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Reactions to Napolitano as possible Homeland Security chief
Groups and lawmakers on both sides of the immigration debate are weighing in on reports that Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano is the top choice to lead the Department of Homeland Security.
Napolitano is an advocate of giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship. She also ordered the National Guard to the Arizona border to help stop illegal crossings and reduce violence.
Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immgration Forum, said that the choice of Napolitano “is a welcome signal that President-elect Obama intends to take immigration seriously during his administration.”
“As a border governor, Napolitano has exhibited a clear understanding of the challenges presented by our nation’s broken immigration system,” Noorani said.
Rep. Brian Bilbray, a California Republican who chairs the Immigration Reform Caucus, said he was eager to work with the incoming Secretary of Homeland Security.
“As the governor of a border state, Janet Napolitano knows better than anyone how important border security is to our national security. I believe we can work well together to re-authorize and improve the E-verify program, secure our borders and crackdown on illegal employment,” he said.
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John Malkovich to make documentary about illegal immigrant children
According to the AP, actor and director John Malkovich “is so touched by the plight of migrant children who cross illegally into the United States that he plans to make a documentary about it.”
Malkovich told AP that the documentary will be called “Triple Crissing” and will try to humanize the issue of illegal immigration.
Read more here.
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Obama picks scholars to develop immigration plan
President-elect Barack Obama on Wednesday announced several “policy working groups” of experts to help craft proposals on various topics.
On immigration, he picked Alexander Aleinikoff, dean of the Georgetown University Law Center and Mariano-Florentino Cuellar, a professor at Stanford Law School.
Here are excerpts of their bios, sent out by the Obama transition team:
Aleinikoff has been dean of the Georgetown University Law Center and executive vice president of Georgetown University since July 2004. He has been a member of the Georgetown faculty since 1997. He served as general counsel and executive associate commissioner for programs at the Immigration and Naturalization Service for several years during the Clinton Administration. From 1997 to 2004, he was a senior associate at the Migration Policy Institute. He has written widely on immigration, refugee and citizenship law and constitutional law.
Cuellar is professor at Stanford Law School. His work focuses on how organizations manage complex regulatory, migration, international security, and criminal justice problems. During the Clinton Administration, he served at Treasury as senior advisor to the Under Secretary for Enforcement, where he worked on countering domestic and international financial crime, improving border coordination, and enhancing anti-corruption measures. He has served on the boards of numerous organizations. He has testified before Congress on immigration policy and separation of powers.
See the list of Obama’s other chosen experts here.
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Many Americans worried immigration could cause terrorism
The German Marshall Fund released an interesting survey this week which showed that 35 percent of Europeans and 40 percent of Americans believe that more immigration leads to increased risk of terrorism.
The survey also showed that 52 percent of Europeans and 47 percent of Americans say that immigration will increase crime in their society.
However, a significant number of respondents also said that they are only concerned about illegal immigrants, not legal ones.
Read more here.
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Rove says immigration reform key to saving GOP
The plan includes “regaining ground among critial voting groups including Hispanics.”
Here is an excerpt:
“The GOP won’t be a majority party if it cedes the young or Hispanics to Democrats. Republicans must find a way to support secure borders, a guest-worker program and comprehensive immigration reform that strengthens citizenship, grows our economy and keeps America a welcoming nation. An anti-Hispanic attitude is suicidal.”
Rove’s roadmap — dubbed “A Way Out of the Wilderness” — was published in Newsweek. See it here.
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Thousands of criminal illegal immigrants released in Houston
Federal immigration officials allowed scores of violent criminals to walk away from a jail in Harris County, Texas despite the inmates’ admission to local authorities that they were in the country illegally, the Houston Chronicle reported this week.
The papers’ investigation found that most of the inmates released from custody were accused of minor crimes, but hundreds of convicted felons — including child molesters, rapists and drug dealers — also managed to avoid deportation after serving time in jail.
Read the story here.
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Feds issue final E-Verify rule
Starting next year, most federal contractors must prove that their employees are in the United States legally.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a final rule on the requirement Friday. It mandates companies to use a federal system — known as E-Verify — that compares employee information to electronic government records.
If the information doesn’t match, the employee has an opportunity to correct the paperwork, often through a trip to a Social Security office.
Federal contracts of more than $100,000 and subcontracts of more than $3,000 issued after Jan. 15, 2009 will be subject to the new rule.
Critics of E-Verify — including civil rights organizations and Hispanic groups — denounced the rule. They say that E-Verify relies on faulty government databases and would cause thousands of citizens and legal residents to be mistakenly rejected for work. They also say it would cripple the Social Security Administration (SSA).
