IMMIGRATION DELAYS UNACCEPTABLE
RETRASOS DE INMIGRACION SON INACEPTABLES

EL Diario
La Prensa Online
EDITORIAL - 11/26/2007

The federal agency that processes visa and naturalization applications should not have been surprised—or unprepared—for the huge increase in applications it received this year.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received 2.5 million applications during last summer alone, as reported by the New York Times. This year, the number of naturalization petitions submitted just about doubled from 2006.

Now, there is a backlog of applications, with USCIS representatives reportedly saying that it could take more than a year to decide many recent applications.

Yet, it was the agency’s staggering fee hikes that prompted the huge increase. For example, the “green card” application fee for adults jumped from $395 to $1,050.

The hikes were announced in January and went into effect on July 30, so there was a rush to submit applications before then.

The flood of applications was also propelled by the Ya es Hora campaign, a national drive to help immigrants submit their naturalization petitions. Many of those applications came from Hispanics.

Left with no choice, immigrants have been forced to pay exorbitant fees. In an anti-immigrant climate, they have used the channels available to adjust their status and pursue the right to exercise their civic duties as citizens. Indeed, some applicants were motivated by the opportunity to vote in the upcoming presidential elections.

Immigrants continue to foot the bills of USCIS . The agency should be delivering, not delaying, on what it said triggered the fee hikes—a need to improve services.

The House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, on which Congressman Anthony Weiner sits, should closely monitor USCIS’s performance.



Note: Applications for the Diversity Visa Lottery are due at noon on December 2.

'VIRTUAL FENCE' PROJECT PUTS BOEING IN THE HOT SEAT OF IMMIGRATION DEBATE'

By Tim Logan
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
11/26/2007

Tucson, Ariz. — In a dark control room at Border Patrol headquarters here, a Boeing Co. technician and a Border Patrol agent watch a radar map of a swath of desert 50 miles to the south.

If something catches their eye — a dot moving fast off the road, say, or a cluster at walking pace — they can zoom in with a high-powered camera and take a look: Is it a rancher in his pickup? Or a van full of illegal immigrants? Drug smugglers? Or cows?

If they think it's suspicious, they can call the nearest field agent, beam the video to a computer in his or her SUV, and tell the agent to go check it out.

This is how SBInet, a Boeing-led network of towers with radars and cameras, is supposed to work — providing a technological edge in securing the vast U.S. border with Mexico. But more than a year in, it's not quite there yet, and Boeing is getting battered as a result. Advertisement

BIG JOB, BIG RISKS

Building this network of cameras and radars across wide stretches of desert and mountains could be a huge job for Boeing's St. Louis-based defense unit — estimates of its cost range from $8 billion to $30 billion over the next few years. But it carries big risks, too, placing Boeing in the thick of one of the thorniest issues in domestic politics even as the company tries to perfect the complex technology that SBInet requires.

Boeing has been working on it since September 2006, when it won a $70 million contract, in part on its promise to build the surveillance towers using affordable, off-the-shelf commercial technology. The job includes development work, managing subcontractors and some physical fencing along the Arizona border. But most attention has focused on a 28-mile, $20 million network of nine towers scanning remote stretches of desert, known as Project 28.

It was supposed to be up and running in June, but problems integrating the radars and cameras on the towers kept it off line. Shrubbery blowing across the desert, or a raindrop on a camera lens, could trigger the system, leading Border Patrol agents on a wild goose chase.

"A lot of things that work in theory don't work on the ground," said Osborne Wilder, an agent who is helping oversee SBInet. "When you go out there on the ground, you can see where things don't come together."

All summer, Boeing worked on fixing those problems, but delays continued. By September, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was answering tough questions about the project on Capitol Hill and meeting about it personally with top Boeing executives. He announced that the company wouldn't receive full payment until Homeland Security was satisfied with the results.

"I am not going to buy something with U.S. government money unless I'm satisfied it works in the real world," Chertoff said at the time. "And if it can't be made to work, I'm prepared to go and find something that will be made to work, although I'll obviously be disappointed."

The delays shouldn't be surprising, said Jim Lewis, director of the technology and public policy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Making all these systems work together smoothly is complicated stuff, he said. Similar military projects typically take years, while Boeing is trying to launch SBInet in a few months.

