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July 2008
Immigrants who “self-deport” may have to wear ankle tracking devices
Illegal immigrants who volunteer to leave the country through an experimental government program may have to wear electronic tracking devices, the Associated Press reported Thursday.
Under the pilot program, people who have ignored deportation orders can report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office and arrange to leave the United States.
Those who volunteer will have 90 days to take care of personal affairs before leaving and could be required to wear an electronic monitoring device on an ankle during that time, the AP reported.
The program is available to illegal immigrants who have not committed crimes and will be offered in five cities — Santa Ana, Calif., San Diego, Phoenix, Charlotte, and Chicago.
Read more here.
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Are illegal immigrants leaving the United States?
Illegal immigrants are going home.
That is the conclusion of a new study which says that stepped-up enforcement efforts are working, causing thousands of illegal immigrants to self-deport.
The population has declined 11 percent since last summer — from 12.5 million to 11.2 million, according to the report by the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that advocates lower levels of immigration.
“The evidence is powerful and consistent that enforcement is having the desired effect,” said Steven Camarota, the report’s main author and director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies.
The study also said that the nation’s economic slowdown is partly responsible for the decline.
Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said that the report proves that enforcement works.
“Opponents of immigration enforcement claim that there are only two ways to address illegal immigration: amnesty or mass deportation. But there is another and better option and that is to simply enforce current laws,” he said, in a statement.
But Angela Kelley, director of the Immigrant Policy Center, said the study lacks hard data and has “faulty logic.”
She criticized the authors for determining “likely” illegal immigrants by using a certain percentage of less educated, foreign-born Hispanic adults who are 18 to 40 years old.
“The authors report confidently about a population that is nearly impossible to accurately measure,” she said.
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Obama to spend $20 million on Latino voters
The Barack Obama campaign announced Tuesday it is joining forces with the Democratic National Committee in a $20 million effort to mobilize Hispanic voters in key swing states in the fall presidential election.
The Obama campaign will target Hispanic voters in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Florida, according to Temo Figueroa, the Latino voter director for the Obama campaign, and will involve not only advertising and online organizing but also voter registration drives, get-out-the-vote efforts and the training of some 500 grass-roots organizers.
The Republican National Committee, in response to the Obama announcement, issued a statement saying Obama’s policies “are not in line with Latino economic interests.” And it provided reporters with background material of media accounts in which the comments of Hispanic business leaders clashed with tax and trade policies proposed by Obama.
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U.S. attorney responds to federal ruling on border agents
While members of Congress — including Sen. John Cornyn of Texas — expressed disappointment in a federal ruling that upheld most of the convictions against two former Border Patrol agents, the prosecutor in the case praised the decision.
The agents — Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos — are serving 12 and 11 years in prison, respectively for shooting a Mexican drug dealer and trying to cover it up.
The case has become a cause celebre on talk radio shows and among groups that advocate tougher border controls. Supporters say that the former agents were wrongly convicted for protecting the United States against a criminal intruder who was in the United States illegally.
The prosecutor in the case — U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of the Western District of Texas — said he was “pleased” with the federal ruling.
“By affirming the convictions of the most serious charges against Mr. Compean and Mr. Ramos, the court has validated what this office has said all along - this prosecution was about the rule of law, plain and simple,” Sutton said, in a statement.
He also had some words for lawmakers and others rallying for Compean and Ramos.
He asked them to “re-evaluate their positions in light of the court record.”
“Those who understand the record and the evidence introduced at trial will realize that the actions of Compean and Ramos in shooting an unarmed and fleeing suspect were serious crimes which had to be prosecuted in order to maintain the rule of law,” Sutton said.
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Appeals court upholds convictions against Border Patrol agents.
Sen. John Cornyn on Monday said he was very disappointed that a federal court upheld most of the convictions against two former Border Patrol agents serving long sentences for shooting a Mexican drug dealer and trying to cover it up.
The agents’ case has become a cause celebre on talk radio shows and among groups that advocate tougher border controls. Supporters say that they were wrongly convicted for protecting the United States against a criminal intruder who was also in the United States illegally.
Cornyn on Monday said the case was a “miscarriage of justice” and urged President Bush to act.
“It is incomprehensible to me that an illegal alien drug smuggler was allowed to violate his immunity agreement, perjure himself and be granted a series of unlimited visas to roam free in our country while two Border Patrol agents were given excessive prison sentences,” he said in a statement.
At a Senate hearing last year, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of the Western District of Texas, staunchly defended his prosecution in the case.
“Some in the media and on the Internet have tried to portray agents Compean and Ramos as heroes, but that narrative is false,” Sutton said. “The actions of Compean and Ramos in shooting an unarmed, fleeing suspect, destroying evidence, and engaging in a cover-up, are serious crimes.”
