CITIZENS CAUGHT UP IN IMMIGRATION RAID

By NINA BERNSTEIN
Published: October 4, 2007

Peggy Delarosa-Delgado, a United States citizen, Long Island homeowner and mother of three, was fast asleep when someone banged at the door before 6 a.m. last Thursday.

Her son Christopher, 17, a high school senior, opened the door, and more than a dozen federal immigration agents and one Suffolk County police officer pushed past him, he said later.

Only after the agents had herded her other children into the living room, frightened her aunt and uncle, and drawn a gun on a family friend staying in the basement, Ms. Delarosa-Delgado said, did she awake to discover that her house in Huntington Station had been the mistaken target of a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

It was not the first time. In the summer of 2006, she said, agents waving the same photo of a deportable immigrant named Miguel had stormed into her house before dawn. No Miguel has ever lived there, she said — at least not since she bought the place in 2003.

This time, the raid on her house was part of a series of antigang sweeps on Long Island. The raids, which resulted in 186 immigrant arrests, were denounced by officials in Nassau County as riddled with mistakes and marked by misconduct. But on Ms. Delarosa-Delgado’s side of the county line, the Suffolk County police commissioner, Richard Dormer, hailed the sweeps as a successful operation that made the community safer.

Ms. Delarosa-Delgado, 42, a school aide who was born in the Dominican Republic, moved to the United States 24 years ago and became a citizen in 1990, does not feel safer.

“It’s not right,” she said. “My kids were scared. They had to sit in the living room like little criminals.”

“Sure, look for criminals. But they’ve got to make 100 percent sure that the house they’re going into, the person’s there. They can’t come in just because my address pops up in the computer.”

Suffolk County police officials said they stood by their statements praising the raids. But Ms. Delarosa-Delgado’s complaint is one of many that have been emerging in Suffolk County as employers, church workers and lawyers learn who was arrested.

“They took guys who I see in church every single week, whose homes I’ve gone into and everything,” said Sister Margaret Smyth, a nun who attends church in Greenport, where she said 12 immigrant men were arrested last Thursday. “Some of them work on farms, some of them work construction,” she said. “They’re family men.”

One man who was arrested, Walter Tzun, has been in the country for a decade, she said. She described him as married, a father, a taxpayer and a construction worker whose employer has been trying to sponsor him for a green card. He has been moved from a New Jersey jail to two detention centers in Pennsylvania, she said, and has been told that he is headed to Texas. She said the man’s boss drove to Pennsylvania “to try to bond him out” and help him stay.

Eberhard Müller, formerly the executive chef of the restaurant Lutèce and now the owner of a 180-acre farm on the East End of Long Island, said he had spent a week trying to locate the brother, cousin and roommate of one of his workers, a legal immigrant from El Salvador. The three were arrested in a raid at their home in Greenport early last Thursday, he said, leaving babies and two distraught wives behind.

Mr. Müller said he finally learned with the help of a lawyer that two of the three, Omar Mena Lopez and Marvin Lopez, were at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, and that one, Valentin Rudy Escobar Montenegro, was in a detention center in York, Pa.

“They accuse them of being gang associates, which makes no sense,” Mr. Müller said, describing all three as holding down two or three jobs as roofers, restaurant workers and farmhands. “Marvin Lopez is a librarian in his country, the sweetest person in the world. He works 14 hours a day, seven days a week. How is he able to be a gang member?”

Accounts of the Suffolk County raids are similar to those criticized in Nassau County.

“These were like dragnets being cast over entire houses,” said Nadia Marin-Molina, director of the Workplace Project, an immigrant advocacy organization in Hempstead that has gathered many of the complaints.

The complaints echo a federal lawsuit filed last month in Manhattan contending that immigration agents unlawfully force their way into the homes of Latino families in violation of the Fourth Amendment’s protection from unreasonable searches.

“We have been inundated with calls,” said Cesar Perales, director of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, which filed the lawsuit. “People are terrified by these indiscriminate raids.”

Mr. Perales said yesterday that by week’s end he would seek an emergency restraining order to stop such raids.

