Illegal Immigration 2009

CONGRESSMAN GUTIERREZ CARES MORE ABOUT ILLEGALS THAN AMERICANS
Posted 12/22/09

Illegals could care less about our laws-PLEASE NOTE- they are waiting to be picked up by the Fire Lane (no stopping, no standing, remember?) Raising the curtain on a new round of debate over immigration reform, a group of Democratic congressional lawmakers introduced a comprehensive bill Tuesday that, among other provisions, would offer a path to legalization for the country’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.

The bill, championed by Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.), was decidedly more pro-immigrant than the bipartisan legislation House lawmakers debated two years ago. And the latest version drew immediate fire from the left as well as the right. Groups opposed to legalization derided it as a form of amnesty, and more-liberal factions complained that it relied too heavily on enforcement.

In Los Angeles, immigration activists hailed the measure at a news conference before heading to local lawmakers’ offices — aboard a yellow school bus festooned with banners — to urge their support. “This is a big day for us,” said Jorge-Mario Cabrera of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. “Our community has been awaiting this bill for a long time.” Cabrera called Gutierrez’s bill the most generous in more than two decades, citing provisions that would allow migrants to legalize their status without returning to their home countries, prohibit separation of families, offer more visas for workers and relatives, and eliminate local enforcement of federal immigration law. But Ted Hilton, an anti-illegal-immigration activist in San Diego, said that with so many Americans out of work, efforts to legalize millions of immigrants would face a certain backlash. “When the last American comes off of unemployment, then let’s have a conversation about whether we need additional immigrants,” Hilton said, adding that he hoped to qualify a California ballot initiative next year to deny several public services to illegal immigrants.

In Washington, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) — who has been Gutierrez’s partner in backing previous immigration bills — issued a statement Tuesday saying he was “disappointed” by the latest legislation. “In order for immigration reform to be effective, it needs to be comprehensive,” he said. “Any bill without a temporary worker program is simply not comprehensive.” Gutierrez, one of 87 House Democrats sponsoring the 700-page bill, said it was based on months of discussions with community organizations, unions and other groups around the country in hopes of gaining enough momentum to get reforms passed. “Now, there’s a bill with a following,” Gutierrez said. However, any serious consideration seems months away.

A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said that although Pelosi supported the bill, she wanted the Senate to act first on the issue. President Obama has said that he anticipated taking up the immigration issue after the healthcare debate is over and Congress finishes work on energy reforms and regulating financial markets — potentially pushing the debate close to the midterm election in November
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IMMIGRATION REFORM ADVOCATES – NEW PLAYERS AND TACTICS!
Posted 12/13/09

Illegal immigration – a return to the Depression?

It looks as though religious leaders, and minority groups, are banding together to push immigration reform, once again. They, and special interest groups, are determined to do this, in spite of the fact that approximately 80% of U.S. citizens are against it.

Immigration reform activists diversifying ranks
By SUZANNE GAMBOA (AP) – Nov 26, 2009

WASHINGTON — Beyond the noisy town hall meetings, Tea Party protests and sky-is-falling speeches characterizing much of the health care debate is a less visible, but no less intense push to broaden the face of the immigration reform movement.

With the 2010 election year looming, Democrat Barack Obama in the White House and increasing numbers of Asian-American and Pacific Islanders in Congress, many groups, including the NAACP, are working harder in the traditionally Latino-led movement, sensing a fresh opportunity to overhaul laws affecting millions of immigrants, both legal and illegal.

“For far too long, the Latino population in the U.S. has really borne the brunt of the anti-immigrant sentiment,” said Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y. Washington NAACP bureau director Hillary Shelton said: “The immigration debate needs to have, in addition to a Latino face, it needs to have a Haitian face. It needs to have an Asian face.”But I do want to point out that it would be incredibly cruel to the Haitian people for the Obama Administration to provide any sign whatsoever that Haitians who try to enter the U.S. illegally would be allowed to stay and work.Unquestionably, the immigration issue is a temperature’s-rising matter; opinions are strong, in some cases ranging to demands to close the borders. And no small part of the renewed impetus for revamping the system are the increasing immigrant crackdowns.

Against this backdrop, the collection of voices clamoring for overhaul is expanding — Caribbean-Americans, evangelical churches, labor unions and law enforcement, besides the NAACP. And businesses, too, are becoming increasingly active.