According to the Associated Press, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld most of the convictions against the agents.
The appeals court vacated their convictions for tampering with an official proceeding, but the three-judge panel refused to reverse the convictions that resulted in their lengthy sentences, the AP said.
Ramos is shown in this picture when he surrendered to federal authorities in 2007.
Read more here.
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Virginia to report foreign-born inmates to fed
Virginia has implemented a little known law that requires all jail officials to notify federal authorities about foreign-born inmates, including legal and illegal immigrants, the Washington Post reported Monday.
The law aims to “make every corner of the state as unwelcoming for illegal immigrants charged with crimes” as the state’s Prince William County, which launched a crackdown on illegal immigrants last year, the paper said.
Read more here.
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Obama makes big strides with Latino voters
Sen. Barack Obama, who struggled to attract Hispanic voters in the Democratic primary, now has a commanding lead with the group, according to a study released Thursday.
“The support for Obama is quite broad-based,” said Susan Minushkin, the center’s deputy director.
During the Democratic primary race, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York beat Obama with Latino voters by nearly a 2 to 1 margin.
The Pew survey showed that most of the Hillary voters — 76 percent — now say they are inclined to vote for Obama, while 8 percent said they are inclined to vote for McCain.
See the Pew survey here.
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Obama releases Spanish-language radio ad
Sen. Barack Obama on Wednesday released a Spanish-language radio ad which says that that he grew up without a father and made his own way through life.
The ad — titled “Nuestro Propio Camino” or “Our Own Path” — will air in the battleground states of Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Florida.
Here is a transcript of the ad, provided by the Obama campaign:
Barack Obama: I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message.
Voiceover: Some people have power and connections. But most of us have to make our own way through life. This is true even for the man who could become the next president, Barack Obama. He grew up without a father — raised by his mother with the support of his grandparents. Through student loans and hard work, he graduated from college.
Obama never forgot his roots. He worked with churches to help families get job training and after-school care for their children. In the state Senate, he passed a law that helped reduce the welfare rolls by over 80 percent by helping families to secure jobs. And despite the political pressure, Obama has stood with us for immigration reform and spoke out for our veterans. It’s time we had a president who understands we all deserve a chance to make our own way.
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Bloomberg orders city to provide help in six languages
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday signed an executive order to require city agencies to provide certain services in six languages — Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Italian and French Creole.
According to the Associated Press, the executive order is the first uniform, citywide policy requiring agencies to provide assistance and translation in the languages most commonly spoken by New Yorkers with limited English proficiency.
Chung-Wha Hong, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, said the executive order is “a landmark step toward ensuring that all New Yorkers — including those who haven’t had the opportunity to master English yet — will have meaningful access to the vital services provided by New York City.”
Read more here.
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Hispanic group wants feds to investigate beating death of immigrant
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund is urging the Department of Justice to investigate the death of Luis Ramirez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who died after allegedly being beaten by several teenagers.
The incident, which occurred over the weekend in Shenandoah, Pa., should be investigated as a possible hate crime, MALDEF said.
“The rise in hate crimes against Latinos documented by the FBI is painfully and tragically clear in the death of Luis Ramirez,” said John Trasvina, MALDEF president, in a news release.
According to an Associated Press account of the incident, the 25-year-old Ramirez was beaten after an argument with a group of youths, including at least some players on the town’s high school football team.
“Despite witness reports that the attackers yelled ethnic slurs, authorities say the beating wasn’t racially motivated,” AP said.
MALDEF is also urging the Department of Justice to send civil rights monitors to Shenandoah.
AP also said that Ramirez had been in the United States for six years and worked in a factory and in the fields, picking strawberries and cherries.
Read more here.
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Mexico awards “Aztec Eagle” to Ted Kennedy
Mexico awarded Sen. Edward Kennedy the country’s highest honor “for his work defending the rights of immigrants during his decades in Congress,” Reuters reported.
According to the Mexican government’s official gazette, it presented the “Aztec Eagle” honor to Kennedy in Washington on Friday, the story said.
“He has denounced injustices suffered by immigrants,” and “promoted initiatives to promote full political participation and increased access to health and education services for the Mexican-American community,” the official announcement said.
Kennedy, who is recovering from brain surgery, was a lead sponsor of a broad immigration bill that would have given many illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship. The bill failed in the Senate last year.
Previous recipients of the “Aztec Eagle” honor include Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melissa, who were given the award last year for their philanthropic work in Mexico, Reuters said.
This photo from July 9 shows Kennedy’s first return to the Senate after his surgery.
Read more here.
