Day-labor bill rejected; may resurface

The Associated Press

Published: 05.23.2008

PHOENIX - The Arizona Senate dealt at least a temporary setback to efforts to place new restraints on day laborers.

The Senate narrowly rejected a bill Thursday prohibiting day laborers from seeking work on public streets and sidewalks and private property under some circumstances.

With seven senators absent before the long Memorial Day weekend, supporters fell one vote short of the number needed for passage. A reconsideration vote could be held next week when more senators are on hand.

Takeover of Mexican Congress enters second week, causes country international embarrassment

By E. Eduardo Castillo

ASSOCIATED PRESS

2:42 p.m. April 17, 2008

MEXICO CITY – A weeklong blockade of Congress by leftist lawmakers not only is stalling urgent energy reforms – it's also getting downright embarrassing, Mexico's foreign minister said Thursday.

The administration of President Felipe Calderón showed signs of dwindling patience after congressional leaders were forced to withdraw an invitation for Indian President Pratibha Patil to address a session of Congress.

“Without doubt, it makes us look bad as a country,” Foreign Relations Secretary Patricia Espinosa said.

Lawmakers opposed to the oil reform chained shut the doors of the Congress building, and their supporters blocked senators from entering an alternative hall where they have been meeting since their headquarters were taken over by opponents last week.

Governor lets ELL bill pass - minus her signature

The Associated Press

Published: 04.15.2008

PHOENIX - Gov. Janet Napolitano on Monday let a funding increase for Arizona's instruction of students who are learning English become law without her signature, saying the bill was flawed but she wanted the state to avoid incurring costly fines.

The Legislature approved the $40.6 million measure last week to pay for implementing a 2006 law that revamps English Language Learning programs.

The 2006 law was enacted because Arizona's ELL programs and their funding were ruled to be inadequate to satisfy federal mandates for equal opportunities in education.

Napolitano's action came one day before a deadline set March 11 by U.S. District Judge Raner C. Collins for approval of appropriate funding for ELL programs. Collins ordered daily fines starting at $2 million if lawmakers missed the deadline. The fines would rise to $5 million after 30 days.

The state is requiring schools to implement instructional models that include daily four-hour immersion periods for the 138,000 ELL students in Arizona.

Real ID showdown averted for now

By McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The clash between the states and the federal government over nationwide rules to make driver's licenses more secure has ended - for now. A truce, of sorts, between the 50 states and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has kicked the issue down the road for the next president and Congress to hash out almost two years from now.

In a game of chicken over whether the federal government actually would pursue its enforcement threats, Maine last week became the last state to receive an extension to comply with the Real ID Act, the federal law aimed at keeping driver's licenses out of the hands of terrorists and illegal aliens.

Without that extension, residents of Maine and the other states that flirted with the March 31 deadline could not have used their driver's licenses to board airplanes and enter federal buildings after the rules take effect May 11.

DHS now says all states are in compliance with Real ID, but opposition to the act remains strong. Bills introduced in 11 states this year would bar participation in Real ID, including one that has made it to the desk of Republican Idaho Gov. Butch Otter, who has long opposed the law, according to his spokesman.

Mexican truck drivers take English exam in Spanish

DOT chief's admission to Senate panel contradicts administration's assurances
Posted: March 14, 2008 12:45 am Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
WorldNetDaily

Mexican truck drivers allowed to travel throughout the U.S. under a Bush administration demonstration project may not be proficient in English, despite Department of Transportation assurances to the contrary.

A brochure on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's website instructs Mexican truck drivers, "Did you know … You MUST be able to read and speak English to drive trucks in the United States."

Still, at the Senate Commerce Committee oversight hearing Tuesday, Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and DOT Inspector General Calvin L. Scovel III reluctantly admitted under intense questioning from Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., that Mexican drivers were being designated at the border as "proficient in English" even though they could explain U.S. traffic signs only in Spanish.

In the tense hearing, Dorgan accused Peters of being "arrogant" and in reckless disregard of a congressional vote to stop the Mexican trucking demonstration project by taking away funds to continue the project. Toward the end, the senator asked if it were true Mexican truckers could explain U.S. traffic signs only in Spanish when given English proficiency tests at the border.

See articles below on just how trustworthy these truckers coming from Mexico are? -mm

Immigration measures move ahead at Capitol

Mary Jo Pitzl
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 19, 2008 12:00 AM

Arizona's conflicted views on immigration surfaced Monday at the state Capitol, as a bill that would create a guest-worker program and another that would make it harder for day laborers to solicit work both won approval in their first outing.