HIGH-PROFILE PLAN

But the ferocity of the immigration debate that has roiled the country for the last few years makes SBInet a high-profile job, he said, and there's little patience for delay.

"It's so heated," Lewis said. "If they were doing this on the North Pole to look for polar bears, no one would care. But because this is about immigration, it attracts a lot of the lightning there."

And the thunder continues. Last month, with testing about to start again, Boeing executives were called before a congressional hearing titled "Can SBInet work?" where lawmakers took turns whacking them.

"I am extremely dismayed, to put it mildly," said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.

"I'm afraid this is just another example of a contractor pitching the American public the end-all, be-all solution, wasting taxpayers' money and delivering little or nothing for it," said Rep. Chris Carney, D-Pa. "We've got to do better than this."

Roger Krone, president of Boeing's network and space systems division, was one of its representatives that day. In an interview last week, he encouraged a long view. The company knows how to weather a political storm and how to deliver on a complex job.

"That's why they picked Boeing," Krone said. "It's a hard problem, and they needed a contractor who's going to be there for the long haul. That's part of what we bring."

Boeing has made significant changes to Project 28, said Dan Korte, who took over management of the project in August. The company has added features to make the programs easier for agents to use. Boeing has upgraded technology and hardware in the system. And it has spent more than twice the $20 million it is contracted to receive for the job.

COMPANY CONFIDENT

Testing is expected to wrap up by the end of this month, and company officials said they were confident that, this time, the project would meet the Border Patrol's specifications.

"For a demonstration project, we're pretty happy with where it is right now," Korte said.

But the final say is up to the Border Patrol, which isn't letting on just yet what it thinks. If it accepts the system, the agency plans to build it along 286 miles of the Arizona border by the end of next year, as part of a broader plan to "gain operational control of the border."

It's an ambitious goal, Wilder acknowledges.

There's no guarantee that Boeing will get that work or other long-term jobs on SBInet. Right now, it is under contract for development and is choosing sites for the next round of towers. That gives it a leg up, said Gregory Giddens, head of SBInet for the Department of Homeland Security, but "there is no such thing as a lock," he told Congress last month.

Nor is there a lock on funding for billions of dollars' worth of surveillance towers stretched across the Southwestern border, especially with expectations sky high and reality quite complicated.

"The main problem Boeing has is that this is so tagged to the immigration debate," Lewis said. "Some people want SBInet to be the silver bullet. Some people won't like it no matter what."

tlogan@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8291

Francisco Yanez-Burruel

OFFICER SHOOTS AND KILLS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT
AN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT IS DEAD AFTER A ROUTINE TRAFFIC STOP

Posted: Nov 26, 2007 09:35 AM PST
Updated: Nov 26, 2007 02:53 PM PST

Tucson Police say one of their officers shot an illegal immigrant after a violent altercation Saturday night. It happened around 8 p.m. on the south side near Mission and Irvington Roads.

TPD says Officer Douglas Dreher, a two year veteran, pulled over a car with expired registration. When the officer asked for a license, the driver admitted he was an illegal immigrant. When Officer Dreher went back to his car and called for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the driver and passenger took off on foot.

Officer Dreher caught up to the driver and began fighting. The suspect allegedly punched the officer then ended up getting a hold of his baton.

"He extended it and used it to attack. He struck him repeatedly...During all this, he is giving the suspect commands, telling him to drop the baton," Sgt. Fabian Pacheco said.

They're commands the suspect allegedly ignored. Then he came after Officer Dreher again.

"At this point, Officer Dreher, fearing for his life, fired," Sgt. Pacheco said.

He fired multiple times, killing the suspect. The suspect has been identified as 35 year old Francisco Yanez-Burruel from Sonora, Mexico.

Police say Officer Dreher did what he was trained to do.

"He knows that at any point, any point in time, he loses his handgun he could be shot and killed, "Sgt. Pacheco said.

Police caught up with the passenger late Saturday night. They say they questioned and released him. Sgt. Pacheco wouldn't comment on the man's immigration status. He faces no charges at this time.

As for Officer Dreher, he's on paid leave pending the outcome of the investigation. Police say this is standard procedure in these types of incidents.

