unauthorized migrants in the United States, Bach said.
Estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center put that number last year at between 11 and 12 million.
AMID LICENSE DABATE, IMMIGRANTS SEEK OUT AUTO DEALERS, DRIVER'S ED
by LEAH RAE THE JOURNAL NEWS (Original publication: October 7, 2007)
Rulaman De Leon, left, president of De Leon Mich Auto Sales in Yonkers, and his brother, Arnold, have been fielding inquiries from immigrant customers about the changes in New York's driver's license policy.
While the debate rages on whether to let illegal immigrants get driver's licenses, Yonkers car dealer Rulaman De Leon is looking at some of the practicalities.
In business for 20 years, he often sees car buyers paying in cash, leaving for a few days and coming back with out-of-state plates and insurance. He can venture a guess that these customers are undocumented immigrants, heading to states where they can get driver's licenses and registrations. Other potential buyers keep asking if there's some way to get a New York license without a Social Security number.
Those questions are flooding in now, since Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced a new policy Sept. 21.
"They call us directly to see what we know, what they have to do to get the license," he said. His answer: "We're not sure yet."
County clerks and Republican state lawmakers are vowing to strike down a Spitzer policy that would issue a state license regardless of the applicant's immigration status. The opponents say terrorists could get access to precious ID cards, once applicants are allowed to present foreign passports and other documents in place of Social Security cards.
The demand for driver's licenses - particularly in the New York suburbs - was clear last week at car dealerships, insurance agencies and driver education schools, where employees fielded a surge of inquiries. Spitzer's policy, unless opponents find a way to defeat it, starts in December for 152,000 drivers who have been unable to renew their licenses. It extends to all applicants in April.
"Oh, God. I'd have to get four more cars, four more instructors," said Linda O'Shea, who owns the Port Chester Auto School. She turns away a steady stream of immigrants who want to prepare for the road test but have no Social Security numbers. O'Shea is doubtful the governor's changes will ever go through.
Spitzer has defended his move as a pragmatic step that will reduce unlicensed driving and bring down the cost of car insurance.
He said it would also fight crime, because the photos and fingerprints of hundreds of thousands of drivers would be brought into the state database. And certainly, some businesses stand to gain.
"Practically speaking, I see a tremendous benefit," said Victor Acevedo, a broker for DCAP Insurance in White Plains.
The brokerage is downstairs from a Department of Motor Vehicles office. Acevedo has seen more customers come in with out-of-state licenses since the New York DMV tightened its rules after Sept. 11, 2001. He said some immigrants resort to driving cars that are registered and insured under other people's names. That leads to fraud and drives up premiums for everyone, he said.
But he can sympathize with opponents, who find it unthinkable to hand a license to an illegal immigrant.
"I can understand why a lot of people would be angry," Acevedo said. "We're basically giving it (the license) away. Something a lot of people had to fight for, struggle for - we're just giving it away."
Acevedo said his mother often reminds him how she struggled to immigrate legally from the Dominican Republic and become a citizen. But he also believes that undocumented immigrants come out of desperation and want to play by the rules.
"Most people are not looking to commit fraud," he said. "They want the insurance in their own name."
It's not mandatory to have a New York driver's license in order to insure a vehicle, though some agencies require it. The problem for illegal immigrants is trying to register a car. That's because registration requires "six points" of ID - easily fulfilled by a New York license. An out-of-state license counts for two points of ID.
The consequences of uninsured, unlicensed drivers show up after accidents, said Enoch Brady, an attorney in Port Chester.
If an uninsured driver causes injury to an insured driver, the victim's medical bills are covered through no-fault insurance. Compensation for pain and suffering - personal injury claims - would depend on liability coverage, and a little-used option called "uninsured motorist coverage." As a last resort, other car insurance customers wind up paying the bill through the New York Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corp.
Some immigrants are losing their car insurance because they can't renew their licenses, Brady said. He believes that offering licenses to illegal immigrants, as eight states currently do, would assist law enforcement in fighting crime, because more people would be in the state database instead of living under the radar.