It's the first round of immigration-related bills to be debated by lawmakers. A third measure, which would add illegal immigrants to the list of groups prohibited from carrying a gun in Arizona, died on a tie vote that broke along party lines.

For the second year in a row, Rep. John Kavanagh is pushing a bill that would allow police to cite people for criminal trespass if they are found to be actively soliciting work and disrupting traffic to do so.

It's an attempt to break up the huddles of day laborers who seek work by standing on sidewalks at busy intersections. The practice has been typified by last year's standoffs in front of Pruitts Furniture Store in Phoenix, as people seeking day-labor jobs blocked the entrances to the business and spurred counterprotests.

19 senators: Implement new border rules next year

SHERYL KORNMAN

Published: 01.30.2008

A bipartisan group of 19 U.S. senators Monday urged Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to wait to implement new U.S.-Mexico border travel rules until next year. The rules also affect the U.S.-Canadian border.

But Customs and Border Protection Deputy Commissioner Jayson Ahern, in Tucson Tuesday, said federal officers at land and seaports at both borders will require a document proving citizenship and a government picture ID proving identity beginning Thursday.

The changes will take full effect in June 2009, Ahern said. The senators want Homeland Security to wait until then and not implement ID requirements Thursday as planned.

But until 2009, Customs and Border Protection officers can use discretion in determining if a traveler has satisfactorily proved his citizenship and identity.

Illegal immigrant opponents say Va. losing untold money through education

From NBC12 News

Supporters of illegal immigration reform say they are pushing for Virginia's laws to be rewritten to protect citizens who live in the commonwealth legally.

During this legislative session, lawmakers will consider nearly 100 bills dealing with immigration. They include proposals that would give state police more power to detain illegal immigrants who commit crimes and legislation that would help verify if people in Virginia are legal citizens.

Former Henrico Delegate, Jack Reid, says illegal immigration is costing the state an untold amount of money.

“The fact is we don't know how much money it's costing us,” Reid said. “Public schools in this state must accept every student brought to them K through 12 - no exceptions. They don't even ask if you're here legally or not.”

Some who voted for sanctions seek rollback

By Howard Fischer

CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES

PHOENIX — Some state lawmakers who backed Arizona's new employer sanctions law last year now are pushing to dilute some of its provisions.

Rep. Bill Konopnicki, R-Safford, prime sponsor of the rollback, wants the law altered so a firm cannot lose its license to do business for having an undocumented worker on the payroll unless the worker was hired after the law took effect Jan. 1.

He said it's not fair to punish employers who had no opportunity to verify the legal status of new workers through the federal government's E-Verify database program, as required by the sanctions law.

Further, Konopnicki wants to require prosecutors to prove "regular, repeated and intentional actions" of illegal hiring before a license could be suspended or revoked. Companies would not be penalized for "isolated, sporadic or accidental acts."

Konopnicki's bills also would limit the types of licenses a judge could take away, a move Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, who crafted the original measure, said could exempt more than half of Arizona businesses from any type of punishment.

And even in those cases left, a company would be subject to license suspension or revocation only if guilt was proved "beyond a reasonable doubt," the same standard that applies for criminal convictions.

6 bills will delve into immigrant matters

If they pass, the state would make living and working in Florida more difficult for those people here illegally.

Jose Cardenas
St. Petersburg Times
January 2, 2008

In the two years since immigration legislation stalled in Congress, many states have passed their own laws targeting illegal immigrants.

Soon Florida could join them.

Legislators have filed six bills that would, among other things, penalize farms and government contractors that hire undocumented immigrants or require local officials to report their arrests to federal authorities. Come spring, legislators could debate whether to make it harder for an estimated 850,000 illegal immigrants to live and work in Florida.

"Our federal government, in my opinion, has failed our citizens in dealing with the crisis of illegal immigration," said state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, who filed two bills.

The Florida bills follow a trend of cities and states proposing local laws related to immigration.

The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that last year, more than 1,500 pieces of legislation were introduced in state legislatures. Of those, 244 became laws in 46 states, triple the number passed in 2006.

Nationally, the proposals touch predominantly on employment, law enforcement, drivers licenses and public benefits.

Ramos, Compean pardons? 'No,' 'No,' says Bush rep

Spokesman won't allow questions to be asked

Posted: December 22, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

The White House apparently is so reluctant to discuss the issue of pardons or commutations for convicted U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean that a spokesman doesn't even want to allow questions about the issue to be finished.