'NO MEXICANS NEED APPLY' HERE

"WHEN AN ALIEN LIVES WITH YOU, DO NOT MISTREAT HIM. THE ALIEN LIVING WITH YOU MUST BE TREATED AS ONE OF YOUR NATIVE BORN."

By Joe Palmer, For the News-Leader

Who said that? Harry Reid? Nancy Pelosi? Ted Kennedy? A left-leaning, God hating member of the mainstream media? Still guessing? Maybe the next two sentences will provide some illumination. "Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God."

Yep. Him. The Big Guy. El Queso Grande.The one whose name we always toss around when we're looking for reasons to do things we clearly oughtn't do. Or when we don't want to do things we clearly should do. We talk a lot about thanksgiving and reconciliation and peace this time of year. But that's mostly all we do. When it gets right down to where the rubber meets the road, our holiday thanks and wish list goes something like this: We're thankful that we're not those poor-as$ Mexicans who we wish would just go home and let us get back to the business of being America, home of the free and brave. And speaking only English. The Good Book be da mned.

I'll get berated about this by the usual cranks. It's shameful the way so many of us want to treat our brethren from south of the border. How many Mexicans do you actually know? And what do you know about them, other than what you hear from people who vilify them? We talk a lot about family values in this country. But talk is cheap. How many of your friends, relatives or family members would get up one day and, taking nothing but the clothes on their backs, travel thousands of miles to a strange land and go to work among unwelcoming natives just so they could scrimp and save and send a few bucks home to take care of their families?

I heard a well-known angry-sounding right-wing radio host recently complaining about illegal immigration. This guy, who I won't legitimize by naming him, made the usual and predictable noises about understanding the plight of immigrants because his own grandparents immigrated here from Ireland. Which is tantamount to saying, "Some of my best friends are black" when trying to impress people that you're hip about racial issues. Anyway, it was clear to me that Angry Sounding Right Wing Radio Host has no clue what it's like to be underprivileged and desperate. He went on and on about border security - which is code for "No Mexicans Need Apply" - and how many times he'd been "down there on that border reporting on this situation." As if this country has only one border that needs protecting.

I was tempted to call Angry Sounding Right Wing Radio Host's show and ask him if he would've wanted to deport his Irish grandparents had they come here illegally. But I knew I'd never get a response to that question because it's an honest question and one that requires some actual thought. And then Angry Right Wing Radio Host segued into a long monologue about seeking out the American Dream, which to hear him talk, clearly doesn't apply to brown people without proper papers. I wanted to call Angry Right Wing Radio Host's show and ask him if he knew that a very famous American who immigrated here and successfully sought out the Great American Dream was actually an illegal alien. He arrived here as a stowaway on a ship without papers or a penny in his pocket. I wanted to ask Angry Right Wing Radio Host if he'd have demanded the deportation of Adolph Coors, founder of the Coors Brewing Company, because he smuggled himself into this country illegally, or he would've been in favor of granting him amnesty so that he could reach for his dreams and go on to provide jobs and prosperity for thousands of his adopted countrymen.

Our border with Canada is 5,522 miles long and is the longest border in the world. By contrast, our border with Mexico is only 1,969 miles long. Angry Right Wing Radio Host talks a lot about building a fence to protect the Mexican border. He never says a word about building a fence on the Canadian border to protect and defend the security of the longest border in the world. Why?

Listen very carefully when the border security crowd starts talking. Words have meanings. The way those words are used quite often have altogether different meanings. I grew up in the South. I remember all the code words that "nice" white people employed when discussing "colored" people. Here we go again.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS NOT U.S. HEALTH CARE BURDEN-STUDY

Mon Nov 26, 2007 4:00pm EST

CHICAGO, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Illegal Latino immigrants do not cause a drag on the U.S. health care system as some critics have contended and in fact get less care than Latinos in the country legally, researchers said on Monday.

Such immigrants tend not to have a regular doctor or other health-care provider yet do not visit emergency rooms -- often a last resort in such cases -- with any more frequency than Latinos born in the United States, according to the report from the University of California's School of Public Health.

