Home > The Border Line > Archives > 2007 > September
September 2007
Bilbray slams Pelosi comments on border fence
Rep. Brian Bilbray, a California Republican who chairs the House Immigration Reform Caucus, said Friday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi does not understand the link between homeland security and border security.
“In a post-9/11 world, our borders represent a major vulnerability to our homeland security,” he said. “We have not only the right, but the responsibility to act now so that we can protect ourselves against all potential threats to our country…Speaker Pelosi clearly does not understand the link between border security and homeland security.”
Bilbray was responding to comments Pelosi made during a trip to the Rio Grande Valley this week where she said the border fence was “a terrible idea.”
According to the Associated Press, Pelosi said: “I have been against the fence, I thought it’s a bad idea even when it was just a matter of discussion…These are communities where you have a border going through them, they are not communities where you have a fence splitting them.”
To read more, click here.
Hillary campaign manager among most influential Hispanics
Patti Solis Doyle, presidential campaign manager for Sen. Hillary Clinton, is among the most influential Hispanics in the United States, according to the October issue of Hispanic Business magazine.
According to the article, Doyle is the first Hispanic woman to run a presidential campaign — and for the Democratic frontrunner, no less.
Other folks on the list include actress America Ferrera, star of the television show, “Ugly Betty,” Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, chairman of the Republican Party, and journalist-turned professor Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, associate director of the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas, who spearheaded the effort to include Hispanic soldiers in the new Ken Burns documentary about World War II.
The eclectic selection also includes Omar Minaya, general manager of the New York Mets; Christian Samper, acting secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; and NASA astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and John Olivas.
To see all the influential Latinos, click here.
Keyes: “Black folks are hurt” by illegal immigration
Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes, a former ambassador, said in a debate Thursday that black people are hurt by illegal immigration.
“These elites who have been under the thumb of certain corporate interests have an interest in cheapening the price of labor in America. Do you want to know who’s first hurt by that cheapened price of labor? Black folks are first hurt, as they’ve been hurt in the rebuilding of New Orleans, in the rebuilding of other parts of the United States that were affected by those hurricanes,” he said.
He later added: “I think people, including a lot of the black liberals, are more worried about what we do with illegal immigrants than they’ve ever been about the impact of illegal immigration on black Americans who have been in this country all along. I’m sick of seeing it.”
The debate focused on concerns in the black community and took place at Morgan State University, a historically black school.
The top four GOP presidential candidates — former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson — skipped the forum, citing scheduling conflicts.
Their absence was criticized by several fellow Republicans, including former House Speaker Newt Gingich, who is considering a presidential run.
The missing candidates were represented by empty podiums.
To read more about the debate, click here.
Pete Wilson endorses Giuliani
Former California Gov. Pete Wilson backed Rudy Giuliani on Thursday, an endorsement that could be a mixed blessing for the Republican presidential candidate due to Wilson’s hardline stand on illegal immigration, the Associated Press reported.
“America needs America’s mayor to lead us as president,” Wilson said of the former New York mayor.
Wilson, who served terms as U.S. senator and San Diego mayor, becomes Giuliani’s most recognized supporter in the nation’s largest state.
But the endorsement represents a tricky political calculus for Giuliani as the immigration policies Wilson championed as governor in the 1990s are widely blamed for driving Hispanics from the GOP in California, the AP said.
To read more click here.
Setback for “DREAM Act” student immigration bill
The Senate will not vote on legislation known as the DREAM Act this week after an attempt to attach it to a large defense spending bill failed.
Sen. Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, is the chief sponsor of the measure which would give young illegal immigrants a path to citizenship if they complete two years of college or join the military.
Durbin said late Wednesday: “I am disappointed that the Republican leadership has blocked my efforts to offer the DREAM Act as an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill, despite the fact that it would help to solve the military’s recruitment crisis.”
But he also said that Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has promised a vote on the DREAM Act by Nov. 16.
“This narrowly-tailored bipartisan legislation will allow a generation of immigrant students with great potential and ambitions to contribute to our nation’s security and future,” Durbin said.
U.S. unveils new citizenship test
Do you know the name of the current speaker of the House? Or why the United States’ flag has 13 stripes? Or the role of the president’s cabinet?
