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21 August, 2008

IS THE COMING WHITE MINORITY A MYTH?

Jeff Jacoby has a good point below about the racial heterogeneity of Hispanics. There are even some (mostly from Argentina) who are actually of German or British ancestry. But he is far too optimistic about them being just as assimilable as previous arrivals. Many American-born Hispanic youths do NOT become undistinguishable from other Americans -- as previous groups did. As a group they are characterized by low educational standards, high rates of welfare dependance and high rates of crime.

With the large example of blacks before us, it should be perfectly clear that all groups are NOT equally assimilable to mainstream American society -- and yet the assumption that they are is implicit in what Jacoby writes. Some individual Hispanics are very worthy citizens of the USA but all the facts tell us that the large population of self-selected Hispanics now in the USA are not overall good for the rest of the population -- except insofar as they effectively decontrol the lower end of the labor market. Even there, however, I understand that few illegals are paid less than the Federal minimum wage

When the Census Bureau announced last week that white Americans would dwindle to less than half of the US population within a generation, the media quickly spread the word.

"A new census report says that whites in the US will be a minority by the year 2042," announced NPR's Farai Chideya, while over at CNN Tony Harris proclaimed that "the complexion of America is changing and a lot faster than you think: In just 34 years, the Census Bureau says whites will no longer be a majority in this country." The Associated Press moved a story headlined "White Americans no longer a majority by 2042." In the Wall Street Journal, a graph depicted the "declining share" of whites in three age groups -- three lines sloping sharply downward. Once again, the government's unhealthy obsession with sorting people into categories based on color and ancestry was in the news.

But there was another problem with all this coverage of how white America is rapidly becoming a minority: The Census Bureau never actually said it. No need to take my word for it -- you can see the numbers for yourself on the Census Bureau website. In a spreadsheet titled "Projections of the Population by Race and Hispanic Origin for the United States: 2008 to 2050," the bureau forecasts a rise in the number of whites from about 243 million today to 325 million at midcentury -- an increase of 82 million. A related spreadsheet gives the percentages: Whites today account for nearly 80 percent of the US population. In 2050, they'll constitute 74 percent -- somewhat less, but still a very hefty majority.

So what explains the persistent drumbeat about the impending white minority? A statistical distortion: the exclusion of Hispanic whites. If only non-Hispanic whites are counted, the white population today amounts to 66 percent of the total, and will fall to around 46 percent by 2050.

But excluding whites of Hispanic origin from the overall white population makes no more sense than excluding whites of Slavic or Scandinavian origin. "Hispanic" is not a race. It is an ethnic category. As the Census Bureau repeatedly points out, Hispanics can be of any race. In the 2000 census, 48 percent of Hispanics identified themselves as white; Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson has characterized them as "white in every social sense of this term." Bottom line: Of the 46.6 million Hispanics in the United States today, at least 22 million are white -- even if it suits some people's racial or political agenda to pretend otherwise.

On both right and left, there are pressures to treat Hispanics as a distinct racial category. Many on the left covet the political attention and affirmative-action largesse that comes with minority-group status. In some quarters of the right, meanwhile, immigration alarmists warn that Hispanics are overwhelming the nation's "white" culture, dissolving the bonds of language and patriotism on which American civilization depends.

One of the lessons of US history is that racial categories are anything but meaningful scientific classifications. For generations, "whites" have been hearing that they are about to be engulfed by unassimilable foreign races, and for generations those "races" have gone on to become -- white! Benjamin Franklin worried mightily about the threat posed to white American culture by the influx of German immigrants. "Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens," he demanded in a pamphlet published in 1751, "who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them?" Those "swarthy" Germans, Franklin was quite sure, "will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can adopt our Complexion."

A century and a half later, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge witheringly described the Russians, Poles, and Greeks entering the country as "races with which the English-speaking people have never hitherto assimilated, and who are most alien to the great body of the people of the United States." In the early 20th century, federal immigration officials classified the Irish, Italians, and Jews as separate races. Yet today all these groups are viewed collectively, and benignly, as "white."

And so in time, we may hope, will Hispanics, who give every indication of being just as assimilable as earlier groups. Most third-generation Hispanic Americans, for example, marry non-Hispanics. The overwhelming majority speak English -- in many cases, only English. With a little luck, common sense, and goodwill, it will seem as odd in 2050 to focus on "non-Hispanic whites" as it would today to insist that only "non-German whites" are really white. Better still, perhaps by then we will have really progressed, and abandoned the pernicious notion of racial categories altogether.

Source



Texas lawmakers consider new immigration laws

A couple of lawmakers want to know whether Texas can punish employers who hire undocumented workers and prohibit cities from adopting so-called sanctuary policies. "We need to make sure that we uphold our laws," said state Rep. Frank Corte Jr., R-San Antonio. Corte and state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, sent Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott two letters earlier this month, asking him to rule whether anti-immigration measures similar to ones adopted in Arizona and Oklahoma, would meet constitutional muster here.

Last year, several Republican lawmakers proposed a smorgasbord of anti-immigration bills, but nearly all of them failed after the attorney general said they would violate the constitution or overstep federal authority. House leaders had asked Abbott to review all the proposals after they were filed. Corte said it would be nice to know before the 2009 legislative session what authority Texas has to enforce immigration laws. "I'd hate for us to spend a bunch of time debating something we don't have clarity on," he said.

In one letter, Corte and Patrick asked whether Texas could adopt a measure similar to one in Arizona that penalizes companies that knowingly hire undocumented workers. The Arizona law allows the suspension and revocation of business licenses for companies that employ undocumented immigrants. The other letter asks whether Texas lawmakers can adopt a policy that prohibits cities from barring police from turning undocumented immigrants over to federal agents. "I think if we have laws that aren't being upheld, laws that are not being enforced, we need to do that," Corte said.

Police Chief Greg Allen said El Paso is not a sanctuary city and that his officers do hand over to federal officials undocumented immigrants who have broken the law. But, he said, tracking down undocumented immigrants, is not the department's primary concern. "We don't have the staffing; we don't have the expertise" to enforce federal immigration laws, Allen said, adding that to do so would take valuable time and resources away from fighting crime in the city.

Ray Adauto, executive vice president of the El Paso Association of Builders, said the federal government already levies steep fines from employers caught with undocumented workers. The association, he said, urges builders to comply with the law and ensure that subcontractors they use hire legal workers. Adding another layer of state penalties, he said, wouldn't necessarily stop companies that are determined to break the law. "I think there's enough labor force right now with the slowdown in the marketplace that people don't need to go out and hunt for people of that nature," Adauto said.

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, said the nation needs one good federal immigration system, not a bunch of bad ones developed by individual states. Immigration policy, he said, should be left up to the federal government. "Lets face facts," Shapleigh said. "The U.S. needs a vibrant labor force in technology, health services, construction and agriculture. Immigrants have shouldered that burden for years."

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20 August, 2008

Britain: Labour's 'open-door' policy sees immigration soar eight-fold compared to last Tory decade

Immigration under Labour has soared eight-fold compared with the last decade of Tory rule, it emerged last night. The astonishing impact of the Government's controversial 'open door' policy is revealed for the first time in a study by the independent House of Commons Library. Between 1997 and 2006, the population increased by 1,196,000 as a direct result of immigration - the equivalent of almost 330 extra people arriving each day. In the preceding decade of Conservative rule, from 1987 to 1996, the increase was only 141,000.

The study, compiled by Parliamentary researchers earlier this month, also found that between 1980 and 1986 at the start of Margaret Thatcher's term in office the number of arrivals from overseas was outstripped by those leaving, with the population falling by 40,000. MPs said the study - which is based on official figures only and does not include any migrants who have sneaked into the country illegally - gave the clearest indication yet that Labour had deliberately presided over mass migration.

Tory MP James Clappison, who uncovered the research, said: 'This shows an historically unprecedented level of immigration has taken place under the Labour Government, as a direct result of its economic policies.' Separate figures obtained by Mr Clappison show that, over the course of the last decade, the vast majority of arrivals have been from outside the EU.

Between 1997 and 2006, there were more than three times as many arrivals from the rest of the world as from within Europe. According to research released by the Cabinet Office, the trend even continued in the wake of the EU being extended to eastern Europe in 2004, sparking a massive influx to the UK from countries such as Poland. In 2004, there were 150,000 arrivals from within the EU, making up 26 per cent of the total. This rose to 182,000 in 2005, and 205,000 in 2006. But even the 2006 figure constituted only 35 per cent of the total, with 386,000 people - or 65 per cent - pouring in from the rest of the world.

It will raise questions why ministers - faced with such large numbers of arrivals from eastern Europe - did not seek to limit the numbers coming in from elsewhere to ease the pressure on schools, hospitals and other public services. They have no control over arrivals from within the EU, due to free movement regulations, but can deny work permits and visas to migrants from the rest of the world.

Tories say the research is clear proof ministers took a deliberate decision not to do so. Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said: 'Immigration can be of real benefit to the country but only if it is properly controlled. These figures show that Labour patently does not have control of immigration in this country. 'These stats put pay to ( Immigration Minister) Liam Byrne's spin that an annual limit on non-EU immigration would be ineffective.'

The figures emerged as ministers confirmed plans for 'no fly' lists of foreign nationals such as criminals, suspected extremists and immigration offenders who will be banned from flying with airlines into the UK. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith also restated a promise to electronically count all passengers in and out of the country by 2014. A Home Office spokesman said: 'We're delivering the biggest shakeup to Britain's border security for 40 years. 'This includes an Australian-style points based system which will cover close to six in ten of all migrants to ensure only those we want and no more can come here.

Source



The Australian government could well fall for this one

Kevvy Rudd likes lots of immigrants and he is a dedicated Warmist so he might grab this idea as another feelgood gesture

Over one hundred non-governmental organizations from across the Pacific Islands region have written a letter to the leaders of Australia and New Zealand urging them to change their immigration policies in response to climate change. The open letter -- addressed to Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark -- calls for increased permanent immigration as well as resettlement services and reduced carbon emissions.

Damien Lawson of Friends of the Earth Australia feels that Australia and New Zealand need a new immigration category for people forced to resettle because of climate change. "Ultimately there needs to be recognition in our immigration program that there are people already in the Pacific being displaced because of climate change, people having to leave small atolls and islands because of sea level rises," he said. "We think there needs to be a special category in our humanitarian program that recognises the displacement caused by climate change," he added.

Lawson stated that low lying nations such as Tuvalu and Kiribati are already facing rising seas and vioelent storms. He said that the region could expect sea levels to rise several meters this century.

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19 August, 2008

No Day Laborer Left Behind

If the United States of America ever gets over the social disease of Politically Correct Induced Multiculturalism we are afflicted with historians may look back on some of the events occurring in this country today and shake their heads in bewilderment. They'll wonder what the hell we were thinking in much the same way we shake our heads at the age old "remedy" of leeches.

When the Los Angeles City Council passed an ordinance stating all new "Big Box" home improvement stores must build shelters for day laborers (many of whom are illegals) those of us who still use our brains for more than a place to store the current crop of American Idol contestants shook our heads in bewilderment. The governments' job, at all levels, is to enforce the law. Aiding and abetting those who are here illegally is high up there in the list of Things Governments Should Not Do. Forcing private companies to be a party to those actions is akin to extortion. In fact the city council members who voted for this resolution may very well be breaking RICO statutes by forcing Home Depot, Lowes and any other company to comply with what may be deemed illegal.

The City Council of Los Angeles, if I may be so bold as to bring it up, could possibly (by correct thinking people that is) be accused of engaging in human trafficking in a round about way. The scourge (and it is a scourge, maybe even a plague) of illegals flooding our cities is a shameful reflection of our failure as citizens to hold our politicians accountable for their inaction. In 1986 Ronald Reagan (PBUH) passed an amnesty for 3 million illegals and swore to secure the border. Every administration since has utterly failed to secure the border and until recently even workplace enforcement was spotty.

Now we have somewhere around 20 million illegal aliens wandering the country, taking our jobs, crowding our schools with their children (who should NOT be citizens merely by birth but that's a story for another day), using our emergency rooms for their personal doctors and filling our jails. Now the L.A. City council has the chutzpah to demand that private business aid illegals by making them more comfortable when they search for work?

What's next? Benches for the off ramp beggars who hold up traffic collecting money from softheaded simpletons who actually believe those "will work for food" signs? Shelters for panhandlers in front of AM/PM so they don't get sunburned while they're telling you a sob story about lost jobs, dead dogs and harsh childhoods and begging for a dollar so they can just "grab a burger?" Or how about a city sponsored Dial-A-Ride for burglars who just can't afford a car yet? Where does the madness stop? When are these cities going to be held accountable for aiding criminal activities?