Gerardo (left) and Francisco Trujillo moved here from Mexico when their mother married William Donati, a U.S. citizen. Donati has spent $13,000 during a six-year struggle to get green cards his stepsons. Photo By: EVA • Hopewell family seeking legal status for two sons

HOPEWELL FAMILY SEEKS LEGAL STATUS FOR TWO SONS
COMPLEXITY AND FRUSTRATION HINDER QUEST FOR CITIZENSHIP

By ROBIN FARMER
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, Oct 03, 2007 - 12:09 AM Updated: 09:36 AM

Unlike most young men, Francisco and Gerardo Trujillo seldom venture far from the large television dominating the comfortable living room of their Hopewell home.

Their mother, Margarita, and stepfather, William Donati, say they have no choice but to keep them close. They have tried unsuccessfully since 2001 to get their sons green cards, which would grant them legal permanent residence in the United States.

As tensions increase against illegal immigrants, those seeking legal status and others, including immigration officials, say getting a green card isn't easy. One official called the immigration rules "complex and opaque."

The Trujillos' six-year plight illustrates the complexity, frustration and lengthy waits faced by many applicants seeking legal permanent residency.

Getting a green card can take six months or longer. There's a backlog of cases, but no one knows how many people are waiting.

The cost for a card is $1,010, having increased from $395 in July, said Dan Kane, a spokesman for U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services. Officials say the new fees reflect the cost of handling applications and may speed processing times.

The process is stymied by a paperwork-based application that can penalize applicants, many of whom have limited English skills. A single mistake can lead to denial of an application or petition, ineligibility in the future for an immigrant benefit and even with removal from the country.

In 2006, 1.2 million people became legal permanent U.S. residents, a 13 percent increase from the previous year. Virginia ranked seventh with 38,488 new green-card holders, according to the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services.

"The key reason why the green-card process is so complicated is because the U.S. government wants to make sure that once it allows a person the status to stay here permanently, that person will not likely be a burden to society or violate its laws," said Irene Recio, a Washington attorney.

Problems with the process were detailed in this year's annual report by the Immigration Services' ombudsman that found:

Newer cases are processed more quickly, while cases six months or older are increasingly backlogged.
Many serious problems stem from the complex and opaque nature of the immigration rules and the agency administering them.
Customers have limited access to immigration officers who know enough about individual cases to accurately and efficiently answers inquiries. Also, some customer-service representatives are providing either minimal information or inaccurate information.
One regulation in place since Sept. 11, 2001, is adding to the backlog.

All applicants must be fingerprinted. The fingerprints are sent electronically to the FBI for processing. Before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the checks were only for prior arrests.

Now, the FBI is challenged with ensuring the applicant is not linked with "terrorism, or money laundering or other activities counterproductive to the U.S.," Recio said.

"Sometimes these checks take years to complete, because the FBI doesn't have the manpower, and also it takes a long time to verify whether the hit was a result of name similarity or a smudged print," she said.

Green-card applicants from the Richmond area must go to the immigration office in Norfolk for interviews and fingerprinting.

Immigration Services' ombudsman Prakash Khatri's report noted as of May that there were 329,160 fingerprint checks pending with the FBI; a third more than a year old.

A lack of immigration-services staffing and inadequate resources to maintain and track paperwork also leads to lost files, which Recio says she has experienced.

The Donatis say immigration officials in the Norfolk office lost and mixed up information for Francisco and Gerardo Trujillo.

Frustrated by this and other errors, the Donatis gave the immigration agency, as it requested, permission to discuss the case with The Times-Dispatch.

The Donatis say their inability to resolve errors that led to the denial of their sons' green cards or to get answers to questions speaks volumes about the department's problem with communications.

The family isn't alone.

For example, Khatri noted in his report to Congress that there is no clear answer on how many applicants are waiting for their green cards as USCIS has changed its definition of backlogs.

"USCIS does not make available to the public the number of cases pending longer than six months - the definition of case backlogs," he wrote.

