Reuters

Mexico says U.S. trucking proposal positive step

Mexico’s government said on Thursday a U.S proposal to allow Mexican long-haul trucks to move cargo on U.S. roads was a positive first step in resolving an ongoing trade dispute between the two countries. — Humberto Trevino, Mexico’s deputy transport minister, said the government would review the U.S. proposal and respond with observations by Monday…

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CNN drops all pretense.

This from my freind Fred Elbel of the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform – an action needed post

It looks like 2011 is the milepost in time where CNN threw out any semblance of journalistic integrity.

Hold your nose and watch this video: Latinos targeted again? “Many Latinos in the U.S. feel they’re being targeted by a movement to “change” the 14th Amendment. Rafael Romo reports.”

Not a word about the true intent of the 14th Amendment. Not one second of balanced, unbiased reporting.

Let CNN know your opinion that they didn’t even try to fake any intention of balance or fairness in their report HERE.

OR…the phone number for CNN in Atlanta is: 404-827-2600

Peeeuuuuewwwww!

“There are two primary requirements in State law pertaining to the Public Benefits Reporting System (PBRS):1.) Verification of Lawful Presence: All agencies or political subdivisions in

Georgia (i.e., departments, agencies, authorities, commissions, or other governmental entities of the State or any subdivision of this state) that provide or administer public benefits are required by State law to verify the lawful presence of benefit recipients. This requirement has been in place since July 1, 2007.

2.) Public Benefits Reporting Requirements: All such agencies described above are required to file an annual report with the Department of Community Affairs no later than January 1 of each year (new requirement resulting from House Bill 2) that identifies each public benefit administered by the agency or political subdivision and includes a list of each public benefit for which verification of lawful presence has not been received. The first reports are due no later than January 1, 2011…”HERE

Rick Oltman of The Immigration Tea Party — The Examiner

Take the cannoli… Novato, California

Early in the morning of January 3rd, in front of the main entrance of the newest Safeway in the newest shopping center in Marin County, there was a hit. A gangland hit. Two men sitting in a car were shot to pieces in the Novato Hamilton Safeway parking lot. The victims are hanging by a thread, the police think it is gang related…<

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Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia Legislature set to target illegal immigration

Complaining that the federal government has fallen down on the job, Georgia lawmakers are putting a big bull’s-eye on illegal immigration this year. — The state’s legislative session won’t begin until Monday. But lawmakers got started weeks ago, “prefiling” bills that would block illegal [aliens] from attending state colleges…

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E-Verify Talking Points

What is E-Verify?• Free, safe, secure and simple to use, E-Verify provides participating employers an automated Internet-based resource to verify the employment eligibility of newly-hired employees.

• Participating employers electronically compare information taken from the I-9 Form (the paper-based form currently used to verify the work eligibility of all new hires) against more than 449 million records in Social Security Administration’s database and more than 60 million records in Department of Homeland Security immigration databases.

• E-Verify utilizes special safeguards to ensure that employees are not discriminated against. Additionally, the program ensures that employees’ privacy and civil liberties are protected.

Why should employers use E-Verify?

• E-Verify enables cheap, efficient, and accurate compliance with the federal ban on hiring illegal aliens. It is currently the best means available for employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of their newly hired employees.

• E-Verify improves the accuracy of wage and tax reporting, protects jobs for authorized U.S. workers, and helps U.S. employers maintain a legal workforce.

• E-Verify provides a safe harbor for businesses that use the system in good faith. When an employer obtains confirmation of the identity and employment eligibility of an individual, a rebuttable presumption is established that the employer has not violated federal law with respect to the hiring of an illegal alien.

What is the E-Verify Accuracy Rate?

• 96.9 percent of all queries are automatically verified as employment-authorized either instantly or within 24 hours.

• Non-confirmations occur because:
The employee is not authorized to work in the United;
The employee has failed to update his or her records with SSA (for example, to reflect changes in name or citizenship status); and
The employer made an error when entering information into the E-Verify system.
• Non-confirmations constitute 3.1 percent of E-Verify queries. Of this amount, only 0.3 percent are cases where individuals need to clear up errors in their Social Security Administration records. The rest are not authorized to work in the U.S. Therefore, the real E-Verify error rate is only 0.3 percent.

• Those who have inaccuracies are given instructions on how to clear up their records with SSA and time to do so. The bottom line is that nobody is automatically ruled out for work authorization and those eligible to work in the U.S. will not lose their job. If a person is not work authorized, it’s not discrimination. It’s following the law.

How widely is E-Verify used?

• E-Verify is now being used to determine work authorization for more than 1 in 4 new hires. Over 208,000 employers are registered E-Verify users, representing almost 762,000 worksites
.
• About 1,000 employers per week are signing up for the E-Verify program despite that fact that it has remained voluntary at the federal level except for federal contractors. Only 12 states require its use in some manner by employers.

What is the Federal Government saying about E-Verify?

• On 9/8/09, the Obama Administration began requiring federal contractors to use E-Verify. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says that E-Verify is an essential tool for employers to maintain a legal workforce and a cornerstone of workplace enforcement across the country. She recognizes that we cannot stop illegal immigration without removing the jobs magnet that draws illegal workers to communities.

Reasons to Support E-Verify

• E-Verify will ensure that citizens and legal residents will not have to compete with illegal aliens for jobs.

• There is no excuse for allowing employers to hire illegal workers, not when there are so many citizens and legal residents struggling to find work.

