One of the biggest contributions of illegal immigrants to society is the job creation in ICE.

If 20 million or so illegal immigrants dissapeared from the surface of America tomorrow, what would so many people emloyed in the task of deporting them do???

If I was ICE I would erect a giant memorial in honor of all the illegal immigrants thank to whom there was such a rapidly growing job sector in the times of slowing economy.

Immigration issues frustrate owners from overseas

Tampa Bay Business Journal - by Margie Manning Senior Staff Writer

PALM HARBOR — A visa program designed to encourage the American dream of business ownership has turned into a nightmare for a businesswoman from the United Kingdom.

Sue Fern, the owner of the business development firm Event Pro-ssss, said she is trapped in the United States, unable to return to England to see her family under provisions of an E-2 visa she acquired 10 years ago in order to start her business. If she leaves the United States, there’s no guarantee she’ll be allowed to return, she said.

She has to extend her status every two years, costing thousands of dollars in legal fees. When she decides to retire or sell the business, she faces deportation.

Fern cannot apply to become a permanent U.S. resident without transitioning to a different visa program that would require a hefty upfront investment.

“We love living here,” Fern said. She and her husband were recruited to the United States by their then-employers in 1993. “I want to continue working and living here, but I’m trapped. I’m a hostage to the system.”

Walking away
The E-2 investor visa was designed to attract persons who could invest “a substantial amount of capital” in a business in the United States, according to the Congressional Research Service. The investor’s enterprise has to be deemed capable of making a “significant economic impact” within five years.

But there’s been a tightening of restrictions on E-2 visa holders since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, said Fern and others familiar with the visa process.

Stephen Parnell, managing member of Ireeco LLC, a Boca Raton firm that specializes in visa issues, attributes the change to a groundswell of political pressure against any kind of immigration, legal or otherwise, and a general distrust of foreigners investing in America.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services did not respond to a request for comment on E-2 visa restrictions.

Fern said she is “too ornery” to give up her business and go back to England, but David Crowther and Christine Crowther, a British couple who moved here on E-2 visas in 2003 to buy a custom framing business, made a different decision.

The Crowthers faced the same problems as Fern. They weren’t allowed to work outside the shop to supplement their income. They couldn’t get a homestead exemption because they were not permanent U.S. residents, and they could only get temporary driver’s licenses.

On Aug. 1, they walked away from their shop, Gallery 2 at The Shoppes at Boot Ranch in Palm Harbor, where they had employed one part-time worker, to return to Europe.

“We reluctantly came to the conclusion that if America doesn’t want two honest, law-abiding, tax-paying people in the country then we will go and live somewhere else that does,” David Crowther wrote in an e-mail.

Reform proposals
There are thousands of business owners in the United States on E-2 visas with the same dilemma, Parnell said.

“It’s something we hear about over and over again,” said Chandra Mitchell-Hancz, Fern’s attorney and an associate handling employment immigration at Neil F. Lewis PA, a law firm in Tampa.

“There haven’t been new immigration laws in eight years. The lines are getting longer, and people are getting frustrated,” Mitchell-Hancz said. “These are educated people. People we want here. We need immigration reform.”

Several proposals related to investor visas surfaced during the current session of Congress, including legislation that would allow up to 3,000 E-2 visa holders annually to qualify for permanent U.S. residency after five years, provided they invest at least $200,000 in an enterprise and create at least two full-time jobs. The measure was introduced last year but stalled in a House committee.

Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, is reviewing several legislative proposals for immigration reform, according to a spokeswoman for her office. Calls were not returned from the press offices of Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., or Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla.

Parnell, who came to the United States in 1991 on an E-2 visa, now calls the E-2 “a very dangerous way to come to the States.”

His company runs a Web site, everyvisa.com, that instead promotes the EB-5 visa, which he called “the visa of choice” for those with $1 million to invest or $500,000 if the investment is in a “targeted employment area” with high unemployment.

There are no TEAs in the Tampa Bay area.

