Chattanooga Times Free Press

Tennessee: Illegal aliens returning home

In their East Lake home, Marcos Tomás and his wife, Lidia Velázquez, recently packed 10 years of their lives into cardboard boxes, preparing for their long journey back to their native Guatemala.

“My dream was for my children to study and be raised here, but the current economic situation has stolen the dream I had for my children,” Mr. Tomás said, standing in an almost empty house with a few portraits of the family on the wall and a framed painting of the words “Home Sweet Home.”

The economic slowdown, high unemployment rates and tighter immigration laws are pushing local immigrant families to head back to their native countries, local residents and community organizations say.

Victor López, owner of La Michoacana, a Mexican grocery store on Main Street that sells bus and airplane tickets, said he has noticed more people traveling south with no plans to return.

Staff Photo by D. Patrick Harding Marcos Tomas Garcia, right, packs household items with his wife Lidia Velazquez as they prepare to return to their native Guatemala due to the economic crisis here in the U.S.
“Ticket sales have increased between 60 and 70 percent from last year and most people traveling are families, parents and children,” he said. “A lot of them say they are going back to Mexico or Guatemala because they can’t find a job here.”

Guatemalan Consul Beatriz Illezcas said the consulate in Atlanta has seen more people leaving the area, not only to other states, but back to Guatemala.

“Before, they would go to other states where there wasn’t so much persecution,” she said, referring to Georgia’s immigration laws, considered among the toughest in the nation. “But now they’re going back to (Guatemala). We’ve had a lot of people come to ask us for money because they’ve lost their job.”

The applications for Guatemalan passports have increased about 25 percent during the last three to four months, although there’s no data of how many of those are from people returning to Guatemala, said the Consul.

immigration slowdown

Although the illegal immigrant population has risen, its annual growth has slowed substantially since 2005, according to a report by the Pew Hispanic Center.

From 2000 to early 2005, the unauthorized immigrant population grew by an annual net average of about 525,000, increasing to 11.1 million. From 2005 to 2008, annual growth has averaged only 275,000, the report states.

In Dalton, Ga., Javier Delgado, who briefly owned a transportation business, said he knows a lot of people who have returned to their home countries.

“I have a lot of friends from Mexico, Guatemala, who have gone back because they say there’s no point of staying here,” he said.

“More than anything else I think it’s the economy that’s making people leave, a lot of companies are closing or cutting back hours,” said Mr. Delgado, who also works at Shaw Industries, which recently announced cutbacks of 450 employees. Mr. Delgado, however, kept his job.

Mr. Tomás first came to the United States in 1994 to work agriculture in Florida, he said. Between 1994 and 1997, he went back and forth between Guatemala and the United States twice before finally landing for good in Chattanooga.

Three years later, Mr. Tomás and Ms. Velázquez, whom he met in Chattanooga, got married and eventually had three U.S.-born children — Tania, Cesar and Cristina.

During the last eight years, the Guatemalan couple worked in chicken processing plants, carpet companies and temporary jobs until Mr. Tomás was laid off about three weeks ago from Big Horn, a saddle producer that closed.

“When we first came (to the United States), you could find a job in two or three days,” he said. “For the past two to three years, when you ask for a job, they tell you they’ll call you back, but they never do.”

saying good-bye

On Saturday, Mr. Tomás and his family waited outside La Michoacana for their ride to Atlanta, where they took the three-day bus trip back to border of Mexico and Guatemala.

Flor de Maria Velázquez, Lidia Velázquez’ older sister, made the difficult trip back home with her sister and her family.

“I came to Chattanooga about three years ago and I’ve been unemployed for almost a year,” she said in Spanish.

Flor Velázquez said she made the decision to come to the United States and leave her four children — ages 6 to 15 — behind in Guatemala with relatives after her husband died six years ago and she couldn’t afford to support them.

“But I feel that now with the help of my oldest son, we are going to be able to succeed and get ahead in life,” she said of her 15-year-old son.

With teary eyes, Mr. Tomás said good-bye to friends and family who waved at them as the white van left the store parking lot.

Although Mr. Tomás and Mrs. Velázquez were sad to leave behind the lives they had built in Chattanooga, their three children were excited to finally meet their grandparents and live in a place where they’ve heard kids can have a lot of animals.