The circumstances arose during a White House press gaggle with spokesman Tony Fratto, when Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House, tried to raise the issue of the disparity in the treatment of the Border Patrol agents, compared to that given Scooter Libby, an aide to Vice President Dick Cheney who was convicted of lying during an investigation into the outing of the identity of a covert U.S. agent.

The agents were convicted and given prison sentences of 11 and 12 years for shooting after a self-confessed drug smuggler fleeing back into Mexico after leaving 750 pounds of marijuana in Texas, while Libby was excused from serving any of his prison sentence through President Bush's intervention.

The White House repeatedly has said there is a pardons request procedure available to the agents, even though Libby apparently did not go through the same process before Bush acted.

Delay of passport rule sought by Congress

By Devlin Barrett / Associated Press

Article Launched: 12/18/2007 12:00:00 AM MST

WASHINGTON -- Congress is seeking to delay a new security rule requiring passports at all U.S. border crossings next year in hopes of avoiding a repeat of last summer's vacation-killing backlog of passport applications.

The Bush administration said Monday it opposed the measure and still plans to go forward with implementing the planned passport rule next summer.

Lawmakers said Monday that under a major end-of-the-year spending bill to be voted on this week, the border passport rule would be moved back even further, to no earlier than June 1, 2009.

Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., said the government should have more time to implement the law, and "do it in a way that won't cause the same passport headaches we saw with the air travel requirement earlier this year."

In border states like Coleman's, the new laws have also raised concerns that local trade and tourism will suffer. In response, the State Department plans to create passcards which will cost less than half the nearly $100 charged for a new passport.

People have had two years to prepare for this and yet these politicians continue to react to the least common denominator. Forget that thousands have planned ahead, applied for and received their passports. These whining bureaucrats cater to and reward procrastinators and and the minority who do not want our border secured.

Mexican Government Vs. Those “Absurd” American Gun Rights

Nature abhors a vacuum. When the U.S. government ceased to care about controlling the U.S.-Mexican border, the region descended into anarchy.

We now have illegal aliens and drugs moving north and Mexican drug smugglers even setting up listening and observation posts north of the border. There is an intrinsic relation between drug and alien smuggling, with drug smugglers using illegal aliens, sometimes as drug runners, sometimes as decoys.

But open borders work both ways. Recently, the Mexican government has been getting upset because of south-bound smuggling: of guns. Its preferred solution: the U.S. should abolish the right to keep and bear arms.

Don’t laugh—if the Bush-backed drive to marry Mexico prevails, gun control will happen.

In Mexico, the drug cartel wars go on and on. The last report I saw put it at 1263 slain in drug killings so far in calendar year 2007.

President Calderon, inaugurated in December, has made smashing the cartels one of his main priorities. Calderon has shown a lot of resolve and determination, in contrast to the passive response of Vicente Fox at the end of his presidential term. The Mexican public seems to support Calderon. A poll taken in May indicated a more optimistic Mexican public than the same poll taken 10 months earlier (July of 2006), despite the fact that killings have increased since then. In addition, 67% of Mexicans polled agreed that national security was at risk.

I have long described Mexican society as "a spiderweb of bureaucracy overlaying an ocean of anarchy." Some of taken exception to this, others have been offended and still others have said they would pray for me to be healed of this terrible attitude. And yet, it is proven true every day from the corruption of public officials and law enforcement to the constantly changing rules and regulations that are arbitrarily enforced. It is a fact of life on the border! -mm

Amnesty foe Kyl working on new immigration bill

AZ senator tries to find compromise amid worries over how tough law will be

By Julie Hirschfeld Davis

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — In just a year, Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona has transformed from determined opponent of a bipartisan immigration overhaul plan to a key player in President Bush's efforts to enact one.

The turnabout for Kyl — the No. 3 Republican in the Senate and one of his party's steadiest conservatives — illustrates how dramatically the complex debate has shifted in the wake of the 2006 elections.

A year ago, Kyl was in the midst of a tough re-election race in a border state racked by strong feelings about immigration. He was adamantly opposed to a Senate-passed plan that allowed illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship and created a guest worker program for new arrivals. He called it "critically flawed" and said it put the interests of illegal immigrants before those of American workers.

Now, Kyl is spending hours virtually each afternoon cloistered in a Senate office with administration officials and Democrats, hard at work on just such a measure.