The finding from Alexander Ortega and colleagues at the school was based on a 2003 telephone survey of thousands of California residents, including 1,317 undocumented Mexicans, 2,851 citizens with Mexican immigrant parents, 271 undocumented Latinos from countries other than Mexico and 852 non-Mexican Latinos born in the United States.

About 8.4 million of the 10.3 million illegal aliens in the United States are Latino, of which 5.9 million are from Mexico, the report said.

"One recurrent theme in the debate over immigration has been the use of public services, including health care," Ortega's team wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"Proponents of restrictive policies have argued that immigrants overuse services, placing an unreasonable burden on the public. Despite a scarcity of well-designed research ... use of resources continues to be a part of the public debate," they said.

The researchers said illegal Mexican immigrants had 1.6 fewer visits to doctors over the course of a year than people born in the country to Mexican immigrants. Other undocumented Latinos had 2.1 fewer physician visits than their U.S.-born counterparts, they said.

"Low rates of use of health-care services by Mexican immigrants and similar trends among other Latinos do not support public concern about immigrants' overuse of the health care system," the researchers wrote.

"Undocumented individuals demonstrate less use of health care than U.S.-born citizens and have more negative experiences with the health care that they have received," they said.

(Reporting by Michael Conlon; Editing by Maggie Fox and Bill Trott)

GOV'T PULLBACK MAKES A MOCKERY OF IMMIGRATION LAW

dallasnews.com
Editorial/Opinion
12:00 AM CST on Tuesday, November 27, 2007

The city of Irving captured national attention with its enthusiastic embrace of the federal Criminal Alien Program. It inspired so many other cities to sign up that the federal government couldn't keep pace. Now Washington wants to curtail the program.

In other words, the rule of law must wait because the government isn't ready.

This newspaper previously raised concerns about Irving's approach because some police officers might interpret it as a green light to target anyone who looked Hispanic. We feared racial profiling, and that remains a concern.

But the Criminal Alien Program marked a welcome departure from procedures that forced communities simply to stand aside even when local police knew they had illegal immigrants in custody.

This program empowered police officers to enforce the law and allowed communities to get involved, producing results residents could see with their own eyes.

Unlike Farmers Branch, which incorrectly sought to place the law-enforcement onus on landlords, Irving kept enforcement in the hands of professionals, where it belongs. But Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are reverting to a "catch and release" rule if suspected illegal immigrants are arrested for Class C misdemeanors. Most of the 1,700 suspected illegal immigrants that Irving handed over to ICE in the past year were arrested for Class C offenses, the least serious of which is a traffic ticket.

Again and again, Washington has failed the nation on immigration enforcement. Lax border controls have allowed 12 million to 17 million illegal immigrants into the country. Lax workplace enforcement has enabled employers to skirt the law and exploit cheap immigrant labor. Now the government admits it doesn't have adequate personnel or holding facilities to process and deport detainees. So many will walk free.

The Bush administration and Congress have proved inept at leading the nation on comprehensive immigration reform. Given the opportunity to break the impasse last spring, they failed and pushed the problem to the next administration and Congress.

American voters must no longer tolerate inaction. At campaign rallies and debates, they must demand realistic immigration solutions instead of waffling non-answers from congressional and presidential candidates. Candidates who exploit terrorism and national security concerns to promote simplistic deport-them-all platforms must state exactly how they would accomplish such an unlikely feat.

The fact is, there are no easy solutions to illegal immigration, which is why the American public needs to judge candidates – Republicans and Democrats – on their ability to address a problem that is Topic A on the national political agenda.

Call it a leadership litmus test. If a candidate isn't a part of the solution, he or she shouldn't be running. Since presidential candidates occupy the national stage, they have a particular responsibility not just to present a workable immigration plan but also to prove they can muscle it through a risk-averse Congress.

Irving's program provoked national debate because it marked a significant step away from our state of national paralysis. For federal officials to curtail the program – because the government wasn't prepared for success – makes a mockery of the rule of law.

OKLAHOMA

IMMIGRATION BILL HITTING BUSINESS

By TIM TALLEY
Associated Press Writer
Nov. 26, 2007, 4:43PM

OKLAHOMA CITY — Maxine Grider knows all too well how much her grocery store in south Oklahoma City relies on the area's Latino community to stay in the black.

