Miami Herald

Immigration debate has shifted from reform to enforcement

Immigration was going to be one of the issues of the 2008 presidential election season. It has not so far turned out to be the potboiler many expected. — But it’s still simmering away below the surface. — Last year’s collapse of immigration reform in Congress made legalization — and those who supported it — politically radioactive

”They’re doing some real stuff. That’s where the public outrage has really made a difference,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports sharp reductions in legal and illegal immigration. “All of these things take time, no matter how committed an administration is. And this administration is not that committed.”

That means broad reform must wait, he said. A lot of people, in particular advocates of legalization, he said, “are underestimating how long and complicated it is to create infrastructure of enforcement when you never had one. It’s not one or two years.”

The aggressive thrust represents a victory for those who have long advocated a hard line on illegal immigrants: Make things as difficult as possible for the undocumented, and some will leave on their own.

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Scott ChadwickLetter to the Editor: Contrived terminology used to make fallacious argument 06/09/2008
Re: Rich Pellegrino guest column, “T-shirt coalition marks new day for Cobb,” Thursday’s MDJ …HERE
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Jim SmithLetter to the Editor: Word games won’t change end result 06/09/2008
So according to Mr. Pellegrino, an “illegal alien” is now an undocumented worker, so that means a short person is now “vertically impaired,” a deaf person could be classified as “sound impaired,” your local drug dealer now becomes an “unlicensed pharmacist,” your drug user is now “chemically dependent” and the whole world would be politically correct. .. HERE

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Raymond SpornbergerLetter to the Editor: Hope Pellegrino has free-speech advocate 06/09/2008
I sincerely hope that when the “Thought Police” arrive to collect Mr. Pellegrino and his fellow travelers that there will be someone there to speak up for his right to “free speech.” HERE

Associated Press

Bush orders contractors to check legal status of employees

President Bush has signed an executive order requiring contractors and others who do business with the federal government to make sure their employees can legally work in the U.S. — Bush signed the order Friday and the White House announced the order Monday

… HERE

We will try to post something similar to this every week day.

The U.S. unemployment rate jumped in May to 5.5 percent. That is the largest monthly increase since 1986 -49,000 jobs were lost in May. Retailing lost 27,000 jobs

Illegal labor: Vinyard worker dies, apparently from heat exposure and dehydration suffered in the sweltering grape fields of central California. Two Buck Chuck not so “cheap”. An attorney for Merced Farm Labor says all of the company’s workers fill out I-9 forms attesting to the fact that they are legally authorized to work. But the attorney could not say what documentation Vasquez Jimenez provided to the company.
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Mexicans Without Borders invites Jorge Bustamante, a United Nations human rights investigator, to Prince William County, Virginia to observe that county’s new efforts to crackdown on illegal immigration.But as Louise Schiavone reports, his point of view on the issue is already very, very clear.

The same United Nations investigator who reported this spring that quote, “xenophobia and racism towards migrants in the United States has worsened since 9/11” visits Prince William County, Virginia next week. The U.N.’s Bustamante is Mexico-born, a U.S. citizen and college professor and a long-time critic of U.S. efforts to contain illegal immigration.

MARK KRIKORIAN, CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES: This is the last person in the world — a supposedly objective foreign body would be sending anyway. He’s a life long crusader for open borders. I mean, he’s the father of Mexico’s dual citizenship law.

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A federal judge has sided with big business and blocked part of Oklahoma’s new law to deal with its illegal immigration crisis. Oklahoma state representative, Randy Terrill, sponsored that legislation and said, “What you have an example of the judiciary thwarting the will of the citizens of Oklahoma.”

Judge Robin Cauthron, who issued this opinion, is perhaps the most liberal judge in the Western district of Oklahoma said Terrill.

The Chamber of Commerce in Oklahoma, the National Chamber of Commerce, are the plaintiffs in this case. It’s big business saying they don’t want to be responsible for verify citizenship status of employees, said Lou Dobbs of CNN.