"This information can be used. And I've never heard of security being served by less information rather than more information," he said.
Putnam County Clerk Dennis Sant was among those who took an official stand Thursday against the policy change. Clerks in most counties, unlike in Westchester and New York City, oversee the local DMV operations.
"I feel that I would actually be violating my oath of office," he said, "to be issuing a license to somebody who is a lawbreaker and who is here illegally."
Leticia, a 19-year-old Yonkers resident, said she takes a bus to her baby-sitting job in White Plains because she can't get a driver's license and doesn't want to risk driving without one.
"I'd rather take public transportation and know that I'm OK," she said. Born in Mexico and raised in the United States since age 1, she did not want her last name published because she is undocumented.
"With a driver's license, I know it would help me get a better job," she said.
De Leon said Spitzer's policy wouldn't just be good for the used-car business. New York would get more sales tax and fees that currently go out of state. "I hope they do it, and I hope they see the money that they're losing … and the risky situation that people are driving with another state's license."
AP INTERVIEW: FORMER MEXICAN PRESIDENT VICENTE FOX SAYS RACISM HOLDING UP IMMIGRATION ACCORD IN U.S.
By DIEGO A. SANTOS,AP Posted: 2007-10-08 17:08:56
NEW YORK (AP) - Former Mexican President Vicente Fox said Monday that the United States is letting racism dictate its policies, especially when it comes to immigration.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Fox applauded U.S. President George W. Bush 's desire to pass an immigration accord that would allow more Mexicans to work legally in the United States. But he criticized the U.S. leader for failing to pass the promised reform.
"There was always a reason for why it couldn't be done. 'It is not possible because of the elections.' He couldn't touch the topic because this election is very important, or because security was more important," Fox said in his first interview to promote his new book, "Revolution of Hope." "So, when are they going to finally address it? It needs to be resolved."
Without naming names, he said U.S. policy was being driven by racists.
"The xenophobics, the racists, those who feel they are a superior race ... they are deciding the future of this nation," he said.
Fox also talked about his sometimes rocky relationship with Bush, a man he calls a "cowboy" in his book.
Both men had worked together as governors of influential agricultural states in Mexico and the United States. They began their presidential terms in office nearly eight years ago with close relations, and Bush even made a visit to Fox's central Mexican ranch his first foreign trip as president in early 2001.
But they parted ways on Iraq , after Fox refused to back the impending war.
"There are important differences between myself and President Bush , including the case of Iraq and other topics where we think and act differently," Fox said.
Fox said he hopes his new book, written in English, helps Americans understand the Mexican point of view on immigration.
"To be so repressive isn't democractic or free ... to be putting up fences, chasing Mexicans, that isn't right," Fox said. "The U.S. needs better answers than repression, weapons and violence."
Fox also denied media and opposition allegations of illicit wealth that arose in Mexico after a celebrity magazine published photos of his newly renovated ranch.
He said the accustions were made "without any evidence."
Homeland Security Director Dave Mitchell, right, talks with Mike Nunley, left, and former Murfreesboro Police Commissioner Bill Jones.
Almost 600,000 illegal immigrants accused of violent crimes in the U.S. await deportation, the state’s Homeland Security director said this week.
Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents apprehended more than 61,000 illegal fugitives with the goal to eliminate the huge backlog, said state Safety Commissioner Dave Mitchell who also directs Homeland Security.
Mitchell addressed the hot button issue of immigration during a speech Tuesday to the Evening Exchange Club. He was educated in Murfreesboro and Rutherford County. He worked as a Murfreesboro Police officer before a career with the FBI. He served on the first Anti Terrorist Task Force in New York City.
“I think this is the biggest political issue to face the nation in my lifetime,†Mitchell said.
State agencies and sheriff’s offices are obtaining federal authorization to help enforce the immigration laws to help the understaffed ICE agents. Davidson County apprehended more than 1,000 illegal immigrants for deportation.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office hope to obtain the federal authorization by next year. The authorization allows officers to have access to a nationwide database to determine if the person is in the country illegally.