• The federal government has stepped up to the plate to protect American workers by requiring its contractors to use E-Verify. Now, it’s time for states to do their part.

False Allegations About E-Verify

Qualified workers won’t have a chance to prove that they are authorized to work.

Response: Every individual that gets a tentative non-confirmation is given instructions on how to clear up their records with the Social Security Administration and time to do so. Most cases can be taken care of by phone and involve married or divorced women who did not update their records with SSA. The bottom line is that nobody is automatically ruled out for work authorization and those eligible to work in the U.S. will not lose their job. No citizen or work-eligible legal immigrant has ever lost his/her job because of E-Verify. If there is an inaccuracy in the SSA database, it is best to know about it and rectify it prior to applying for retirement benefits.

Mandatory E-Verify participation would be a burden and increase the cost of doing business.

Response: According to a 2007 study by Westat, 96% of long-term E-Verify users disagreed or strongly disagreed that the tasks required by the system overburden their staff. Any human resources employee assigned to collect information for the Federal I-9 form would simply spend a few extra seconds typing the same data into the E-Verify system. 96.9% of responses come either instantly or within 24 hours. If the business does not have a human resources employee, vendors are available to provide this service on a per-employee or subscription basis. Rates are very affordable.

E-Verify could lead to discrimination.

Response: E-Verify does not cause hiring discrimination. The system cannot even be used until after a person is hired and cannot be used selectively for verification based on foreign appearance. It actually eliminates hiring discrimination because all new hires must be checked.

SSA Database error rates make E-Verify unworkable.

Response: The real error rate is only 0.3 percent. What other government program can boast that it works correctly 99.6% of the time?

E-Verify doesn’t protect against identity theft cases.

Response: The one weak point that remains in E-Verify is the false positives that occur when a legitimate identity is stolen. This issue had been addressed before the Obama Administration discontinued send “no-match” letters to employers where a Social Security Number did not match Social Security Administration records. For now, DHS is adding to E-Verify the digital photos from IDs issued to non-citizens as well as passport photos to help with visual identification. The bottom line, though, is that (1) without E-Verify, 100% of the illegal aliens acquiring jobs get to keep them, and (2) employers are provided a safe harbor for using E-Verify, so a false positive does not adversely affect the employer.

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KGUN-TV — Tucson

Murdered agent’s parents still looking for answers three weeks later

Three weeks ago tonight, border patrol agent Brian Terry was shot 19-miles north of the border. He died of his wound early the following morning. — And, while time has ticked on, little has changed for the Terrys since Brian’s funeral except for getting more and more ticked off…

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During a time of unacceptable unemployment of both skilled and unskilled workers it is obviously necessary to replace foreign workers especially illegal workers with American citizens. To attack the problem we need to direct our efforts to ask why businesses hire foreign workers.

It is not because American workers are not skilled enough for the work. According to the Federal Department of Labor the unemployment rate for college graduates in the United States is over 5% last November. Augusta state senator Hardie Davis stated recently that there are over 5,000 unemployed engineers in Georgia. UGA and Georgia Tech are busting at the seems with future graduates with advanced skills who are more than ready to meet the limited demand for workers in this anemic economy. So the primary driving force is not that the businesses cannot find American workers who can meet their job descriptions.

In a 2004 report for the Programmers Guild, H-1B visa workers make $13K less than Americans in the same occupation and state. The same can be observed among low wage foreign workers in agriculture and light industry. Foreign workers legal or illegal are less likely to unionize or agitate for benefits. Foreign workers are more likely to be victims of the seasonality of some industries thereby making them a burden on social programs when furloughed. Health care costs, housing costs, and transportation costs are born by the taxpayers not the employers and there are no retirement obligations to temporary workers. In effect the society is subsidizing the companies who hire foreign workers thereby giving unethical companies an incentive to not look very hard for American workers.

What can be done? First greatly increase the fees associated with importing or sponsoring foreign workers who do not have legitimate family ties to the country. If a business is forced to pay $20,000 for each employee they fly in from a foreign country, they will look harder for an American citizen who could do the same job. The money could be set aside for scholarships for American students going into the reportedly under served field.

Next, require employers of foreign workers to be liable for all social services costs especially health care costs for their employees especially if they find out their employee is an illegal workers. Sponsors of HB1 visa holders pledge to reimburse the government if their sponsored worker gets government assistance. Employers of illegal workers need to be on the hook for that as well. In practice this will allow a hospital to go after a hypothetical company like a landscaping company whose illegal workers gets injured at home and needs a government/hospital charity program to pay for the care. Foreign workers who qualify for WIC or housing assistance will have their employer reimburse the taxpayers.

Finally, illegal workers do not get unemployment and often find that they cannot afford to go back home. A program could be set up to send unemployed foreign workers legal or illegal back home and get their former employers to pay for it. Furloughed workers would offer evidence that they were formerly employed in order to allow the government to fine the unethical employer. Part of the fine would be used to transport the illegal worker back home. To incentivize the illegal, they would not be charged with a crime provided their former employer is sufficiently punished.

Mike Seigle

As if JOBS is a seperate issue from illegal immigration

Newnan Times-Herald

Jobs, illegal immigration, HOPE money on agenda

The budget will most assuredly be the biggest issue of the 2011 session of the Georgia General Assembly, but it definitely won’t be the only one. — For State Sen. Mitch Seabaugh, R-Sharpsburg, the big three issues are jobs, illegal immigration and the HOPE scholarship…

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