“It’s a Godsend,” said Arturo Vargas executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. “We have been trying to make the argument, unsuccessfully in many respects, that immigration is not just a Latino issue because others are affected — Asians, Russians, Africans … At it’s core, this is about the future viability of this country.”

The immigration reform movement hasn’t been devoid of diversity over the years, however.

Catholic, Jewish, Lutheran, Christian and other churches and faiths have been active leaders. In 2006 and 2007, people wearing T-shirts emblazoned with “Legalize The Irish” in green letters were common sights around the U.S. Capitol. Even immigration groups in Caribbean American communities have participated.

But because the overwhelming majority of immigrants are coming from Mexico and Latin America, the push for a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million undocumented has been led largely by Latinos. It was mostly Latino immigrants who turned out for the 2006 marches against immigration crackdowns, for instance. It was a massive showing, stoked in part by Spanish-language radio and television.

Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, has said he fully expects work on rewriting immigration law to begin in Congress next year. But he also said Congress may have to deal with it on a piecemeal approach if Democratic leaders delay because of the elections and a hostile political climate.

For his part, Obama said in September he believed that remaking immigration policy would be difficult, “but I think we can get it done.” But he has not suggested a timetable.

Meanwhile, proponents of immigration reform are stepping efforts to expand their ranks, and present a more diversified face at the same time.

Part of the problem is that black and Latino communities have divided in the past over illegal immigration reform. There has been friction — and in some communities continues to be — over whether illegal immigrants take jobs from black Americans.

But Clarke, a second-generation American whose parents immigrated from Jamaica and the West Indies, said many in the black community, which includes many African, Caribbean and black Latino communities, realize that ignoring the immigration reform movement means giving up the chance to ensure that the unique problems of black immigrants are addressed.

California Democratic Rep. Mike Honda, a Japanese American, said he wants to make sure reforms address the long waiting periods that Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders face to get visas to legally enter the country and to help lesbian/gay/bisexual and transgender communities have equal chances to bring their loved ones to this country.

“We are being asked to lead. At 29 members strong, we are weighing in with newfound force to ensure Asian American/Pacific Islanders are included in immigration reform,” Honda said.

“No longer will we be silent on issues of immigration reform,” Bishop Orlando Findlayter, head of Churches United to Save and Heal, a coalition of Carribean-American clergy, said last month. A few moments later, about 100 ministers, pastors and others crossed Independence Avenue in Washington to join him in lobbying members for immigration changes.

The increased intensity behind the movement has been palpable, with many faces and organizations pitching. Activism is on the rise.

- Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., led immigration reform meetings in various churches. And more than 60,000 people attended “house parties” this month and listened in on a conference call with Gutierrez and other members of Congress.

- Lennox Abrigo, pastor of Seventh-Day New Covenant Church in Hyattsville, Md., said the pastors have a Dec. 2 meeting at the White House. He said they have seen increases in immigrants in their congregations and increases in the problems faced by those in the country both legally and illegally.

“Members in our church have been deported … Families are disrupted. We have families broken up just like it was done in the period of slavery,” Abrigo said.

- The National Council of Evangelicals, representing 40 denominations including the Assemblies of God and Church of the Nazarene, recently issued a resolution backing immigration reform.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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IMMIGRATION – JOBS SUMMIT
Posted 12/13/09

Champion Of The Illegal Aliens !

Even without a devastating earthquake, Haitians for decades have shown a willingness to drop everything and risk their lives on leaky boats to try to get to the U.S. when they thought they might have a chance to settle illegally.

Many of you may remember that thousands of Haitians took to the seas just before Pres. Clinton was first inaugurated because they thought from some of his campaign comments that he would allow them to sneak into the country. Many Haitians drowned in the process. The first act of the Clinton Administration was to intercept the Haitian boats and make it clear that taking to sea was fruitless because the boats would not be allowed to land in Florida and illegal aliens who evaded the Coast Guard would be sent back to Haiti when caught on land.

In short, the first time that Haitians try to illegally enter the U.S. and are allowed to stay legally, we can expect to see a massive flotilla of rickety boats heading here from Haiti, and hundreds or thousands of Haitians will die in the process.

For now, we can hope that if DHS is setting up a processing center at Gitmo, it will be for the purpose of moving Haitians rescued from their boats back to Haiti.