On the state level, immigrants were allowed to obtain a certificate for a driver’s license. The law was designed to ensure drivers took the driving test.
“It was abused significantly,†Mitchell said, explaining immigrants from other states came to Tennessee to get the certificates and corrupted driver’s license examiners.
Effective Oct. 1, the state Legislature changed the law to require immigrants to use legitimate documents for driver’s licenses. They must be in the U.S. lawfully.
State Rep. John Hood, D-Murfreesboro, said the Legislature passed five bills regarding immigration during the past session, including reforms for obtaining driver’s licenses. States experience problems passing laws about immigration because the federal government is responsible.
Regarding Homeland Security, Mitchell said the state was divided into 11 districts for training, prevention and information sharing among first responders. The result is first responders are better trained and received updated equipment. Rutherford County has received $2.6 million.
A key element in prevent terrorism attacks in Tennessee will be the Fusion Center at the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s headquarters in Nashville.
“It’s going to transform the way we do business,†Mitchell said, adding crime reports from law enforcement agencies statewide will be collected and analyzed.
Every terrorism event was preceded by a low-level criminal activity, he said. For example, a Maryland state trooper stopped one of the 9-11 terrorists the night before.
All crash reports, citations and reports will be included as part of the Fusion Center’s database with information shared among law enforcement agencies.
One of the remaining obstacles is the inability for law enforcement officers, firefighters and paramedics to communicate with each other, he said.
Mitchell addressed the leaders of first responders who attended his speech, including retired Murfreesboro Police and state Safety Commissioner Bill Jones, Sheriff Truman Jones, Murfreesboro Police Chief Glenn Chrisman, Emergency Medical Services Director Mike Nunley, Emergency Management Agency Director Roger Allen and Emergency 911 Director Steve Smith.
“There’s a passion about serving people and doing the right thing,†Mitchell said, adding when disasters occur, “Our folks will step up to the plate.â€
CALDERON SAYS MEXICAN IMMIGRATION TO U.S. CAN'T BE STOPPEDBy Brendan Walsh Diane Sawyer walks with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. During their interview, Calderon said Americans should not be afraid of Spanish speakers because English always will dominate American culture. (ABC News)
Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon said the illegal immigration of Mexicans to the U.S. can't be stopped because of the strong demand for inexpensive labor there.
``It's impossible to stop that by decree. It's impossible to try to stop that with a fence,'' Calderon said today in a taped interview with ABC News' ``Good Morning America.''
A lack of job prospects prompts more than 400,000 Mexicans to enter the U.S. each year seeking work both legally and illegally, according to the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington.
The U.S. Senate this month voted to spend $3 billion for more fences, patrol agents and surveillance along the U.S.- Mexico border. Calderon said he's seeking to improve economic conditions in Mexico so that citizens don't have to leave the country for work.
``In the future, I can't imagine a Mexico without enough economic growth to provide for them,'' Calderon said during the ABC interview. ``I want to build the conditions in Mexico to provide the opportunities here.''
To contact the reporters on this story: Brendan Walsh in New York at Bwalsh8@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: October 8, 2007 08:35 EDT
____________________________________________ MEXICAN PRESIDENT TALKS EXCLUSIVELY TO DIANE SAWYER ABOUT IMMIGRATION ISSUES
Oct. 8, 2007
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has called the idea of building the fence "deplorable," and said today on "Good Morning America" that he wanted to strengthen the Mexican economy to keep Mexicans there.
"Let me tell you, I think that the only way to stop migration is to provide to the people opportunities here in Mexico," Calderon said in an exclusive interview with Diane Sawyer.
The Pew Research Center estimated that about 6.2 million undocumented Mexicans lived in the United States in 2005.
A majority of the Mexicans who cross the border are young and male. And while many of the immigrants come to the states seeking jobs and security, a large number of them already were employed in their native country.
Their goal is to make money in America and to send it back home and into the Mexican economy. The transaction is a huge boost to Mexico's economy, providing $20 billion a year in additional funds.