The program requires the investor to create at least 10 new jobs. It allows EB-5 visa holders to become permanent residents of the United States after five years.

Only 800 EB-5 visas were issued out of a possible 10,000 in 2007, Parnell said. The number of EB-5 visas issued this year is expected to be higher, as investors act before the scheduled Sept. 30 sunset of the legislative authorization for the program. An extension has been approved in the House and is awaiting action in the Senate after it returns from recess on Sept. 5, Parnell said.

Over the years
E-2 Visa admissions
to the United States
1998 - 93,755
1999 - 100,724
2000 - 116,973
2001 - 127,091
2002 - 124,928
2003 - 124,418
2004 - 135,851
2005 - 143,786
2006 - 164,795
Source: Yearbook of Immigration Statistics


mmmanning@bizjournals.com | 813.342.2473

http://www.buffalonews.com/258/story/423103.html

Toronto men who fell off jet skis now in hot water with the fedsBy Dan Herbeck - News Staff Reporter

Updated: 08/25/08 8:03 PM

First, they were hurled into the water after a jet ski accident on a dangerous stretch of the Niagara River.

Then, they were rescued by the Coast Guard, and one of them required hospital treatment.

Now, Jason and Edward Haist have other problems.

The two Canadian jet skiers who were rescued after a mishap Saturday night spent all day Sunday and most of foday in a federal detention center.

A U.S. Border Patrol spokesman said Jason Haist, 29, and his 21-year-old cousin, both of the Toronto area, face non-criminal immigration charges and could wind up being banned from the United States for five years.

The two men have been in the custody of the federal government since they were rescued from the river near Devil's Hole State Park, near Lewiston.

The cousins were then held in the Federal Detention Center in Batavia, but Price said they were released without bail late this afternoon.

"They face non-criminal administrative charges and will be required to attend a removal hearing in Immigration Court," A.J. Price said. "They were charged because we have evidence that, before the accident, they made landfall in the U.S. without reporting in."

Boaters who launch their water craft from Canada and then dock on American soil are required to report in with the Border Patrol, Price said.

If an Immigration Court judge finds that the two men illegally landed in the U.S., the cousins could be banned from visiting the U.S. for five years, Price said. Price added that, so far, no date has been set for the Haists's hearing.

The two cousins were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard and other authorities after their Sea-Doo personal watercraft overturned in the fast-moving waters of the river about 8 p.m. Saturday.

After Jason Haist was treated in a Lewiston hospital for a head injury, he and his cousin were taken to the federal jail, authorities said.

The area where the Haists' water craft overturned is a "treacherous and fast-moving" stretch of the lower Niagara River, but boaters are allowed in the area, Price said.

Police said Jason Haist's girlfriend, Catherine Kerr of Scarborough, near Toronto, recovered the two Sea-Doo water craft on Sunday.

Kerr was quoted in Monday's editions of the Toronto Sun newspaper as criticizing the U.S. government for taking the two men into custody.

"I don't think it's fair," the Toronto paper quoted Kerr as saying. "It was an accident, and not like he had a choice of what hospital to go to. Here's a guy who was drowning and lucky enough to be saved … and now he faces this."

"Canucks Jailed After Rescue; Near-drowning leads to time in U.S. pokey," the Sun's headline read. Efforts by The Buffalo News to reach Kerr and the Haists were unsuccessful.

Price responded by saying the Haists were charged not because they had an accident, but because they apparently landed in the U.S. without reporting in prior to the accident.

The Border Patrol officer added that two other people were rescued after the jet ski accident, but he said they were not charged because authorities found no evidence they had illegally entered the U.S.

Bureaucracy gone mad!

quote:

"They face non-criminal administrative charges and will be required to attend a removal hearing in Immigration Court," A.J. Price said. "They were charged because we have evidence that, before the accident, they made landfall in the U.S. without reporting in."

My question is, did they have time to report in while they were busy crashing their jet skis? Duh, unbelievable.