Since a state law that targets illegal immigrants went into effect almost one month ago, business at Grider's Discount Foods has been off between $50,000 and $75,000 a week.

"It's hit us pretty bad," said Grider, who has operated her grocery store at the same location for 45 years. "I'm sure not satisfied with sales."

If the trend continues, the store will start losing money and its very survival could be threatened.

"It affects your bottom line tremendously," Grider said.

Retailers and employers whose success depends on Latino business and workers have felt the pinch since Oklahoma's anti-illegal immigrant law went into effect on Nov. 1. Some undocumented immigrants have left the state and others are reluctant to venture outside of their homes.

"There is a definite shortage of workers," said Mike Seney, senior vice president of operations for The State Chamber, a business and industry group that represents 1,500 employers statewide.

With Oklahoma's unemployment rate at just 4.2 percent of the labor force _ lower than the national rate of 4.7 percent _ contractors and businesses need workers to fill their labor pools, Seney said.

"They're having trouble finding crews. Some families are just saying, 'I'm out of here,'" Seney said. "I think we're going to have some problems."

Reliable estimates on the number of illegal immigrants that have moved to other states or back to their own country are not available. But Oklahoma homebuilders lost an estimated 10 percent of their work force after the law went into effect, said Mike Means, executive vice president of the Oklahoma State Home Builders Association.

"Some people it seems to have hit pretty hard. In other instances the effect has been negligible," Means said.

Home builders expect home prices to go up due to higher labor costs and delays in getting jobs done, Means said.

"When your labor pool tightens up, you may have to wait two weeks to get a roof, or maybe three weeks," he said.

Changes are needed in the law to counteract its negative economic consequences, said Jim Hopper, president and CEO of the Oklahoma Hotel & Lodging Association. Hopper said many of his organization's 250 members have been scrambling to find workers since the law went into effect.

"We're going to be working on the legislation in February to amend it and make it a little bit more palatable for the work force in Oklahoma _ and for the employers," Hopper said.

"We'd like to see the law set aside and maybe reworked," Means said. "All we're doing is running them out of Oklahoma and passing them on to somebody else."

"Word is out that this law is too extreme," said businessman Chip Oppenheim, who owns Oklahoma City's Economy Square shopping center where Grider's Discount Foods is located.

"These people buy cars, they buy gas, they buy bread, they buy homes. And you're telling them to leave?" Oppenheim said. "A lot of people didn't know what they were passing when they voted yes on this."

Seney and others said they believe immigration policy is the responsibility of the federal government and that state regulations are pre-empted by federal law. He said The State Chamber is working with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on a possible lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of Oklahoma's immigration law.

"You can't handle this thing at the state level. It's physically impossible to do so," he said.

The immigration statute was adopted by the Legislature last spring and signed into law by Gov. Brad Henry. It received bipartisan support from state lawmakers who expressed frustration with Congress' inability to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

Among other things, it bars illegal immigrants from receiving taxpayer-supported services and imposes requirements on employers to verify the immigration status and employment eligibility of their workers. Employers who willfully hire illegal aliens would be penalized under the statute.

The National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Religious Leaders and others have challenged the law in U.S. District Court in Tulsa. The coalition alleges the law targets illegal immigrants and has harmed several people. A federal judge has not handed down a ruling.

IMMIGRATION FOE'S FAVE FOOD? MEXICAN!!

By Joel Stein
MercuryNews.com
Article Launched: 11/27/2007 01:38:54 AM PST

I never thought GOP presidential candidate Tom Tancredo would eat Mexican food with me. The Colorado congressman has proposed anti-immigration legislation so draconian that he's been banned from the White House and called a "nut" by Jeb Bush. And I definitely never thought Tancredo would tell me that Mexican is his favorite cuisine. That was like finding out that CNN's Nancy Grace gets turned on by violent criminals. Only surprising.

Tancredo agreed to our Mexican lunch during a campaign sweep through Iowa in October. But the night before our appointment, I found out he was already headed to Mami's Authentic Mexican Food in Muscatine for dinner. The man was planning two Mexican meals in a row. I had little to teach him.