The head of Los Angeles-based National Day Laborer Organizing Network (I guess it's kind of like a union without the political ball busting and dues) Pablo Alvarado, had this to say;

"We welcome it, we need it. The workers deserve it."

The workers DESERVE it? Since when does anyone DESERVE to have the government force businesses to aid and abet illegal behavior? Since when does illegal behavior deserve anything beyond punishment? I will tell you since when..since we fell down on the job and started electing morons like Councilman Eric Garcetti who had this to say after the council passed the ordinance;

"This is an important day, this is an example for the nation."

This is an example for the nation? Maybe an example of what a city should not do. Don't forget, these private businesses being forced to build these shelters will pass along the costs to us, and since they will most likely "donate" the materials they will most likely write them off on taxes which means they have turned a minus into a double plus for themselves.

Perhaps the remark of the day which captures the essence of idiocy within the L.A. City Council was uttered by former L.A. City Police Chief turned City Councilman Bernard C. Parks.

Bernard C. Parks, who first proposed the ordinance four years ago, said that this was just the first phase and that he planned to address existing home improvement stores next. said the businesses needed to be held accountable for their role in attracting dayworkers.

Instead of holding businesses accountable for attracting dayworkers why aren't we holding our politicians accountable for not enforcing the law? Why aren't we holding the L.A.City Council and the L.A.P.D. accountable for adhering to Special Order 40, which prohibits our officers from asking about the immigration status of those they come in contact with? It is an officers duty to uphold the laws of the land, and local officers should uphold federal laws as well. If they refuse to uphold immigration laws they should be precluded from upholding other laws the federal government takes a special interest in such as bank robbery.

If you rob a bank the FBI is there in a jiffy as bank robbery is a federal crime. So if the L.A.P.D. isn't going to bother with immigration because it's a federal matter they should at least turn a blind eye to bank robbery also.

On the other side of this issue is the Minutemen, who have been on the front lines of the illegal immigration fight for awhile now. Many Minutemen (and members of Save Our State, a California based anti-illegal immigrant group) have been fighting against these very day laborer centers and what I want to know is are the cities going to force businesses to build shelters to keep the Minutemen and Save Our Staters out of the sun and off of the sidewalks? Who is going to show some compassion for those patriots who spend their days bringing to light the failures of our politicians and exposing what our devil-may-care attitude towards who is running our country has caused to happen?

At the end of the day building shelters for day laborers, no matter how kind it may seem, only serves to place those day laborers out of the publics eye and mind, thereby serving to shield the politicians, and ourselves, from the failure of the American Citizens to do their job and run their country. We should all be damned ashamed of ourselves.

Source



More regulations that hit the wrong people

I suspect that it is a boneheaded bureaucracy that is the main problem here. They somehow seem to think that keeping law-abiding people out makes up for their gross failure to keep law-breaking people out

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."

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.

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.

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18 August, 2008

Legal challenges to new South Carolina laws

South Carolina's new immigration laws may be "ripe for a challenge" in the courts because of new requirements they place on employers, an immigration attorney told a group of business people Friday. With several months left before the first businesses must begin complying, immigration lawyers around the state have already begun openly discussing possible court challenges to the new regulations, said Melissa Azallion, an immigration-law specialist with the Nexsen Pruet law firm."Businesses are raising questions, which is prompting attorneys to ask questions," Azallion said.

Earlier this year, state legislators passed a package of immigration-reform measures they touted as the toughest in the country. One of the bill's central planks forces employers to screen new employees' citizenship by one of basically two ways: using a federal Web-based verification system, or by requiring an S.C. driver's license, which is only given to citizens.

Federal immigration law lays out a specific list of documents employers can use to verify work eligibility, but leaves the choice of those documents up to the employee, Azallion said. By restricting that choice to an in-state driver's license, South Carolina may be overstepping its jurisdiction, Azallion said."It puts the state law in conflict with federal law," Azallion said.

State Rep. Thad Viers, R-Myrtle Beach, was on the committee that hashed out the final form of the immigration bill, and he said he believes it will survive any legal challenge. Even if one section is struck down, Viers said the remaining provisions will survive."We vetted all these issues pretty well," Viers said. "I don't think there's much appetite for folks to go down that road."

The requirement's other option, use of the E-verify system, has survived court challenges in other states but is now in political jeopardy, Azallion said. The electronic program was an experiment authorized by U.S. Congress but set to expire in November, and its reauthorization has been caught up in the U.S. Senate's larger debate about federal immigration laws.

"I think it will pass," Azallion said. "They'll get something worked out and negotiated, but it may be late in the game."Azallion's comments were part of a Friday morning seminar at the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce for business owners and human resource managers about the new state immigration laws. Many of the nearly 30 audience members already deal with immigration paperwork on a daily basis, so many of their questions focused on specific details of the new law - down to which folder immigration forms should be kept in.

In general, Azallion cautioned business owners against overlooking discrepancies in an employees' documentation, such as the sudden appearance of paperwork with a changed name. Immigration-enforcement officials will view that as evidence against the employer, who could then be subject to not only civil fines, but criminal penalties as well.

On the other hand, Azallion warned attendees to apply regulations evenly to every employee. "Focus on the facts, not the faces," Azallion said.The seminar earned praise from attendees whether they came for political or professional reasons. Phil Day, an executive with Verity Property Maintenance in Shallotte, N.C., said he had come to learn about South Carolina's new laws so he could lobby for stricter requirements in North Carolina, where he said illegal labor is drying up job opportunities for young people. "There's nothing wrong with being a professional landscaper, but there's no jobs for them," Day said.

Joanne Contento, payroll manager at A&I fire and water restoration, said the seminar served for her as continuing education."Part of my job is to keep my employers out of trouble," Contento said. "I wouldn't be doing my job if I weren't doing that."

Source



Problematic black "Jews"

In most cases, it is hard to see that their Jewishness is anything more than an opportunistic claim. Their behaviour is certainly much more African than Jewish

Sitting in a leaky, flyblown hut, a few dozen Ethiopian villagers are anxiously waiting to be transported to another world. They have just been given word that their years of waiting are over and they soon will make a 2,000-mile journey by land and air with what is probably the last wave of Ethiopian immigrants to Israel. In doing so, they are flying into the teeth of a dilemma that touches the heart of Israel's founding philosophy.

For people like 48-year-old Abe Damamo, his wife and eight children, wrenching change awaits. Like most Ethiopians with Jewish roots, they have come from the Gondar region of northern Ethiopia. Their remote village uses donkeys for transportation and has no bathrooms. Damamo has no formal education and speaks no language but his own. He is moving to an industrialized democracy where he will have to learn Hebrew, master a cell phone, commute to work and find his place in a nation of immigrants from dozens of countries. But to him, being Jewish is all that matters. "I am so happy to go and live my religion," he says through a translator.

Not everyone at the Israeli end is happy, however. In the initial stages of an immigration that began three decades ago, all the Ethiopians emigrating to Israel were recognized outright as Jews. But those now seeking to make the trip are the so-called Falash Mura, whose ancestors converted to Christianity, the main Ethiopian faith, at the end of the 19th century to escape discrimination.

Initially, Israel balked at accepting their claim of Jewishness, but relented after American Jews led a campaign for the Falash Mura. About 40,000 moved to Israel, a country of 7 million, joining 80,000 already there. Their presence touched off a fierce debate in Israel over where to draw the line.

Ethiopians with any hope, however faint, of eligibility for Israeli citizenship have descended on camps in the city of Gondar, scrambling to prove their Jewishness. Men in prayer shawls attend makeshift synagogues, and children in skullcaps sit on mud floors learning the Hebrew alphabet and Jewish holidays.

Centuries of intermarriage and a lack of documentation have made it extremely difficult to prove who is a Jew, and the group awaiting their flight to Israel last month was supposed to be among the last. The Israeli government has decided that the influx must stop.

Those able to meet the criteria for immigration will have to undergo conversion to Orthodox Judaism after arriving in Israel.

Besides cutting to the heart of the age-old debate over who is a Jew, the dispute between the Israeli government and the U.S. Jewish activists who finance the Gondar camps raises uncomfortable questions about a central tenet of Israel's founding philosophy. Israel's Law of Return guarantees citizenship for any Jew in need, and these days the country is especially concerned about boosting its Jewish population to compete with the Arabs. But the Ethiopians have proved the hardest immigrant group to absorb, and the Falash Mura, some critics feel, are pushing the limits.

Like every other immigrant group, Ethiopian-Israelis have made their mark on the human mosaic of Jewish nationhood - giving it top-notch soldiers, funky musicians, world-class athletes and two members of parliament. They also have a powerful backer, the ultra-Orthodox Shas party in the ruling coalition, which capitalizes on the Ethiopian vote. But as a whole they are poor, plagued by crime, violence and substance abuse, feeling shut out of a world very different from rural Africa.

The steep learning curve is evident even before they depart for Israel. Those approved for immigration are taught what a refrigerator looks like, how to cook on a stovetop, how to flush a toilet. Nurses teach the women to use female hygiene products. The families are introduced to TVs and are shown videos of life in their new world. They are warned to mind the "magic stairs" - the escalators - at the Addis Ababa airport. Before leaving, they undergo extensive medical checkups at an Israeli Embassy compound in Addis Ababa, and their African surnames are replaced with Hebrew ones. But despite all the preparations, most Ethiopian immigrants over age 35 go straight onto welfare after reaching Israel, according to the Jewish Agency.

The Israeli government, lacking a universally accepted definition of Jewishness, has long welcomed immigrants whose links to Judaism were tenuous, many of them among the hundreds of thousands who came from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

Israel has struggled for years to figure out which Ethiopians should be admitted. Each time it has tried to end the immigration by emptying the Gondar camps and airlifting their inhabitants to Israel, thousands more have flooded into the camps, scrambling to prove their Jewishness. The argument now seems to have come down to numbers: Israel says the last of the Falasha Mura who qualify for immigration arrived in Israel this month; the American groups say 8,700 have been left behind.

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17 August, 2008

Italy: Illegal immigration 'soars'

The number of illegal immigrants entering Italy doubled in the first seven months of the year compared with the same period in 2007, Rome says. The figures come in spite of a government crackdown on crime and an increase in the number of deportations. More than 15,000 illegal immigrants entered the EU via Italy between January and July, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said. Many illegal immigrants arrive on boats organised by people traffickers.

Mr Maroni, whose Northern League party formed part of the right-wing government coalition, has campaigned strongly against clandestine immigration. Most of the illegal immigrants come across the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has launched a crackdown on crime, which most Italians associate with illegal immigration. He brought in stringent new measures making it an offence punishable by up to four years jail to enter the country illegally.

Expulsions have increased by 15% so far this year but the Italian authorities often find the countries of origin of illegal arrivals reluctant to accept them back if they are deported. Two weeks ago the authorities began deploying troops in joint anti-crime patrols with police in some of Italy's major cities. Thirty-three non-EU nationals have been arrested so far. Italy's prisons are already crammed with foreigners. Some 20,000 people out of the 55,000 prisoners currently serving sentences or awaiting trial in Italian jails are foreigners. The number of these foreign prisoners continues to increase because of the expense and difficulty of executing expulsions ordered by the judiciary.

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Record Immigration Adds to Australian Housing Woes

Real estate experts warn Australia faces an acute shortage of affordable housing as immigration reaches record levels. There are estimates that Australia needs to build an extra 40,000 new homes a year simply to cope with current demand. Australia opens its doors to about 300,000 new migrants next year as part of a plan to address a chronic lack of workers. That means the country will see its highest immigration flow in more than 60 years. An army of temporary and permanent settlers will be granted visas as part of a government effort to sustain a decade-and-a-half of economic growth.

There are three major strands to Australia's migration program: skilled workers, family reunions and humanitarian migrants. The skilled component is at unprecedented levels, with qualified migrants being recruited in vast numbers from traditional areas including Britain and New Zealand, as well as emerging nations such as China and India. In demand are accountants, engineers, computer professionals, health care workers and many workers in skilled trades, such as construction workers.

Such an influx of new migrants puts pressure on Australian society and has helped create a housing crisis as demand for inexpensive accommodation in major cities outweighs supply.

Demographer Bernard Salt says Australia is struggling to cope with the expanded immigration program. "During calendar 2007 the Australian continent added 332,000 people," Salt said. "Never before in our history have we added that number of people to our population base. 330,000 people per year is a rate and pace that we're not really comfortable with. We're used to growing at the 220, 230,000 per year. Our systems, our infrastructure, our culture can cope with that. We're un-used to traveling at this pace."