“At a time when our economy is under duress, people are without work and struggling to stay in their homes, why would the federal government expand a policy known to prevent innocent Americans from earning a living,” said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU’s Washington legislative office.
USCIS says that 96 percent of all queries to E-Verify are authorized instantly and that those who are not approved have the opportunity to fix the problem by correcting their government records.
Jonathan “Jock” Scharfen, acting director of USCIS, recently touted the E-Verify program with reporters, saying that it is the best means available for determining job eligibility of new hires and the validity of their Social Security numbers.
Federal officials also said that criminals with outstanding warrants have been caught through the E-Verify program, which is currently voluntary in most states.
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Feds issue final E-Verify rule
Starting next year, most federal contractors must prove that their employees are in the United States legally.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a final rule on the requirement Friday. It mandates companies to use a federal system — known as E-Verify — that compares employee information to electronic government records.
If the information doesn’t match, the employee has an opportunity to correct the paperwork, often through a trip to a Social Security office.
Federal contracts of more than $100,000 and subcontracts of more than $3,000 issued after Jan. 15, 2009 will be subject to the new rule.
Critics of E-Verify — including civil rights organizations and Hispanic groups — denounced the rule. They say that E-Verify relies on faulty government databases and would cause thousands of citizens and legal residents to be mistakenly rejected for work. They also say it would cripple the Social Security Administration (SSA).
“At a time when our economy is under duress, people are without work and struggling to stay in their homes, why would the federal government expand a policy known to prevent innocent Americans from earning a living,” said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU’s Washington legislative office.
USCIS says that 96 percent of all queries to E-Verify are authorized instantly and that those who are not approved have the opportunity to fix the problem by correcting their government records.
Jonathan “Jock” Scharfen, acting director of USCIS, recently touted the E-Verify program with reporters, saying that it is the best means available for determining job eligibility of new hires and the validity of their Social Security numbers.
Federal officials also said that criminals with outstanding warrants have been caught through the E-Verify program, which is currently voluntary in most states.
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Tancredo asks Obama to pardon border agents
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., sent a letter to president-elect Barack Obama this week, asking him to pardon two former Border Patrol agents within the first two weeks of his administration.
The agents — Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos — are serving 12 and 11 years in prison, respectively for shooting a Mexican drug dealer and trying to cover it up.
Supporters say that the agents were wrongly convicted for protecting the United States against a criminal illegal immigrant.
Tancredo said the agents were “wrongly imprisoned” and that an Obama pardon would “bring some needed changes” to Washington.
“These are the kind of men whose government failed and destroyed them - all while they were serving a cause greater than themselves. These men deserve justice,” he said, in the letter.
Tancredo urged Obama to pardon the agents during his first two weeks in office so they could spend President’s Day at home.
Tancredo and other lawmakers — including Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Dianne Feinstein of California — have urged President Bush to pardon Ramos and Compean.
The White House has given no indication that Bush intends to pardon the agents before he leaves office.
This week, the sentences of Compean and Ramos were re-instated after an appeals court dropped some of the minor charges against them, but upheld the bulk of the convictions.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican who has taken up the cause of Ramos and Compean, once again asked the current president to act.
“All decent Americans are now calling on President Bush to show some mercy towards these unjustly convicted men who never should have been prosecuted in the first place…This case is an ongoing travesty of justice that needs to be set right and I call on President Bush to do the right thing and commute their sentences,” he said.
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Immigration raid causes Kosher meat shortage?
Financial problems at the company that was the target of a large immigration raid six months ago have caused a nationwide shortage of Kosher meat, USA Today reported Thursday.
The immigration raid occurred six months ago at Agriprocessors Inc. a meat processing plant in Postville, Iowa. Nearly 400 workers were arrested on immigration violations and criminal charges.
The company, which field for bankrupcy last week, owes between $50 million and $100 million to creditors, USA Today said.
It provided about 60% of the nation’s kosher meat.
Postville was one in a string of large raids at workplaces.
The raids have been controversial leading Hispanic lawmakers on Capitol Hill to denounce what they called “inhumane” tactics by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE.
ICE has denied such accusations, saying that it is enforcing the law.
Read the USA Today story here.
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New Americans voted for Obama in high numbers
Latino immigrants voted for President-elect Barack Obama in higher numbers than other Hispanics, according to an analysis by the Immigration Policy Center, an advocacy group.
Among all Hispanics, 67 percent supported Obama, according to the analysis. Among Latino immigrants, the number was 78 percent.