On my way to Mami's, however, I got a call from his aide. A local Republican had tipped Tancredo off to the fact that Mami's owners marched in the Great American Boycott on May Day 2006. So Tancredo was now driving all the way to Davenport to go to Carlos O'Kelly's Mexican Cafe instead. If his campaign staff was as skilled at finding voters as Mexican restaurants in Iowa, Tancredo would win the nomination.

Carlos O'Kelly's makes the finest Mexican food with an Irish flair of any chain restaurant in Iowa. The enchiladas came with a sort of hollandaise sauce that constituted a greater insult to Mexicans than anything Tancredo has ever said. Tancredo, who is a very likable, polite man, gave the food a very generous C-plus. "I was sick we couldn't go to Mami's. I heard it was good," he said. "But if they're going to boycott America, I'm going to boycott Mami's." Looking at my enchiladas, he sighed. "For all I know, this place is owned by a big liberal." A big liberal who hates food.
Our waiter was one of the nicest, most incompetent servers either of us had encountered. He kept running away in the middle of our orders, apparently distracted by either Mexican or Irish things. I told Tancredo that I wished we were at a restaurant in Los Angeles with a Mexican waiter filling our chip basket every two minutes. "I'm with you," he said. "These people that come to our country are generally hard workers, and bless them for it."

For all his talk of assimilation, Tancredo conceded that Carlos O'Kelly's may, in fact, have gone too far. He truly enjoys the authentic Mexican restaurants in Washington, D.C., and Colorado. "Food and music are things America has always been able to accommodate and benefit from," he said. "The thing that is difficult is the lack of assimilation. It has nothing to do with the appreciation of ethnicity." So Tancredo's complaints, like those of many who oppose immigration, come down to which aspects of Mexican culture he is personally comfortable with: language and flags, no; burritos and ballet folklorico, yes.

History, Tancredo knows, hasn't been kind to anti-immigrant crusaders - the Know-Nothing Party, the No-Irish-Need-Apply sign makers, the internment camps for Japanese Americans during World War II. "But things are very different today," he said. "Can you think of a time historically when you had millions of people in the street on May Day saying very, very divisive stuff?" He feels that if America is too diverse, we'll be stripped of our national identity, no longer bound together as a country. He also feels certain that he has the wisdom to determine exactly how much diversity is OK.

Odds are, I told him, history will judge him a racist. That may be so, he said. Still, he's sure the U.S. will rally behind his cures: kick illegal immigrants out; build an effective border fence; force legal immigrants to assimilate faster. "Years from now, they'll say there was no problem. They'll say 'These guys were racists and fear mongers.' . . . That's a big cost, you bet your life," he said. "But we'll have solved the problem."

I never liked someone I disagreed with so strongly. He believes he is doing the best thing for his country. I watched him talk to rabid anti-immigrant groups for two days, and he never spoke with anger, just sadness that something he loves is being lost. Tancredo may be a reactionary, a xenophobe and a nationalist, but he isn't a racist.

However, if he gets his way - even if history proves him wrong - his personal cost will be much smaller than that paid by the millions of Mexicans denied the opportunities his own grandparents got. And smaller still than the cost to us all when America loses the very thing that historically has given it advantages in economic growth and innovation.

Before we left, I asked Tancredo: Instead of struggling with the problems that stem from illegal immigration, why don't we just let more people in legally? "Just so I can have a good Mexican restaurant?" he asked. How a man who ate the same meal as me can even ask that question is beyond my understanding.

JOEL STEIN is a Los Angeles Times columnist.

NEW JERSEY

NEW JERSEY AG SAYS NEWARK POLICE OFFICER
VIOLATED IMMIGRATION DIRECTIVE

POLICE SHOULD NOT QUESTION THE IMMIGRATION STATUS OF WITNESSES

Tue, 11/27/2007 - 11:20 — newsdesk

November 26, 2007 -- Trenton, NJ – New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram said today that a Newark police officer improperly questioned witnesses to a crime scene about their immigration status in violation of a state law enforcement directive that specifically prohibits police from inquiring about the immigration status of any victim, witness or person requesting police assistance. Milgram recommended that the police officer be disciplined and recommended training on the immigration directive for all Newark police officers.

The Attorney General’s decision followed an investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice into a September incident in Newark in which a freelance photographer for a weekly newspaper discovered a dead body in the city’s Ironbound neighborhood and, along with the newspaper’s editor, reported the discovery to police.

