Immigration Bill Could Come Soon

Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Topics: Politics
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A lawmaker who wants an Arizona-style immigration reform law in Ohio says he thinks the election has changed the climate for the issue, so he plans to push it forward again. Statehouse correspondent Karen Kasler reports.

Lower Wages and Unemployed Americans

Two persistent myths peddled by the open-borders lobby about illegal aliens are that they do not harm the wages or American workers, and even if they do, illegals in particular and immigrants in general do the jobs that Americans won’t do. Four years ago, economist George Borjas of Harvard University conducted a study for Maricopa County, Arizona. He found that illegal aliens alone depressed wages in Arizona by $1.4 billion in 2006, and knocked 4.2 percent off the wages of low-skilled workers. According the Phoenix Business Journal, Borjas calculated “that illegals make up 10 percent of all state workers and decrease all wages by 1.5 percent.”

Those findings are consistent with what Borjas reported for the Center for Immigration Studies in 2004.

Between 1980 and 2000, Borjas wrote for the CIS, immigrants reduced the average wage of American workers by four percent, or $1,700 per worker. And “among natives without a high school education, who roughly correspond to the poorest tenth of the workforce, the estimated impact was even larger, reducing their wages by 7.4 percent.”...

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Illegal immigrant pleads guilty to using California Marine's identity to work in Kansas

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — An illegal immigrant from Mexico pleaded guilty to stealing a U.S. Marine's identity to work in a meatpacking plant in Kansas.

Prosecutors say 26-year-old Inocente Monroy Alcantara pleaded guilty Wednesday to document fraud. Sentencing was scheduled for Jan. 26. His plea agreement includes a one-year federal prison sentence followed by mandatory deportation to Mexico...

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New technology helping to confirm status of arrested immigrants
(November 10, 2010 - Warren County & Clark County, Ohio)

LEBANON — A new partnership with federal authorities is helping law enforcement in Warren and Clark counties use fingerprints to identify the status of immigrants who have been arrested.

The partnership is part of the federal Secure Communities program in which suspects booked into the county jails have their fingerprints reviewed by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to identify and remove foreign nationals convicted of crimes in the U.S., in addition to an FBI criminal history check...

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Illegal Aliens: Economic Consequences

Maywood, California, a small city in Los Angeles County numbering about 45,000 residents, is broke. Such are the city’s dire straits that in June it fired all of its employees and turned police and fire protection over to the county. Officials, naturally, pinned the blame for the situation on decreasing property tax revenues and the national recession, and indeed, they may well provide a small reason the city went under.

But the real reason is this: illegal aliens. As the Los Angeles Times reported in its article on the subject, half the city’s population is illegal and has been for some time. Such is its population of illegals that Maywood proudly declared itself a “sanctuary” city a few years ago. Now, apparently, no one, least of all the city’s Hispanic leaders and activists, got the connection between the city’s worsening plight and the mushrooming number of illegals.

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Six Central Nebraska counties now using ICE enhanced identification system

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has added six Central Nebraska counties to a federal information sharing system to help officials use fingerprints to identify both legal and illegal immigrants who have been arrested for a crime.

This is part of "Secure Communities" -- ICE's comprehensive strategy to improve and modernize the identification and removal of immigrants convicted of a crime from the United States, according to a press release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement...

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Reid on the hook for delivering on election promises in lame-duck session

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) won a tough reelection fight by making promises to his constituents, and now he has the tough job of delivering in the lame-duck session.

Shortly before Election Day, Reid promised during an interview with Univision, a Spanish-language television network, that he would bring the Dream Act up for a vote before the end of the year.

Reid has also given assurances to labor officials that he will bring up the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act, according to a senior labor official. The bill would set minimum standards for state collective bargaining laws for firefighters and police officers.

Hispanic and union voters were critical to Reid’s reelection to a fifth term last week.

But Reid will have a difficult time delivering on these promises because of staunch GOP opposition to any legislation considered controversial...

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Immigration: State to require proof for driver's licenses again

One of only three states where illegal immigrants can still obtain driver’s licenses, Washington is moving to tighten the rules.

Beginning Monday, the state Department of Licensing will require people without a Social Security number who are seeking a new driver’s license to provide proof they actually live here.

While a few in that category might be U.S. citizens and legal residents, most are illegal immigrants.

Washington stands with New Mexico and Utah in issuing driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. And officials say an alarming number of out-of-state residents without Social Security numbers have been obtaining licenses here in recent years – this year more than double what it was three years ago...

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9 Big Gains Make Next Senate Far More Pro-Enforcement & Anti-Amnesty

A lot of the news media have fallen for an open-borders advocacy argument that the survival of Senators Reid (Nevada) and Bennet (Colo.) shows that politicians are wise to take a pro-amnesty stance.

Some gullible reporters may believe it, but I can't imagine that the open-borders people see anything different from what we see: Voters last Tuesday elected 8 new Senators who are dramatically different from the ones currently holding those seats -- who will move the Senate away from Harry Reid's immigration ideas and strongly toward Sen. Jeff Sessions' (Ala.) ideas...