Thousands of Australians find it hard to buy or rent affordable homes, a problem exacerbated by decade-high interest rates, increasing land prices and taxes. The government recently began a program to add 50-thousand rental properties for low-income earners to the market. Real estate experts, however, say it will take at least four years before such measures help make housing more affordable. They say an average wage earner in Australia will struggle to buy an apartment or house in a country where housing inflation has been rampant in recent years, although does show some signs of easing.

The rental market, however, remains strong; a shortage of properties led to double-digit rent increases in the past year.

Source





16 August, 2008

Radical Ties and Hate Speech in the Immigration Debate

Ever since the defeat of a bill in the Senate last year that would have granted amnesty to millions of illegal aliens, there have been repeated accusations that some of the principal players in the debate have received money from dubious sources, have ties to shady political figures, and deliberately use intemperate language to whip up fears and play on prejudices.

It turns out that these accusations are all true.but it is not the groups and political figures who oppose amnesty who are guilty. Rather, some of the leading organizations and politicians promoting mass amnesty for illegal aliens have been engaging in all of these practices.

Among the network of organizations that have not only been promoting amnesty for illegal aliens, but actively working to thwart enforcement of U.S. immigration laws, few have been as effective as CASA de Maryland. CASA not only lobbies on behalf of complete amnesty for immigration law violators, it operates day labor hiring centers around Maryland specifically geared toward helping illegal aliens find jobs that federal law prohibits them from holding. The group has published and distributed material advising people not to cooperate with law enforcement officials if questioned about their immigration status.

In spite of its rather radical agenda, CASA has actively sought - and achieved - the mantle of mainstream respectability. Among the group's board of directors is a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, and CASA has received millions of dollars in public support. According to Kim Propeack, a spokeswoman for CASA, 45 percent of the organization's $6.3 million 2009 budget is expected to come from state and county governments.

While continuing to benefit from huge amounts of money from state, county and city governments in Maryland, CASA has become the darling of one of America's most bitter adversaries. Early this month, CASA de Maryland, received a $1.5 million grant from Hugo Chavez, the avowedly anti-American president of Venezuela. Last year, CASA's executive director Gustavo Torres, at the invitation of Chavez's government, visited Venezuela to lecture on "youth leadership."

Chavez has been using Venezuela's oil wealth to spread his unique brand of revolution and hatred of the United States throughout the world, and the money he is spending in Maryland is likely to come with political strings attached. "He [Chavez] is committed to creating this constituency in the United States," says Michael Shifter, vice president for policy at the Inter-American Dialogue.

While Hugo Chavez was dropping large sums of cash into the illegal alien amnesty effort, at least one of the allegedly mainstream political figures promoting the cause was doing his part for the cause by dropping rhetorical bombs. Representative Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) explicitly compared U.S. enforcement of its immigration laws to the policies of Nazi Germany, and U.S. law enforcement to the Gestapo. Commenting on recent stepped-up raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency (a division of the Department of Homeland Security), Congressman Gutierrez asked rhetorically, "You know who is in charge now? The Gestapo agents at Homeland Security. They are in charge."

Gutierrez, along with much of the pro-amnesty lobby, has been on a crusade to muzzle critics of illegal immigration. They routinely claim that any criticism of illegal immigration, any intimation that illegal aliens create problems or burdens for American society, stigmatizes all Hispanics in the United States (deliberately blurring the distinction between people of a certain ethnic group and immigration law-breakers) and, in their estimation, exacerbates social tensions if not outright hatred.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, of which Gutierrez is a prominent member, went so far as to urge media self-censorship on the issue of immigration. Earlier this year, 20 members of the caucus signed a letter to the top brass at Time-Warner, the parent company of CNN, urging them to silence some of their own journalists. (Their pleas were ignored.) Other pro-amnesty activist groups have orchestrated a campaign to have nearly all of the leading immigration enforcement spokespeople banned from the airwaves and the mainstream print media under the pretext that they use "code words" to promote hatred and intolerance.

While one would require a Rosetta stone to ferret out to the "codes" allegedly being transmitted by those supporting enforcement of U.S. immigration laws, comparisons between ICE and the Gestapo do not require anyone to read between the lines. The vile description of ICE - by a member of the U.S. House of Representatives - is clearly designed to evoke fear and hatred, delegitimize the immigration policies of the United States, and promote resistance to U.S. immigration enforcement officers.

Clearly association with unsavory characters, dubious financing, and intemperate language have been injected into the national debate about immigration policy. In an effort to promote their policies, some of those in favor of amnesty and open borders are consorting with and accepting money from avowed enemies of the United States and poisoning the debate by employing the most reprehensible language imaginable.

Source



Stupid immigration bureaucrats lose one

Thank goodness the judge below had a few brains. What difference does it make if illegals are allowed to go home voluntarily instead of being deported? Records of their identities etc. are still on file either way and the result is the same. The officials concerned are just control freaks. No surprise there, I suppose. At least in Britain there has been protest when British immigration officials were equally stupid

Ten women detained in an immigration raid at a northeast Iowa meatpacking plant have been allowed to return to their homelands. A federal immigration judge in Chicago granted requests from the women in a move that was opposed by federal immigration officials. "It's essentially a legal slap on the wrist," Tim Counts, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Thursday. "We believe if somebody has violated federal immigration laws, there should be consequences for it." [Like what? Being deported?]

The women have been in legal limbo since the May 12 raid, the biggest such action at a single site in U.S. history. They were among 389 Agriprocessors workers accused of entering the country illegally. Counts said the U.S. attorney's office prosecuted 305 people on criminal charges. The others, including the 10 women, were not criminally charged but faced immigration violations. Federal agents allowed a number of women to avoid initial prosecution because they were caring for children. They were ordered to wear electronic monitoring devices on their ankles.

Counts said Judge James Fujimoto of Chicago last week granted the women's requests for voluntary departure to return to Guatemala and Mexico. Counts said he did not know the reasons behind the judge's decision. "In this situation, we said we opposed it. We believe that since most of the other people arrested had been ordered deported that everyone should have the same consequence," Counts said.

Counts said 20 to 25 people arrested in Postville are still wearing electronic monitoring devices while awaiting a hearing before a federal immigration judge. He said 30 others have been deported, and the rest are serving prison sentences for criminal convictions. Sonia Parras Konrad, an immigration attorney in Des Moines, who represents some of the women, told The Des Moines Register that some have left the country since the judge's order. She said others did not ask for voluntary departure because they are seeking special visas to stay in the U.S.

Source





15 August, 2008

Whites to Lose Majority Status in U.S. by 2042

Whites will comprise less than half of the U.S. population by 2042, about eight years earlier than previously thought, according to a report to be released by the Census Bureau.

The transition, long predicted by demographers, will spell big changes for the nation's schools and work force. Over the next four decades the non-Hispanic white population will get older, eventually going into decline between 2030 and 2040. Minorities will become a majority of the population aged zero to 17 years first -- in about 15 years -- and move up through age groups for there. "We are going to become more diverse in more parts of the country and in more of the age structure sooner," said William Frey, senior demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

The decline is driven by a combination of immigration and lower birthrates. The baby-boom generation, all of which will be more than 65 by about 2030, had fewer children than their parents, and their children are following their lead. The Asian population will continue to increase thanks to immigration and higher birthrates, and the non-Hispanic black population mostly because of higher birthrates. In 2050 the share of the black population will have increased by one percentage point to 15%; Asians will rise to about 9% from 5% today. There is also a growing mixed-race population who identify themselves as two or more races on Census forms.

But it is the Hispanic population that is driving minority growth. The total U.S. population is projected to grow to 439 million by 2050, and most of that growth will come from Hispanics. By 2050 about one in three U.S. residents will be Hispanic. While immigration continues to be a driver of the growing Hispanic population, for the past several years most of the growth has come from births. "Even with the high levels of immigration, a higher proportion of Hispanics will be U.S.-born," said Jeffrey Passel, senior demographer with the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington.

The shift could stratify American politics. The growing share of retired white baby boomers are more likely to be concerned about issues like pensions and health care for themselves and their parents. The growing share of minorities will be concerned about issues like education and job growth. "You always get that generational shift, but now there's a racial layer over it," says Mr. Passel.

The first group to tip will be children. According to an analysis of census data by Mr. Frey, the zero to 4-year-old population will turn "majority minority" in 2021, followed by 18- to 29-year-olds seven years later. Adults between 45 and 64 will become majority minority in 2050, and seniors sometime after. That means that as whites retire they will increasingly see the jobs they left go to minorities -- in particular Hispanics -- now making their way through the school system. The report "places even greater emphasis on the need to train new Americans and their children" to assume these occupations, says Mr. Frey.

A number of metropolitan areas have already become "majority minority," with many more soon to follow. In Los Angeles, which has long been a gateway for Hispanics, non-Hispanic whites account for about 30% of the population. According to Mr. Frey's projections the counties surrounding Denver, Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla., will all see their non-Hispanic white population fall to 50% or lower in the next two years.

Shifting demographics may change everything from local and national elections to bilingual education and the rationale behind affirmative-action plans. Already, fast-growing states in the Sunbelt and West are seeing signs that shifting demographics could alter state politics. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is campaigning hard in Nevada and Colorado -- two states that were carried by President Bush in 2004 but have grown more Democratic as the states have added more young and minority voters.

Source



AZ: Arpaio takes immigration sweeps to W. Valley

At least 58 people have been arrested during a two-day crackdown by sheriff's deputies on human smuggling in the West Valley, authorities said Thursday. The arrests, including suspected smugglers, illegal immigrants and 12 people wanted on criminal warrants, were reported at mid-afternoon Thursday by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He said more arrests were expected as the sweep, described by Arpaio as a "crime suppression" effort, was to continue into the evening hours "We have sent out about 100 deputies and posse members," Arpaio said.

The operation was being conducted from a back parking lot at the sheriff's District III substation, 13063 W. Bell Road, in Surprise and reportedly focused on several West Valley areas, including a stretch of Grand Avenue between El Mirage and Surprise. A number of Latino activists showed up Wednesday at the substation to protest the operation, but Arpaio was not present.

Instead, he met with reporters Wednesday evening at a briefing spot about two miles away in Sun City West at R.H. Johnson and Stardust boulevards. Arpaio said Thursday that the public has donated nearly $36,000 to support such operations since Gov. Janet Napolitano in May took away the funding and redirected $1.6 million to a state-led fugitive task force.

Source





14 August, 2008

LOL: Another attempt to enlist Greenie misanthropy in the cause of immigration control

Study: Immigration to U.S. Increases Global Greenhouse-Gas Emissions. If you subscribe to Greenie logic, it makes sense

The findings of a new study indicate that future levels of immigration will have a significant impact on efforts to reduce global CO2 emissions. Immigration to the United States significantly increases world-wide CO2 emissions because it transfers population from lower-polluting parts of the world to the United States, which is a higher-polluting country.

The report, entitled "Immigration to the United States and World-Wide Greenhouse Gas Emissions," is available here and a video regarding the report is available here. Among the findings:

* The estimated CO2 emissions of the average immigrant (legal or illegal) in the United States are 18 percent less than those of the average native-born American.

* However, immigrants in the United States produce an estimated four times more CO2 in the United States as they would have in their countries of origin.

* U.S. immigrants produce an estimated 637 million metric tons of CO2 emissions annually - equal to Great Britain and Sweden combined.

* The estimated 637 million tons of CO2 U.S. immigrants produce annually is 482 million tons more than they would have produced had they remained in their home countries.

* If the 482-million-ton increase in global CO2 emissions caused by immigration to the United States were a separate country, it would rank 10th in the world in emissions.

* The impact of immigration to the United States on global emissions is equal to approximately 5 percent of the increase in annual world-wide CO2 emissions since 1980.

* Of the CO2 emissions caused by immigrants, 83 percent are estimated to come from legal immigrants and 17 percent from illegal immigrants.

* Legal immigrants have a much larger impact because they are more numerous than illegal immigrants and because they have higher incomes, and thus higher emissions.

* The above figures do not include the impact of children born to immigrants in the United States. If they were included, the impact would be much higher.

* Assuming no change in U.S. immigration policy, 30 million new legal and illegal immigrants are expected to settle in the United States in the next 20 years.

* In recent years, increases in U.S. CO2 emissions have been driven entirely by population increases, as per capita emissions have stabilized.