The whole world is committed at this moment to assisting the 8 million Haitians who are in their home country. The Haitians are suffering from a momentous tragedy. Since there is no indication that the vast majority of them will be accepted for resettlement in other countries, it only makes sense to put all resources into rebuilding their own country for their habitation, rather than allowing a small fraction to move to the U.S. and further exacerbate the unemployment and economic distress of our own most vulnerable Americans.

We must watch very carefully to make sure that the humanitarian efforts for the Haitians are the most effective for the largest number, rather than helping a few move to the U.S. and enticing far more to risk their lives to get the same treatment.

ROY BECK is Founder & CEO of NumbersUSA
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FROM FEDERATION FOR AMERICAN IMMIGRATION REFORM (FAIR) RE: SENATE HEALTHCARE
Posted 12/13/09

“This Administration Caters To Illegal Immigrants!”

Most American Citizens Agree With This Message

“This is a big day for us,” said Jorge-Mario Cabrera of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. “Our community has been awaiting this bill for a long time.”

Cabrera called Gutierrez’s bill the most generous in more than two decades, citing provisions that would allow migrants to legalize their status without returning to their home countries, prohibit separation of families, offer more visas for workers and relatives, and eliminate local enforcement of federal immigration law.

But Ted Hilton, an anti-illegal-immigration activist in San Diego, said that with so many Americans out of work, efforts to legalize millions of immigrants would face a certain backlash.

“When the last American comes off of unemployment, then let’s have a conversation about whether we need additional immigrants,” Hilton said, adding that he hoped to qualify a California ballot initiative next year to deny several public services to illegal immigrants.

Gutierrez, one of 87 House Democrats sponsoring the 700-page bill, said it was based on months of discussions with community organizations, unions and other groups around the country in hopes of gaining enough momentum to get reforms passed.

“Now, there’s a bill with a following,” Gutierrez said.

However, any serious consideration seems months away.

A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said that although Pelosi supported the bill, she wanted the Senate to act first on the issue.

President Obama has said that he anticipated taking up the immigration issue after the healthcare debate is over and Congress finishes work on energy reforms and regulating financial markets — potentially pushing the debate close to the midterm election in November.
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High Unemployment Reframes Immigration Debate New America Media, News
Posted 12/4/09

In the wake of President Obama’s “jobs summit,” the debate about how illegal immigration impacts unemployment has risen in volume. For Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the summit was fatally flawed because it did not directly address illegal immigration.

“Notably absent from the president’s jobs summit is any discussion of how to take back the 8 million jobs currently occupied by illegal immigrants and make them available to out-of-work U.S. citizens and legal immigrants,” he wrote on Politico.com.

Rep. Smith, a fifth-generation Texan and a known Capitol Hill immigration hardliner, asked: “How can the administration justify giving millions of jobs to illegal immigrants when the economy is struggling with a 10 percent unemployment rate?”

He’s right about the numbers. An estimated 5 percent of the U.S. labor force is made up of undocumented immigrants, meaning they hold 8 million jobs (that number’s generally not disputed). But what’s not so clear is how many of those positions are truly jobs Americans would compete for, at the wages offered, even with high unemployment.

Several studies suggest that among Americans and legal residents, it’s mainly those lacking a high school diploma who are competing directly with undocumented immigrants for jobs (and by most estimates, that’s less than one out of every 10 U.S. workers).

A 2006 study by Giovanni Peri, a professor of economics at the University of California, Davis, concluded that immigration actually benefits more educated U.S. workers by boosting overall productivity, resulting in wage increases for degree-holders.

A widely cited 2008 study by the Perryman Group for Americans for Immigration Reform, a business-led coalition, went even further. Deporting undocumented workers en masse — the study calls the workers an “essential resource” — would have the net result of erasing thousands of jobs permanently in many states, not to mention being a prohibitively expensive exercise.

Of course, that’s cold comfort to millions of U.S. workers who lack a high school diploma and feel they are being undercut by undocumented foreign workers.

A study released this month by Gordon H. Hanson, of the University of California, San Diego and the National Bureau of Economic Research, cites an estimate that American high school dropouts lost 9 percent of their income over one recent 20-year period, due to illegal immigration.

But Hanson, who prepared his study for the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, also states that despite the controversy it generates, illegal immigration has no significant impact on the overall U.S. economy.