These are some of the 100 questions in a new citizenship test unveiled Thursday by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Emilio Gonzalez, director of the agency, said the new questions are designed to be more profound and test knowledge of basic civic concepts essential to being an American.
“The questions are more about meaning and understanding than rote memorization,” he said.
In a pilot program in 10 cities, 142 questions were tested. The ones that showed higher failure rates and did not include basic historical and civic concepts were either changed to make the language more clear or tossed out, USCIS officials said.
Several questions ask for more meaningful answers than the current test. For example, the old test asks “what country did we fight during the Revolutionary War,” and the new test changes the question to, “why did the colonists fight the British.”
However, a few questions on the new test appear to be more simple. For example, in the current test, an immigrant is asked to name the two U.S. senators from their state and in the new test, only one.
To see the new questions, click here.
Durbin: DREAM Act is not amnesty
Sen. Richard Durbin said Wednesday that legislation known as the DREAM Act, which would give young illegal immigrants a path to citizenship if they complete two years of college or join the military, is not an amnesty.
“When I hear some describe this as amnesty, I just wonder. If someone is willing to risk his or her life to serve in our military in a combat zone, is that a giveaway? Is that citizenship for nothing? I don’t think so,” said Durbin, the Senate majority whip.
Durbin, who authored the DREAM Act, made the remarks during a speech on the Senate floor where he urged lawmakers to support the measure.
Durbin is hoping to bring the DREAM Act to a vote as an amendment to a defense spending bill, but is struggling to gain enough Republican support for the measure to pass.
The amendment would allow illegal immigrant high school graduates to eventually attain permanent legal status if they complete two years of college or serve honorably in the military for at least two years.
Many of the young people targeted by the legislation were brought to the United States illegally as infants or small children and have grown up as Americans, Durbin said.
“It’s really been fundamental in this country that we don’t hold children responsible for the error and crimes of their parents. Why then would we hold these children responsible,” he said.
To read more about the DREAM Act, click here.
Virginia considers first of a kind detention center for illegal immigrants
Officials in Virginia are considering a proposal to build a 1,000-bed detention center where illegal immigrants arrested for certain crimes could be held until federal officials deport them, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said that such a center would be the country’s first state-run facility built to hold only illegal immigrants accused of crimes, the story said. Currently, illegal immigrants who are arrested are held in local jails, federal facilities and private prison.
Under the proposal, the new facility would house illegal immigrants arrested and charged with less serious offenses — such as driving under the influence — who state officials and ICE agree should be forced to leave the United States, the Post said.
To read more, click here.
Photo system unveiled to catch illegal immigrant workers
Businesses, facing a government crackdown on hiring illegal immigrants, have one more tool to help them verify a worker’s status.
The Citizenship and Immigration Services unveiled a new system Tuesday that matches photographs from green cards and other immigrant work permits against a database of more than 14 million pictures.
If the photos match, the employer will know that the person is using his or her own card, not a stolen or doctored identification, federal officials said.
“We are very, very committed to the idea of workplace enforcement, said Emilio Gonzalez, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (pictured). “If we have workplace enforcement, we can reduce pressure on our border. That allows the assets that we have on our border…to catch bad people.”
The photo system is an enhancement to a volunteer employment verification system known as E-Verify which compares employee information against millions of government records.
About 23,000 businesses across the country participate in the program and about 2,000 are signing up every month, Gonzalez said.
In addition, the Department of Homeland Security is working on new regulations that would require all new federal contractors to use the E-verify system.
Ratliff, who demonstrated the photo match system for reporters, said it showed strong success in a pilot program where 93 percent of all new hires were instantly verified as “work authorized.”
Businesses and civil rights groups have argued that the quality of government databases poses a problem for such programs.
A Department of Homeland Security effort to crackdown on companies that ignore warning letters about employees with potentially fake Social Security numbers was put on hold earlier this year by a federal judge in part because of such concerns.
The lawsuit, by the AFL-CIO, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups, said the rule “would threaten jobs of U.S. citizens and other legally authorized workers simply because of errors in the government’s inaccurate Social Security earnings databases.”