Discussion: Some may be tempted to see this analysis as "blaming immigrants" for what are really America's failures. It is certainly reasonable to argue that Americans could do more to reduce per capita emissions. And it is certainly not our intention to imply that immigrants are particularly responsible for global warming. As we report in this study, the average immigrant produces somewhat less CO2 than the average native-born American. But to simply dismiss the large role that continuing high levels of immigration play in increasing U.S. (and thus worldwide) CO2 emissions is not only intellectually dishonest, it is also counterproductive. One must acknowledge a problem before a solution can be found.

One can still argue for high levels of immigration for any number of other reasons. However, one cannot make the argument for high immigration without at least understanding what it means for global efforts to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. Some involved in the global-warming issue have recognized immigration's importance. For instance, chief U.S. climate negotiator and special representative for the United States, Harlan Watson, has acknowledged that high immigration to the United States is thwarting efforts to reduce the nation's emissions. "It's simple arithmetic," said Watson. "If you look at mid-century, Europe will be at 1990 levels of population while ours will be nearing 60 percent above 1990 levels. So population does matter." This research confirms Watson's observation.

Summary above from CIS



Illegals and disease

It's all over the news these days: Exotic diseases are on the rise here in the U.S. And although nasty tropical ailments like dengue fever, brucellosis, and schistosomiasis are common in the wilds of Africa, Asia, and South America, they're becoming hot topics here in States as well. Why? Well, illegal immigration, of course. But no one - especially the media - is willing to come out and tell this truth to the American public. No, that would be offensive to the criminals who stream across our border every day.

These diseases from antiquity have no place in 21st century America, but thanks to the unsanitary practices of people from the Third World (liberals would call this part of their "culture"), they're thriving. And you'll just love the politically correct euphemism for them: "neglected infections of poverty." If it didn't make me so spitting mad, I'd find it hilarious. The cold, hard truth of the matter is that these ailments thrive in conditions that arise from unsanitary living and poor dietary habits. And if that's offensive to you. well, sorry. It just happens to be the truth.

A list of 24 so-called "neglected infections of poverty" were recently listed in a Public Library of Science journal. Many on the list already pose a significant health issue in the U.S., affecting as many as 1 million people. An L.A. Times article I read said that, in the Los Angeles area, the tapeworm infection cysticercosis (which originates with pork, and spreads in crowded, unsanitary conditions) accounts for 10 percent of all seizures that result in emergency room visits. It doesn't take a huge leap to figure that illegal immigrants in the LA area live in crowded and probably unsanitary conditions.

What drives me crazy is that the media is presenting these diseases as though they are diseases of the poor. That's only partially true. The fact of the matter is that they are typical of the Third World poor, not the American poor. Consider of the source of these diseases: brucellosis is a bacterial infection that comes from unsanitary dairy products. Recently, I wrote to you about the prevalance of "queso fresco" or "bathtub cheese" that's popular in the immigrant community. That's where this stuff comes from. Schistosomiasis comes from exposure to water that's contaminated with freshwater snails. It's common in South America. I ask you: How many poor folks in the inner cities of the U.S. have had exposure to water contaminated by freshwater snails!?

The media and the left are playing a dangerous game with the nation's public health with their touchy-feely misplaced compassion. Diseased criminals are streaming over our borders and burdening our already overburdened healthcare system with foreign maladies - and no one wants to do anything about it. No one wants to speak the truth or state the facts for fear of being called a racist or a xenophobe.

Sadly, I think we all better get used to having these diseases around. After all, neither of this year's presidential candidates seem particularly concerned with the problem of illegal immigration beyond the usual pandering. The wrong-headed political lightweight Obama even suggested that Americans should be worried less about people who can't speak English, and more about Americans who can't speak Spanish! It's time to wake up to the realities of the true dangers of illegal immigration - before it's too late.

Source





13 August, 2008

What on earth is this good for?

It's not talk that is needed ...

The University of Texas at El Paso officially became the home of the National Center for Border Security and Immigration on Tuesday. The center, a U.S Department of Homeland Security-supported research and degree program focused on producing border, homeland security and immigration experts, will be a partnership with the University of Arizona.

Retired Army Brigadier General Jose Riojas, executive director of the center at UTEP, lauded the program's launch at the second day of the fifth annual Border Security Conference. "This is about aligning our intellectual capital ... with the needs of DHS," Riojas said. "They've given us a challenge to make a different and new approach."

Lt. Gen. William G. Webster, deputy Commander of U.S. Northern Command, said the program would become invaluable because of the changing security environment. "Information and intelligence exchanges are also necessary," Webster said. "Homeland security is not just a Homeland Security or military concern. We need to prepare a condition of anticipation."

The center, with a six-year contract with the government, will be awarded about a $1 million a year, but Riojas said it will also give UTEP a chance to become a serious player in research and real-world solutions for security concerns. Center officials also hope to have an international presence in the future.

Source



Government unveils new immigration class based on Canadian experience

This sounds reasonable but a lot will depend on how it is interpreted if abuses are to be avoided

Temporary foreign workers and foreign student graduates can apply for citizenship under a new immigration class that rewards people for their Canadian experience, the government announced on Tuesday. The program, known as the Canadian Experience Class, will also allow qualified applicants to seek permanent residency while continuing to work or study in Canada. Under the old rules, they would have to leave the country and apply to immigrate.

"Choosing newcomers based on knowledge of our labour market and experience within Canadian society would make Canada a more attractive destination for skilled individuals from around the world," Citizenship and Immigration Minister Diane Finley said. "International students and skilled workers would be more likely to choose Canada if they knew their time in Canada and contribution to Canadian society would assist in their eligibility to apply to stay permanently." Finley said the program will be implemented in October.

Applicants would have to meet certain qualifications. Temporary workers would need at least two years of work experience in managerial, professional and technical occupations and skilled trades. They would also need moderate language skills. Student qualifications would include having graduated from a Canadian college or university, having one year of skilled, professional or technical work experience, and moderate or basic language skills.

Critics call the program unfair because it excludes many temporary foreign workers such as unskilled labourers, factory workers and farmers.

Source





12 August, 2008

Bill now in Congress would compromise Federal-State immigration co-operation

When Congress failed last year to pass a bloated, wrong-headed immigration and border security bill, few expected the legislators to tackle these contentious issues again any time soon. Nevertheless, Americans who want serious reforms expected that, at the very least, Congress would not make things worse.

Remarkably, a measure in the House version of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appropriations bill does exactly that by hamstringing the "287g" program, one of the department's most effective initiatives promoting federal, state, and local cooperation in enforcing immigration laws.

The bill cuts funds for any enforcement efforts other than identifying illegal aliens in state and local prisons, jails, and correctional facilities. State and local governments, however, have demonstrated an increased interest in cooperating with DHS regarding a number of law enforcement activities, including counter terrorism investigations. Subsequently, congressional interference that overly restricts 287g is nonsensical. Congress should restore full funding to the program without any limitations.

Enforcement Is Important

Any effective solution for reducing illegal border crossings and the unlawful population in the United States must address all aspects of the problem: internal enforcement of immigration laws, border security, and the need to create sufficient legal opportunities to help U.S. employers get the workforce they need to grow the economy. Internal enforcement is essential for reducing and deterring the flood of illegal entrants into the United States, as well as for making the challenge of securing America's borders affordable and achievable.

The federal enforcement agencies lack the capacity to aggressively pursue all immigration violations that represent serious criminal and national security threats, much less effectively deter any who wish to defy U.S. immigration laws. DHS does not even have enough resources to deport criminal aliens released from prisons. Furthermore, effective domestic counterterrorism operations and interstate criminal investigations require close cooperation of federal, state, and local investigators.

Establishing Effective Partnerships

Authorized under Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the 287g program allows DHS and state and local governments to enter into assistance compacts. Both sides must agree on the scope and intent of the program before it is implemented, which gives states and local communities the flexibility to shape the programs to meet their needs. State and local law officers governed by a 287(g) agreement must receive adequate training and operate under the direction of federal authorities. In return, they receive full federal authority to enforce immigration law, thereby shifting liability to the federal government and providing the officers with additional immunity when enforcing federal laws.

Five years ago only two states (Florida and Alabama) participated in the program. Today, DHS has over 50 partnerships, and more are on the waiting list. The department has established an office in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to manage the program and created a suite of other partnership initiatives, called ICE Access, to compliment the program.

Congressional Meddling Must Stop

Even as the program's successes have begun garnering national attention, the House version of the annual appropriations cuts funding for any cooperation outside of penal facilities. Under this revision, Florida, for example, which uses the authority for agents assigned to federal Joint Terrorism Task forces, will lose the investigative and arrest authorities that their agents employ for counter terrorism cases.

Restricting funding is likely the first step in any attempt to eliminate the program altogether. Yet given the success of the program, the congressional prohibition makes no sense. Congress should fully fund the 287g program and allow federal and state authorities to shape assistance compacts in a manner that best suits the needs of both.

Source



Ads Ask Environmentalists to Consider Immigration Driven Population Growth's Effects on Natural Treasures

Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) has launched a radio campaign in California linking population growth to environmental degradation. The ads make the point that immigration is the number one factor driving California and U.S. population growth. The radio spots are running in areas with high concentrations of environmentally sensitive Californians.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, mass immigration is the number one factor driving population growth in California and America today. The Pew Hispanic Research Center projects that 82% of all population growth in the U.S. between 2005 and 2050 will be a result of immigration and births to immigrants. "In the last decade these factors have accounted for virtually 100% of California's population growth," according to Diana Hull, President of CAPS.

Hull commented, "If we want to start healing our environment, we've got to slow population growth. More people mean more cars, more sprawl, higher energy demands, more air pollution, more demand for water and more paved-over farmland." Hull continued, "With America's population growing at its current rate, every time we make an environmental gain, our population increases and the gains are erased. Reducing immigration is the key to slowing future population growth and recapturing the momentum in the battle to save California's natural treasures. It's time for California to lead the rest of the country on this issue."

The radio ad identifies the real "inconvenient truth" as the fact that population growth and environmental degradation are related, "people drive cars, create sprawl, destroy forests and pollute." The ad goes on to illustrate the correlation between California's population growth and energy consumption over the last 30 years and concludes by acknowledging that rolling back mass immigration is tough for "compassionate Californians" to swallow. "But there are times," Hull stated, "when hard choices must be made for the greater good."

Source





11 August, 2008

Immigration not a charity

A letter from a Canadian

With, no doubt, the best of intentions, Carl Nicholson and Tyler Meredith treated Citizen readers to a plethora of hoary old cliches, most out of context, to suggest Canada is in desperate need of immigrants. Indeed, we "can't afford to turn any" away.

The statement that "we are all immigrants" has little bearing on today's Canada. Immigrants came here over time because we needed them. If we no longer need them, we are certainly under no obligation whatever to continue accepting them.

Do we need them? Of course, but not in the numbers we are currently taking in. The demographics of an aging population are exaggerated, and immigration is of little use there, as the average age of immigrants is little different than that of Canadians.

Current statistics show that immigrants, over the past decade, are earning much less and are much more likely to be living in poverty than their predecessors, a strong indication of major problems.

Mr. Nicholson and Mr. Meredith, of course, allude to racism as the cause, but no matter what an immigrant's qualifications on paper, a general lack of language skills is a huge barrier to success in Canada, which the pro-immigrant crowd has consistently refused to face. Numerous studies have shown this to be the case, and the government has hinted at a change in policy to ensure language skills are attained before coming to Canada. Unfortunately, such moves have been vociferously opposed as "racist" by the usual suspects, and the government has on occasion backed off.

We have taxi drivers and janitors with master's degrees unable to work because of poor language skills. And despite their undoubted desire to work, immigrants are heavily represented in every public housing project and on the welfare rolls. And, as the Citizen reported, some are found in the ranks of street gangs.

Most decent jobs in Canada today require excellent communications skills, and immigrants without them have few opportunities outside their ethnic communities. We need to determine just how many immigrants are actually needed for specific work, what skills, including communications skills they must possess for success and then revamp our immigration system with those numbers and skills .

Immigration is not a world charity to help the poor and downtrodden to a life of ease in the West. It is an economic tool which should exist only to serve Canada's demonstrated needs. We need to take our advice for the future of immigration from businessmen, not charity workers.

Source



A trickle of immigration to Japan

Jakarta nurse Yanti Kartina left her family in Indonesia and joined 200 other nurses moving to Japan where a rapidly growing elderly population has created a desperate need for careers in old age homes and hospitals. The nurses, who are expected to learn Japanese and requalify as they work, are seen as an important test case as Japan struggles with the world's fastest growing elderly population and a workforce that is forecast to shrink, potentially devastating the economy.

"Japan is the first developed country to face this kind of population crisis," said Hidenori Sakanaka, a former immigration bureau chief in the capital of Tokyo who now heads a think tank.