Hanson’s study doesn’t gauge the effect of innovation (for example, new techniques undocumented immigrants may have introduced in construction). But it does account for most other relevant factors such as undocumented immigrants’ contribution to GDP and tax revenue (a majority have payroll taxes deducted), as well as public monies they drain, mainly via public schooling and emergency room visits.

In the end, writes Hanson, “it’s a wash.”

In this Hanson coincides with Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, co-director of the immigration studies program at New York University, who said late last year, as the economy crumbled, that despite the evidence that proponents and critics of immigration pile on either side of the issue, the impact on the economy isn’t as dramatic as either side would like to think.

For Hanson, the key question is how to create an immigration system that creates incentives against illegal immigration, channels foreign workers onto legal entry paths, and provides the U.S. labor market with all the unskilled labor it needs (particularly during an upswing), but with enough flexibility to decrease influxes when the labor market contracts, as it has in the last couple of years.

His answer is a visa program for unskilled foreign workers far larger and less restrictive than it is now.

The current visa regime allows in only a ludicrously low number of temporary unskilled workers, 150,000 at any given time by Hanson’s count, a number dwarfed by the 8 million immigrants who are working here illegally.

The basic formula is to turn illegal immigrants into legal immigrants.

That might be accomplished through temporary worker programs that could be taxed, higher visa quotas, or a path to earned citizenship for the 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the country, or a combination of these tactics.

The conservative Heritage Foundation opposes giving citizenship to anyone who entered the country illegally, arguing that “amnesty” creates an incentive for future illegal immigration. However, Heritage still endorses providing “legal avenues that meet the needs of employers and immigrants.”

Congress last tried to pass immigration reform in 2007, at a time when unemployment levels were far lower than they are now. The legislation, which included higher quotas for foreign workers and a path to citizenship for the undocumented, foundered against many conservatives’ cries that it represented an immigration amnesty.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., who has been drafting a sweeping immigration overhaul, has said that he is including language in the current bill that would limit visas for industries that have high unemployment, so American workers don’t have to compete with foreigners. Immigrant labor would make it into niches of the economy where it’s needed.

“We believe that every American should always have first crack at every job,” Gutierrez was quoted as saying in the Washington, D.C., political newspaper The Hill. “Having said that, where the opportunities exist, we need to sustain our economy. And so we need workers. Even in this very unstable economic situation we find ourselves in, there are still crabs that need to be picked, there are still onions going un-harvested. It’s just true.”

It may be true, but selling this complex vision to a job-hungry nation will be a challenge for Gutierrez and the Obama administration, which, with an eye on the Latino vote, promised action on immigration reform in 2010.

By Roy Beck, Monday, January 18, 2010, 3:33 PM EST – posted on NumbersUSA

We are getting conflicting stories out of the Department of Homeland Security that it may be preparing to entice hundreds of thousands of Haitians to try to illegally enter the U.S. and then grant them some kind of legal status and work permits. Here is what we are hearing . . .

A source from within DHS is hearing of an effort to gather all French and Creole speakers in DHS to move to our Gitmo base in Cuba. This is where Haitian boat people trying to illegally enter the U.S. would be taken after being intercepted on the seas. At Gitmo, according to this DHS source, the boat people would be processed and then allowed to enter the U.S. for some undetermined amount of time with work permits.
Another source says DHS Chief Janet Napolitano was asked about this plan by a journalist and has denied it. I was certainly pleased to see her over the weekend trying to send a message to Haiti that people should not take risks to take a boat to the U.S. and in warning people contemplating it that they would be picked up and taken back to Haiti. But it could be that internally there are fears that a flotilla will emerge anyway and the floaters really won’t be repatriated.

At this point, I am not weighing in on the credibility of any of the information.

Unquestionably, the immigration issue is a temperature’s-rising matter; opinions are strong, in some cases ranging to demands to close the borders. And no small part of the renewed impetus for revamping the system are the increasing immigrant crackdowns.Even without a devastating earthquake, Haitians for decades have shown a willingness to drop everything and risk their lives on leaky boats to try to get to the U.S. when they thought they might have a chance to settle illegally.Against this backdrop, the collection of voices clamoring for overhaul is expanding — Caribbean-Americans, evangelical churches, labor unions and law enforcement, besides the NAACP. And businesses, too, are becoming increasingly active.