Dallas suburb deports 300 illegal immigrants every month
More than 300 illegal immigrants are being deported every month from the city of Irving, Texas because of its increased scrutiny of the immigration status of people arrested here, McClatchy Newspapers reported Tuesday.
The Mexican consul general has expressed concern after members of his staff found that half of all the Mexicans they interviewed in an immigration jail last Saturday were arrested in Irving, a suburb of Dallas. He said he suspects racial profiling, the article said.
Mayor Herbert Gears disputed that assertion.
“If somebody’s arrested, it is because they have committed an arrestable offense,” Gears said, according to McClatchy. “Our police officers do not check for papers or documentation of citizenship.”
To read more, click here.
Romney blasts GOP for “insecure borders”
Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, blasted his own party this weekend for a host of problems, including insecure borders.
“We Republicans have to put our own house in order. We can’t be like Democrats — a party of big spenders. We can’t pretend our borders are secure from illegal immigration. We can’t have ethical standards that are a punch line for Jay Leno,” Romney said, at the Mackinac, Mich. Republican Leadership Conference.
It looks like the crowd didn’t want to hear the criticisms.
Romney got only scattered and infrequent applause as he gave his stark assessment about the GOP’s woes, the Associated Press reported. “Only when he returned to his usual right-flank pitch — restoring family values, shrinking government and the like — did the audience come alive.”
To read more, click here.
Democratic presidential hopefuls pledge to tackle immigration reform quickly
Leading Democratic presidential candidates are signaling that they will return to the thorny issue of immigration reform faster than their party colleagues on Capitol Hill would like, The Hill newspaper reported this week.
The campaigns of Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois say their candidates will seek comprehensive reform as soon as they get to the White House, the article says.
In addition, former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, speaking at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) political action conference Monday, said: “We’re going to ensure that every single person living in the United States of America has a completely achievable path to American citizenship so that they don’t live in the shadows.”
The Hill reports that every leading Democrat seeking the nomination told the gathering that reform was one of his or her top priorities.
“This is in stark contrast to Democratic leaders in Congress, who have been content to stand back and let Republicans fight each other over ‘amnesty’ versus a guest worker program,” the article said.
To read more, click here.
Cornyn: Not the time for student immigration bill
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, on Thursday said it was not the right time for the Senate to debate a measure that would give illegal immigrant high school students a path to citizenship.
Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., is planning to offer the legislation — known as the DREAM Act — as an amendment to a large military spending bill currently on the Senate floor.
“I do not believe that it is a good idea to add immigration related measures (to the defense bill),” Cornyn said, in a conference call with reporters. “There is a time and a place for everything and frankly this is not the time.”
The Durbin amendment would allow illegal immigrant students to eventually attain permanent legal status if they complete two years of college or serve honorably in the military for at least two years.
The law would apply to illegal immigrants who have lived in the United States for at least five years, have graduated from high school or obtained a GED, and have no criminal record.
Cornyn said he had “sympathy” for the plight of children brought to the United States illegally by their parents, but that he would have to see the details of the legislation to decide whether to support it.
“Sometimes, ideas with which one might have sympathy are sometimes used as a Trojan Horse to try to introduce other extraneous things that I would not agree with,” he said.
Gingrich: immigration divides “elites” and ordinary citizens
The immigration issue delineates “one of the most fundamental dividing lines in American life” between the “elites” and ordinary citizens, Newt Gingrich said Thursday, in a breakfast with reporters.
The average American wants the borders tightly policed and those who cross illegally sent home, explained the former House Speaker from Georgia. The elites — whom he defined as the national media, Washington politicians and the political class of consultants and commentators — are in opposition.
“The average American is not for an anti-immigrant policy in this country,” said Gingrich.
But these ordinary citizens want immigrants to enter the country legally, become Americans when they get here, and become immersed in English classes, not enrolled in bilingual education, he said.
“The elites are not for assimilation,” said Gingrich. “They’re not going to enforce the borders.”
Average Americans have a “deep belief in English as the official language,” said Gingrich. “Elites” see this as an an “anathema.”
The “elites” believe the ordinary citizens are “rubes” and dismiss their opinions on immigration, Gingrich said. He said this attitude can be found in Bush administration as well as among liberal Democrats.
To read more click here.