This is like a woman who don't know when to stop putting up makeup. Goes from plain to pretty to ridiculous!

Atta boys, this is gonna do wonders for the international image of the nation.... want some more eye shadow?

Maybe this is a sign of hope that the backlog of Naturalization applications will soon be cleared!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/26/BAJR12I08T.DTL

500 in S.F. join ranks of new U.S. citizens

Tyche Hendricks, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, August 27, 2008


More than 500 new citizens were sworn in Tuesday morning at San Francisco's Masonic Auditorium, part of a massive drive by federal immigration authorities to reduce a backlog of applicants for citizenship that swelled to epic proportions last year.

The average waiting time - from applying for citizenship to taking the citizenship test - shot up to 18 months after a record 1.4 million people applied in fiscal 2007.

The surge resulted from a combination of citizenship campaigns by advocacy groups, heightened interest in the 2008 election, a charged political climate surrounding the immigration policy debate and a push to beat a steep fee hike that went into effect in July 2007, analysts say.

For Anna Javier, a native of the Philippines who was among those sworn in Tuesday, the opportunity to vote was a big motivator. Before she even left her seat at the naturalization ceremony, she had filled out her voter registration form.

"If I'm going to be a citizen, I might as well be responsible for what happens in the future," said Javier, 32, who called the federal budget her No. 1 concern. "A lot of money is misappropriated now to fund the war. I'd rather see it spent at home on health care, education and elder services."

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials now predict that by the end of September, processing times will average 10 to 12 months. They aim to reduce the wait to five months in another year.

"USCIS is committed to processing each application as quickly as possible, as long as the quality of the work done isn't compromised in the name of speed," said Sharon Rummery, a spokeswoman for the agency. "We're proud of the work we've done to clear away pending applications caused by last summer's surge, and feel we've exceeded all expectations."

But in many cities, from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., backlogs are still more than a year long. And tens of thousands of would-be citizens who had hoped to have a say in the presidential election say the prospect of voting Nov. 4 is growing dim.

A citizenship drive launched by several national Latino political organizations - dubbed Ya es hora! or "Now's the time" - encouraged an estimated 1 million legal permanent residents to naturalize over the past two years. But those groups have been voicing dismay that the process bogged down.

"So many things have gone wrong," said Laura Anduze, a spokeswoman for the National Council of La Raza. "We know there are a lot of people who are still waiting. ... These are people who wanted to make it to the election. That's one of the reasons they really made an effort to become citizens."

The backlog emerged after then-Citizenship Services Director Emilio Gonza*** asked Congress in 2007 to approve a near-doubling of the naturalization fee to $595. The agency's budget is fee-based, rather than funded by tax dollars, and Gonza*** argued that the increased revenue would allow him to cut processing times. Instead, the surge that anticipated the fee hike only backed up the process.

Congressional leaders with oversight of the agency came down hard, and Gonza*** resigned in February. One of the toughest watchdogs was San Jose Rep. Zoe Lofgren, chair of the immigration subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, who held a hearing on the naturalization delays in January.

"USCIS has a lot of performance problems," she said in an interview with The Chronicle earlier this month. "That's one of the tasks for the next president. They don't have a computer system that works, and they need to put in some competent administrators."

Today she applauds the agency for catching up on the backlog, but she said it wouldn't have happened without pressure.

"Not only did we have hearings, but I had private meetings with the former director and the acting director," she said. "I told them, 'I'm not asking you to cut any corners, but you need to put some resources on this. You raised the fee, now you have to perform.' "

With the money from the higher fees, USCIS hired 2,000 more agents nationally, including calling back retirees, and instituted weekend shifts and overtime pay to process more cases, said Rummery. She dismissed the idea that congressional oversight had played a part in the increased staffing.

Naturalization processing has been further slowed in recent years by the post-Sept. 11 requirement that all would-be citizens be cleared by the Federal Bureau of Investigations. The FBI backlog is outside the control of USCIS, and naturalization clearances often get lower priority than other FBI clearances, analysts say.