“I’m going to have 10 dogs in Guatemala and I’m going to meet my Grandma and my Grandpa and my cousins,” eight-year-old Tania said, smiling outside the store. Her 3-year-old sister Cristina said she would own a lot of chickens.

Mr. Tomás said they will start a new life in Guatemala and work in the fields just like they did before they came to the United States a decade ago.

“It’s not easy going back. You get used to the lifestyle here,” he said. “But we’re not from here and you have to return to where you are from.”

HERE

Inger Eberhart/Letter to the Editor: Amused by amnesty advocate’s race-baiting Current rating:5 by 2 users.
Published: 11/13/2008

In his letter Mr. Pellegrino of the Cobb Immigrant Alliance accused Cobb County residents (and voters in other Southern states) of voting along racial lines and said that the margins of victory by candidates were “not landslides” but “race-slides.”

I am amused by his ignorance, puzzled by his race-baiting, and offended by his lack of recognition of people – of all backgrounds – as individuals. Please understand that just because someone looks like me does not mean that person shares my values. I am an African-American and, as a conservative, aware voter, I did not vote for Barack Obama.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., stated that it is more important to assess others not by the color of their skin but the content of their character. I must hope that Mr. Pellegrino tries much harder to understand that concept.

Mr. Pellegrino alluded to the amnesty approach to solving the illegal immigration problem.

In 1986, “one-time amnesty” was attempted to solve our illegal immigration crisis forever. At the time, illegal immigrants totaled 2.7 million. As of 2008, there are more than 20 million illegal immigrants in our nation! Clearly, amnesty, as Mr. Pellegrino proposes, does not stop “undocumented neighbors” from coming to America illegally.

In 1995, Bill Clinton appointed African-American former U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan (D-Texas) as the Chair of the Commission on Immigration Reform. She was very clear on what it would take to gain credibility on immigration policy: “Those who should get in, get in; those who should be kept out, are kept out; and those who should not be here will be required to leave…”

Mr. Pellegrino must recognize that our “undocumented neighbors” must be required to leave.

By the way, there is already a “path to permanent residency” which has been taken by law-abiding immigrants of all descriptions, from all over the world. Last year we made more than one million immigrants citizens of our great and diverse nation.

For the Pellegrinos of the world, it seems that the only answer is totally open borders.

Inger Eberhart

Acworth

Original letter AND you can comment here

According to ICE Director Julie Myers, the cost of deporting criminal aliens in the U.S. to their home countries is about $2 billion per year — or approximately $6,600 per alien. ~New York Times, March 2008

A money , nation saving, bargain at twice the rate!

Exodos of Latinos in Gainseville: Fleeing from the measures against undocumented immigrants
Found in Mundo Hispanico & GALEO
Written by Mario Guevara
Posted on 2008-11-12

Posted on galeo.org on 11/12/08. Translated by Jonathan Flack, GALEO Intern.

“Exodo de latinos en Gainesville”
Exodos of Latinos in Gainseville

Huyen por las Medidas contra los inmigrantes indocumentados
Fleeing from the measures against undocumented immigrants

By Mario Guevara
MundoHíspanico
10/16/2008

The Mexican José Guadalupe Esparza arrived last Friday at the El Expreso bus station in Gainesville, Georgia, in order to wait for the bus that he would take to Querétaro, México, his birth place. His bags in the back of his friend’s trunk were packed full, showing his intention not to return.

Esparza explained to MundoHispánico that he did not even want to remember his last experiences in Georgia.

“The environment is harsh. The police are out to get the Hispanics. Because of this I prefer to leave and forget it forever,” said the Mexican who spent 5 years living and working in Gainesville.

Like him, dozens of other Latinos with few pleasant memories of their place of residence are abandoning this area and are being uprooted by 287(g). 287(g) is the agreement between the Sheriff’s Office of Hall County and the Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), which provides the local authorities with the power to detain and deport undocumented immigrants.

Antonio Rodríguez, also Mexican, arrived at the terminal by taxi carrying two suitcases, but his destination was the state of Texas.

“I came here from Mississippi 6 months ago because they told me that there would be enough work. I never imagined that the Sheriff would be working with Immigration officials. I became annoyed with the constant fear that is common among the people here,” indicated Rodríguez.

Cases like these are common, according to the manager of El Expreso, Reinaldo Reyes, who explained that since the beginning of 287(g), the sales of tickets to leave by bus have increased.