It also says that new Americans helped push Obama to victory in several states including Indiana and North Carolina.
Read more here.
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Latino groups push Richardson for Secretary of State
The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, a coalition of 26 Latino groups, sent a letter to President-elect Barack Obama this week urging him to appoint New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to be the next Secretary of State.Â
Richardson campaigned hard for Obama after his own presidential bid fizzled.
John Trasvina, chair of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, said: “No one is more qualified to serve as our country’s chief diplomat than Gov. Bill Richardson. He helped free hostages in North Korea, Iraq, Sudan, and Cuba, secured an agreement protecting refugees in Afghanistan, negotiated a peaceful transfer of power in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and brokered a cease-fire in the troubled region of Darfur. He is not just a Democratic Party leader or an Hispanic community leader - he is an American leader.”
Richardson spent much of his childhood in Mexico, the birthplace of his mother. He often campaigned in Spanish.
His accompishments include:
— Two-term governor of New Mexico. First elected in 2002. Re-elected with almost 70 percent of the vote.
— Chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, where he oversaw a Democratic takeover of the majority of the nation’s governorships.
— Member of Congress, 1982-1997.
— Secretary of energy in the Clinton administration.
— U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, where he gained high marks for his tenure. In that post, he interviewed and offered a job to intern Monica Lewinsky at the behest of the White House, therefore becoming involved in the scandal that led to President Clinton’s impeachment.
— Negotiated the release of two U.S. contractor employees in Iraq in 1995. The visit included an intense meeting with former dictator Saddam Hussein, who first stormed out of the room after Richardson inadvertently offended him by crossing his legs and showing him the dirty bottom of his shoe, according to an account in Richardson’s biography.
— Also traveled to North Korea, Sudan and Cuba to help win freedom for captives.
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Former RNC chair says “anti-Hispanic rhetoric” hurt the GOP
Sen. Mel Martinez, former head of the Republican National Committee, said this week that the GOP “had better figure out how to talk” to Latinos if they want to return to power.
“There were voices within our party, frankly, which if they continue with that kind of rhetoric, anti-Hispanic rhetoric, that so much of it was heard, we’re going to be relegated to minority status,” he said, on NBC’s Meet the Press.
Martinez was discussing the rhetoric surrounding the immigration debate.
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Julie Myers, head of immigration agency, resigns
Julie Myers, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has resigned, the Department of Homeland Security announced this week.
ICE has been at the center of a political storm over its stepped up workplace immigration raids across the country.
The Department of Homeland Security announced that Myers will depart on Nov. 15.
In a statement, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said that Myers “has been a major force in transforming ICE into a 21st century law enforcement agency.”
He also praised Myers’ leadership of “efforts to identify and charge criminal aliens incarcerated in our nation’s prisons and jails, modernize the removal process and provide enhanced oversight for detention operations.”
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Obama’s aunt will fight deportation
Barack Obama’s aunt, who has been living in the United States illegally, wants to fight a deportation order and stay in the country, the AP reported.
According to the story, Obama’s aunt, Zeituni Onyango, has been staying with relatives in Cleveland after fleeing her public housing apartment in Boston.
Cleveland attorney Margaret Wong told AP that she is exploring legal options and may file a motion to re-open Onyango’s case.
Read more here.
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Feds preparing for “comprehensive immigration reform”
The acting director of U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services (USCIS), said this week that the agency has made great strides in clearing backlogs of citizenship applications.
The improvements will help the agency show that it can handle new legalization efforts if Congress and the upcoming Obama administration tackle the issue next year, federal officials said.
“Comprehensive immigration reform is obviously a goal that we believe is unfinished business,” said Jonathan “Jock” Scharfen, acting director of USCIS.
Scharfen was referring to a sweeping immigration bill that failed last year which would have given illegal immigrants a path to citizenship and created a guest worker program.
President-elect Barack Obama favors such a measure.
USCIS reported that it has completed more than 1.1 million naturalization applications this year, a 50 percent increase from 2007.
The agency has also interviewed more than 100,000 refugee applicants and completed more than 47,000 asylum applications this year.
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Obama scores big with Latino voters
The 2008 presidential election put to bed at least one perpetual political myth — that Latinos won’t vote for a black candidate.
President-elect Barack Obama scored big with Hispanic voters — capturing 66 percent of the vote. Among younger Hispanics, the number was 76 percent.
Latinos were instrumental in delivering key states to Obama including Florida, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. They also gave him a boost in some surprising places such as Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Obama and his rival, GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona, spent millions on Spanish-language ads to influence Hispanics, including many naturalized citizen voting for the first time.