Calderon said having the youngest, strongest and bravest leaving the home country and their families take a huge toll on Mexico.
Calderon told Sawyer that some of his own relatives live and work in the United States— "some of them in the vegetable fields, others in restaurants and others in construction," he said.
Immigration to America is a "natural phenomenon," Calderon said, because Mexico has a large, young labor force that is needed by U.S. businesses, a sentiment that some politicians and business leaders across the country agree with.
Help Wanted
New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has said his city would "collapse if they were deported," referring to Mexican immigrants.
The agriculture and the food service industries across the country are especially reliant on Mexican workers. A recent report out of Washington said that apple growers don't have the workers to harvest the fruit.
"If you took away Hispanic labor from agriculture and from dairying in Wisconsin, we'd be in crisis," said Wisconsin Secretary of Agriculture Rod Nilestuen. "There's no two ways about that."
Calderon said that Mexico needs to attract more American capital into the country to create more jobs and provide comprehensive regulations about immigration.
Finding a common ground in the United States on those regulations has proved difficult. Congress failed to pass an immigration reform bill in June that would have allowed a guest worker program.
But not everyone agrees that the influx of immigrants is a positive thing. While the majority of immigrants pay taxes totalling billions of dollars, it still costs American taxpayers to subsidize the health-care and education costs of illegals.
The issue has become so polarizing that angry protests across the country have occasionally erupted in violence.
Calderon said that he knows there is an anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States, and he said that is fueling anti-American feelings in Mexico.
The Mexican president says he can envision a prosperous North America — the United States, Canada and Mexico working together to become an economic powerhouse.
"I can see that the world is open, new ways, new bridge, and we are building fences, instead of bridges," Calderon said. "So we need to, to recover the rational discussion about this matter, about this issue, because otherwise at the end of the road both countries and both societies will make a lot of mistakes."
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Oct 8, 2007 6:00 AM (15 hrs ago) by Alexandria Rocha, The Examiner
More than a hundred people gathered in the Mission district on Sunday to give and hear testimony about the plight of families in The City that are not living on the streets, but might be on the brink of homelessness. SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News)
Jose Alfredo and Olga Contreras live in a backyard garage in the Mission district with their two young children. The couple’s teenage daughter sleeps on a bed, the 6-year-old on a couch. The garage is humid, the paint is chipping, the carpets are torn up. Alfredo says the children have asthma.
“I work and work and work,†Alfredo said. “It is never enough to afford a place for my family with dignity.â€
According to a group of community leaders in the Mission district, Alfredo’s family falls into a category they call the invisible homeless. They are people who are not living in the streets, but may be on the brink, and have a difficult time navigating The City’s complex affordable-housing process because they are illegal immigrants or do not speak English. Many of the families share one-room trailers, garages and studios with multiple people.
On Sunday, the San Francisco Organizing Project, a faith-based advocacy group, held a community meeting in the Mission district about the invisible homeless, and more than 100 people attended to share stories about living on the edge of homelessness.
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“I’m afraid I may end up living in an abandoned car or garage,†said Maria Guadalupe Garcia, who lives in a trailer in the Mission district after fleeing an abusive relationship in Mexico six months ago. “I want to keep working. I always want to have a smile on my face. I can’t meet those goals.†Garcia said she earns $650 a month from cleaning jobs, but her monthly rent is $600.
Since Jan. 2004, The City has created more than 2,500 new affordable housing units, according to Matt Franklin, director of the Mayor’s Office of Housing, who attended Sunday’s forum. There are 3,000 more units in the development pipeline, he said.
“This is a very robust program, but it is not enough,†he added.
Franklin said there are 225 beds in shelters that are reserved for families, and they are full each night. There are also 80 families on a waiting list for the shelters, he added.
Community members on Sunday asked for an easier, streamlined application process for affordable-housing units. They want materials in both Spanish and English and do not want immigration status to be a factor in the process. They also pushed for lottery exemptions.