“Almost every day the bus leaves full: we are selling a minimum of 11 fares to other states daily, especially California, Texas, and certain cities of Mexico. In my six years with the company I have never seen anything like it,” said Reyes.

Churches Suffer

Local religious leaders complained that, since the commissioner Steve Cronic decided to ally with ICE, hundreds of parishioners have abandoned their congregations. Religious leaders also fear the possibility of seeing their ministries close down.

The 287(g) program was ratified April 4th, 2008. The measure permits police to investigate the citizenship status of foreigners that are detained for whatever reason. They can they begin the process of deportation of individuals that are found to be undocumented.

Since then, the English sign of “Welcome to Hall County” that greets drivers on the highways as they enter the county seem to not be directed at the Hispanics, who instead are abandoning the county.

For the priest of the St. Michael Catholic Church of Gainseville, Fabio Sotelo, the actions of the authorities have changed the environment from friendly to hostile and directly affected the family nucleus by separating parents from their children solely because of a lack of documents.

“The problem is that they are not deporting criminals, but rather honorable people that are contributing to the country. These people are honest workers, but because of reasons beyond their control, they are not legal and cannot even obtain a driver’s license,” stated Sotelo.

According to the Columbian, now in Hall County if an undocumented person commits a minor traffic violation he could become involved in a complicated process of deportation. Additionally, he can only free himself from this process if he has enough financial resources to pay for a lawyer, which generally costs 10 thousand dollars.

“I am suffering the repercussions of this bad policy. After the first arrests and deportations, some relatives of the detained had to move. But today complete families are leaving, trying to prevent this situation,” added the priest.

The evangelical pastor Carlos Frías declared that the city is not the same one that he knew two years ago, when he began to direct the Pentecostal United Church of Gainesville.

“Now it’s common to see people walking with their shopping bags, scared of driving because the patrols are more frequent. The town is very different. There are more closed down businesses and houses for sale. The people are leaving, and we are counting on the support of God to make it all better,” admitted Frías.

Controversial agreement

287(g): agreement between the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the local sheriffs departments, that permits investigation of the citizenship status of detained foreigners and opens a process of deportation of those which are undocumented.

Hall county was the third to implement 287(g), April 4th, 2008

Since then there have been 564 people deported, and 91 are in the deportation process right now.

Cherokee Ledger News

New immigration law targets employers
By Carolyn Mathews
carolynmathews@ledgernews.

READ THE NEW ORDINANCE HERE

A new proposed ordinance designed to deal with undocumented immigrants in Cherokee County puts the emphasis on prohibiting businesses from hiring them. It also would require every renter in Cherokee County to obtain a permit stating that they are in the country legally.

“The root of the problem is the employment issue,” said Post 4 Commissioner Derek Good. “That’s why we decided that’s what we needed to take a hard look at. An unauthorized alien has no right to work in this country.”

Post 1 Commissioner Harry Johnston said he thinks the new ordinance, with some tweaks, probably will hold up in court. He said he favors local and state government doing what it reasonably can to address the void the federal government has left in addressing the issue of undocumented aliens.

“It’s written carefully to conform to court orders that have come out,” Johnston said. “However, it’s sure to be challenged, too.”

As a consultant on the language of the new ordinance, the county hired University of Missouri at Kansas City law professor Kris Kobach, who has designed several ordinances relating to the harboring of illegal aliens. Kobach will speak at a special called meeting and public hearing at 6 p.m. Nov. 17.

The new ordinance, if approved, would take the place of an ordinance outlawing the renting of homes to illegal aliens that was scheduled to take effect at the beginning of 2007, after the county commission unanimously approved it in December 2006. Enforcement of the new law was put on hold under a consent agreement after it was almost immediately challenged in court.

The county’s current contested ordinance is very similar to a Hazelton, Pa., ordinance that was struck down by a federal court in 2007.

That ordinance currently is being heard in the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.

The replacement ordinance is designed to “prohibit the known harboring of illegal aliens and
suspend the business licenses of those who knowingly employ unauthorized illegal aliens and to promote the safety and welfare of the citizens.”

The old ordinance held Cherokee County landlords in unincorporated areas of the county responsible of “harboring” an illegal alien if they did not gather, and provide, when asked, verification of their tenants’ immigration status.