The Oklahoma legislation, HR 1804, passed the House and Senate by overwhelming, bipartisan, veto-proof margins and was signed by a Democrat governor.
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The “Washington Post” fact checker recently gave Senator Barack Obama four Pinocchio’s, the worst rating possible, for making what the “Washington Post” termed “widely inaccurate statements” about Lou Dobbs for his reporting on illegal immigration.
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The United States, according to a new report, ( MORE ON THE REPORT HERE) is in danger of losing its national identity. The study warns that identity politics and the influence of socio-ethnocentric special interest groups are simply overcoming our common identity as Americans. The report is titled, “E Pluribus Unum,” for many, one. It warns that we’re in danger of becoming the opposite, from one, many. It is the work of the Bradley project, a non-profit group based in Wisconsin, dedicated to what it calls America’s national identity. Its survey of 2,400 Americans contains some troubling findings: To nurture and develop our sense of ourselves as Americans the report makes a series of recommendations, because, as the study’s author makes clear, many Americans are historically illiterate, points in one example to a question to survey of fifth graders.

JAMES REES, EXEC DIR MOUNT VERNON: Only seven of 100 could explain why the date of July 4, 1776 is significant and why.

——————–Source for all info and quotes above: CNN – Lou Dobbs Tonight, June 6, 2008——————–
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Waterloo-Cedar Falls (Iowa) Courier

First group of Postville immigration raid detainees deported to Mexico

Federal officials deported on Wednesday the first group of people arrested in last month’s immigration raid in Postville. — The Mexican nationals, nine men and one woman, boarded a flight operated by the U.S. Marshals Service, which runs the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System…

HERE

Marietta Daily Journal

Police arrest woman wanted for murder 06/05/2008
COBB COUNTY – Cobb Sheriff Neil Warren said a woman arrested by Cobb Police for driving without a license is wanted for murder in Kentucky … HERE

Washington Post

’07 deaths of teens fuel policies on immigrants

Tipping Point For Outrage
In Hampton Roads Area, ’07 Deaths of Teens Fuel Policies on Immigrants

Ray Tranchant, above, visits the grave of daughter Tessa in Virginia Beach. Tessa Tranchant and Alison Kunhardt were killed when a drunk driver, Alfredo Ramos, left, slammed into their car last year. Ramos, 22, was in the country illegally. (Photos By Bill Tiernan — The Virginian-pilot)

Tessa Tranchant, 16, left, and Alison Kunhardt, 17, died in a crash. (Family Photo)

(Photo By Bill Tiernan/the Virginian-pilot – Photo By Bill Tiernan/the Virginian-pilot)

Britney McIntyre, left, Emily Renvyle, Tiffany Cynar, Nicole Page and Lauren Cash, all students at Floyd E. Kellam High School, console one another March 31, 2007, at the scene of the car collision that killed their friend and classmate Tessa Tranchant and First Colonial High student Alison Kunhardt a day earlier. (Photo By Genevieve Ross — The Virginian-pilot)

washingtonpost.com readers have posted 163 comments about this item.

By Karin Brulliard
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 5, 2008; Page B01

VIRGINIA BEACH

…The catalyst was a tragedy that roiled the Hampton Roads [Va.] area and triggered stiffer local policies on illegal immigrants. In March 2007, the Tranchants’ daughter Tessa, 16, and her best friend, Alison Kunhardt, 17, were killed in a car crash caused by a drunk driver who had a police record and was in the country illegally.

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Rich Pellegrino: T-shirt coalition marks new day for Cobb County 06/05/2008

The editor who wrote the MDJ editorial entitled “Selective Outrage Undercuts T-Shirt Critics” on May 22, missed the point of the whole T-Shirt issue, and misses the point which has been made in polls year after year which universally indicate that most black-and brown-identified folks view issues of race and justice in America from very different perspectives than do most white-identified folks

. WAIT! MORE HERE!

Watch out for the re entry Rich!

There therefore is not much difference between the two immigration stances of Obama and McCain, therefore one questions how to ‘differentiation’ between the two in terms of these issue. Maybe legal immigration policy could become a determining factor. As the campaign hots up we will be sure to know. HERE

World Politics Review — Washington, DC

Has Mexico descended into civil war?

Mexico City — “We are at war,” read the headline of a recent El Universal editorial, following the death of yet another federal policeman. — More than 4,000 people have been killed in Mexico since the fight against organized crime was launched in December 2006 by President Felipe Calderón. This year, 178 policemen have been killed…

HERE