"Shifting definitions hinder congressional oversight and prevent stakeholders from fully understanding whether the agency is meeting its goals to provide timely and efficient services."

COMMERCE SECRETARY IN COLUMBIA

IMMIGRATION KEY TO GROWTH, SAYS U.S. OFFICIAL GUTIERREZ:
NATION'S ECONOMY DEPENDS ON SOLVING LABOR ISSUES

GRANT JACKSON
The (Columbia) State

COLUMBIA --If the U.S. economy is going to continue to grow it will have to import labor and to do that it must solve its immigration dilemma, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said Monday during a visit to Columbia.

Gutierrez spoke to students at USC's Moore School of Business. He was brought to South Carolina by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. The two men worked on immigration reform during the last Congress.

"The immigration debate has really just started and (is) going to be around for a long time," Gutierrez said. "It is not just the big question for this decade but of this century, not just for us, but just about every country in the world."

Gutierrez warned that without comprehensive immigration reform, the U.S. economy could stall in the next decade.

The U.S. labor force, he said, is growing about 0.3 percent a year while economists believe it needs to grow about 1 percent a year to sustain economic growth of about 3 percent a year.

Real growth is currently about 3.8 percent a year, and the economy has experienced about six years of uninterrupted growth

"If we are growing our work force at 0.3 percent we cannot grow our economy by 3 percent," Gutierrez said. "We need (our) work force to grow at a faster pace."

Using immigrant labor is the only way to grow the work force and continue to grow the economy, "unless you conclude you just don't want to grow," he said.

But the United States is not the only nation grappling with immigration. Every other major economy in the world has huge problems with decreasing populations and work force, Gutierrez said.

Economies like those of Europe, Russia and Japan are all dealing with the need for workers.

Japan may be the best example of an older work force and a declining population, he said.

"Every country around the world is also thinking about what is their policy regarding immigration," he said, "because they have to. They are looking at their own demographics."

The great thing, Gutierrez said, is that the United States knows more about immigration than any country in the world.

"Our advantage is that we have been doing it for 230 years," he said. "If we use that experience to our favor, we can have a competitive advantage not just for five or 10 years but for the next century."

Gutierrez and Graham worked together on the immigration legislation that failed in Congress last session. The two share similar views.

"We need a temporary worker program in this country desperately," Graham told reporters during a press briefing following the secretary's remarks.

If the country does not deal with the potential labor shortage, one of the first industries that will be affected will be agriculture, the senator said, and it will then spread throughout the economy.

Graham hopes Congress will try to tackle immigration again. He is fearful about Congress not acting.

"The worst thing is to have 50 different immigration laws. We live in a global economy; we live in a very transient society. We cannot maintain this economic growth if every state and every town and every county has a different immigration law," he said.

"This is a national issue. It is a national problem."

ARKANSAS

IMMIGRATION ARRESTS ARE SECRET, SHEFIFF'S OFFICE SAYS

AP
Posted: 2007-10-04 14:01:01

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) - One of the differences that took effect when northwest Arkansas police agencies were given authority to arrest those suspected of violating the nation's immigration laws became apparent Wednesday - the names of those detained are secret, so long as police say immigration violations were involved.

That's a major difference from Arkansas law that requires names of arrested people to be disclosed by the agencies making the arrest.

Lawyer Charles Schlumberger of Little Rock, whose practice includes matters covered by the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, said that law requires the names of arrested people to be made public. He said the state Supreme Court ruled in a 1991 Pine Bluff case that an agency's claim of an ongoing investigation - which allows some information to be withheld - does not apply to the names of people arrested.

Officials announced Monday that 19 trained officers from the Rogers and Springdale police departments and the Benton and Washington county sheriff's offices would work on a newly created local task force with agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The agreement allows the officers to check the immigration status of the people they arrest and begin deportation proceedings against those in the country illegally.

A spokesman for the Washington County sheriff's office, Cpl. Jak Kimball, said Wednesday that ICE had barred the agency from releasing the name of the first suspect arrested by members of the task force. Kimball said that, according to ICE, federal law prohibits state or local agencies from releasing information about federal immigration detainees who are held in state or local jails.