Prior to Sept. 11, 2001, the fingerprints of citizenship applicants were sent to the FBI, and if the agency didn't find anything wrong within three months, the case was cleared, according to Muzaffar Chishti, an immigration expert at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.; today, the FBI must explicitly clear each applicant, and that has caused particular delays for people with Muslim names, he said.

"If any part of your name matches any part of anyone on a lookout list, then you can't get a clearance unless it's affirmatively determined that you are not that person," said Chishti. "All the Muhammads must be cleared."

In April, almost 83,000 FBI name checks had been pending for more than a year, but that number was reduced to 10,000 by early August, said Rummery. By the end of November, the FBI plans to complete another 65,000 name checks to eliminate all backlogs of a year or more, she said.

That will be too late for immigrants who were motivated to get involved in the American democratic process as voters. And that, said Chishti, is a missed opportunity.

"This is really important for us to do well in this particular year, because there's an unprecedented level of excitement about the political process in this country."

I guess the US isn't the only country with strict immigration laws

http://freeport.nassauguardian.net/national_local/303995042194811.php

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Local/National News

Two American men deported after being charged for working illegally

By GENEA NOEL

Freeport News Reporter

Two illegal immigrants were hauled before a Freeport Magistrate Court yesterday to answer to charges for working without a permit.

Timothy Berry and Juan Antonio Lora, both citizens of the United States, pleaded guilty to "engaging in gainful employment" at lots located on Pine Island at Old Bahama Bay in West End.

Appearing before magistrate Debbie Ferguson, the two admitted that on August 21 of this year they were installing lights and stereo equipment at a residence without first obtaining permission from the Director of Immigration.

Both were granted bail and required to pay a fine of $3,000 each or serve 18 months in Her Majesty's prison. Berry, age 49 and Lora, age 42, opted to pay the fine and Magistrate Ferguson ordered that they both be deported immediately after payment.

Grade One Immigration Officer, Deron Brooks served as witness on the case and said that the illegal workers were operating contrary to section 29 of the Immigration Act and were punishable under section 49; subsection one.

The court has issued a bench arrest for 36 year-old Jamaal Freeman, who was also working with the pair that was charged.

According to Brooks, Freeman left the country and should he return, he will be charged for obscuring the law.

"Ignorance is no excuse to the law. Anyone wanting to work in The Bahamas should do it the proper way upon arrival and fill out the necessary documents so their request can be filled," Brooks cautioned.

He also advised for persons hiring illegal persons to "do the right thing" because they could face criminal charges as well.

Quote:
I guess the US isn't the only country with strict immigration laws

Yup, they must have loved working in the Bahamas, working and vacationing at the same time.

This is supposed to be the largest single-place workplace raid in history.

ICE: Nearly 600 detained in Mississippi plant raid By HOLBROOK MOHR, Associated Press Writer
Tue Aug 26, 7:32 PM ET

The largest single-workplace immigration raid in U.S. history has caused panic among Hispanic families in this small southern Mississippi town, where federal agents rounded up nearly 600 plant workers suspected of being in the country illegally.

One worker caught in Monday's sweep at the Howard Industries transformer plant said fellow workers applauded as immigrants were taken into custody. Federal officials said a tip from a union member prompted them to start investigating several years ago.

Fabiola Pena, 21, cradled her 2-year-old daughter as she described a chaotic scene at the plant as the raid began, followed by clapping.

"I was crying the whole time. I didn't know what to do," Pena said. "We didn't know what was happening because everyone started running. Some people thought it was a bomb but then we figured out it was immigration."

About 100 of the 595 detained workers were released for humanitarian reasons, many of them mothers who were fitted with electronic monitoring bracelets and allowed to go home to their children, officials said.

About 475 other workers were transferred to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Jena, La. Nine who were under 18 were transferred to the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

John Foxworth, an attorney representing some of the immigrants, said eight appeared in federal court in Hattiesburg on Tuesday because they face criminal charges for allegedly using false Social Security and residency identification.