In the course of the Newark police department’s crime scene investigation, Deputy Chief Samuel DeMaio inquired into the immigration status of Geraldo Carlos, the photographer, and Roberto Lima, the editor of the Brazilian Voice, according to the findings of the Division of Criminal Justice investigation.

“Our investigation found that DeMaio’s conduct violated the immigration directive,’’ Milgram said. “Complying with the directive is the responsibility of every law enforcement officer in the state and gives assurances to witnesses, victims and those needing police assistance that they may come forward without fear of questions directed to their immigration status. Public safety suffers if individuals believe they cannot come forward to report crime or cooperate with law enforcement.’’

The confidential investigative report by the Division of Criminal Justice was forwarded to Newark Police Director Garry McCarthy by Gregory A. Paw, the director of the Division of Criminal Justice. Paw asked that McCarthy, within one week, evaluate appropriate disciplinary action in accordance with the department’s code of conduct. He also asked that the Newark department begin a mandatory training program on the immigration directive.

The state plans to issue its own follow-up guidelines directing all police departments to implement training programs on the immigration directive.

Milgram issued the directive on August 22 to establish uniform guidelines for state, county and municipal police officers in their interaction with federal immigration authorities. The directive underscores the fact that enforcing immigration laws is chiefly a federal responsibility, but details instances in which state and local departments should inquire about immigration status.

The directive says that immigration status should be determined after a person is arrested for an indictable offense or for drunk driving. “The individual’s immigration status is relevant to his or her ties to the community, the likelihood that he or she will appear at future court proceedings to answer charges, and the interest of the federal government in considering immigration enforcement proceedings against an individual whom the state has arrested for the commission of a serious criminal offense,’’ the directive states.

Source: New Jersey Attorney General

NEW MEXICO, ALBUQUERQUE

IMMIGRATION AGENCY CONSIDERING MOVING DETAINEES TO ALBQ JAIL

AP
Posted: 2007-11-26 13:44:15

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is reconsidering its July decision to pull its detainees from a downtown Albuquerque jail.

The agency is considering putting a limited number of detainees back into the Regional Correctional Center early next year, said an agency spokeswoman, Leticia Zamarripa.

Immigration officials started relocating detainees in July and eventually removed about 600 people from the jail and put them in other holding facilities around the United States.

The action left the jail with fewer than 200 prisoners, all in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, and forced Cornell to cut 82 of the jail's 185 jobs in August.

ICE said it removed the detainees because of serious incidents, but refused to give details. The agency also found the Regional Correctional Center to be deficient in two standards, but said its concerns went far beyond the lockup's ability to meet a couple of detention standards.

A spokesman for Cornell Companies, which operates the jail, said the company had not been told that immigration detainees would return.

"We would be very pleased to have them back, and we look forward to it if that is the case," spokesman Charles Seigel said.

Cornell runs the regional jail, which is owned by Bernalillo County. Cornell pays the county $1.5 million a year to lease the facility, which has a capacity of 993 people.

Information from: The Albuquerque Tribune, www.abqtrib.com

11/26/07 13:41 EST

ADMINISTRATION TO MODIFY CRACKDOWN ON EMPLOYERS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON | The Bush administration will modify its planned crackdown on U.S. companies that employ illegal immigrants.

In papers filed in San Francisco late Friday afternoon, Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bucholtz asked U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer to delay hearing a lawsuit brought by major American labor, business and farm organizations until the new strategy is completed.

The paperwork said that the Homeland Security Department was making unspecified changes to its plan to pressure employers to fire as many as 8.7 million workers with suspect Social Security numbers.

A Homeland Security spokesman declined to comment, but court papers asked the judge to delay the case until March 24, or until a new program is ready.

On Oct. 10, Breyer barred the government from mailing Social Security “no-match” letters to 140,000 U.S. employers, citing serious legal questions about requiring companies to resolve questions about their employees’ identities, fire them within 90 days or else face potential fines and criminal prosecution.