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1 in 4 children born in Nevada to non-citizen moms

RENO, Nev. (AP) - A new report says mothers who were not U.S. citizens accounted for roughly a quarter of all births in Nevada in 2008.

According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, the report by the Census Bureau's American Community Survey says the number of births in Nevada to non-citizens ranked second highest in the nation behind California. The report did not distinguish whether the women were legal or illegal immigrants.

Health officials say non-citizens are less likely to have health insurance, and put a financial strain on hospitals...

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Hispanic civil rights group seeks to force provisional ballot count

An organization that convinced federal judges last month to toss out Arizona's proof-of-citizenship requirement to register to vote now is seeking a court order that could further delay a final count on Tuesday's election.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund late Friday asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to order officials in the state's 15 counties to count the votes of those who cast "provisional ballots'' because they did not show up on the voter registration rolls. And the reason they didn't show up on the rolls is that they didn't get registered because they didn't provide proof of U.S. citizenship as required by a 2004 voter-approved Arizona law.

On Oct. 26, though, the appellate court declared that requirement invalid. Based on that, MALDEF attorney Nina Perales said those who were wrongfully denied registration should have their votes counted...

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Taxpayer Dollars Fund Luxury Detention Centers for Illegal Immigrants

ATLANTA -- Illegal immigration costs taxpayers an estimated $100 billion a year. Georgia picks up nearly $2.5 billion of that bill. The Federal Government is ordering changes on the taxpayers' dime. Channel Two Action News anchor Justin Farmer traveled back to Arizona to look at the new upgrades.

The list of upgrades is long. Better food, movie nights and much more. Critics say the changes are turning the facilities into country club holding centers that reward people who break the law.

Farmer visited a detention center near Florence, Ariz., where illegal immigrants are treated well compared to most jails. Only high-risk detainees are held in actual cells. The rest live in dorm-like areas. They are allowed to spend hours outside playing soccer.

Illegal detainees eat three meals a day. They are provided with free dental and health care, including surgery, all at the taxpayers' expense.

"Some of these detainees have never seen a medical provider in their life. We detect diseases they never knew they had," said Eduardo Preciado of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The federal government has ordered some of their privately run detention centers to provide more amenities for illegal immigrants...

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Illegals made Democrat governor in Connecticut?
'Sanctuary city' issued thousands of IDs accepted for voter registration


Martha Dean (CPBN Media Lab)
Connecticut's lame-duck attorney general and new senator-elect, Richard Blumenthal, is obligated to investigate credible accusations of voter fraud that linger in the state's gubernatorial election – including possible illegal alien voting – despite Republican candidate Tom Foley's concession yesterday to Democratic opponent Dannel Malloy, charges the GOP'sattorney general candidate in last Tuesday's election, Martha Dean

Dean, who is considering further legal action challenging the eligibility of her victorious Democratic opponent, argued Blumenthal is sworn to uphold the federal and state constitutions, making it his obligation to investigate voter fraud "without regard to whether it has been requested or approved by the secretary of state."

Foley supports continued investigation of the allegations but has concluded "there was no credible evidence of fraudulent voting" that would have altered the result.

Allegations include extended voting hours in Democratic-stronghold Bridgeport announced illegally through the reverse 911 system, unattended bags of ballots, ballots photocopied without supervision and union workers leaving replica ballots in polling booths with Democratic candidates checked off.

Republicans cried foul last week after the state's top election official – Democratic Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz – declared the Democratic candidate the winner despite the absence of an official vote count and a post-deadline tally from Bridgeport that overcame the Republican candidate's lead.

But amid the numerous reported allegations, little has been said about the possibility that illegal aliens decided a gubernatorial race in which the candidates officially were separated by just 5,810 votes out of more than 1 million cast, Dean told WND.

Dean noted that both the mayors of New Haven and Hartford have declared their cities "sanctuary cities" for illegal aliens. She pointed out that over the past three years, New Haven has issued ID cards to about 15,000 people, ostensibly to enable them to use public services such as the library.

New Haven, Dean argued, has allowed people registering to vote to use the ID cards as proof of identification.

"While we have no proof that the recipients of these ID cards are illegal aliens, it seems likely since the mayor's argument for the cards focused on helping illegals set up bank accounts and use other city services," she said...

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King to lead committee governing immigration policy

Congressman Steve King will become the chairman of the U.S. House subcommittee on immigration when Republicans take over control of the House in January.

King was a harsh critic of the immigration reform plan backed by former President George W. Bush. President Obama last week said he hopes to work with the Republican-led congress to resolve the issue...

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Texas students oppose tuition break for illegal immigrants

The Student Senate at Texas A&M University last week registered its opposition to a bill in the Texas legislature that would give in-state tuition to illegal immigrants.

The students voted 41 to 28 for a bill that opposes the state legislation. State lawmakers had asked for student input, according to an article in the campus newspaper.

Later in the week, the university's student body president vetoed the bill, saying the issue should be left to the state legislature.

Texas is one of 10 states that already allow in-state tuition for some illegal immigrants, according to a chart prepared last summer by the Chronicle for Higher Education...

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