First “virtual” fence on the U.S.-Mexico border not working
Because of a continuing software glitch, the first high-tech “virtual fence” at the nation’s borders remains unused, three months after its scheduled debut, the Associated Press reported Thursday.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff (pictured) said he is withholding further payment to the prime contractor, Boeing Co., until the success of the pilot project stretching 28 miles near the border southwest of Tucson, the story says.
Nine 98-foot towers laden with radar, sensors and sophisticated cameras have been built across 28 miles close to the Arizona-Mexico border near Sasabe, southwest of Tucson, in an area heavily trafficked by illegal immigrant and drug smugglers.
To read more, click here.
Senate to debate giving illegal immigrant students a path to citizenship
With a possible Senate vote looming, a group of illegal immigrant students asked lawmakers on Wednesday to approve a measure that would give them a path to citizenship if they attended college or joined the military.
The high school and college students, who gave only first names, said at a press conference that they arrived in the United States as small children and are being denied access to their dreams of becoming doctors, lawyers and scientists because they can’t qualify for financial aid or get a job after graduation.
“I foresee myself as a doctor helping thousands of families, but without education, without being able to go to medical school, I can’t. Therefore, my dreams will die,” said Rodrigo, who said he crossed the border illegally with his mother when he was 6 years-old and later graduated from a San Jose high school as class valedictorian with a 4.0 grade point average.
Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (pictured), a Florida Republican who authored the legislation in the House, participated in the press conference at the National Press Club in Washington.
He said he was hopeful that the bill — known as the DREAM Act — would become law this year.
Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. is planning to bring the DREAM Act to the Senate floor as an amendment to a Pentagon spending bill currently under debate.
The measure is sure to face opposition.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a vocal critic of illegal immigration, sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., asking him to “put an end to efforts in the Senate to attach any measures to unrelated legislation that would reward illegal aliens with amnesty or allow them increased access to publicly funded benefits.”
In addition, Tancredo said that “using a military bill - when we have troops in the field - as a vehicle for trying to sneak these kinds of unpopular measures by the public would be a terrible mistake.”
Newt Gingrich to GOP contenders: don’t skip black and Latino debates
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is considering a run for the White House, said that Republican presidential candidates are making a big mistake skipping forums and debates sponsored by minority groups and organizations, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.
Several top-tier Republican candidates have declined invitations to various events including one for a Sept. 27 debate focused on African-American issues
organized by talk show host Tavis Smiley, to be televised on PBS.
“For Republicans to consistently refuse to engage in front of an African American or Latino audience is an enormous error,” Gingrich said. “I hope they will reverse their decision and change their schedules. I see no excuse — this thing has been planned for months, these candidates have known about it for months. It’s just fundamentally wrong. Any of them who give you that scheduling-conflict answer are disingenuous. That’s baloney.”
Gingrich upset Hispanic groups himself earlier this year for implying that Spanish was “the language of living in a ghetto.”
After the comments became public, Gingrich taped an apology in English and Spanish which was broadcast on popular website YouTube. He said he was misunderstood and didn’t mean to imply that Spanish was the language of people of lower incomes.
To read more, click here.
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Schools act to protect illegal immigrant students during raids
Amid stepped-up federal efforts to curb illegal immigration, some school districts with large numbers of immigrant students are crafting new policies intended to balance cooperation with federal officials, protection of student privacy, and the safety of students during enforcement operations, Education Week reported in its latest issue.
In Albuquerque and Santa Fe, N.M., for example, school personnel are barred from putting information about a child’s immigration status in school records or sharing it with outside agencies, including federal immigration authorities, the article said. Personnel are also told to deny any request from immigration officials to enter a school to search for information or seize students. School officials—with the help of lawyers—instead would determine whether to grant access.
Smaller districts are also dealing with the aftermath of immigration raids.
Steve Joel, the superintendent of the 8,000-student Grand Island school system in Nebraska, said that when federal immigration officials arrested illegal workers at a meatpacking plant in his community last December, he and his staff had to figure out what to do with 25 children who had had both parents detained, Education Week said.
To read the article, click here. Note: registration required.
Legislation introduced to make illegal presence a felony; punish “sanctuary cities”
Rep. Brian Bilbray, chair of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, introduced legislation Tuesday that would punish “sanctuary cities” that direct police and local officials not to check the immigration status of residents using city services.