President Bush made the initiative a priority in August after the Senate killed his proposed overhaul of immigration laws. In issuing a preliminary injunction, however, the judge cited plaintiffs’ arguments that the Social Security Administration database includes so many errors that using it to enforce immigration laws would cause “staggering” disruptions at workplaces and discriminate against tens of thousands of legal workers. The judge also said that the government failed to weigh the cost of the new regulation on small businesses as required.

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lucas Guttentag, who argued the case with plaintiffs including the AFL-CIO, said, “DHS should finally abandon this illegal approach instead of repeating the same mistake.”

ILLEGAL BORDER CROSSING, SMUGGLING AN EVERYDAY EVENT

By: Zack Space

I always have been a strong supporter of protecting American jobs - especially from people who come here illegally to take those jobs.

It is obvious to anyone who lives and works in rural Ohio we have an illegal immigration crisis. There are Americans who go without work, and there are illegal immigrants who receive benefits provided by a system that they do not pay into. I always have believed this was wrong.

But traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border this week has given me a much more comprehensive view of this crisis. I went to Tucson, Ariz., and El Paso, Texas, where I visited with Border Patrol agents, inspected police facilities and ventured out along the border.
Despite the Border Patrol agents' best efforts, the flow of illegal immigrants into our country continues virtually unabated, and that is completely unacceptable.

I saw smugglers sitting just inside Mexico with radios they would use to alert others when Border Patrol agents approach. I learned smugglers must be caught with 500 pounds of marijuana before they would be arrested and prosecuted. I witnessed people climbing over rudimentary barriers with little trouble - anything less and they are turned loose. This was an eye-opening experience that revealed just how porous our border really is.

The Border Patrol agents I met who are down there guarding the border are some of the most dedicated, hard-working people I have met. They do the absolute best with the limited resources they have, but they are tasked with an impossible mission. They do not have the legal and technological tools, the manpower or the international support to stem the tide of illegal immigrants wishing to cross our border.

This is not only an economic issue, but one of national security. If someone wants to enter our country with the intent of doing harm, there is little standing in their way. Every day that people are allowed unfettered access to our country is another day we run the risk of allowing a terrorist in.

As I have said from the very beginning, we must remove both their ability to get here as well as their desire to come.

All immigration reform must start with securing our borders. That is a no-brainer. We need to construct barriers, invest in new technology, and hire more Border Patrol agents to physically prevent people from entering the country illegally.

Secondly, we must increase enforcement and punishment for employers who hire undocumented workers. If there are no jobs to be had, there will be no reason to come here.

And finally, we must make America the land of inopportunity for illegal immigrants by enforcing the laws we have on the books preventing them from receiving government assistance. If you have not paid into the system, you should not be able to take from it.

We have made some significant strides in Congress in the last year toward dealing with this problem. I have joined my colleagues in Congress in passing legislation that will provide 3,000 more Border Patrol agents, help fund states in their efforts to jail undocumented aliens, and crack down on alien smuggling, but these bills do not go far enough.

I have signed onto a bill called the Secure America with Verification and Enforcement Act. This bill is a simple three-part plan to deal with our illegal immigration crisis. It strengthens the border, increases employer verification and cracks down on interior enforcement.

We still have a long way to go before we begin to stem the tide of illegal immigration, and I will take what I have learned from my border mission back to Washington to push for much stronger enforcement through measures such as the SAVE Act.

We simply cannot afford to wait any longer.


Space, D-Dover, represents Ohio's 18th Congressional District, including Chillicothe

PAY CUTS FOR IMMIGRATION APPT. WORKERS

WORKERS STRUGGLING TO EASE IMMIGRATION BACKLOG FACING PAY CUTS

November 27, 2007: 06:16 PM EST

NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Contract workers trying to alleviate immigration application backlogs are facing pay cuts.

Next week, Stanley Inc., of Arlington, Va., will take over the job of opening the mail and handling initial processing of citizenship and other applications at U.S. Agency of Citizenship and Immigration Services centers in St. Albans and Laguna Niguel, Calif.

Stanley is planning to use a different job classification system than the current contractor, which will result in a number of employees being paid about 12 percent less than they make now, officials said.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Tuesday it didn't make sense to be cutting salaries. He wants the U.S. Department of Labor to investigate.

"You are dealing with some of the most sensitive issues facing our country. In the midst of all that, what we a