“We recognize and accept the concept of the invisible homeless,†Franklin said. “But until we have enough units to meet the need, I can’t imagine eliminating the lottery.â€
Megan Matteucci | Monday, October 8, 2007 at 12:30 am
Early in the morning of Sept. 29, Samuel Soto Martinez saw his younger brother lying inside their Garden City apartment.
He had been shot to death.
Moments later, Martinez and six friends were taken to the Chatham County jail on gun charges.
Now, all seven face deportation to Mexico and Garden City Police have an unsolved homicide and few witnesses willing to talk to them.
"We're trying to get through the investigation, but it's so time-consuming because we have to do two interviews because of the language barrier and no one is talking," said Garden City Police Chief David Lyons. "It's that fear of deportation. It's a major problem for us."
Such cases complicate local officers' attempts to gain trust within the Hispanic community, Lyons said. Making things worse is the confusion surrounding the new Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act that took effect July 1.
Under the law, sheriff's deputies across Georgia are required to check the citizenship status of anyone jailed for a felony or for driving under the influence. It does not require police to check the status of witnesses, crime victims or people stopped for speeding or other minor traffic violations.
Martinez, 24, and his six friends are not considered suspects in the Garden City homicide, police said. But officers arrested them after seizing two guns from the apartment.
"There were guns in the house. We want to find out what their involvement is," Lyons said. "We think we may know who the shooter is, but we believe he may already be out of the area by now."
Lyons said he is not pushing for deportation. That's up to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"Because they are illegal aliens, they have a detainer currently placed on them by ICE," said agency spokesman Richard Rocha. "Once Garden City decides if they are going to go forward with the charges, we will determine how to proceed. Even if Garden City is not charging them, they still face deportation."
The men also could face federal charges for possession of a firearm by an illegal immigrant, Rocha said.
'A sworn obligation'
Local police say they are not required to - and don't - check the immigration status of people with whom they come in contact.
So far this year, Lyons said, Garden City has only contacted immigration officials once to ask them to deport an illegal immigrant arrested for child molestation.
"We don't just reach out and deport someone because they are undocumented," Lyons said. "Whether they are legal or not, we owe them the same services as everyone else. We have a sworn obligation to do as much for them as for anyone else.
"(Martinez) has a mother and a father somewhere, too. We're trying to find out who shot him."
Alberto Soto Martinez, 22, was found shot to death inside his Plantation Townhouses home off Augusta Avenue early Sept. 29. Police had been called to a loud party and encountered two Hispanic men who needed help. Officers followed the men and found the 22-year-old dead inside his apartment.
Initial reports indicated dozens of people were at the party, but no one seems to know what happened to the victim, Lyons said.
"Everybody involved in this is from the same little community in Mexico," Lyons said. "They come here and band together and don't let anyone in. They don't trust police."
Some are also afraid of corrupt police based on experiences in their homelands, Lyons said.
Other times, it's rumors.
A lot of time, the fear is just hearsay, said Melody Rodriguez, director of the Hispanic Outreach and Leadership program at Armstrong Atlantic State University.
"It's word of mouth and spreads through these communities," Rodriguez said. "These communities literally will not leave their home, not even go to Wal-Mart or the grocery shopping to buy milk because of the fear of living undocumented. It is something that is very common."
Building bridges
Criminals know about that fear, says Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Chief Michael Berkow.
In August, Savannah-Chatham officers arrested several suspected gang members who preyed on Hispanics at the Melody Acres mobile home park. One suspect, Alphonzo Hennegan, had been arrested in previous Hispanic robberies, but the victims didn't show up to testify against him.
"He made a calculated decision to do the same thing again," Berkow said.
This summer, Savannah-Chatham officers investigated similar incidents in Melody Acres and other predominately Hispanic neighborhoods. In these instances, however, many of the victims have come forward and arrests have been made.
Rodriguez attributes that to the work of Savannah-Chatham's Latino Officer Outreach Program.