The new ordinance requires all adult occupants of a leased or rented dwelling in the county to obtain a $5 occupancy license from the county business license division that establishes their legal presence in the United States. If an applicant cannot provide paperwork, they must sign an affidavit stating they believe they are lawfully in the country.

“They’re going to walk out with a permit,” Good said. “Then we’ll follow up if it doesn’t match, and revoke the permit if necessary.”

When asked if he thought having to get occupancy licenses for rental properties in the county would make them harder to rent, Good said he didn’t think so.

“You’ve got to go to Canton anyway to get your water turned on and such,” he said.

Johnston disagreed, saying the housing portion of the ordinance’s downside was bigger than its upside.

“People are just going to go to Cobb County to rent. It’s going to be massively confusing and harder for landlords to rent their property,” he said. “It’s too much government interference with the people.”

Under the proposal, after an occupancy license is obtained, the county business license department must then verify identity.

The proposed ordinance would also make it unlawful for any business entity to knowingly recruit, hire for employment or continue to employ anyone who is found to be an illegal alien.

The prohibition does not apply to the hiring of an independent contractor by a business entity or to the intermittent hiring of casual labor for domestic tasks for household work.

When asked if that creates a loophole in the law for construction and landscape contractors, Good said he’s satisfied with the wording.

“We can’t go outside the law,” he said. “It’s designed according to what the appeals court approves. Otherwise, it would open us up to litigation.”

The ordinance requires all contractors doing business with the county to run their employees through an E-Verify system check.

“When Cherokee County hires landscapers to work with us, we require they sign an affidavit, and if they falsely sign, it’s a felony,” Good said.

If the county receives a complaint as to whether a business is hiring undocumented workers, the county business license department may attempt to verify worker status.

If either a business or a landlord is found to be knowingly harboring illegal aliens, their business license may be suspended.

The county business license department and the county Marshal’s Office would responsible for enforcement of the
proposed ordinance.

HERE

For Immediate Release
November 12, 2008

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Stanford Immigrants’ Rights Clinic: Jayashri Srikantiah, 650-724-2442
National Immigration Law Center: Linton Joaquin, 213-674-2909
ACLU of Southern California: Gordon Smith, 213-977-5247
National Lawyers Guild-SF: Carlos Villarreal 415-377-6961

Immigrants’ Rights Organizations Sue Department of Homeland Security for Public Accountability About Deportation Program that Sidesteps Legal Process for Immigrants

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., November 12, 2008-Today a coalition of immigrants’ rights organizations asked a federal judge to compel the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to disclose information about a program under which it removes non-citizens from the U.S. without hearings before immigration judges. The program, called “stipulated removal,” has resulted in the removal of over 96,000 non-citizens since its inception.

The Stanford Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, together with the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), the ACLU of Southern California (ACLUSC) and the National Lawyers Guild of San Francisco (NLGSF) filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to gain access to agency records about stipulated removal from DHS and its sub-agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The lawsuit also seeks access to records from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and its Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR).

Stipulated removal allows the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security to remove a non-citizen, even one with valid defenses against deportation, as long as the non-citizen signs an order. DHS appears to target non-citizens in immigration detention for stipulated removal, and does not allow the non-citizen to appear before a judge prior to being deported. Advocates have expressed concerns that immigrants signing these orders do not realize they are giving up their rights to challenge their deportation.

In the lawsuit, NLGSF et al. v U.S. DHS, the plaintiffs note that news reports, Congressional testimony, and agency press releases reveal that the DHS and DOJ have broadly implemented stipulated removal on a nationwide basis for at least 12 years. However, DHS and DOJ have failed to produce records that reflect the full scope of stipulated removal’s implementation, and the select information DHS and DOJ have divulged to date provide a “strong indication that other documents have been improperly withheld.”

“DHS is running a federal program that has resulted in the deportation of almost 100,000 people without legal hearings, and yet the public knows very little about the program,” said Jayashri Srikantiah, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Stanford Law School. “Stipulated removal raises serious due process concerns because immigrant detainees may not know that they are signing away their rights, and no judge ever speaks to the detainee to ensure that they understand the process.”

The lawsuit comes after two FOIA requests in December 2005 and February 2008 yielded only minimal information. According to data that was released under those FOIA requests by the DOJ’s Executive Office of Immigration Review, that office entered 96,241 stipulated removal orders between October 1999 and June 2008.