He said the raid was traumatic for families.

"There was no communication, an immediate loss of any kind of news and a lack of understanding of what's happening to their loved ones," he said. "A complete and utter feeling of helplessness."

The superintendent of the county school district said about half of approximately 160 Hispanic students were absent Tuesday.

Roberto Ve***, pastor at Iglesia Cristiana Peniel, where an estimated 30 to 40 percent of the 200 parishioners were caught up in the raid, said parents were afraid immigration officials would take them.

"They didn't send their kids to school today," he said. "How scared is that?"

Those detained were from Brazil, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, and Peru, said Barbara Gonza***, an ICE spokeswoman.

Elizabeth Alegria, 26, a Mexican immigrant, was working at the plant Monday when ICE agents stormed in. When they found out she has two sons, ages 4 and 9, she was fitted with a bracelet and told to appear in federal court next month. Her husband, Andres, was not so lucky.

"I'm very traumatized because I don't know if they are going to let my husband go and when I will see him," Elizabeth Alegria said through a translator Tuesday as she returned to the Howard Industries parking lot to retrieve her sport utility vehicle.

"We have kids without dads and pregnant mothers who got their husbands taken away," said Ve***'s son, Robert, youth pastor at the church. "It was like a horror story. They got handled like they were criminals."

Howard Industries is in Mississippi's Pine Belt region, known for commercial timber growth and chicken processing plants. The tech company produces dozens of products ranging from electrical transformers to medical supplies, according to its Web site.

Gonza*** said agents had executed search warrants at both the plant and the company headquarters in nearby Ellisville. She said no company executives had been detained, but this is an "ongoing investigation and yesterday's action was just the first part."

A woman at the Ellisville headquarters told The Associated Press on Tuesday that no one was available to answer questions.

In a statement to the Laurel Leader-Call newspaper, Howard Industries said the company "runs every check allowed to ascertain the immigration status of all applicants for its jobs."

"It is company policy that it hires only U.S. citizens and legal immigrants," the statement said.

Gov. Haley Barbour recently signed a law requiring Mississippi employers to use a U.S. Homeland Security system to check new workers' immigration status.

The law took effect July 1 for businesses with state contracts and takes effect Jan. 1 for other businesses. Mississippi lawmakers once used laptops made by Howard Industries, but it's not clear whether the company has current state contracts.

Under the law, a company found guilty of employing illegal immigrants could lose public contracts for three years and the right to do business in Mississippi for one year.

The law also makes it a felony for an illegal immigrant to accept a job in Mississippi. A message was left with the district attorney's office after hours seeking comment on whether he would use the law to bring state charges against Howard Industries or the workers.

The Mississippi raid is one of several nationwide in recent years.

On May 12, federal immigration officials swept into Agriprocessors, the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant, in Iowa. Nearly 400 workers were detained and dozens of fraudulent permanent resident alien cards were seized from the plant's human resources department, according to court records. In December 2006, 1,297 were arrested at Swift meatpacking plants in Nebraska and five other states.

___

Associated Press Writers Shelia Byrd in Hattiesburg, Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson and Eileen Sullivan in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.


Source

http://www.woai.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=d9...7f-81eb-07d4ef16c572

Employers not Required to Report Illegal Workers

Last Update: 8:20 am


CARROLLTON, Texas (AP) - Did a suburban Dallas employer go too far when it told police about a job applicant who presented what turned out to be a counterfeit social security card?

Relatives and advocates for Maria Martinez say that's what happened when she was arrested, jailed and deported as an illegal immigrant after applying for a hospital cafeteria job.

But a spokeswoman for Trinity Medical Center in Carrollton contends the hospital was simply following policy and has a responsibility to report criminal activity, including possible identity theft, to the proper authorities.

During yet another year marked by several high profile immigration raids targeting both undocumented workers and the companies who hire them, the case raises questions about what employers can or should do if they discover an applicant is not authorized to work legally in the U.S.

