Senators challenge governor on Guard at border
By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services

Phoenix — State senators voted Tuesday to force Gov. Janet Napolitano to put more National Guard troops along the border, all but daring her to veto it.

On party-line votes, the Republican majority agreed to set aside $10 million and ordered the governor to expand the presence of the Guard in Southern Arizona. Sen. Dean Martin, R-Phoenix, said the action simply gives the Democratic governor the money to do what she said she wanted in her State of the State speech two months ago.

Late Thursday, the House, which had approved the identical measure but with only $5 million, gave preliminary approval on a voice vote to the Senate changes.

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Ariz. House OKs immigration bill
Weakened measure penalizes companies that hire entrants
By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Service

Phoenix — For the first time ever, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved legislation Tuesday to penalize companies that knowingly hire undocumented workers.

The voice vote came after Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, diluted some provisions to make it more acceptable to business. That includes an escape clause saying companies cannot be penalized if they comply with state and federal hiring laws.

Also gone are provisions to automatically revoke the license of companies with three illegal- hiring offenses in a year, and another that would have allowed employees who are laid off to sue companies if undocumented workers remain employed.

Pearce said what remains is significant, including requirements for state and local agencies that issue business licenses to audit companies to see if they are getting around the law.

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Study today will show how federal policies affect U.S. border
Diana Washington Valdez
El Paso Times

El Paso County Judge Dolores Briones will join other U.S. county officials today to present an unprecedented study of the border at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Shawn Bullard, spokesman for the U.S.-Mexico Border Counties Coalition, said the study that took two years to complete examines how federal policies affect more than half a dozen areas, including health care, immigration, crime, drug trafficking, trade, labor, education, housing, growth and environment.

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U.S. ambassador Garza lauds U.S.-Mexico ties
Louie Gilot
El Paso Times
Photo by Mark Lambie

JUAREZ -- U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza focused on U.S.-Mexico relations during his visit Tuesday to Juárez, where he led a groundbreaking ceremony on the site of the future new U.S. consulate.

Garza praised Mexico as the United States' "longtime partner and friend," a diplomatic line he has repeated since a border standoff in Hudspeth County in January became an international incident. That incident involved drug smugglers and uniformed and armed men who may or may not have been Mexican soldiers.

"Mexico is a partner that we trust and a friend we will continue to work with closely on our mutual challenges," Garza said.

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Pew Hispanic Center offers report on the size and characteristics of the "unauthorized migrate" population*

Some sample statistics:

• The number of unauthorized migrants living in the United States has continued to increase steadily for several years, reaching an estimated 11.1 million based on the March 2005 compared to an estimate of 8.4 million based on Census 2000.
• Since 2000, growth in the unauthorized population has averaged more than500,000 per year. Based on evidence that this trend has persisted, the currentunauthorized population can be estimated at between 11.5 and 12 million.
• In the March 2005 estimate two-thirds (66%) of the unauthorized population had been in the country for ten years or less, and the largest share, 40% of the totalor 4.4 million people had been in the country five years or less.
• Unauthorized migrants accounted for 30% of the foreign-born population in 2005. Another 28% were legal permanent residents, and 31% were U.S. citizens by naturalization
• Most of unauthorized migrants came from Mexico. There were an estimated 6.2 million unauthorized Mexican migrants in 2005, or 56% of the unauthorized population.
• About 2.5 million unauthorized migrants, or 22% of the total, have come from the rest of Latin America, primarily from Central America. Unauthorized migrants from Mexico and the rest of Latin America represented 78% of the unauthorized population in 2005.
• Between 2000 and 2005 the number of unauthorized migrants from Mexico increased by about 1.5 million. Other large increases occurred among unauthorized migrants from Central America (+465,000) and South and East Asia (+365,000).
  

* Here is their explanation for their version of being policitcally correct in using the phrase "unauthorized migrate".

This report uses the term “unauthorized migrant” to mean a person who resides in the United States but who is not a U.S. citizen, has not been admitted for permanent residence, and is not in a set of specific authorized temporary statuses permitting longer term residence and work. (See Passel, Van Hook, and Bean 2004 for further discussion.)

Two groups account for the vast majority of this population: (a) those who entered the country without valid documents, including people crossing the Southwestern border clandestinely; and (b) those who entered with valid visas but overstayed their visas’ expiration or otherwise violated the terms of their admission. Some migrants in this estimate have legal authorization to live and work in the United States on a temporary basis. These include migrants with temporary protected status (TPS) and some migrants with unresolved asylum claims. Together they may account for as much as 10% of the estimate.

Who knows this may be the middle ground between those who insist on using the word "crinimals" and those who prefer "undocumented workers". -mm

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Nuevo Laredo cops are killed; media muzzled
Mariano Castillo
Express-News Border Bureau

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — Suspected drug traffickers killed a state police commander and another officer Tuesday in a daylight ambush on a highway here, the latest in a wave of violence that refuses to loosen its grip on this city.

The gunfire roared for more than 20 minutes, witnesses said, but hardly a word of the 10 a.m. shootout was heard on radio stations here Tuesday.

Threats phoned to news organizations produced an effective blackout on coverage, several journalists said.