"I really see them moving along and really being proactive about making changes that will prevent crime in the future," she said. "Gaining trust and having someone within the department that will be able to approach the community in a positive way is the way to go."
The outreach program, which started in 2005, is composed of seven officers who work to bridge relations between police and the Hispanic community.
"If people in the Hispanic community see us coming to arrest and deport them, they are not going to trust us or give us the information needed to solve crimes," Berkow said. "We can't have a situation where the public we serve is afraid of us."
Savannah-Chatham police have made no referrals to federal immigration officials this year.
Garden City police have had several town meetings in Hispanic neighborhoods and met with Hispanic business owners and pastors. But with an estimated 8,000 Hispanics living in Garden City and only two Spanish-speaking officers, the department struggles to make contacts, Lyons said.
Garden City, like other departments in the region, is trying to recruit more bilingual officers.
"I would hire 10 if I could find them," Lyons said. "You can send officers to Spanish lessons, but it's still not like hiring a Spanish officer. They never will learn the culture and nuances."
Learning the culture is important, but learning compassion is a must, Rodriguez said.
"I feel that people need to really just put themselves in their shoes," she said. "They are really just living in hiding. They live under fear all the time," Rodriguez said.
'Force multiplier'
Federal immigration officials say they don't always know when an illegal immigrant is booked into the Chatham County jail, but they're trying to change that.
Under the new Georgia law, sheriff's deputies must check the citizenship status of people jailed for felonies and DUIs. The Chatham County Sheriff's Department is trying to join a federal program that would allow deputies to perform immigration duties.
"We have a lot of aliens come through the jail. We're looking at sitting down, having a meeting with ICE and seeing the benefits of the program for the community," said sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Tommy Tillman.
Currently, only two law enforcement agencies in Georgia are part of the program: the Georgia Department of Public Safety and the Cobb County Sheriff's Department.
As part of the program, ICE provides training and computer systems to deputies to assist with deportation.
"It acts as a force multiplier to identify and remove criminal illegal aliens," Rocha said.
Rodriguez said she hopes the program is used to protect the community from criminals, not just as a way to detain innocent immigrants.
"I feel that if law enforcement in any case is willing to leave that deportation to the very end, people cooperate even more instead of frightening them even more," she said. "I understand why these witnesses will not help. If they are going to be deported, then of course they won't cooperate."
FROM TEXAS TO VIRGINIA, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS CRACKING DOWN ON IMMIGRANTS
A U.S. Border Patrol agent takes a man into custody after illegally attempting to cross the border. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)From GMA
Oct. 5, 2007
The issue of immigration has moved from a war of words in Washington to an explosive, countrywide battle as average citizens fight to enforce laws with an iron fist.
It's a crackdown on illegal immigration.
In Irving,Texas, for example, the immigration debate is blasting onto the streets. "Obey the laws of this country," protesters shout. "We are Americans!"
Residents are suddenly finding that their neighborhoods are a battleground.
"That is a bunch of bull over there that we even allow them to march on our land when they are here illegally," said Dorothy Shields, an Irving resident and anti-immigration activist.
"It's political dynamite — people are saying we've had enough, we just can't take it anymore and if the federal government doesn't get serious about it we're going to do the jobs ourselves," Dan Stein said.
But lately, the government has been trying to prove it can get serious, by putting immigration enforcement into overdrive.
In a staggering sweep in California, 1,300 illegal immigrants have been arrested. Last week, federal agents in Nevada raided 11 McDonald's restaurants as part of a crackdown on illegal immigrants. In New York's Nassau County, armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials raided homes in the middle of the night in search of gang members and fugitives.
Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff admits that raids aren't the perfect solution, but that they are a reality right now.
"I think we have an obligation to use the tools that we do have at least to achieve what the law currently requires," Chertoff said.
But in Irving, like many places around the country, residents aren't willing to wait for government intervention. Police are turning over any arrested illegals to the feds.
Latino parents have grown so nervous, they're keeping their children out of school.
"We are just scared of going out, just because you look Hispanic they pull you over," Irving student Crystal Chacon said.