The measure would also make illegal presence in the United States a felony instead of a civil offense.
“During a time when our borders are being used as gateways for terrorists, drug cartels and human smuggling - we need to send a loud and clear message that illegal immigration will not be tolerated,” said Bilbray, a California Republican. “Our justice system fails to take into account the gravity of illegal immigration, which is why we need to make it a felony crime.”
The measure would also clarify that state law enforcement has existing authority to “investigate, identify, apprehend, arrest, detain, and transfer to federal authorities any illegal immigrant apprehended in the course of routine duties.”
In addition, it allows the secretary of Homeland Security to revoke up to 50 percent of non-emergency homeland security money from cities with sanctuary policies.
Bilbray (pictured) introduced the bill with Reps. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Fla., Thelma Drake, R-Va., Jeff Miller, R-Fla., and Tom Tancredo, R-Colo, who is running for president.
The way cities treat illegal immigrants has become a theme in the GOP presidential primary.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has accused rival Rudy Giuliani of making New York a haven for illegal immigrants when Giuliani ran the city. Giuliani inherited — and staunchly defended — a policy from his predecessor Ed Koch that barred city agencies from sharing information with the federal government on the immigration status of residents who use city services unless there was evidence of a crime.
Giuliani, in turn, has accused Romney of allowing two Massachusetts cities, Cambridge and Somerville, of giving illegal immigrants the same protection.
Critics also point out that Romney used a landscaping firm at his home for years that employed illegal immigrants. Romney said he did not know the workers were illegal and that the owner of the operation was a legal resident.
Another immigration ordinance bites the dust
Officials in Riverside, N.J. are abandoning an immigration ordinance designed to crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants and landlords who rent to them.
City officials voted to rescind the ordinance because they couldn’t afford the legal bills that would come with defending the law in court, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
Riverside is facing a lawsuit over the anti-illegal immigration ordinance. The law would have set fines of $1,000 on first-time offenders who knowingly hired or rented to illegal immigrants, the AP said.
A string of recent court decisions have invalidated or put on hold similar immigration ordinances, including one in Hazleton, Pa., which is considered a test case by all sides.
A federal judge ruled in July that the Hazleton ordinance would violate due process rights guaranteed in the Fourteenth Amendment and conflicted with federal law.
The court also ruled that the Constitution provides due process protections to all persons, including illegal immigrants.
To read more on the Riverside ordinance, click here.
To read more on recent court decisions, click here.
Cost to deport all illegal immigrants: at least $94 billion
It would cost at least $94 billion to locate, detain and remove the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, according to Julie Myers, head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee this week, Myers said that the estimate does not include the cost of “all the things that the Border Patrol has done” and other administrative security measures.
“It’s simply a very rough model, kind of looking at our average cost of detention and our average cost based on length of stay,” she said.
An ICE spokesman told CNN that the $94 billion did not include the cost of finding illegal immigrants, nor court costs.
Myers (pictured) is the niece of Richard Myers, former charman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Rep. Silvestre Reyes to deliver Spanish response to Bush Iraq speech
Texas Democratic Rep. Silvestre Reyes (pictured), a Vietnam veteran and chair of the House Intelligence Committee, will give a response in Spanish to President Bush’s prime time speech on Iraq tonight.
The president is expected to ask the American public and Congress to give the war in Iraq more time to succeed. He is also expected to endorse a recommendation by Gen. David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, to withdraw roughly 30,000 U.S. forces from Iraq by next summer, leaving about 130,000 troops there.
The English language Democratic response to Bush’s speech will come from Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, a former Army Ranger and a member of the Armed Services Committee.
Separately, former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, a Democratic presidential candidate, has purchased two minutes of ad time on MSNBC to respond to the president’s speech.
To read more about the Petraeus plan, click here.
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Paper: Latinos could “greatly” influence Iowa caucuses
Although the percent of Hispanics in Iowa is small, they could influence the presidential nomination process, the Des Moines Register reported Thursday.
Latino advocates in Iowa generally agree that if even a fraction of Latino residents vote, they can “greatly influence the outcome of the caucuses” and possibly deflect support away from the campaigns of candidates they feel have unfairly targeted immigrants, the paper said.