Martinez, a single mother of a 3-year-old son and a teenage daughter, showed the hospital's cafeteria director a social security card when applying for a job there in July and also included the card's number on her application, according to police reports. About a week later, however, a background check revealed the number had been issued to a person who had since died.

The hospital's personnel director notified Carrollton police of the discrepancy. Detectives also were informed that Martinez had an appointment the next day at the hospital's human resources office, according to documents filed in the case.

Police were waiting at the hospital and arrested Martinez on a charge of tampering with a government record.

According to police, Martinez acknowledged buying the social security card for $110 at a Wal-Mart. She also had a second social security card and two counterfeit cards stating she was a legal permanent resident.

Martinez initially planned to fight the state charge but after being held in jail for nearly three weeks, she agreed to be deported with her son to Mexico in August.

"She told me to please forgive her. She told me she wasn't strong enough to fight," said Martinez' 19-year-old daughter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she also is in the U.S. illegally.

What makes Martinez' case stand out is that employers aren't required to report someone suspected of a crime, attorneys say. They also aren't mandated to report a worker or applicant suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, say immigration attorneys and enforcement officials.

"For an employer to go ahead and take it upon themselves ... to report that is unusual," said immigration attorney Kathleen Walker. "There's no obligation on my part to go call law enforcement."

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Carl Rusnok agreed, saying employers and local police typically don't have the training needed to determine whether someone is in the country illegally.

Carrollton's mayor has emphasized that one of his priorities is to rid the city of illegal immigrants. In the neighboring suburb of Farmers Branch, city officials have unsuccessfully tried to prohibit landlords from renting houses and apartments to tenants who cannot prove they are in the U.S. legally.

But hospital spokeswoman Susan Watson said the decision to report Martinez had nothing to do with the immigration debate swirling in suburban Dallas. The hospital reported what it considered a crime, said Watson.

"Regardless of whether they were an illegal alien, legal immigrant or an American citizen, it still wouldn't have mattered, they still would have been reported," she said.

Watson said it was the first time in at least two years that the hospital reported a possible crime involving a worker or applicant to police. It is always on alert, she added, because many employees have access to patients' medical records and other private information.

Immigration attorneys and others, however, are concerned that many employers have become overly cautious, to the point that they may be bending or breaking the law, as well.

Laws and policies prohibit employers from scrutinizing a job applicant's identity or work eligibility before they are hired, said Walker, an El Paso lawyer and former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

"When people are being prescreened before a decision to hire is being made, then you could have exposure to discrimination charges," she said.

Recent workplace raids around the country have increasingly focused on identity theft and use of someone else's social security number. But those have resulted from federal ICE investigations into workers at specific companies, not calls from an employer to local police.

Still, those raids have left employers edgy, said Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute at NYU School of Law.

"I think employers are beginning to feel the pinch and in many cases I think they are trying not only to be sort of extra cautious but ... to be pre-emptive," said Chishti. "What's troubling is that employers have taken it upon themselves the job of ascertaining whether a crime has been committed."

quote:

According to police, Martinez acknowledged buying the social security card for $110 at a Wal-Mart. She also had a second social security card and two counterfeit cards stating she was a legal permanent resident.

Martinez initially planned to fight the state charge but after being held in jail for nearly three weeks, she agreed to be deported with her son to Mexico in August.

"She told me to please forgive her. She told me she wasn't strong enough to fight," said Martinez' 19-year-old daughter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she also is in the U.S. illegally.

I wonder what she thought she was going to fight Guilty is as charged. stolen identitiy and fake id. She is lucky that she didnt get charged to go to jail and then be deported. unbelievable

Question okay i got a letter staing my green card replacement application known as i-90was approved after wow 15 months So good news i did move and notified them of my address etc as i work on contracts when i changed my address they sent me confirmation notices of adddress change Now after 37 days of receiving the approval letter and not receiving the physical card I called them and the guy said since i have not received it and it has not come back to them I have to refile the i-90 370 bucks and wait again nyone have any advice kinda frustratting i complied with their rules etc

So noone seems to know where the card is the letter i received said it was approved on July 25th 2008 and i dont have it and they dont have it and letters they send arrive here to me what shouldm i do refile again its 37

http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSN0235168...alBrandChannel=10112

Immigration debate cools off

Wed Sep 3, 2008 6:48am

ST. PAUL (Reuters) - Immigration, once the hottest U.S. political issue, is on a backburner this election season with little firm evidence it will advance, no matter who moves into the White House in January.