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One year after Senate hearing, border agents still in jail
Thursday marks a year since Sens. John Cornyn and Dianne Feinstein held a hearing to examine the case of two Border Patrol agents serving long sentences for shooting a Mexican drug dealer and trying to cover it up.
The two men — Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos — are still in jail, serving 12 and 11 years in prison, respectively.
Their case has become a cause celebre on talk radio shows and among groups that advocate tougher border controls. Supporters say that they were wrongly convicted for protecting the United States against a criminal intruder.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., who has led the charge to free the agents, said Thursday that the agents “have languished in solitary confinement” and that “President Bush has done nothing to reconcile this terrible injustice.”
“Despite the desperate pleas from members of both parties and the righteous outrage of millions of Americans, President Bush refuses to exercise his authority to free these two brave heroes who put their lives on the line to protect our border and our families,” he said.
At the hearing last year, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of the Western District of Texas staunchly defended his prosecution in the case.
“Some in the media and on the Internet have tried to portray agents Compean and Ramos as heroes, but that narrative is false,” Sutton said. “The actions of Compean and Ramos in shooting an unarmed, fleeing suspect, destroying evidence, and engaging in a cover-up, are serious crimes.”
Ramos is shown in this picture when he surrendered to federal authorities in 2007.
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Another immigration ordinance in Omaha
Another city is considering a tough immigration ordinance to crack down on illegal immigrants — Omaha, Neb.
The proposed rule would require every renter to obtain an occupancy license through the city, according to the Omaha World-Herald.
The paper says that the proposal is the first in the state that would ban harboring and renting to illegal immigrants and that it has sparked an outcry among advocates for Latinos.
Similar ordinances in other cities have been struck down by courts as unconstitutional because they conflict with federal law. Several cases are still pending.
Read the story here.
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McCain ad: Immigrants are “God’s Children”
Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP candidate for president, pays homage to Hispanic and immigrant soldiers in a new ad that will air in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico.
The ad — called God’s Children — features clips of McCain at a June 2007 GOP primary debate in New Hampshire.
McCain urges Americans to take note that there are “a whole lot of Hispanic names” on the Vietnam War Memorial and that many Latinos are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, including a few thousand who are still green card holders.
McCain said that these soldiers “love this country so much that they’re willing to risk their lives in its service in order to accelerate their path to citizenship and enjoy the bountiful, blessed nation.”
He also said, “let’s from time to time remember that these are God’s children.”
See the ad here:
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New look at whether McCain is a “natural-born” citizen
A new analysis by a University of Arizona law professor raises questions about whether Sen. John McCain is a “natural-born” citizen, a Constitutional requirement for the presidency.
The New York Times reported Friday that the detailed examination “concluded that neither Mr. McCain’s birth in 1936 in the Panama Canal Zone nor the fact that his parents were American citizens is enough to satisfy the constitutional requirement that the president must be a natural-born citizen.”
Read the story here.
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Latino groups pledge to register 500,000 voters
A coalition of immigrant advocates and Latino groups announced a plan Thursday to register 500,000 Latino, Asian and immigrant voters in 13 states, including Florida and Texas.
The group — the We Are America Alliance — also said it would make sure 1 million make it to the polls.
Holli Holliday (cq), executive director of the group, said that the registration effort targets the “most disenfranchised sections” of the electorate including recently naturalized citizens.
Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), said that the ultimate goal is for 10 million Latinos and immigrants to vote in November.
The We Are America Alliance is also mobilizing to make sure that immigrants and others are allowed to vote, Vargas said.
NALEO is recruiting “a battalion of attorneys” to be on hand on election day to assist any immigrant voters that are having difficulty at the polls, he said.
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Obama video on speaking Spanish goes viral
A video of Sen. Barack Obama asking Americans to teach their children to speak Spanish is the fourth most watched video on YouTube.
As of Thursday, it had more than 206,000 hits.
Obama made the remarks Tuesday at an appearance in Powder Springs, Ga. They got little attention at the time, but the CNN video of the event was featured on several conservative Web sites including drudgereport.com and redstate.com.
Obama also says in the video that he understands that immigrants must learn English.
See it here:
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Group launches site to monitor immigration in 2008 election
America’s Voice, a new group pushing for an overhaul of immigration laws, launched a Web site Wednesday to track the issue through the 2008 election.
The site — www.immigration08.com — will include commentary, new stories, polling, immigration ads and other information about the issue, said Frank Sharry, executive director of the group.
In a conference call with reporters, Sharry predicted that Republicans will campaign hard on the immigration issue at all levels of government in an effort to create a wedge issue and turn out base voters and culturally-conservative swing voters.
Such a strategy is “wrong-headed,” he said.