“The latest U.S. Census estimates last year showed there are almost 115,000 Hispanics in Iowa, an increase of 39 percent since 2000. That number represents the state’s largest minority and is one that Latino advocates and population experts generally agree is undercounted,” the article says.
“And while many of Iowa’s Latino residents can’t vote because of age or citizenship requirements, thousands can, and that presents an opportunity for political organizers.”
The article quotes Bernard Ortiz, an Altoona resident who is leading a Latino voter registration outreach for the Service Employees International Union: “The Latino community is finally beginning to understand the importance of getting involved in the political arena. Especially since the last midterm election, when politicians began using immigrants as a scare tactic to motivate their base.”
To read more, click here.
Schwarzenegger, Perry to Congress: Raise H-1B visa cap
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and 11 other governors urged Congressional leaders of both parties this week to increase the cap on H-1B visas for highly educated foreign workers and green cards allotted to technology professionals.
“We and our nation face a critical shortage of highly skilled professionals in math and science to fill current needs,” the governors said in a letter. “Until we are able to address this workforce shortage, we must recognize that foreign talent has a role to play in our ability to keep companies located in our state and country; and, therefore, need to ensure the increased availability of temporary H1-B visas, and permanent resident visas.”
In addition to Schwarzenegger and Perry, the letter was signed by the governors of Washington, Indiana, Colorado, Massachusetts, Wyoming, New York, Arizona, Wisconsin, Kansas, Minnesota and Nevada.
It says that the U.S. green card system, which provides legal permanent residency to immigrants, is facing “severe shortages that most heavily impact the high technology industry, forcing some of the most innovative contributors to our economy to wait well in excess of five years for a green card.”
“Because of these delays we are seeing more and more of these talented individuals leave their U.S. jobs and return home,” the letter says.
The number of H-1B visas allowed by law has fluctuated in recent years in response to the U.S. economy and the highs and lows of the technology industry and is now set by Congress at 65,000. In addition, 20,000 more foreign citizens with advanced degrees from American universities are allowed to stay in work in the United States.
Critic say that the H-1B program depresses wages for American workers and has many flaws including limited enforcement mechanisms. Randel Johnson, vice president for labor, immigration, and employee benefits at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said last month he was optimistic that Congress would act to increase the allotment of H-1B visas this year.
Colin Powell: “Lets welcome every foreign student we can get our hands on”
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell says in the latest issue of GQ magazine that Americans need to show the world “a face of openness” rather than living in fear.
“Let’s welcome every foreign student we can get our hands on. Let’s make sure that foreigners come to the Mayo Clinic here, and not the Mayo facility in Dubai or somewhere else. Let’s make sure people come to Disney World and not throw them up against the wall in Orlando simply because they have a Muslim name. Let’s also remember that this country was created by immigrants and thrives as a result of immigration,” he said.
In addition, Powell says that terrorism can not change the United States.
“Are there any terrorists in the world who can change the American way of life or our political system? No. Can they knock down a building? Yes. Can they kill somebody? Yes. But can they change us? No. Only we can change ourselves,” he said.
In addition, Powell says that the most effective way to go after terrorists is to “create institutions that keep the world moving down a path of wealth creation, of increasing respect for human rights, creating democratic institutions, and increasing the efficiency and power of market economies.”
“It should not be just about creating alliances to deal with a guy in a cave in Pakistan,” he says.
(photo by Rick McKay/Cox News Service)
To read more, click here.
Fastest growing group of illegal immigrants are from India
The fastest-growing group of illegal immigrants in the United States aren’t found at day labor sites or streaming across the Southwest border into the U.S., the Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday.
“Instead, they’re here in America working in tech companies, small businesses, as engineers or other highly skilled jobs. And they’re coming from India,” the story said.
A recent federal report revealed that India had the greatest percentage increase in unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. since 2000, the paper said.
Illegal immigrants from India grew to 270,000 in 2006 from 120,000 in 2000, a 125 percent increase, according to a report last month from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Undocumented Indians, however, remain a small segment of the total estimated population of 11.6 million illegal immigrants in the U.S, the Chronicle said.
To read more click here.