With more than a quarter of Japanese expected to be aged over 65 by 2015, the country faces serious economic consequences, including labour shortages that could weigh on GDP. A group of ruling party politicians see immigration as a possible solution and have presented Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda with a radical new proposal that seeks to have immigrants make up 10 per cent of the population in 50 years' time. Government figures show the workforce is on course to shrink by eight million in the next 10 years. If the necessary laws are passed, mass immigration could transform a country once so wary of foreigners that it excluded them almost entirely for more than 200 years until the 19th century. "I don't think there is any way forward but to accept immigrants," Mr. Sakanaka said.

Even now, the idea of allowing in more foreigners is often described as a risk to Japan's relatively crime-free and homogeneous society. Many landlords refuse to rent apartments to foreigners and few Japanese employers offer immigrant workers the same rights as their Japanese colleagues. Less than two per cent of Japan's almost 128 million population are currently foreign-born.

Tetsufumi Yamakawa, chief economist at Goldman Sachs in Tokyo, believes immigration, combined with efforts to draw more women and elderly people into the labour market, could lift growth above the annual one per cent or less forecast by many analysts. "I think this is very good timing to start thinking about this," he said. "The decline is already in sight."

The Indonesian nurses, who have been recruited to work in short-staffed hospitals and seniors' homes, are the latest wave of controlled immigration. Government officials hope they will face fewer problems than their predecessors.

More than 300,000 immigrant Brazilians of Japanese descent, have been a boon for Japan's automotive and electronics factories, where many of them work. They have also boosted the Brazilian economy, remitting $2.2 billion home in 2005 alone, according to the Inter-American Development Bank. But in many ways, the Brazilians have failed to fit in even though they are the descendants of Japanese who left rural areas to start afresh in Latin America, mostly in the early 20th century.

Believing their heritage would give them an advantage in blending in, the Japanese government loosened conditions for working visas for them in 1990. The move was not entirely successful. The Brazilians complain of discrimination and lack of schooling for their children, many of whom speak only Portuguese, while their Japanese neighbours are often shocked by their late-night parties and failure to conform to rules such as trash recycling.

"They were just brought in and nothing was done to help them in terms of welfare afterwards," said ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmaker Hirohiko Nakamura, a member of the committee that produced the new immigration report. "Then people blame the foreigners for the problems, even though it's Japan that invited them here and didn't do anything for them," he added.

The worst case, he says, are the tens of thousands of mostly Chinese workers allowed in on temporary "trainee" visas that allow them to work in menial jobs on farms and in factories. That system has kept some small regional businesses ticking over, but reports of abuses such as extremely low pay, sexual harassment and confiscated passports abound.

Many say that despite the desperate need for workers, Japan is setting hurdles too high for the latest batch of immigrants. The Indonesian nurses and care workers will have only six months of Japanese study before starting full-time work. They must pass the relevant national examinations within three or four years while working as assistants, or be forced to return home. Lawmaker Mr. Nakamura is optimistic about their chances, citing the example of some of the country's highest-profile immigrants. "Look at the Mongolian sumo wrestlers! They speak Japanese really well," he said.

But former immigration bureau chief Mr. Sakanaka worries that the Indonesian nursing program will end in failure because of the complexity of the Japanese language and because he thinks the rules have been made too strict. "I think the system will turn out to be an embarrassment," he said. He advocates inviting in younger foreigners and allowing them to complete their training in Japanese before starting work. On a broader basis, he and others say, opposition to immigration in Japan is less wide-spread than allegations of discrimination and exclusion would suggest.

Source





10 August, 2008

Three illegal aliens arrested have a combined 69 arrests

Border Patrol agents in Yuma arrested three illegal aliens with extensive criminal histories and immigration violations in two separate incidents Wednesday. At about 6 p.m., agents discovered a set of footprints leading away from the Colorado River near County 8th Street - "a high-traffic area," said Border Patrol spokesman Ben Vik.

Vik said agents tracked the prints for about two miles to a field where they found an illegal alien trying to evade them. A fingerprint check identified him as Juan Francisco-Flores and revealed a criminal history originating in the late 1980s. Included were assault with a deadly weapon, inflicting injury upon spouse, driving under the influence and drug offenses. Francisco-Flores was also previously deported from the United States.

Later that same evening, a Yuma Sector camera operator helped agents in the arrest of two more criminal aliens who used the same crossing point to enter the U.S. "They were trying to circumvent the north end of Yuma," Vik said. "The camera operator watched them enter the country illegally and guided agents to their location. It was a triumph of technology."

Silvio Arrellano-Estrada, a criminal alien with history beginning in the 1990s, was found to have three previous arrests for various forms of theft including shoplifting and vehicle theft, as well re-entry after deportation.

A records check identified the last subject as Sacramento Velasquez-Morales. His varied immigration and criminal history includes 60 arrests, using 47 aliases, spanning from the mid-1970s to present for multiple battery/assault charges, narcotics, theft and public drunkenness in various states such as California, Washington, Texas and Arizona. Velasquez-Morales reportedly has multiple illegal entry offenses and has been formally removed from the U.S. eight times.

All of the criminal aliens were prosecuted for illegal entry, re-entry after deportation and reinstatement of prior removal orders under Operation Streamline.

Source



Australian guest worker scheme cut back

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has dramatically scaled back plans for a controversial Pacific 'guest worker' scheme amid fears of a community backlash. The Coalition has already raised concerns over the radical immigration plan, allowing Islanders to work in rural communities for up to seven months. But with unemployment on the rise, the Rudd Government has halved the number of participants to just 2500 over three years. Only three countries - Tonga, Kiribati and Vanuatu - will be involved in the "pilot" scheme, although the Government is keen to sign up Papua New Guinea.

Senior Government sources confirmed Cabinet had adopted a "safety first" approach, following concerns it could trigger a backlash from "Pauline Hanson-type forces". The Prime Minister will announce the scheme in the next few weeks ahead of meeting with Pacific leaders on the tiny island of Niue on August 19. It is expected to get off the ground later this year, although the Government may hold back until 2009.

Islanders will be granted special visas of up to seven months, paid award wages and put to work in areas where labour shortages are most acute. This is likely to include areas of northern Victoria, southern NSW and northern Queensland. New Zealand has been trialling a similar "guest worker" scheme this year, although it has about 5000 temporary workers from five Pacific nations.

The Coalition is warning that even a small number of Pacific Islanders on these special visas could displace domestic labour. "Does Australia want unskilled labour coming in from a number of Pacific Islands given there are half a million unemployed in Australia already, and a projection (of) a further 134,000 unemployed people?" Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Andrew Robb asked.

Source





9 August, 2008

Immigration raids net 80 arrests in Massachusetts

I love the last sentence of the news report below. Getting rid of gang bangers sure is worrying!

80 people have been arrested in a series of raids in Massachusetts targeting gang members. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says all 80 of those arrested have criminal records. The arrests, which included 52 people identified as gang members and 28 others, are part of the agency's Operation Community Shield initiative, which targets violent street gangs. An ICE spokesperson says those arrested represent 24 different gangs, including Tiny Rascals, Bloods, Crips, 18th Street, MS-13 and the Deuce Boys and others.

An ICE press release says the four-day operation yielded arrests of 55 U.S. permanent residents who may be removable from the U.S. based upon their criminal history, 14 who were illegally residing in the U.S., two who are wanted on warrants of deportation, and three others who have re-entered the U.S. illegally after having been deported.

Fall River Police Chief John M. Souza said in the press release that the Fall River Police Department coordinated and worked closely with federal agents and that this was "indicative of the ability of the agencies to work cooperatively together to achieve a common goal of public safety in our community."

Those arrested as part of this local gang operation are foreign nationals from Barbados, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Columbia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Portugal, Trinidad and Vietnam.

Immigrant groups have expressed concern about the raids

Source



The latest from CIS

1. The New Case Against Immigration, Both Legal and Illegal By Mark Krikorian. A description and reviews of the book are here

DETAILS: Mark Krikorian argues that what's different about immigration today as opposed to a century ago is not the immigrants but us. Today's immigrants obviously come from different countries, but they're very similar is most relevant respects. It's America that has changed dramatically, in good ways and bad ways, but in any case in ways that make us a mature society and render our past experience with immigration irrelevant. We have a post-industrial, knowledge-based economy, a welfare state, advanced communications and transportation technology that complicate the issues of security and sovereignty, etc. We have, in other words, outgrown mass immigration. It was an important phase of our national development, and played an important part in shaping who we are as a nation. But, like other phases we've passed through as a people -- pioneers settling the frontier, for instance -- it's something we need to put behind us.

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2. New Scholars Join the Center for Immigration Studies

We are delighted to announce the addition of three new researchers to our staff:

Senior Policy Analyst Janice Kephart focuses on national security issues related to immigration. Ms. Kephart is an internationally recognized border and ID security expert, who served as counsel to the 9/11 Commission and was a key author of the staff monograph, 9/11 and Terrorist Travel as well as the immigration-related facts and recommendations in the 9/11 Commission Report. Prior to 9/11, she was responsible for conducting factual investigations into counterterrorism issues and conducting oversight of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (before the creation of the Department of Homeland Security) as a counsel to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Technology and Terrorism. Her focus is on assuring implementation of 9/11 Commission border recommendations, as her extensive work on the REAL ID Act demonstrates. She has degrees from Duke University and Villanova Law School.

Legal Policy Analyst Jon Feere rejoins us after a stint as Editor at the Center a few years ago. He left us to attend American University's Washington College of Law, where he recently received his degree. While in law school he worked in the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, specifically, the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims. He also interned as an Assistant Prosecutor for the Montgomery County Maryland Office of the State's Attorney. Mr. Feere focuses on constitutional issues regarding immigration law. He also has a degree from the University of California, Davis.

Demographer Karen Jensenius focuses on various aspects of the immigrant population. Ms. Jensenius has a Master's degree from George Mason University in Justice, Law, and Crime Policy and a Bachelor's from Shippensburg University in Applied Mathematics and Criminal Justice.

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3. Center for Immigration Studies Blog

Our recently renovated website includes a blog, which is linked to our homepage, and also has its own page. Center staff frequently weigh in on immigration issues and current news stories are also linked. Some recent posts include:

Top Ten Reasons Why a Heist of 3,000 Blank UK Passports Matters By Janice Kephart, July 30, 2008

Congress Mulls Lifting HIV Ban By Jon Feere, July 25, 2008. (Update: now lifted)

"There You Go Again" By Stephen Steinlight, July 24, 2008

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4. Homeward Bound: Recent Immigration Enforcement and the Decline in the Illegal Alien Population By Steven A. Camarota and Karen Jensenius. Center for Immigration Studies Backgrounder, July 2008

EXCERPT: Monthly data collected by the Census Bureau through May 2008 shows a significant decline in the number of less-educated, young Hispanic immigrants in the country. The evidence indicates that the illegal immigrant population may have declined by over one million in the last year. There are strong indications immigration enforcement is responsible for at least part of the decline. The economy also is likely playing a role.

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5. Whaddya Know? Enforcement Works! Real-life immigration lessons. By Mark Krikorian, National Review Online, July 31, 2008

EXCERPT: Whatever the administration's motives behind permitting stepped-up enforcement (and I have my doubts), the results are now in: enforcement works. A new report, by Steven Camarota and Karen Jensenius of my Center for Immigration Studies, estimates that the illegal-immigrant population has declined 11 percent through May of this year, down to 11.2 million from an August 2007 peak of 12.5 million. If this decline were sustained, it would cut the illegal population in half in five years.

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6. Enforcement at Work: The strategy of attrition is bearing fruit By Mark Krikorian, National Review, August 4, 2008

EXCERPT: Is immigration enforcement effective? Ask the New York Times: "Children someday will study the Great Immigration Panic of the early 2000s, which harmed countless lives, wasted billions of dollars and mocked the nation's most deeply held values." An enforcement program that can move the Times to such a display of righteous indignation must be doing something right.

But you don't need to read between the lines to see what's happening on the immigration front. Proof that our belated efforts against illegal immigration are bearing fruit is piling up by the day. Combined federal, state, and local initiatives are demonstrating that the strategy of attrition through enforcement reducing the illegal population over time, largely through self-deportation rather than mass roundups actually works.

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7. Public Comment on FAR Case 2007-013, Employment Eligibility Verification (Proposed Rule) By Jon Feere, Jessica Vaughan. Submitted to the Federal Register, June 18, 2008

EXCERPT: If enacted, the proposal by the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to require certain contractors and subcontractors to use the E-Verify system will benefit the nation's economy and security and will reduce illegal hiring practices.