According to Schlumberger, federal law would trump state law in such cases, because local police were acting on behalf of ICE.

Kimball said ICE told the sheriff's office this week to remove information from the sheriff's office Web site about any inmate being held for the federal agency.

For years, the sheriff's office has held federal immigration detainees under contracts with ICE. The sheriff's office lists those inmates, along with the names and pictures of all other inmates, on its Web site's jail roster.

Kimball said removing inmates from the online roster can affect visitation, which is handled through the site. Considering this week's directive by ICE, the sheriff's office might begin listing inmates by number rather than name so that visits can still be scheduled online, he said.

"We're working on complying with all this," Kimball said, "but it's been problematic."

MINNESOTA

ICE




WILLMAR BOY FACES DEPORTATION AFTER IMMIGRATION RAID

By STEVE KARNOWSKI,AP
Posted: 2007-10-04 17:37:20

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (AP) - Sammy Diaz-Maldonado was at a friend's home before school when armed immigration agents burst in.

The agents questioned the frightened 9-year-old boy alone for about a half hour, without either of his parents present, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement used the information he gave to start proceedings against him, his lawyers said.

"Horrible, just horrible," is how Sammy, now 10, said he remembers the day he was caught up in an immigration sweep that led to 49 arrests in the Willmar area last April.

Sammy made his first court appearance Thursday as his attorneys filed a motion seeking to terminate the deportation proceedings, saying his constitutional and due process rights were violated. His next hearing will be in three weeks.

Afterward, his attorneys said the government had terrorized the boy, leaving him badly shaken.

"Sammy was torn away from his mother's waist-side by two armed agents," Gloria Contreras-Edin, one of his attorneys, told reporters. " ... He was crying, and he was shaking, and he was scared, and was screaming, 'Don't take my mommy away."'

He was so traumatized that he vomited twice afterward, and he's still afraid of all officials, Contreras-Edin said.

Greg Palmore, an ICE spokesman, declined to comment on the case, but acknowledged it is unusual for such a young child to have an immigration hearing all his own.

ICE has defended how it carried out the sweep, saying all of its agents' actions were fully within the law. Of the 49 people arrested at the time, 18 had criminal convictions, six had deportation orders and 25 had no criminal history but were living here illegally, according to the ICE.

Contreras-Edin, executive director of Centro Legal, a legal services group serving the Latino community, and her colleague, Rachel Bengtson, argued that statements given by a scared child without a parent present are inherently suspect and should not be admitted as evidence. Their motion seeks, among other things, to suppress Sammy's statement.

Sammy is one of several children listed in a lawsuit Centro Legal filed on behalf more than 50 Hispanic Willmar-area residents who claim their rights were violated during the sweep. Among other things, the lawsuit seeks to prevent similar enforcement actions in the future. Contreras-Edin said Sammy wasn't the only child frightened by immigration agents during the sweep.

The attorneys declined to discuss Sammy's parents' immigration status, or give Sammy's country of origin. And while they said they deny all the government's allegations, they also declined to say whether they contend he's here legally.

Sammy is still living with his parents in Willmar. Speaking in English, he said he's a fourth-grader at Roosevelt Elementary School.

He said quietly at the defense table during the 10-minute hearing, flanked closely by his attorneys to his right and an interpreter he did not use sitting at the ready on his left. He smiled shyly before and afterward, and stuck close to his attorneys and his mother.

"I was scared. I was nervous," he told reporters.

The government will get a chance to respond to Sammy's motion at his next hearing Oct. 25, when several other Centro Legal clients will also have hearings on similar issues stemming from the Willmar crackdown. His attorneys said they expect further proceedings after that.

While Immigration Judge Kristin Olmanson excused Sammy from that hearing if he needs to be in school, Bengtson said they plan for him to be there.

HILLARY TOUTS BILL TO UNITE ILLEGALS' KIN

By Christina Bellantoni
October 4, 2007

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said "immigrant families as well as every other family" must be valued.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said yesterday as president she would push an immigration bill with a path to legalization that unites families.