San Francisco considering ID cards for illegal immigrants
A city official in San Francisco is drafting legislation to create an identification card for immigrants unable to get traditional ID cards, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The cards would be accepted by all city agencies and organizations that receive city funding. San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano (pictured) plans to introduce the legislation within a couple of weeks, the paper said. He is also trying to persuade financial institutions to allow residents to use the cards to open accounts.
The card would be available to all people living in San Francisco regardless of their immigration status.
San Francisco could be the first large American city to have such a card. New Haven, Conn., has such a program, and New York City is considering one, the Chronicle reported.
To read more click here.
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Richardson: Univision promoting English-only
At an unusual presidential debate sponsored by the Univision Spanish-language television network, one of the candidates was cut-off from speaking in that tongue.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who is Hispanic, was upset that the debate rules only allowed candidates to speak in English. Their answers were then translated into Spanish for the audience.
Richardson said he was “disappointed” that 43 million Latinos in the United States would not be allowed to “hear one of their own speak Spanish.”
“In other words, Univision promoted ‘English-only’ in this debate,” he said.
Richardson proceeded to speak in Spanish, but was cut off by moderator Jorge Ramos, a Univision anchor.
“The accepted rules by the seven candidates in this debate are that all would speak in English and all of it would be interpreted in Spanish, and Univision would transmit it only in Spanish. Thank you very much,” Ramos said.
Univision had to postpone a similar debate for Republican White House hopefuls, because only one candidate — Sen. John McCain of Arizona — agreed to attend.
To read more about the debate, click here.
More than 100 million Latinos in the U.S. by 2050
In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, which starts next week (Sept. 15), the U.S. Census Bureau released some interesting numbers about Hispanics in the United States. They include:
44 million — The estimated Hispanic population of the United States as of July 1, 2006, making people of Hispanic origin the nation’s largest ethnic or race minority.
102 million — The projected Hispanic population of the United States as of July 1, 2050. According to this projection, Hispanics will constitute 24 percent of the nation’s total population by that date.
22 million — The nation’s Hispanic population during the 1990 census — half of the current total.
15 — The number of states with at least 500,000 Hispanic residents. They include Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.
22 — The number of states in which Hispanics are the largest minority group.
1.6 million — The number of Hispanic-owned businesses in 2002.
31 percent — The rate of growth of Hispanic-owned businesses between 1997 and 2002. It compares with a national average of ten percent for all businesses.
$222 billion — Revenue generated by Hispanic-owned businesses in 2002, up 19 percent from 1997.
1.1 million — The number of Hispanic veterans of the U.S. armed forces.
67 percent — The percentage of Hispanic family households consisting of a married couple.
$37,800 — The median income of Hispanic households in 2006, statistically unchanged from the previous year after adjusting for inflation.
11 percent — Percent of all college students in October 2005 who were Hispanic. Among elementary and high school students combined, the corresponding proportion was 19 percent.
64 percent — The percent of Hispanic people in households who are of Mexican background.
48 percent — The percent of the Hispanic population that lives in California or Texas.
20.6 percent — The poverty rate among Hispanics in 2006, down from 21.8 percent in 2005.
To read more click here.
Sensenbrenner, illegal immigration foe, wins the lotto again
U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, known for his strong opposition to illegal immigration, won the lottery for the third time last week, the Associated Press reported Friday.
The Republican — already a millionaire — hit it big in 1997 with a $250,000 jackpot in the District of Columbia lottery. Then, last spring, he won $1,000 prize in the Wisconsin lottery, and he won another $1,000 in that lottery last week, the AP said.
Sensenbrenner was born into a family that helped build Kimberly-Clark Corp., maker of Kleenex tissue and Scott paper towels, and he recently reported a net worth of about $11.6 million, the AP said.
Sensenbrenner authored a bill last year to crack down on illegal immigration. The measure, which passed in the House, caused hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their supporters to march in the streets in protest.
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High profile Latino endorses Obama
The presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama announced Friday that Federico Pena, a former mayor of Denver and cabinet official in the Clinton administration, has endorsed the Illinois senator.
“I look forward to working with Federico to bring about the transformation this country desperately needs,” Obama said in a press release. “His vision for change as mayor of Denver and his strong record on energy and transportation issues brings invaluable experience to our team.”