This is an essential first step in requiring all businesses to adhere to basic employment and immigration laws. Starting with federal contractors is a way of phasing in the system and institutionalizing E-Verify as a best practice in more and more sectors of the economy. E-Verify increases economic stability as businesses using the system are not burdened by a deportable workforce nor susceptible to ICE worksite enforcement measures, which have been stepped up in recent years, and which are likely to be sustained for years to come.

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8. H-1B Visa Numbers: No Relationship to Economic Need By John Miano, Center for Immigration Studies Backgrounder, June 2008

EXCERPT: As the annual H-1B quota gets exhausted, industry groups claim that the huge number of H-1B visa applications demonstrates that more H-1B visas should be available. However, comparing the number of H-1B visas in their largest represented occupations (computers and engineering) to the number of jobs created in those occupations presents a different picture of the H-1B visa program. This study examines the relationship between the number of H-1B visas and job growth. It finds that the number of H-1B visas approved in these fields greatly exceeds any reasonable number reflected by economic demand.

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9. Hearing on the Need for Green Cards for Highly Skilled Workers . Statement by Mark Krikorian before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law, June 12, 2008

EXCERPT: But like everything else in immigration policy, skills- and employment-based immigration is not what it seems. Once we peel away the misconceptions, we find that the "highly skilled" workers in question aren't really that highly skilled, and the "need" for them has little to do with the national interest and much to do with firms seeking cheaper and more compliant workers. In fact, the employment-based immigration category with the highest standards, the category that really does select for the best and brightest around the world, is never fully used, precisely because there are so few people in the world who have such extraordinary abilities.

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10. Video of Woodrow Wilson Center Debate: "The Economic Effect of Immigration: Implications for Income and Employment of Low-Skill Labor in the United States" By Mark Krikorian, Bryan Griffith, Center for Immigration Studies, June 3, 2008

DETAILS: The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars hosted a panel on June 3, 2008 entitled 'The Economic Effect of Immigration: Implications for Income and Employment of Low-Skill Labor in the United States.' Mark Kirkorian and Tamar Jacoby debated before a diverse academic audience.

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11. Who Pays? Foreign Students Do Not Help with the Balance of Payments By David North, Center for Immigration Studies Backgrounder, June 2008

EXCERPT: It has been argued for years that foreign students contribute to America's balance of payments because of money they bring with them from abroad. A careful analysis shows that such arguments are false because of three fundamental flaws: 1. The calculations ignore the massive, partially hidden subsidies to higher education coming from American tax dollars and endowment funds; 2. The calculations supporting the balance-of-payments argument use highly questionable data-collection techniques; and 3. Other, stronger, studies show that foreign students make heavy use of U.S. funds to support their graduate educations.

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12. Immigration: No Fix for an Aging Society By Steven A. Camarota, Bryan Griffith, Center for Immigration Studies, May 2008

DETAILS: A video where Steven Camarota explains immigration's effects on the work force and Social Security.

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13. E-Verify Results Demonstrate Accuracy and Efficiency . Statement by Jessica Vaughan before the Rhode Island Senate, May 14, 2008

EXCERPT: E-Verify works. The employers who use it - who now number 221 in Rhode Island, which is about triple the number at this time last year - report overwhelmingly that it does help them avoid hiring illegal workers, and that it is much better than the current I-9 system, which is more vulnerable to document fraud and employer abuse.

E-Verify is easy to use. My own organization uses it and, like other small businesses, we have encountered no problems with the system. The tutorial takes about 30 minutes to complete, if you take your time. No special software or security system is required.

E-Verify is accurate. 98 percent of eligible workers are confirmed to work instantaneously. Fewer than one percent of eligible workers need to update their records to be confirmed.

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14. H-1Bs: Still Not the Best and the Brightest By Norman Matloff, Center for Immigration Studies Backgrounder, May 2008

EXCERPT: In pressuring Congress to expand the H-1B work visa and employment-based green card programs, industry lobbyists have recently adopted a new tack. Seeing that their past cries of a tech labor shortage are contradicted by stagnant or declining wages, their new buzzword is innovation. Building on their perennial assertion that the foreign workers are "the best and the brightest," they now say that continued U.S. leadership in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) hinges on our ability to import the world's best engineers and scientists. Yet, this Backgrounder will present new data analysis showing that the vast majority of the foreign workers - including those at most major tech firms - are people of just ordinary talent, doing ordinary work. They are not the innovators the industry lobbyists portray them to be.





8 August, 2008

Border patrol agent held at gunpoint

Officers fear Mexican military encounters will turn violent

A U.S. Border Patrol agent was held at gunpoint Sunday night by members of the Mexican military who had crossed the border into Arizona, but the soldiers returned to Mexico without incident when backup agents responded to assist. Agents assigned to the Border Patrol station at Ajo, Ariz., said the Mexican soldiers crossed the international border in an isolated area about 100 miles southwest of Tucson and pointed rifles at the agent, who was not identified.

It was unclear what the soldiers were doing in the United States, but U.S. law enforcement authorities have long said that current and former Mexican military personnel have been hired to protect drug and migrant smugglers. "Unfortunately, this sort of behavior by Mexican military personnel has been going on for years," union Local 2544 of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) said on its Web page. "They are never held accountable, and the United States government will undoubtedly brush this off as another case of 'Oh well, they didn't know they were in the United States.' "It is fortunate that this incident didn't end in a very ugly gunfight," said the local's posting.

The NBPC represents all nonsupervisory personnel among the agency's 16,000 agents. Border Patrol spokesman Michael Friel did not return calls for comment Tuesday. State Department spokeswoman Nicole Thompson said Tuesday that the department had no information on the incident, and referred further questions to the Border Patrol. "It is not an incident that we are aware of," she said.

Ricardo Alday, spokesman at the Mexican Embassy in Washington, said Tuesday that Mexico and the United States are engaged in "an all-out struggle to deter criminal organizations from operating on both sides of our common border." "Law enforcement operations have led, from time to time, to innocent incursions by both U.S. and Mexican law enforcement personnel and military units into the territory of both nations, and in particular along non-demarcated areas of our border," he said. "We always try to solve these incidents in a cooperative fashion, and as acknowledged by the Border Patrol, this was the case in the episode at Ajo," he said.

Since 1996, there have been more than 200 confirmed incursions by the Mexican military into the United States. Local 2544, the largest in the NBPC, is headed by veteran Border Patrol agent Edward "Bud" Tuffly II. He noted on the Web page that the local's leadership would "withhold further comment on this incident until we see how our leaders handle it." "We don't have much confidence in most of them," the local's posting said.

Sunday night's incident bears similarities to other incursions by armed men in Mexican military gear in recent years: The incident occurred in the same area where heavily armed Mexican soldiers riding in a Humvee shot at a Border Patrol agent in 2002. A .50-caliber bullet ripped through the agent's rear window as he sped away. Mexican officials denied at the time that the shooters were Mexican soldiers, saying they were criminals using military uniforms. It is a position they steadfastly have maintained.

But the agent who reported encountering the gunfire was certain he saw soldiers, said Mr. Tuffly. He said at the time that the agent was able to identify their attire "down to a T, and it matched exactly what they [Mexican soldiers] wear." That purported incursion began after a Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation police ranger reported being chased by men in a Humvee. A year ago, U.S. law enforcement authorities were confronted by gunfire from automatic weapons as they chased and caught a drug-smuggling suspect in Texas trying to flee back into Mexico, the Hudspeth County (Texas) Sheriff's Office said.

More here



Border agents unevenly spread on boundary

More agents in San Diego than Texas, Arizona; politics at play, critics say

Despite efforts to add Border Patrol agents to areas where immigrant traffic is high and drug violence is flaring, officers assigned to the 2,000-mile boundary with Mexico are bunched up near the California coast. And some critics see politics at play. An Associated Press analysis of Border Patrol staffing shows that the San Diego sector, with the shortest section of border and fences covering half the boundary, has four times the number of agents per mile that West Texas does and three times as many as most of Arizona. That is the case even though the Tucson sector in Arizona has been the busiest spot for illegal crossings for years and El Paso sits next to a Mexican city that has seen a surge in drug-cartel violence so severe that Mexicans are pleading for asylum in the U.S.

"I think it makes us less safe," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said of the way agents are posted along the border. Border Patrol officials defend the staffing levels, saying San Diego's transportation routes and year-round balmy weather make it an attractive spot for smugglers. Others suggest, however, that members of Congress who most embrace the agency's push are rewarded with more agents.

Borderwide, staffing has increased dramatically in the past five years as political pressure to prevent illegal immigration has mounted. On the southern border, there are roughly 15,000 agents, up from 9,500 in 2004. And while the most dramatic growth has occurred near the Arizona-California line and around El Paso, San Diego's short section of border has, by far, the most agents per mile at 37. That compares with 11 for most of Arizona and nine for the Rio Grande Valley and West Texas, based on head counts given to the AP in July.

The 60-mile San Diego sector is at the southern end of a county with roughly 3 million people. It has two major northbound highways and easy access to food, water and communication - all of which make it inviting to smugglers and illegal immigrants. But the sector is already heavily reinforced: Two-thirds of the border is blocked by fences or vehicle barriers. The most populous part of the boundary has nearly 10 miles of double-layer fences with stadium lights.

The border in Arizona and Texas is more wide open and more rural in many places, which can make it harder to guard. It also includes major interstates and sizable population centers where recent arrivals can easily blend in. The Rio Grande forms the border in Texas, but in many places it is possible to swim, wade or float across it. Arizona has long been the busiest and deadliest section of the border, recording hundreds of deaths in recent years among immigrants who fell victim to the rocky terrain and the fierce desert heat and cold. Nearly half the apprehensions of illegal immigrants along the Mexican border are made in the Tucson sector, but those numbers are a poor indicator of effectiveness because research indicates that people trying to sneak across get caught less than half the time, said Wayne Cornelius, a professor at the University of California at San Diego.

More here





7 August, 2008

Texas Democrat shows a bit of realism

Accepts the importance of enforcement

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Rick Noriega proposed an immigration plan Wednesday calling for more border agents, crackdowns on employers who hire undocumented workers and allowing illegal immigrants to pay a fine and become documented. Noriega also chastised Republican Sen. John Cornyn for supporting the U.S.-Mexico border fence. Noriega called the fence a gimmick and a 700-mile monument to Washington's failure. He said initially Cornyn did not support a border fence, but by 2007, he "flip-flopped and changed his tune, voting for the fence three times."

Cornyn's campaign responded with this statement: "Saying you are against the fence may play well in some places, but 82 U.S. Senators - including Barack Obama - voted for it. The Border Patrol says we need fencing to secure the border."

Noriega said mass deportation of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the country is not realistic. He said he favors allowing the workers to "come out of the shadows" and pay a fine and any back taxes owed and then become taxpaying employees. "Our nation's immigration system is broken - Texans know it first hand, as do citizens all along our southern border," Noriega said in a prepared statement. He traveled far from the border to unveil his plan in Amarillo then Lubbock. Campaign spokesman Martin Apodaca said Noriega went to the Panhandle region to roll out the plan because it's an important part of the state with more than 200,000 residents and because Noriega wants to talk to voters everywhere. He was scheduled to campaign in Austin on Thursday.

Noriega said he favors boosting the number of border patrol agents by 18,000 along with more "state-of-the-art" surveillance technology along the Rio Grande. He proposed clamping down on human traffickers and employers who disobey the law and hire undocumented workers. He said he wants to strengthen criminal background checks to make sure those immigrants who break the law are deported.

Cornyn's campaign pointed out that Cornyn introduced an amendment to the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 to permanently bar "gang members, terrorists and other criminals."

Noriega, a Houston legislator and member of the Texas Army National Guard, was a sector commander in Laredo during the Guard's Operation Jump Start to help secure the border. Noriega proposed a establishing a similar program with an "Operation Jump Start II." Another plank of his plan urges an increase in the number of visas available for white- and blue-collar workers each year to attempt to push immigration into legal channels.

Source



The South African exodus

Last time I was there I got the impression that just about ALL white South Africans would now leave if they could. There are certainly a LOT of them in Australia already. I know a few. South Africa is a very dangerous place for everybody these days

Like many countries around the world, South Africa is experiencing a "brain drain" of skilled workers who are migrating to better working conditions around the world. According to the Financial Mail, Australia and Canada are attracting more South African skilled workers than ever, creating a skills shortage in South Africa's economy that has been coined its "Achilles heel".

The news provider has been told medical specialists and higher-end management comprise the biggest groups of skilled South African emigrants. Since 2000, the number of South African emigrants has risen from 18 per cent to 40 per cent, leaving a massive gap in the South African workforce.