Karen Tumlin, Staff Attorney at the National Immigration Law Center, observes: “DHS has revealed close to nothing about a program that impacts thousands of immigrants’ due process rights. The stipulated removal program gives detained immigrants an impossible choice: sign away your rights or stay in detention.”

“Immigrant detainees may be refugees or have U.S. citizen family members,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, an ACLU of Southern California staff attorney. “The public should know whether DHS is pressuring these detainees to give up their right to a hearing.”

“Stipulated removal appears to target the most vulnerable parts of the immigrant population,” observed Carlos Villarreal, Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild – San Francisco Bay Area. “Immigrant detainees often lack the money to pay for lawyers and bond money to get out of detention.”

Jennifer Lee Koh, Cooley Godward Kronish Fellow with Stanford Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, said: “Before DHS further expands its implementation of stipulated removal, the public should know whether the program satisfies basic due process requirements. Immigrant detainees should know exactly what they are giving up when they sign a stipulated order.”

Students in the Stanford Immigrants’ Rights Clinic participated in drafting the FOIA requests and the complaint filed today.

For more background about stipulated removal, see Backgrounder: Stipulated Removal– Federal authorities are deporting immigrants without hearings, but the public knows very little about the program, attached to this release.

A copy of the complaint filed today in federal district court will be available later today at www.nilc.org.

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Washington Post

Two MS-13 gangsters sought in death of 14-year-old honor student

(Note from D.A. – we don’t think you will hear about this on Rick Sanchez CNN )

Montgomery County [Md.] police announced yesterday that they were searching for two suspects in the fatal shooting of a 14-year-old honor student on a county transit bus in Silver Spring, and a judge ordered a third suspect be held without bond [because he’s one of Bush’s ‘willing workers’.

Prosecutors said Hector M. Hernandez’s status as an alleged gang member and illegal immigrant made him a flight risk. “MS-13 is known to have international and national ties and [is] known to sequester individuals who flee from justice,” Assistant State’s Attorney Jeffrey Wennar said at a bond hearing, referring to the gang Mara Salvatrucha.

Wennar also said Hernandez, 20, was arrested last month on a weapons charge. In that case, the Takoma Park resident, the alleged gunman in the Nov. 1 bus slaying, was released without anyone realizing he was in the country illegally

HERE

KRDO-TV — Denver

Illegal alien in fatal Baskin Robbins crash faces 19 charges

A man accused of causing a crash that killed three people, including a 3-year-old boy, faces a total of 19 charges after appearing in court Monday afternoon. –Police said Francis Hernandez, 23, was speeding more than 70 mph and ran a red light before hitting a pickup truck broadside…

CENTENNIAL – A man accused of causing a crash that killed three people, including a 3-year-old boy, faces a total of 19 charges after appearing in court Monday afternoon.

Police said Francis Hernandez, 23, was speeding more than 70 mph and ran a red light before hitting a pickup truck broadside and sending it crashing into an Aurora ice cream store on Sept. 4. Two women in the pickup truck died in the crash, in addition to the 3-year-old who was sitting in the ice cream shop.

Hernandez is charged with:

Child Abuse Resulting in Death, a class 2 felony with a penalty range of 16-48 years
Child Abuse Resulting in Bodily Injury, a class 1 misdemeanor with a penalty range of up to 2 years in jail
3 counts of Third Degree Assault, a class 1 misdemeanor with a penalty range of up to 2 years in jail per count
4 counts of Leaving the Scene of an Accident, a class 1 misdemeanor with a penalty range of up to 18 months in jail per count
3 counts of Leaving the Scene of an Accident Involving Death, this is a class 3 felony with a penalty range of 4-12 years per count
3 counts of Vehicular Homicide, this is a class 3 felony with a penalty range of 4-12 years per count
1 count of Vehicular Assault, this is a class 5 felony with a penalty range of 1-3 years
1 count of Leaving the Scene of an Accident Involving Serious Bodily Injury, this is a class 5 felony with a penalty range of 1-3 years
1 count of Driving Under Restraint, this is a class 1 misdemeanor with a penalty range of up to 6 months in jail
1 count of Third Degree Assault, a class 1 misdemeanor with a penalty range of up to 2 years in jail
3 counts of Leaving the Scene of an Accident Involving Death, this is a class 3 felony with a penalty range of 4-12 years per count
3 counts of Vehicular Homicide, this is a class 3 felony with a penalty range of 4-12 years per count
1 count of Vehicular Assault, this is a class 5 felony with a penalty range of 1-3 years
1 count of Leaving the Scene of an Accident Involving Serious Bodily Injury, this is a class 5 felony with a penalty range of 1-3 years
1 count of Driving Under Restraint, this is a class 1 misdemeanor with a penalty range of up to 6 months in jail
1 count of Third Degree Assault, a class 1 misdemeanor with a penalty range of up to 2 years in jail
The accident triggered a public uproar after it was revealed Hernandez had no driver’s license, a long driving offense record, and was in the country illegally, but was never deported.