"We've got to deal with immigration to be sure that we're going to get back to doing what is right and smart in America," she told members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.

"Yes, we need to strengthen borders, everyone agrees with that," the New York Democrat said. "We have to, though, remain faithful to our condition as a beacon for people around the world seeking a better life."

Three other Democratic presidential hopefuls attended the forum: Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio and former Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska. They were given 15 minutes to address six questions. Mrs. Clinton, who gave a version of her stump speech touching on the themes of the questions instead of answering them directly, spent 63 seconds on immigration.

Mrs. Clinton was interrupted by applause during this line: "I believe we have to, as part of comprehensive immigration reform, create a path to earned legalization and I will continue to stand for that and advocate for that."

She touted her efforts to make sure families weren't disrupted by the Senate's immigration bill. "Everybody talks about family values ... let's start valuing families and that means immigrant families as well as every other family," she said.

Mrs. Clinton did not commit to passing immigration reform in her first term, a priority for the group, which works to educate new Hispanic leaders. She also did not directly answer all of the questions posed at the start of the forum, including how she would address anti-immigrant sentiment.

She did say she would "cut the Latino dropout rate in half," spend $10 billion on universal pre-kindergarten and pass the Dream Act to give legal status to illegal aliens who go to college or join the military.

The former first lady received the warmest reception at the forum, followed by Mr. Biden, who said he supports a "reasonable path" for the 12 million illegal aliens in the country to become legal residents.

He added he finds it "offensive" that the immigration debate is "about ways to keep Spanish-speaking people out of the country" when the "majority" of undocumented aliens aren't Latin Americans but instead come from such non-Spanish-speaking countries as Ireland, Poland, Japan and Indonesia.

Campaign manager Luis Navarro later corrected Mr. Biden — saying people who don't speak Spanish are not a "majority" of illegals but rather comprise 40 percent.

"Our goal should be to protect American values: reuniting families, valuing aspiration, creating the system that gives people an opportunity to come here, pursuing the American dream," Mr. Biden said.

Mr. Kucinich said the Spanish phrase "nosotros juntos," which he translated as "we are one," was the motivating ideal for his public service. "I not only believe it, but I live it," he said, promoting his own nonprofit universal health care plan and his consistent opposition to the Iraq war.

Mr. Gravel said Hispanics have been "demonized" and illegal aliens are "not illegal" because all they have done is "risk their lives to feed their families." But he got no applause when saying he would give all illegals green cards "immediately" to reward them for contributing to the economy.

Rep. Xavier Becerra, California Democrat who asked questions at the forum, said the 45 million Hispanics in the United States are the "largest and fastest-growing population," and will matter most in such swing states such as Arizona and New Mexico in 2008.

LOS ANGELES

ICE




HUNDREDS ARRESTED IN U.S. ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN

10-03-2007, 20h07
LOS ANGELES (AFP)

More than 1,300 suspected illegal immigrants were arrested in the Los Angeles area over the past two weeks as part of what the government called the "largest ever" crackdown of its kind.

More than 1,300 suspected illegal immigrants were arrested in the Los Angeles area over the past two weeks as part of what the government called the "largest ever" crackdown of its kind.

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency said Wednesday its Fugitive Operations Teams targeted illegal immigrants who committed violent crimes or those who ignored deportation orders.

More than 1,100 of the detainees were from Mexico, whose border is only 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Los Angeles.

The rest of the illegal immigrants detained include citizens of Armenia, India, Indonesia, Jordan and Peru.

More than 600 of the detainees have already been deported to their home countries, officials said.

"ICE's Fugitive Operations Teams make a priority of cases involving those who have ignored orders to leave our country and those who pose a threat to our communities," ICE Assistant Secretary Julie Myers said in a statement.

"The 1,300 taken into custody by ICE in the past two weeks include numerous suspected street gang members, as well as aliens convicted of *** offenses, assaults and kidnapping."