One man from Virginia said he was so frightened about being rounded up in Virginia, where governments are threatening action, that he would only talk to ABC News anonymously.
"What breaks my heart," he said, "is when my 6-year-old daughter comes home and asks why do they hate us."
Watch "Good Morning America," Monday, when Diane Sawyer will be live in Mexico with more on the immigration debate.
During his first swing through Florida, Fred Thompson publicly mulled over the idea of repealing birthright citizenship -- the concept embodied in the Fourteenth Amendment that all those born in the United States are entitled to citizenship and the rights and benefits (e.g. voting) that go with it. Proponents of the idea argue that if illegal immigrants' children are not allowed to establish citizenship their parents will be deterred from entering illegally. Florida, with a substantial Hispanic immigrant population, may not have been the best place to raise this issue and local press reports seized on this as another of Thompson's early "gaffes." Thompson spokeswoman Karen Hanretty hastened to explain that Thompson was not making a formal proposal.
Nevertheless it is worth considering whether Thompson's idea has merit, how the politics of repealing birthright citizenship would play out, and where that leaves us in the immigration debate.
Thompson, of course, is not the first conservative politician to raise this idea. Georgia Republican Rep. Nathan Deal and 70 co-sponsors tried to tack a no-birthright-citizenship provision onto the Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, but the bill passed the House without it. Deal has introduced a similar measure, HR 1940, in the current Congress. Immigration-restrictionist groups like NumbersUSA have advocated Congressional action, arguing that "an entire industry has built up around the U.S. system of birthright citizenship. Thousands of pregnant women who are about to deliver come to the United States each year from countries as far away as South Korea and as near as Mexico so that they can give birth on U.S. soil."
However, several of the primary combatants in the immigration debate seem less than enamored of changing birthright citzenship. Center for Immigration Studies Executive Director Mark Krikorian, a leading voice in opposing President Bush's immigration policies, had this take in response to my inquiry: "I'm as outraged as anyone about illegal aliens having citizen kids, but I don't think it's a good strategy for us, since it's a symptom of excessive illegal immigration, not a cause. Besides, all the political effort it would take to change the citizenship rule would better be spent trying to get the government to enforce the law." As a public relation matter he also warns off conservatives, saying that "going after little kids...is never a political winner."
Dan Griswold of the Cato Institute, who favors comprehensive immigration reform, also argues that ending birthright citizenship is not a fruitful way to address illegal immigration. He notes that we should not lightly tamper with "established Constitutional doctrine" and that even if proponents were to overcome legal hurdles it is unwise to create a "permanent underclass" of non-citizens as is the case in Germany and other European countries. He acknowledges that the lure of citizenship for their children is a motivating factor for some to illegally enter the country but warns that the downsides of such a measure are "too great" to justify the benefit of deterring some who want to enter illegally.
Moreover, the suggestion that birthright citizenship might be tampered with has not won praise in Florida, a critical state in the Republican primary race. State Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami (a key Hispanic leader in Florida not yet supporting a presidential candidate), was quoted in the Orland Sentinel as arguing that repealing birthright is a "xenophobic" idea that would damage the GOP with Hispanic voters. He remarked: "At best, this would be seen as mean-spirited. At worst, it's seen as bigotry." Al Cardenas, a former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida and Mitt Romney's National Hispanic Steering Committee chairman, has also spoken out against the idea.
So if this suggestion does not seem to be a viable proposal, where do we stand on immigration reform? For opponents of Bush's comprehensive approach, no news may be just fine. Krikorian explains: "I don't see any enforcement bill coming out of the Congress, but that doesn't bother me -- what I really want is the administration to show it's willing to start enforcing the laws we have now."
Those who praised the Bush effort and hope that a comprehensive plan will eventually come about are not optimistic that anything can be done in the short term. Griswold contends that we are in a full employment economy and that immigration -- whether legal or illegal -- will need to meet the shortfall of approximately 500,000 workers each year for the foreseeable future. According to Griswold, the "situ
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