Last year, a record 1.4 million people applied for naturalization and more than 480,000 followed this year.
Read more here.
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Obama would offer “pathway to citizenship”
Sen. Barack Obama fielded online questions for MTV this weekend, including one from “Gonzalez F” from Washington, D.C.
The writer said he arrived in the United States when he was 3 years old and “can’t even remember what Mexico looks like.”
He asked Obama whether he would help young immigrants like himself become citizens of the United States.
This was Obama’s answer: “I have been consistent about this. What we need is a comprehensive approach. We are serious about the borders. We make sure folks aren’t breaking the law. We crack down on employers who are unlawfully hiring undocumented workers, but we also provide a pathway to citizenship that has to be earned. People have to register, pay taxes, they have to pay a fine if they have come here illegally, they have to make sure they are learning English… I think we have to have a practical approach to this thing, so we make sure we have a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.”
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Obama says “laws must be obeyed” in aunt’s case
Sen. Barack Obama said Monday that his aunt, who is reportedly living in the United States illegally, should be deported if she violated the law.
Couric asked Obama if he would support his aunt being deported to Kenya.
Obama said: “If she has violated laws, then those laws have to be obeyed. We’re a nation of laws. And, you know, obviously, that doesn’t lessen my concern for her. I haven’t been able to get in touch with her, but it — you know, I’m a strong believer that you obey the law.”
The topic of illegal immigration has been largely absent from the presidential campaign until this weekend, when the Associated Press reported that Obama’s aunt from Kenya had ignored deportation orders.
The woman — Zeituni Onyango — is living in public housing in Boston and is the half-sister of Obama’s late father, according to AP.
Read more here.
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Appeals court hears Hazleton case
A federal appeals court heard arguments Thursday on whether an immigration ordinance in Hazleton, Pa. is legal.
The law — which cracks down on landlords that rent to illegal immigrants and businesses that hire them — has been copied by other cities and towns around the country and is considered an important test case.
A federal judge ruled in July that the Hazleton ordinance would violate due process rights guaranteed in the Fourteenth Amendment and conflicted with federal law.
The court also ruled that the Constitution provides due process protections to all persons, including illegal immigrants.
On Thursday, two lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union argued that the Hazleton’s ordinance is illegal because it conflicts with what Congress envisioned with the Immigration Control and Reform Act of 1986, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
The paper also quoted Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, who is running for a U.S. House seat. He defended the ordinances, saying they don’t conflict with federal law because, ultimately, “only the federal government will determine immigration status” after a person’s paperwork is submitted to authorities in Washington.
Read more here.
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Most immigrant veterans from Latin America, Europe
Most foreign-born veterans in the U.S. Armed Forces are from Europe and Latin America, according to a new analysis by the Migration Policy Institute, a non-partisan research group in Washington.
The countries where the highest numbers of U.S. immigrant veterans were born include the Philippines — representing 12 percent of foreign-born veterans — and Mexico, birthplace to 11 percent.
Read more here.
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THE RACIST WING OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS GONE. THEY WERE NOTHING BUT ANGRY INFERIOR HILLBILLIES.
i AM A TRUE REPUBLICAN AND WANT PROPER IMMIGRATION REFORM, ENFORCE THE BORDERS FIRST AND THEN GIVE RESIDENCY TO COLLEGE STUDENTS ONLY WHO ARE HERE
... read the full comment by TRUECONSERVATIVE | Comment on Rove says immigration reform key to saving GOP Read Rove says immigration reform key to saving GOP
Quote Native American: “the current Republican base, which is overwhelmingly opposed to what they view as amnesty, he said. They are caught between a changing electorate and a shrinking conservative base”
You’re wrong again and
... read the full comment by L1M89 | Comment on Rove says immigration reform key to saving GOP Read Rove says immigration reform key to saving GOP
Quote Aguila: “The problem I see with the discussion of “immigration reform” is that it’s presented as an either/or choice.” The pro-Illegal Alien zealots turned it into your either/or debate by clouding the issue, morphing the invasion
... read the full comment by L1M89 | Comment on Obama picks scholars to develop immigration plan Read Obama picks scholars to develop immigration plan
Quote Cindy: “And you L1M89 sound like Daniel Carver.”
The KKK that you childishly alluded to was originally a terrorist wing of the DemocRatz Party. Perhaps when you mature you’ll learn how to debate an issue
... read the full comment by L1M89 | Comment on Obama picks scholars to develop immigration plan Read Obama picks scholars to develop immigration plan
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