Calls for securing the southern U.S. border and overhauling outdated immigration laws exploded onto the national scene in 2006 with demonstrations in several big cities. Washington failed to work out a broad deal the following year.

Two months before the presidential election, interest in immigration reform has given way to worries over energy prices. That, coupled with different strategies for wooing the votes of the country's growing Hispanic population and a sour U.S. economy, could be why immigration reform is dormant.

"Despite the fact that immigration was the hottest issue, the thing that everyone talks now is energy," said Rep. Adam Putnam of Florida, a member of the House of Representatives' Republican leadership team, during a brief interview.

As global oil prices surged this year, hitting U.S. consumers hard because of their gas-guzzling ways, Republicans in Congress have wanted to talk about little else lately other than expanding domestic oil drilling.

Immigration reform was once a signature issue for Sen. John McCain, who accepts the Republican Party's nomination this week as their choice to run against Democrat Barack Obama in the November 4 election.

Upholding his reputation as a political maverick, the Arizona senator had infuriated many Republican conservatives with his efforts to allow some who came to the United States illegally to work their way to permanent legal status.

McCain also has embraced President George W. Bush's project to build a 670-mile fence separating the United States and Mexico to keep illegal immigrants out. Conservatives insist the fence along the southern U.S. border is an important national security tool.

Democrats have promised to pass an immigration reform bill during Obama's first year in office. But plenty of details need to be worked out and efforts likely would be slowed by Republicans not wanting to hand Obama any major legislative victories, according to a former customs and border enforcement official close to the immigration debate.

U.S. ECONOMY NEEDS WORKERS

Whether the passion for immigration reform flares again will depend in part on the health of the U.S. economy. Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican who opposes broad reforms, said rising unemployment in the United States is now discouraging both parties from raising the issue.

But U.S. companies, many of which back broad reforms, want a more efficient way for bringing in more foreign workers, from low-paid temporary farm hands to nursing home helpers and high-paid high-tech specialists.

"Both (political) parties are ducking the immigration issue," said Tom Donohue, head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "They don't want to get in the middle of it because everyone wants the Hispanic vote" that could be critical in many states this year, he said.

That means, he said, that immigration reform advocates will ride their support among Hispanics to victory, while opponents, many of them conservative Republicans, will try to avoid the topic.

The tough part of immigration reform, which pits McCain against his party's conservatives, is "amnesty," or whether an estimated 12 million foreigners who came to the United States illegally, should be allowed to eventually stay.

Many of them now have U.S.-born offspring.

Cecilia Munoz, senior vice president of the National Council of La Raza, the largest U.S. Hispanic civil rights group, disputes that the trail has gone cold on immigration reform. She noted that "in state and local elections all over the country, people are talking about it."

From her view, the presidential candidates "do not have huge differences."

The question is whether McCain, if elected, will be able to maintain a passionate support for broad reform and bring his party with him, Munoz said.

So far, that hasn't happened.

Republicans will anoint McCain as their leader this week, all the while embracing an immigration plank declaring: "We oppose amnesty. The rule of law suffers if government policies encourage or reward illegal activity."

That stance might satisfy the most conservative in the Republican Party. But it risks offending another important constituency: longtime McCain supporters like Betty Hill.

The retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who traveled from San Antonio, Texas, to attend the Republican convention, said she wants comprehensive immigration reform as one of the top goals of a McCain administration.

Voicing support for amnesty, Hill said: "What do you do with 12 million people? There's no way you can deport all of them."