The Australian Government is also desperate to fill skills shortages and have opened its doors to skilled workers willing to move to Australia. Figures released from the Australian High Commission in Pretoria showed that last year, approximately 4,000 South Africans moved to Australia, and 15,000 more visited the country on an Australian tourist visa.

Marketing Manager for Pentravel David Randall said this year flights from South Africa to Australia increased by 30 per cent. He added that the increasing demand for South African immigration to Australia has resulted in Pentravel securing a special immigration fare with Qantas, Australia's national airline. "It is not only the sales of one-way fares that have increased, but tickets for people making exploratory visits to Australia," said Randall.

The regional manager for an immigration agency in South Africa said most of his clients were Afrikaans seeking a better lifestyle in Australia because it provides higher wages, low crime rates, employment equity, and a stable government.

Charles Luyckx, joint CEO of removal company Elliott International, said many of the migrants were taking advantage of the skills shortage in the mining industry in Australia. Under the General Skilled Migration program, overseas workers can apply for an Australian skilled migration visa if they intend to work in an industry considered to have a skills shortage. The Australian Government is currently campaigning for more foreign workers to apply for jobs in the mining industry, particularly in South Australia and the Northern Territory so the country's main source of GDP can support the continually expanding export economy.

Source





6 August, 2008

NYT bungles in 'The Jungle'

Today's editorial denounces enforcing the law.

Working in a meat-processing plant has to be one of the worst jobs out there. Apparently conditions at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, were either among the worst or the worst in the USA. One reason Agriprocessors managers got away with it was they hired illegal immigrants. The government should have shut it down long ago. But finally, the feds bust the place, arrested the manager and took hundreds of illegal aliens into custody.

In an editorial today, "The Jungle," the Times is upset that actual criminal charges - aggravated identity theft - are filed against the illegal aliens. This is how prosecutors work. They file a felony so they can win a plea to a misdemeanor. Most of these illegal aliens were processed within days. The Times was not happy. "This is enforcement run amok," the Times said.

Hmm. People break the law and we prosecute and that's too much for the Times. "The harsh prosecution at Postville is an odd and cruel shift for the Bush administration, which for years had voiced compassion for exploited workers and insisted that immigration had to be fixed comprehensively or not at all," the Times said.

Actually the case shows why Americans want the law enforced. These workers - and thousands in New York City's garment district (the Times might want to inspect its back yard) - are exploited because they are underground. Rather than enforcement run amok, this is enforcement overdue.

An example has been made. Which is why hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens now are self-deporting, as the government put it. The Bush administration and both presidential candidates have pushed amnesty and lax enforcement of immigration laws. The public ain't buying it. Enforcement is sending the right signal. The Times doesn't get it.

Source



Obammigration

Obama: We can't deport 12 million people. Reality: Oh yes we can and yes we are. Democratic Sen. Barack Obama in a debate in Texas on Feb. 21:

"The one thing I do have to say, though, about this issue is it is very important for us, I think, to deal with this problem in terms of thousands of - hundreds of thousands of people coming over the borders on a regular basis if we want to also provide opportunity for the 12 million undocumented workers who are here. Senator Clinton and I have both campaigned in places like Iowa and Ohio and my home state of Illinois, and I think that the American people want fairness, want justice. I think they recognize that the idea that you're going to deport 12 million people is ridiculous, that we're not going to be - (applause) - devoting all our law enforcement resources to sending people back. But what they do also want is some order to the process."

The New York Times today:

The number of illegal immigrants in the country has dropped by as much as 1.3 million in the past year, an 11 percent decline since a historic peak last August, an immigration research group in Washington said in a report released Wednesday. The report, by Steven A. Camarota and Karen Jensenius of the Center for Immigration Studies, found "strong indications" that stepped-up enforcement by immigration authorities had played a major role in the decline.

The sad thing is Republicans nominated the co-author of the amnesty bill. But along with Obama's Inflate Your Tires plan to make America energy independent, Obama is showing that he is good only at looking good and reading a script. Liberal talking points are a sad way to govern. As Jimmy Carter discovered.

Source





5 August, 2008

Little support for recent immigration changes in Australia

Less than a quarter of people believe Australia's policies toward asylum seekers in recent years have been too tough, a poll has found. Under changes unveiled by Immigration Minister Chris Evans last week, asylum seekers and visa overstayers will now be detained only if they are judged to pose a risk to the community.

But the new Essential Media poll suggests the softer approach may be unpopular. The poll found just 24 per cent of people believed detention policies have been too tough, while 34 per cent thought they were "about right'' and 28 per cent thought they were not tough enough.

Asked about the Rudd Government's decision to increase Australia's refugee intake to 13,500 people a year, 52 per cent of people said they thought the number was too high. A quarter of people said the number was about right, while just 6 per cent said the number was too small.

Source



Female judges are soft on asylum seekers

Winning asylum is like a game of roulette, but the chips will be in your favour if you have legal representation and a judge who is a woman or has not worked in the immigration bureaucracy, a study of US asylum decisions has found.

Beyond the initial issue of the asylum seeker's credibility, these factors have a huge impact on whether a person will be granted asylum. Philip Schrag, a pre-eminent asylum lawyer at Georgetown University in Washington, said the single most surprising finding of the research was the impact of the judge's gender. "A female judge was 44 per cent more likely to grant asylum than a male judge," he said in Sydney last week.

The report, published in the Stanford Law Review, analysed 133,000 decisions over seven years. Professor Schrag said 70 per cent of asylum claims in the US were made by people who applied before they were arrested. Of these, only 16 per cent without legal representation were successful. The chances of success rose to 40.5 per cent with legal representation and 89 per cent if they were represented by law school clinics, non-government organisations or law firms working pro bono.

The third factor was the length of time a judge had served with immigration. The longer the judge worked for the Government the lower the grant rate

Source





4 August, 2008

How evil can an immigration bureaucracy get? (Don't answer that)

The U.S. bureaucracy would be in the running for first prize. A scientist is being kicked out because the photo submitted with her paperwork had a tiny bit of glare in it

A University of Idaho researcher who worked on bioterrorism defenses faces deportation to Poland after being denied residency by U.S. immigration officials. Katarzyna Dziewanowska was recruited by the university and worked 14 years but was told to stop in the spring of 2005 because of the immigration mess. "I never tried to break the law," Dziewanowska, 64, told The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash. "I tried to play according to the rules."

At the same time immigration officials were denying her authorization to work, Dziewanowska held an FBI clearance for research to counter possible terrorist attacks with the plague. "She's a damn good scientist," said Patricia Hartzell, a biology and biochemistry professor and former dean of Dziewanowska's academic department. "She's really good."Her husband, Witold Ferens, a University of Idaho researcher studying ways to fight diseases such as AIDS, can no longer receive grants because the couple are on a family application to remain in the U.S.

"These are the kind of people you want to kick out of the country?" said Michael Cherasia, Dziewanowska's former lawyer. "Somebody isn't thinking. They had the discretion to approve her petition, and they refused."

Immigration officials say Dziewanowska' application for permanent residency was rejected because she worked eight months without authorization in late 2004 and early 2005. Dziewanowska arrived at the university in 1994 and worked on a visa for a few years, then was granted outstanding researcher status as a step toward applying for permanent residency, which she did in 2003 with the help of the university. While immigration officials considered her application, she was required to apply annually for temporary work permits called employment authorization documents.

In the fall of 2004 her application for a permit was rejected because she had submitted a profile photo rather than a face-forward one as required under new rules. She sent a face-forward photo, but that was rejected because officials said it included glare on one lens of her glasses. In a letter in September 2004, immigration officials wrote, "There is no appeal to this decision." By then, her previous work permit had expired.

Dziewanowska said the university's human rights office told her she could keep working during a 240-day grace period, a claim The Spokesman-Review found was supported by Cherasia and e-mail records. During that period Dziewanowska worked on finding ways to protect against humans from bioterrorist attacks with the plague, but the university's advice that she could keep working turned out to be incorrect. Immigrations officials then told her that, because she had worked illegally for eight months without a work permit, her application for permanent residency was being rejected. In April 2005 the university told her to stop working.

Immigration officials say it doesn't matter who told her she could keep working without a permit because it's the individual's responsibility to be sure to follow the rules. "They eventually put me in a situation where you start to feel like a criminal when you don't have any intention to break the law," said Dziewanowska.

Sharon Rummery, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in San Francisco, said she could not discuss the specifics of Dziewanowska's case. "We make all the information about immigration laws very accessible," Rummery said.

Dziewanowska's son is also caught up in the situation and can't apply for a free tuition program through his employer.

The university would not discuss Dziewanowska's case but issued a statement: "In instances where an application for permanent residency has been filed, the university must confirm employment and other information. However, we do not and cannot make immigration-related decisions for or on behalf of individuals and their immigration status."

Dziewanowska's next step is to be ordered to appear before an immigration judge. It's unclear when that could happen. Meanwhile, a year away from retirement, she's not allowed to work, and she and her husband have bought a new home in Moscow [Idaho]. "On the immigration side, there's no room for good-faith mistakes in the law, and this is one of them," said her lawyer, Maria Andrade of Boise. "It's a sad case. It's a very sad case."

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Immigrants flooding into Australia -- legally

Leftist governments love immigrants -- because they tend to upset the status quo and create problems for governments to "solve"

Did you know the Rudd Government is implementing the biggest immigration program since the end of World War II, and the biggest intake, in absolute numbers of permanent immigrants and temporary workers, in Australia's history? Did you know the migration program for 2008-09 has set a target of 190,300 places, a robust 20 per cent increase over the financial year just ended?

On budget night, May 13, amid the avalanche of material released by the Government, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, issued a press release stating, among other things: "The use of 457 visas to employ temporary skilled migrant workers has grown rapidly in recent years. A total of 39,500 subclass 457 visas was granted in 2003-04 compared with an expected 100,000 places in each of 2007-08 and 2008-09." That is a 150 per cent increase in four years. Did you know the number of overseas students coming to Australia is also at a record high, with 228,592 student visas granted in 2006-07, a 20 per cent increase over the previous year?

Under the Rudd Government, Australia's net immigration intake is now larger than Britain's, even though it has almost three times the population of Australia. To put all this in perspective, the immigration program in the Rudd Government's first year is 150 per cent bigger than it was in the Howard government's first year. The immigration intake is running almost 60 per cent higher than it was three years ago.

On November 14 last year, when Kevin Rudd launched Labor's election campaign, he mentioned at length the challenges of climate change and water shortages: "It is irresponsible for any national government of Australia to stand idly by while our major cities are threatened by the insecurity of water supply." While presenting a commendable shift away from John Howard's inertia on these issues, his policy is breathtakingly inconsistent. Not only did Rudd commit to a policy of building high-energy desalination plants for Australia's main cities, he has also committed Australia to record levels of immigration.

Talk about shifting sands. To quote Rudd in this same keynote speech: "Mr Howard lacked the decency to even mention Work Choices at all during his 4400-word policy speech on Monday. Work Choices has become the industrial relations law that now dare not speak its name." Rudd did not have the decency to mention immigration once in his 4300-word campaign launch. It is the most glaring inconsistency of his Government.

The immigration figures quoted above do not even include New Zealanders, who are not counted as part of Australia's annual migration program, nor do they include people who have overstayed their visas. Add another 50,000 or so people to an equation which will see a million people added to the population during the three-year term of the Rudd Government [compared with an existing population of about 20 million]. The only element in Australia's immigration program that is not going gangbusters is the refugee and humanitarian intake, which remains static at 13,500 places a year.

It was not until Evans made his first key policy speech last week that I began to appreciate the scale of the Government's selective silences. He began with a ritual bashing of his Liberal predecessor as minister, Kevin Andrews, who is now not even in the Opposition shadow outer ministry and would do his party a favour if he retired. After the point-scoring Evans got to the essence: "Today I want to announce . [that] mandatory detention is an essential component of strong border control . [but] children and, where possible, their families, will not be detained in an immigration detention centre . Detention that is indefinite or otherwise arbitrary is not acceptable . Detention in immigration detention centres is only to be used as a last resort and for the shortest practicable time ."

It was not until the last paragraph of his long speech that Evans got to the core point: "In the future, the immigration system will be characterised by strong border security, firm deterrence of unauthorised arrivals, effective and robust immigration processes and respect for the rule of law and the humanity of those seeking migration outcomes."

