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Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Border fence needs $400 million, may not be done before Bush leaves office
President Bush wanted to finish building the wall on the Southwest border before he leaves office, but the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection said Wednesday that he cannot promise he’ll meet the deadline, the AP reported.
Customs Commissioner Ralph Basham said the agency needs an additional $400 million to finish the fence.
The plan had been to complete the 670 miles of physical fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border by the end of this year. So far, some 344 are complete, the AP said.
Read more here.
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Southern Poverty Law Center to award the “Dobbsy”
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group with a history of monitoring hate groups, said Wednesday it will start a new award for people in the mainstream media who “make utterly false or misleading statements that have the effect of denigrating or defaming an entire group of people.”
The are calling the award, the “Dobbsy,” named after CNN anchor Lou Dobbs.
Dobbs constant discussion of illegal immigration has upset Hispanic groups who say he is offensive to Latinos and one-sided on the issue.
Dobbs has denied charges of xenophobia.
Read more about the “Dobbsy” here.
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Polls: support for comprehensive immigration reform in battleground states
A Democratic group called NDN said Wednesday that polls in four battleground states show strong support for comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
The states — Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada — all have large Hispanic populations.
NDN says the majority of people in those states have a positive view of undocumented immigrants, believing that they have come here to work and seek a better life, are not taking jobs from American citizens and are not interested in receiving public handouts.”
Read more here.
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FBI making headway on citizenship background checks
The FBI has made major progress in processing background checks for immigrants who have applied to become American citizens, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said Wednesday.
The FBI checks were one of the main reasons tens of thousands of citizenship applications were pending for months.
The FBI has reduced the number of name checks pending from nearly 270,000 in May, to about 95,000 as of August 12.
“The significant reduction in long-pending FBI name checks will result in improved service for USCIS customers,” said Michael Dougherty, USCIS ombudsman.
It may also allow thousands of immigrants to vote in November if their citizenship applications are approved.