In a similar operation in January, authorities nabbed more than 750 people in the Los Angeles area who committed crimes or ignored deportation orders.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT BLAMES HIS ROBBERY ON NEW EMPLOYER SANCTIONS LAW
Last Update: 10/03 11:57 am

By Jennifer Korducki
ABC15.com

Two illegal immigrants have been indicted on charges of armed robbery, theft and aggravated assault in Maricopa County.

One of them blames his crime on Arizona’s new employer sanctions law.

Ruben Aragon Parra and Salvador Antonio Monreal-Camargo are accused of stealing a truck on Sept. 13 and later robbing a man in a park.

The second victim chased the suspects in his own car and pounded on the windshield of the stolen truck with a shovel before they were arrested.

Parra told police he needed money after being laid off as a result of Arizona’s new employer sanctions law.

Beginning Jan. 1, the law will require employers in Arizona to verify the employment eligibility of new workers through a federal database.

Employers caught knowingly or intentionally hiring unlawful workers will face a 10-day license suspension for a first offense. After a second offense, they can lose their license.

A second suspect in the robbery admits to being deported from the United States three times.

A third suspect is accused of unlawfully using a stolen vehicle.

[COMMENT BY EXPLORA:There will be more reports of this. People are going to get desperate. No work, no services, no nothing. This is expected to happen.]

Congratulation to Hilliary the next President of the United States--You've got it RIGHT.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT STUDENTS MAY RECEIVE FINANCIAL AID

By Gene Haagenson
10/04/2007

Students all over the state are pressuring the Governor to sign a bill to help undocumented immigrants get through college.

The California Dream Act would enable immigrants who went to high school here to qualify for some state financial aid.
Students who rallied at Fresno State and at the state capitol say children who were brought into this country illegally, but grew up here and went to school should be able to get some help going to college.

"I came to the United States when I was a baby. I grew up here. The United States was everything that I knew," said Nayaly Arreola.

Nayaly Arreola was among the college students rallying in support of Senate Bill 1, a measure giving undocumented students a shot at financial aid from the state.

"I couldn't qualify for any loans so I had to work two or three jobs to pay even the room and board," said Nayaly.

The legislature approved Senate Bill 1, but Governor Schwarzenegger hasn't signed it. Powerful republicans are urging him not to.

"Federal law prohibits employing illegal immigrants. Why are we paying them cash handouts to attend our colleges?" said State Senator, Tom McClintock.

Despite the opposition, supporters say it will help the state.

"These are future citizens who will be paying tax dollars. What better way to contribute to California than to invest in higher education?" said Esmerelda Santos, Fresno State Associated Students.

Nayaly Arreolo is now a senior at Fresno Pacific University and is also student body president.

Four years ago, her hopes of going to college were almost crushed. Federal immigration authorities ordered the Porterville family deported back to Mexico. Nayaly was then 17, hoping to graduate from high school.

Senator Dianne Feinstein intervened, introducing a private bill to keep the family here and letting Nayaly reach a goal many other immigrant children will never reach.

"A lot of students can't continue past community college because of these financial barriers," said Nayaly.

Rallies are expected to continue around the state until the Oct. 14th. That's the deadline for Governor Schwarzenegger to sign the bill.

Supporters of Senate Bill 1 say the legislation would not take money from other students, but would allow undocumented students to apply for any leftover funds in the state's Cal-Grant program for higher education.

Copyright KFSN-TV, www.abc30.com, and myabc30.com. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without explicit written permission.

IMMIGRANTS MAY BOOST FLORIDA'S CLOUT

Victor Manuel Ramos | Sentinel Staff Writer
October 4, 2007

When the time comes to divvy up the power after the 2010 census, Florida is expected to gain three additional seats in Congress -- one of which would be attributed to its growing number of illegal immigrants.

Florida's population is expected to surpass that of New York in the next national count, which would make the Sunshine State the third most populous after California and Texas, according to an analysis of census statistics and population data issued by a Connecticut demographer.

Fueled by large immigrant populations, Texas and Arizona would also gain more seats before the 2012 congressional races, while some Northern and Midwestern states would lose members in the U.S. House of Representatives. If it weren't for the illegal immigrants who live in California, that state would lose two seats, according to the report.