L.A. Police Sued Over Immigrant Policy

Apr 12 03:28 AM US/Eastern
By PETER PRENGAMAN
Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Illegal immigration opponents have sued the Los Angeles Police Department, taking aim at its long-standing policy of ignoring most suspects' immigration status.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday in Superior Court seeks to force officers to inform federal immigration officials when illegal immigrants are arrested on drug charges.

The department prohibits officers from inquiring about the immigration status of suspects, a policy strongly supported by Police Chief William Bratton and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of unidentified police officers who are afraid to speak out but argue the policy creates a situation where the same illegal immigrants are repeatedly arrested when they could have been deported, lawyer David Klehm said.

"Everyone I spoke to told me their hands were tied with this policy," Klehm said.

The lawsuit relies on a section of the state's Health and Safety Code that states that in drug cases involving a non-citizen, "the arresting agency shall notify the appropriate agency of the United States having charge of deportation."

Finally, somebody suing for justice! -mm

Most illegal border-crossers are never prosecuted

Associated Press

Apr. 6, 2007 11:57 AM

EL PASO, Texas - For all the tough talk out of Washington on immigration, illegal immigrants caught along the Mexican border have almost no reason to fear they will be prosecuted.

Ninety-eight percent of those arrested between Oct. 1, 2000, and Sept. 30, 2005, were never prosecuted for illegally entering the country, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data. Those 5.2 million immigrants were simply escorted back across the Rio Grande and turned loose. Many presumably tried to slip into the U.S. again.

The number of immigrants prosecuted annually tripled during that five-year period, to 30,848 in fiscal year 2005, the most recent figures available. But that still represented less than 3 percent of the 1.17 million people arrested that year. The prosecution rate was just under 1 percent in 2001.

The likelihood of an illegal immigrant being prosecuted is "to me, practically zero," said Kathleen Walker, president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Why Won’t Bush Ask Mexico For Immigration Reciprocity?

March 17, 2007

Memo From Mexico, By Allan Wall

President Bush just passed through Mexico (March 12-14th). His visit was welcomed by protestors in both Mexico City and Merida, the other city which he visited. Protestors called Bush a murderer, burned American flags, and bore anti-Bush banners, such as the one which read "Bush You Are Not Welcome in Mexico—Go to Hell ".

How could Mexican protestors possibly be saying such ugly things about our president?

Bush has been a Mexico booster and illegal immigration defender since before Day One of his presidency.

Bush has constantly lauded Mexican culture and celebrated the Latinization of the United States.

Bush has consistently done all in his power to frustrate anyone’s attempt to control the border. In 2005, he publicly slandered the Minutemen in the presence of the previous president of Mexico.

Kennedy won't seek new migrant bill

Published: 03.13.2007

Joint effort with McCain abandoned; year-old plan may be starting point

THE NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON — Facing a rebellion from some key Republicans, Sen. Edward Kennedy has abandoned efforts to produce a new immigration bill.

Instead, he is proposing using legislation produced last March by the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee as the starting point for negotiations this year, lawmakers said Monday.

Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who is principal architect of immigration legislation in the Senate, now controlled by Democrats, said he was shifting gears in hopes of winning Republican support and speeding the passage of immigration legislation in spring.

Death threats have state leaders toning down rhetoric

By CLAUDINE LoMONACO

Published: 03.12.2007

In light of death threats against two Arizona politicians, Democratic state legislators will hold a special meeting Tuesday

to examine the impact of their rhetoric on the immigration debate and urge state leaders to tone it down.

House Democratic leader Phil Lopes of Tucson organized the forum with Phoenix Democrat Kyrsten Sinema. She and Safford Republican Bill Konopnicki received death threats earlier this year.

Sinema sponsored a bill to ban civilian patrols to help enforce immigration laws in Arizona.

Konopnicki voted against a bill that would have denied worker's compensation benefits to illegal immigrants because he believed it would have opened employers to lawsuits.

That prompted threats against the two lawmakers, and Lopes believes some politicians fueled the anger.

John McCain: On immigration, Washington is failing the American people

By SEN. JOHN MCCAIN

15 hours, 49 minutes ago

AMONG THE federal government's most important obligations is to secure America's borders and enforce sensible immigration laws that will keep our nation strong and safe. For far too long, Washington has failed miserably in this vital responsibility. An estimated 12 million people live in the United States illegally -- a problem affecting every state in the union.

Remember, John, when you point your finger at someone else, there are three fingers pointing back at you! -mm