Pena served as energy secretary and transportation secretary. He was the first Hispanic maayor of Denver.
Democratic White House hopefuls are vying for endorsements of high-profile Latino leaders.
Earlier this year, Hillary Clinton announced the endorsement of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, one of the nation’s top Hispanic elected officials. Since then, however, Villaraigosa has been rocked by a scandal involving his affair with a television reporter.
Clinton was also endorsed by Raul Yzaguirre, a former long-time president of the National Council of La Raza and a beloved figure among many Latinos.
Texas magazine: Compean and Ramos are not heroes
The latest issue of Texas Monthly magazine examines the case of former Border Patrol agents Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos and questions why conservatives are celebrating them as heroes.
Compean and Ramos are serving 12 and 11 years in prison respectively for shooting and wounding a Mexican drug dealer and trying to cover it up.
The case has become a cause celebre among conservatives and groups that advocate tougher border controls. Supporters say that the agents were wrongly convicted for protecting the United States against criminal intruders. Many are angry that the drug dealer — who entered the United States illegally — was offered immunity to testify against the officers.
Members of Congress have asked President Bush to pardon the agents and the prosecutor in the case, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of the Western District of Texas, staunchly defended his office at a Senate hearing earlier this year.
The Texas Monthly article says that — in an effort to push a tough line against illegal immigration — talk radio shows, CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight, and conservative blogs “glossed over nearly all of the damning facts at trial” including that Ramos and Compean ommitted the shooting from the official report of the incident and did not offer a self-defense explanation until a month after it happened.
“Set against the backdrop of the national debate over immigration, a new narrative emerged, one in which Ramos and Compean were recast as ‘American heroes,’ unjustly persecuted by a government that cared more about amnesty for illegal immigrants than about border security,” the article says.
The story, titled “Badges of Dishonor” also says that Dobbs opined about the case on more than one hundred broadcasts.
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In lieu of legal workers, U.S. farmers moving crops to Mexico
More U.S. farmers are moving their operations to Mexico because they can’t find legal workers in America, the New York Times reported this week.
“A sense of crisis prevails among American farmers who rely on immigrant laborers
more so since immigration legislation in the U.S. Senate failed in June and the authorities announced a crackdown on employers of illegal immigrants,” the paper said.
The Times tells the story of Steve Scaroni, a California farmer, who built a $50 million business growing lettuce and broccoli in the fields of California, relying on the hands of immigrant workers, most of them Mexican and many probably in the United States illegally.
But early last year he began shifting part of his operation to rented fields in Mexico. Now some 500 Mexicans tend his crops there, where they run no risk of deportation, the paper said.
“I’m as American red-blood as it gets,” Scaroni said, “but I’m tired of fighting the fight on the immigration issue.”
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Tancredo: Mexican drug runners and gang members moving to the U.S.
Presidential candidate Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo, blasted comments this week by Mexican president Felipe Calderon (pictured).
Calderon said at his State of the Union speech Sunday that he would continue to protest “unilateral actions” of the U.S. Congress that “exacerbate the persecution” of Mexican illegal immigrants in the United States.
He also said that Mexico does not end at the border because “where there is a Mexican. There is Mexico.”
In a statement, Tancredo quipped: “Indeed part of Mexico is moving into the United States, but unfortunately that includes drug runners, gang violence and the Spanish language supplanting English.”
The lawmaker, famous for his tough stance against illegal immigration, added: “I’m sure the people of Mexico would be extremely grateful if Calderon showed as much concern over the well being of Mexicans unlucky enough to still live there as he does for the people who have successfully fled his country.”
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Wash Times: Thompson soft on illegal immigration
Former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee cast several votes in the 1990’s against cracking down on illegal immigrants, the Washington Times reported Wednesday.
They include a 1995 vote against limiting services other than emergency care and public education to unlawful immigrants and a 1996 vote against creating an employer verification system to help businesses filter out illegal immigrants who apply for jobs, the paper said.
Karen Hanretty, a spokeswoman for Thompson, told the Times that he is “the most consistent conservative running for president today, with a solid pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, pro-border security record.”
Thompson is expected to officially announce his bid for the presidency Thursday.
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