Change in congressional seats Graphic

Having more seats in Congress -- 28 instead of 25 -- would also give Florida more Electoral College votes, forcing presidential campaigns to lavish more attention on the state.

The report shows that immigrants, even those who are not eligible to vote, are tipping the nation's balance of power because of the sheer size of their population.

"It's great news for Florida in terms of getting more power," said study author Orlando Rodriguez, a demographer with the Connecticut State Data Center at the University of Connecticut. "But it's not the undocumented immigrants who will benefit. It's the dominant party that gets the benefit of the extra seats."

That shift, analysts say, is expected to help Republicans in Florida, who control the state Legislature, which redraws district lines when seats are added. The same is true in the border states of Arizona and Texas.

"We will have a larger congressional delegation giving us a stronger voice in Congress as our population continues to grow," said Erin VanSickle, spokeswoman for the Republican Party of Florida.

Immigrants not exempted

The U.S. Constitution mandates that the census count all people living in U.S. territory, without making exceptions for immigration status. That means the estimated 900,000 to 1 million Florida immigrants who entered the country illegally or overstayed visas are counted like any other persons.

It's not a new practice. Slaves were counted in the 18th and 19th centuries, which shifted a great deal of congressional power to the South. And women were counted in the census before the Constitution gave them the right to vote.

States with more people simply get more of the 435 House seats.

But some who call for increased border security and deportations don't think it's fair that illegal immigrants could have that kind of impact in the halls of Congress.

The Center for Immigration Studies, an advocacy group in Washington that favors more immigration enforcement, studied the impact of illegal immigrants after the past census and found that the power slide to states with large immigrant populations started with the 2000 census.

Center spokesman Steven Camarota said illegal immigrants shouldn't be counted the way American citizens are.

"There is a whole cascading series of consequences for society, some measurable and some not, when you tolerate widespread illegal immigration," Camarota said. "As a country, we probably face two main choices: Either we enforce the law, have fewer illegal immigrants and have less of a problem; or we shut up about the problem."

Few come out opposed

In Florida, though, there is not much of an outcry against surging from 25 to 28 representatives in Congress. Hispanic activists like the idea of having immigrants, legal or otherwise, counted. And though political parties would not address the issue directly, Democrats and Republicans share the desire to seize any congressional spots up for grabs.

"We do understand that there is a power shift coming to Florida," said Alejandro Miyar, a spokesman with the Florida Democratic Party. "That is why we have been trying to build on our momentum and on the state presence for our state party."

There are Florida issues -- such as offshore drilling and preserving the Everglades -- that would benefit from having more voices in Congress, regardless of political party.

Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo, who has been an outspoken critic of illegal immigration, finds it hard to oppose a power shift that could benefit his home state.

"I am sort of ambivalent, not in the sense that I don't care, but that I could see arguments for both sides," said Feeney, adding that "anything that helps Florida gain a relative advantage is a good thing and I would be biased in favor of."

But Feeney said the power that more immigrants could generate has some costly strings attached.

"States that have large illegal-immigrant populations have additional burdens," Feeney said. "People, for example, use our health-care system; they often use our schools; they demand police and fire services for an emergency."

Al Cardenas, a lobbyist and former Republican chairman in Florida, said the growing immigrant population has been on the radar of state politicians for some time. Immigrants are expected to have an impact, he said, but the question is whether they will be counted properly by the census bureau.

"Without a path to legalization," Cardenas said, "there's probably going to be the greatest undercounting we have had in a long time, because folks are going to be reticent to come forward."

Samuel Lopez, an activist who heads the Florida Puerto Rican/Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Melbourne and fought a restrictive immigrant ordinance in Palm Bay last year, said it's only fair for immigrants to be counted and influence representation.

"It's a good thing," Lopez said. "I don't know what all the immigrant hysteria is all about. I think if people are concerned, it's only because they are worried that they are losing their power."

Victor Manuel Ramos can be reached at vramos@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-6186.