“Many Democrats get that if you are for a common sense solution you both appeal to both swing voters and the fast-growing Latino vote,” he said.
Sharry’s group supports an immigration rehaul that would include a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
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Bilbray praises National Guard on the border
As National Guard troops leave the U.S.-Mexico border, Rep. Brian Bilbray introduced a resolution Tuesday praising the soldiers.
It also says the soldiers have “assisted in the rescue of over 100 illegal aliens.”
“For the past two years, courageous members of our National Guard have braved extreme weather conditions along the southwest border and worked tirelessly to stem the flow of illegal immigration and reduce drug and human smuggling,” said Bilbray, chair of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, which seeks stronger border enforcement.
The National Guard has been at the Southern border for two years under “Operation Jump Start.” Read more here.
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Conservatives to fight McCain’s GOP platform on immigration
The story says immigration is a main concern.
The current GOP platform calls for a temporary-worker program, which President Bush and McCain have supported, but many conservatives oppose. Many Republicans would like a much tougher position on immigration, the Post says.
Read more here.
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McCain birth stirs “natural-born” citizen debate
Sen. John McCain’s birth in the Panama Canal Zone has revived a long-standing debate over the constitutional requirement that limits the presidency to “natural born” citizens.
The problem is that the Framers never defined the term.
At least two lawsuits filed in federal court claim that McCain’s birthplace disqualifies him from becoming president. The issue has been simmering in the blogosphere for months, including discussions on prestigious legal forums. A Google search for “John McCain” and “natural born citizen” yields 57,000 hits.
McCain’s campaign advisers say they are not worried. The campaign commissioned prominent scholars from the political left and right to research the question and say they are confident that the senator from Arizona qualifies for the nation’s highest office.
His Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, agrees. So does the U.S. Senate, which passed a nonbinding resolution declaring that McCain is a natural born citizen, constitutionally eligible to run for president.
But Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, said the question of McCain’s eligibility is a serious one.
“It is not clear whether a Panamanian-born citizen is a natural born citizen,” Turley said. “The meaning of the term ‘natural born’ is unresolved.”
Turley also said, however, that the current lawsuits questioning McCain’s eligibility will likely be dismissed as frivolous or premature.
Read more here.
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San Francisco rethinks “sanctuary city” policy
Mayor Gavin Newsom (pictured) announced this week that the city “would begin handing over for deportation juvenile illegal immigrants with drug convictions, reversing a controversial policy of flying the youths back to their home countries at the city’s expense,” the Post said.
The paper also said that the flights were rooted in a 1989 ordinance declaring the city a “sanctuary” for illegal immigrants and that they stopped this spring after a U.S. attorney threatened to prosecute city officials for harboring criminals.
Read more here.
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McCain releases ad in Spanish on Colombia trade
As Sen. John McCain continued his jaunt through Latin America Wednesday, his campaign released a new radio ad in Spanish touting a proposed trade agreement between the United States and Colombia.
The ad, which will air in Florida, features Tony Villamil, former director of the state’s Office of Tourism, Commerce and Economic Affairs.
In the spot, Villamil says that commercial trade with Latin America is crucial for Florida.
“Last year Florida’s exports to Latin America reached almost $45 billion dollars. Colombia is Florida’s third most important export market and this trade agreement would create almost 5,000 new jobs,” he says. “John McCain supports the Colombian Agreement, knows about our alliances with our hemisphere and understands our economy grows thanks to trade.”
The ad also refers to Democratic nominee Barrack Obama, although not by name.
It says: “In this election, there are some that talk about revising the Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada and oppose the Agreement with Colombia. This would hurt our economic future.”
Listen to the ad here.
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Gallup Poll: Obama strong with Latino voters
Registered Latino voters favor Democrat Barack Obama over Republican John McCain by about a 2 to 1 margin, according to a new Gallup Poll.
Obama had struggled with Latino voters during the primaries where they strongly favored his main rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton.
However, recent polls show that Hispanic voters have “shown little difficulty in transferring their loyalties from Clinton to Obama,” Gallup says.
Latinos are considered a critical voting bloc in several swing states such as Florida, Colorado and New Mexico.
Read more here.
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McCain in Colombia; pushes trade agreement
Sen. John McCain, the likely GOP candidate for president, met late Tuesday with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe as part of a swing through Latin America.
McCain is a strong supporter of the proposed agreement.
He also favors the North American Free Trade Agreement, which has become an issue in the presidential campaign. Many blame the agreement for a loss of jobs in the Midwest and it is unpopular in key swing states such as Ohio.
McCain is headed to Mexico next, where he plans to talk to Mexican President Felipe Calderon about trade agreements, the fight against drug cartels and illegal immigration.
Read more here.