A toxicology report released last week showed the driver of the pickup truck had meth in her system, prompting Hernandez’s attorney to suggest that vehicular homicide charges against his client should be dropped.

HERE

San Francisco Chronicle
Two S. F. juveniles (MS-13 terrorists) charged as adults with murder

Two San Francisco juveniles charged as adults with murder in the stabbing death of a 14-year-old boy boasted and laughed about the killing in secretly recorded conversations with a government informant, authorities say. — “What made me laugh is how he went down,” Marlon Rivera, a 16-year-old alleged member of the Mara Salvatrucha street gang…

HERE

Zogby Post-Election Poll Reveals No Mandate for Illegal Alien Amnesty

November 10, 2008

(Washington, D.C.) A nationwide survey of actual voters reveals that Americans strongly support immigration enforcement, and that less than one-third of Obama voters favor granting amnesty to illegal aliens. The poll conducted by Zogby International on behalf of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) on November 5 and 6 also found that a decisive majority of voters believe that an illegal alien amnesty would “further harm the interests of struggling American workers.”

Among the key findings of the poll are:

Only 32% of Obama voters considered his support for amnesty as a factor in their decisions to vote for him. 67% said it was either not a factor at all, or they voted for Obama in spite of his stance on amnesty.
60% of voters said reducing illegal immigration and cracking down on employers who hire them is important to them, while only 21% supported “legalizing or creating a pathway to citizenship” for illegal aliens.
57% of voters stated that amnesty would harm American workers and further strain public resources, while only 26% believe amnesty would aid economic recovery and ease public burdens.

The findings of the poll commissioned by FAIR of all voters are similar to an unrelated poll conducted of Latino voters by Zogby and Univision on the eve of the election. That poll found that 54% of Latino voters placed concern about the economy as their top voting priority, while only 11% said that immigration was their number one concern.

“Senator Obama received a mandate from the voters to fix our ailing economy, which has shed more than a million jobs so far this year, not to enact a massive amnesty,” said Dan Stein, president of FAIR. “Voter turn-out increased across the board as record numbers of all Americans expressed dissatisfaction with the direction of the country. Immigration policy was clearly not a decisive factor in the presidential election, as it was not discussed during the campaign, and the records of both candidates were nearly identical.”

To the extent that President-elect Obama and the 111th Congress have a mandate on immigration, it is to secure American jobs and get control of the borders. Driving home the concern voters have about the economy and jobs, Arizonans overwhelmingly rejected a deceptive ballot measure which would have made it easier for businesses to hire illegal aliens. Proposition 202 was rejected by 60% of Arizona voters, including 56% of Latino voters in the state.

“All voters, including Latinos, turned to the Democrats last Tuesday in the hope that they will get our economy back on track. Notwithstanding a massive spin effort on the part of the ethnic advocacy network, the electorate, including Latinos, did not vote for amnesty and more immigration. In fact, the polls show that voters believe amnesty would be an impediment to economic recovery and putting American back to work,” Stein concluded.

ull results of the Zogby poll can be found at www.fairus.org.

About FAIR

Founded in 1979, FAIR is the country’s largest and oldest immigration reform group. With over 250,000 members nationwide, FAIR fights for immigration policies that serve national interests, not special interests. FAIR believes that immigration reform must enhance national security, improve the economy, protect jobs and wages, preserve our environment, and establish a rule of law that is recognized and enforced.

Contact Ira Mehlman at 206-420-7733 or Bob Dane at 202-328-7004.

Bob Dane

Press Secretary/Communications Director

Federation for American Immigration Reform

25 Massachusetts Avenue – Suite 300

Washington DC, 20001

Office 202-328-7004