Sounds like Howard. In other words, the fundamentals of the system are not going to be changed. The Rudd Labor Government is not dismantling the detention system first set up by the Keating Labor. It is not ending the excision of Australian territory from the Immigration Act, which prevents asylum-seekers from entering Australian territory via offshore islands. It is not ending the detention of adults until security and health checks are completed. It is not cutting funding for navy border patrols. It is maintaining the new Christmas Island detention centre, far from Australia's shores, and capable of housing 8000 people short-term, as a place to warehouse any new wave of boat people.

The fundamentals have not changed because they cannot change. The electorate holds dear the principle that people cannot blithely determine when and how they will move to a new country, bypassing immigration controls or refugee programs. This is elementary to a nation's sovereignty.

The hysterics in the refugee and mandatory detention debates have always thrown around words like "shame" and "gulags" and engaged in moral relativism, comparing Howard to Saddam Hussein, while refusing to recognise that there are real consequences of failures of immigration policy. Thousands of Australian have paid a heavy price for the failed refugee-vetting processes in the 1970s and 1980s, when many people who should never have been allowed into the country were approved. We are still paying the price.

Labor learned the hard way that to compromise border security is to invite political disaster. This is why the Rudd Government is still talking tough on border security, and has a major immigration policy but dare not speak its name.

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3 August, 2008

U.S.A.: Welcome mat now out for homosexuals

It's not open doors altogether but the probability of anybody being rejected on AIDS grounds is now very low

President George W. Bush signed legislation on Wednesday, July 30 that not only reauthorized the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief, but also tripled funding for fighting AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in the world's poorest countries, particularly in Africa, and cleared the way for ending the ban on travel into the U.S. by HIV-positive foreigners. The measure also drops a previous clause requiring that at least one-third of the PEPFAR funds be used to promote sexual abstinence.

Congress approved the measure, which increases funding for the five-year program from the $15 billion level set in 2003 to $48 billion, earlier in July. Although some sources reported that the president's signature lifted the 21-year-old prohibition on travel into the country by those infected with HIV, those reports are inaccurate.

U.S. immigration law prohibits foreigners with "any communicable disease of public health significance" from entering the U.S., but only HIV was named explicitly in the statute. For all other illnesses, the Secretary of Health and Human Services determined which ones truly posed a risk to public health. The PEPFAR reauthorization bill Bush signed this week removes that explicit mention of HIV, putting the decision on whether to ban those with the AIDS virus back within the purview of the HHS head.

Passage of the bill received widespread praise from advocacy organizations for both AIDS and LGBT rights. Eric Friedman, senior global health policy advisor for Physicians for Human Rights, applauded the measure, saying that the U.S. HIV travel ban had "been an embarrassment to this country for many years." ....

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, focused his comments on the HIV travel ban repeal. "The HIV travel and immigration ban performs no public service [Really??], is unnecessary and ineffective," Solmonese said. "We thank our allies on the Hill who fought to end this injustice and now call on Secretary of Health and Human Services Leavitt to remove the remaining regulatory barriers to HIV-positive visitors and immigrants."

Joanne Lin, legislative counsel for the ACLU, called the repeal of the ban the end of a "shameful era in American immigration policy" and a "major advance for all people living with HIV/AIDS."

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Previous tough policies allow new relaxed detention rules, says Australia's former conservative immigration boss

Phil is right but the conservative legacy may not last for long once the new rules become widely known. The Australian Labor government is just mimicking the failed policies of the Brits

Former federal immigration minister Philip Ruddock says the former government's 'Pacific solution' is the reason why the current Government can afford to relax the rules on immigration detention.

The Government has announced major changes to immigration detention, making it a last resort only for those visa applicants who are deemed a risk to the community. The Government also says it will make the system more humane so most visa and asylum applicants will be able to live in the community while their claims are decided.

Mr Ruddock presided over the so-called 'Pacific solution', where hundreds of people were held in immigration detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island. But he says that policy has led to a very different situation now. "When you've got 300 people, I think about eight or nine, who are actually unauthorised border arrivals, it's very different to having thousands of people that you have to deal with," he said. "The processing demands are very different, the extent to which you can devote resources are very different.

Mr Ruddock says the current Government has its predecessor to thank for the very different circumstances. "We have no unauthorised arrivals in any significant number, and that's of course as a result of the policies of the previous government that managed to contain smuggling operations that were so unwelcome in relation to Australia's border protection," he said.

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2 August, 2008

Democrats Want Immigration Raids To End

Democrats on the crucial House committee that oversees the Department of Homeland Security as well as the Justice Department have joined illegal immigrant advocates in calling for an end to federal raids at businesses that knowingly hire large numbers of illegal workers.

Although the House Judiciary Committee is charged with overseeing the administration of justice within federal law enforcement entities, Democrat members are demanding that the Homeland Security agency in charge of immigration enforcement (Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE) stop doing its job.

In fact, at a recent hearing the California Democrat (Zoe Lofgren) who chairs the House Judiciary Committee's immigration panel, blasted the Bush Administration for conducting what her entire party describes as harsh and punitive immigration raids. The Democrats called special attention to a recent raid at an Iowa meatpacking plant where nearly 400 illegal workers were arrested.

More than 300 illegal immigrants, mostly from Mexico and Central America, were eventually charged with Social Security fraud for using illegal Social Security numbers as well as aggravated identity theft. Representative Lofgren complained at the hearing that federal agents rounded up the workers and they were "herded into a cattle arena and prodded down a cattle chute, coerced into guilty pleas and then to federal prison."

One prominent member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Democrat Luis Gutierrez of Chicago, called the raid "pandering" to "anti-immigrant extremists and conservative pundits." He added that an immigration system predicated on fear tactics and piecemeal deportation-only policy only worsens the immigration crisis by tearing the fabric of our society.

The fact is that aggressive workplace raids have busted large rings of criminal illegal immigrants throughout the country, many of whom stole the identities of unsuspecting Americans to get their job. The crackdown has also led to a marked decline in the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S., according to a report published this week by a renowned research organization that studies the impact of immigration in the United States.

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At-risk Iraqis offered asylum in Australia

A select group of almost 400 Iraqis who worked for the Australian Government in the war-torn country have been brought to Australia on special visas. Under a policy adopted by the Rudd Government, local Iraqis employed by the Australian Defence Force have been the first to benefit. Many Iraqis who worked for the US-led coalition military forces since 2003 have faced death threats and intimidation from various militia groups.

A Defence Department spokesman told The Weekend Australian that 387 Iraqis had come to Australia as permanent settlers under the scheme. All of them worked for Australian military forces in southern Iraq in al-Muthanna and Dhi Qar provinces.

With the last Australian troops having withdrawn from Tallil air base in Dhi Qar two months ago, the department has worked closely on resettling Iraqi staff who feared for their safety once the withdrawal took place. Other Iraqis who worked for Australian government agencies in other parts of the country, including Baghdad, will be assessed for resettlement on a case-by-case basis.

Under the program, the Iraqis are provided with full travel costs and initial accommodation after arrival in Australia. The Rudd Government's decision to allow the resettlement of at-risk Iraqi employees mirrors that of the US and British governments.

Since 2001, more than 11,000 Iraqis have been resettled in Australia under the offshore humanitarian program. The latest special visas for Iraqis who worked as local employees are in addition to the 13,000 places available under the Department of Immigration's 2007-08 humanitarian program.

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1 August, 2008

Illegal Immigrant Population Dropping

New Report Estimates 1.3 Million Decline Since Last Summer

A new analysis of monthly Census Bureau data shows a significant decline in the number of less-educated Hispanic immigrants. The report is the first to show systematic evidence that the illegal population is decreasing. There is good evidence that recent immigration enforcement efforts are a key factor causing the decline.

The report, entitled "Homeward Bound: Recent Immigration Enforcement and the Decline in the Illegal Alien Population," is available at the Center for Immigration Studies web site www.cis.org. Among the findings:

Our best estimate is that the illegal immigrant population has declined by 11 percent through May of this year after hitting a peak in August 2007.

The implied decline in the illegal population is 1.3 million since last summer, from 12.5 in August 2007 to 11.2 million in May 2008.

The estimated decline of the illegal population is at least 7 times larger than the number of illegal aliens removed by the government in the last 10 months, so most of the decline is due to illegal immigrants leaving the country on their own.

One indication that stepped-up enforcement is responsible for the decline is that only the illegal immigrant population seems to be effected; the legal immigrant population continues to grow.

Another indication enforcement is causing the decline is that the illegal immigrant population began falling before there was a significant rise in their unemployment rate.

The importance of enforcement is also suggested by the fact that the current decline is already significantly larger than the decline during the last recession.

While the decline began before unemployment rose, the evidence indicates that unemployment has increased among illegal immigrants, so the economic slowdown is likely to be at least partly responsible for the decline in the number of illegal immigrants.

There is good evidence that the illegal population rose last summer while Congress was considering legalizing illegal immigrants. When that legislation failed to pass, the illegal population began to fall almost immediately.

Discussion: These findings are consistent with anecdotal evidence. They are also consistent with data showing a fall off in remittances sent home by immigrants. And they are in line with a drop in border apprehensions. While the evidence indicates that stepped-up immigration enforcement has played an important role in causing the decline, the economic downturn is also likely to be encouraging illegal immigrants to return home. The decline in the illegal population, whatever the cause, seems to directly challenge the argument that illegal aliens are so firmly attached to their lives in this country that it is not possible to induce many of them to return home. If the current trend were sustained, it could cut the illegal population in half within five years.

There is no way to know whether the current trend will continue. Future enforcement efforts as well as the state of the economy will likely determine if the number of illegal immigrants continues to drop. Both presidential candidates have recently stated their strong commitment to legalizing those in the country illegally. Pronouncements of this kind may have consequences. When Congress was considering legalizing illegal immigrants last summer, there is evidence that the illegal population grew. When that legislation failed to pass, the illegal population began to decline rapidly. It may be that the repeated promises of legalization by both candidates in recent weeks will encourage more illegal immigrants to enter the country or encourage those already in the country, who might otherwise leave, to stay in the hopes of being awarded legal status.

Methodology: This study uses monthly data from the Current Population Survey collected by the Census Bureau. The Department of Homeland Security, the former INS and other outside research organizations have used Census Bureau data to estimate the illegal immigrant population. We examine trends in the number of foreign-born less-educated young Hispanics. Prior research indicates that 80 percent of these individuals are in the country illegally. We estimate the range for the decline in the illegal immigrant population is 9 to 14 percent, with 11 percent as the most likely value.

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U.S. Government's volunteer deportation program criticized

The U.S. government is offering a deal for immigrants who entered the country illegally: Show up, 'fess up and possibly get a free plane ticket home. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thursday announced the experimental "self-deporting" program, open to about 500,000 undocumented residents. Between Tuesday and Aug. 22, those who have ignored deportation orders can call a toll-free number, go to an ICE office, then take up to 90 days to settle personal affairs before leaving the country.

By voluntarily departing, they will avoid the month- and even yearlong stays of those who are caught and sent to detention centers around the country. They will be required to sign statements saying they will not apply for legal residence in the future. Those with criminal records are not eligible, however.

While Long Island isn't included in the first phase of the project, local immigrant groups scoffed at it Thursday, as did immigrants awaiting day jobs on street corners in Huntington Station. "It's a reflection of this administration's inability to deal in a rational way with complex issues such as immigration," said Luis Valenzuela, executive director of the Long Island Immigrant Alliance.

But Rep Peter King (R-Seaford) said he supports the pilot. "This gives illegal immigrants the chance to leave the country without any harm being done and under very controlled circumstances," he said.

At first, the Northeast isn't included in the plan. Immigrants must go to offices in Chicago, Phoenix, Charlotte, N.C., San Diego and Santa Ana, Calif. "ICE hopes to expand the program through a phased-rollout approach," said Brandon .Alvarez-Montgomery, a .spokesman for the agency.

While ICE has not released many details of the program, some press reports say officials may offer help with flights or bus rides home for those who cannot afford the travel. The agency will keep looking for immigrants who have criminal records or who failed to obey deportation orders. Last year, ICE arrested over 19,000 immigrants nationwide, including more than 15,600 who did not have criminal records. While officials also noted that the program would save the government money on raids that involve flying agents around the country, others criticized the plan as a waste of money. Officials have not released the cost of the program.

"Illegal immigration will be solved when we stop squandering U.S. taxpayer dollars on silly programs," said Angela Kelley, director of the Immigration Policy Center in Washington, D.C. "This isn't the free New Year's Eve taxi ride where no questions are asked."

That's the view of Jose Lopez, 24, a worker in Huntington Station. Lopez said he crossed the border three years ago in order to spend several years here earning money to support his daughters, ages 7 and 5, in Honduras. "There's no work at home," he said. "I'm here because I want to do my best for my children, not to get a ride back."

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