GROUPS FIGHTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION HAVE REASON TO CHEER

Thu Oct 4, 7:58 PM ET

WASHINGTON -- Since the late '70s, I have attended the annual fall meetings of a group called FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Although small and not well-known, it is the major citizens' group fighting illegal immigration, and its meetings have been instructive of how public opinion was moving.

For years, the meetings, held in hotels, were small and unprepossessing -- just ordinary folks concerned about their country being overwhelmed by illegals. The group's headquarters are in unimposing offices on Connecticut Avenue that would surely not frighten any member of Congress or lobbyist into thinking of FAIR in terms of power.

The meetings are composed of the kinds of Americans you used to meet everywhere: neighborly, friendly, unimpressed with their importance, but also increasingly angry at being forgotten and ignored. Over the years, as America's careless policy of open borders has kept the number of illegals growing -- 3 million ... 6 million ... 8 million ... now at least 12 million and maybe as many as 20 million -- there was a feeling at the meetings of just hanging on.

Too much raw power was on the other side, in the big corporations seeking cheap labor, in the Catholic Church seeking more members, in unconcerned Americans seeking not to have to act in the public realm or raise their voices. But there was a stubborn attitude at the meetings of "This is not right, and somehow we're not going to put up with it!" That attitude has been boiling inside more and more Americans.

Then came this year. After months of confrontations last spring and summer in Congress between liberals and big corporations on one side and average citizens on the other, FAIR has come into its own. At the meeting here on Sept. 29, there was still a slight subtext of fear -- but this time it was fear of being too confident and of losing the gains of the last six to eight months as all the pro-immigration bills in Congress were defeated, in effect by citizen action itself.

"What happened this last summer was a profound moment in the movement," Dan Stein, president of FAIR, said to tart out the meeting. "We saw the new technologies giving the American people unprecedented capacity to participate in this public debate -- we saw the little mouse defeating all the big corporations, although we were being outspent by, what, $10 million to 1?"

"I hope," he said at one point, "we don't underestimate how rapidly things are changing -- but we also must understand that we are involved in a quiet revolution among the American people, with FAIR and the allied organizations and the visionaries."

Then he gave the big news. After all these years in their nice but prudent suites on Connecticut Avenue, the FAIR staff were moving to new offices just off Capitol Hill, where they would have regular press briefings, full audio-visual studios, and the capacity to train numbers of activists.

If this was at least a temporary victory, it was one of the most original in recent history.

Citizen anger and potential power, loosely organized by FAIR, with its 250,000 members, and allied groups, this time was closely tied up with talk radio, whose hosts are mostly anti-illegal immigration. At one point, 37 talk-radio hosts came together to push the cause, which was the first time such a thing had happened, according to Steve Gill, a prominent pro-FAIR talk-radio host in Tennessee.

"We're in the middle of an information revolution," he told the group. "Before talk radio, something you could listen to on the car radio and bang your car (if you became angry). Now you can call in and make it an interactive communication. We are at the mike, but you control the volume."

Former Colorado governor Richard Lamm, an active force in immigration reform, chimed in with the same idea. "Dan Stein talked about new forces that erupted in our favor," he said, "but there are also new institutions that have done so -- like talk radio."

At the same time, FAIR launched a huge call-in campaign to representatives and senators over the bills put forward last spring. They said that anti-illegal immigration calls outnumbered pro-immigration calls in general by 50-to-1; and at least one senator received 10,000 calls in three days, virtually all anti-illegal immigration.

Another factor that emerged stronger this year was the idea that language must be clearly defined. "They are not 'immigrants,' they are 'illegals,'" Steve Gill insisted. "But the other side likes to define them as immigrants because that harkens back to the old image of America." He was also insistent upon clarifying that "racism is not the issue," because, "if we bordered China, we would have 16 million Chinese." The question of who comes to America is simply distance: "If I can walk five miles, it is surely better than swimming 4,000 miles."

What I saw and heard at this year's meeting, then, was an altered mood, a new if cautious optimism and a new set of techniques for encouraging citizens to deal with the most important domestic issue of today.