To quote the amazing Jim Morrison, “this is the end” — for now — of OCRegister.com’s immigration blog.
It’s a sad day but for now the blog will go on hiatus while I and my colleagues realign our priorities for covering this vital beat.
That is, of course, corporate speak for “figure out what to do next.”
Rep. Loretta Sanchez
The controverisal border fence is in the news again this week. The Bush Administration is reportedly asking Congress for $400 million more dollars to finish building it.
That would be just fine with Rep. Loretta Sanchez who hates the idea of this fence anyway. She was quoted in a Congressional Quarterly story Wednesday saying: “There’s a lot of feeling in America that maybe all we should do is build a wall, maybe put some machine gun people out there, build a long pathway reminiscent of (the Berlin Wall’s) Checkpoint Charlie, and shoot at people as they come over a wall.”
The ombudsman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says one of the hurtles that has slowed the processing of citizenship applicatioins – FBI name checks – seems to be easing.
“The significant reduction in long-pending FBI name checks will result in improved service for USCIS customers,” USCIS Ombudsman Michael Dougherty said in a news release just issued. “Congress provided the necessary funding for USCIS and the FBI to complete a larger percentage of FBI name checks in a timely manner. We are happy to see significant progress is being made.”
According to Dougherty, there were 269,943 name checks pending on May 6, 2008. There are 95,449 pending as of August 12, 2008. He discusses USCIS’ performance in his annual report.
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This from Jonathan Randles in our Washington bureau:
New polls show Latino voters in four swing states connect immigration reform with improving the national economy. The majority of Latino voters in Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Florida see illegal immigrants as vital to the U.S. economy polls say.
The research, released Tuesday, was conducted by Sergio Bendixen who does Hispanic public opinion research in the U.S. and Latin America. The research was funded by the New Democratic Network, a Democratic Party think tank.
A majority of all voters said they support immigration reform that, among several other things, strengthens border security and provides illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.
The majority of Latino voters in three of the four states say they would vote for Sen. Barack Obama. In Florida, the Latino vote is split for Sen. John McCain and Obama.
Research also says a majority of voters in those battleground states think illegal immigrants are taking jobs nobody else wants to do.
The most important issue for Latino voters polled in June 2008, like all voters, was the economy according to Matt Barreto’s research, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Washington.
He predicts that more than 9 million Latino’s will vote for president this November. Almost 6 million Latino’s voted for president in 2000.
I wrote yesterday about an NPR story on Postville, where Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials in May raided a kosher meatpacking plant and detained nearly 400 immigrants working there illegally. Others, fearing detention, stopped coming to work.
The raids left a big gap at the plant — half the workforce – and others have stepped in to take their place.
If you’ve been following the story, you may be interested to hear this NPR clip, about what’s happened to the wave of replacement workers, mostly Somali refugees. Many of the Somalis have quit, and others have been fired.
Taking their place are workers from the Midwest, NPR reports, some of whom have criminal records.
“They treat us like illegal immigrants,” said one of the new, American workers, of the living conditions arranged for him.
Related stories:
Eight people were arrested in Mexicali yesterday on suspicion of digging a tunnel from Mexico to the U.S., according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The tunnel — which has an elevator, lighting, and ventilation — stretches 494 feet, from a house near the U.S.-Mexico border to within 130 feet of la frontera.
A spokesman for the Baja California Secretariat of Public Safety says the tunnel likely has links to organized crime, and is designed to smuggle drugs, people or weapons.
At least 75 clandestine, underground tunnels have been found since the early 1990s, according to the story.
This makes us wonder, with current plans to extend the border fence, if we’ll be seeing more of these tunnels soon. What do you think?
Related stories:
Delegates at the Republican National Convention in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, passed a Republican platform that appears to be at odds with John McCain’s stance on immigration.
The 2008 GOP Platform is crystal clear:
“We oppose amnesty,” the document reads. “The rule of law suffers if government policies encourage or reward illegal activity.”
The Arizona senator and Republican presidential nominee worked with Democrats on a failed immigration reform package that would have included a path toward citizenship for those here illegally.
McCain has distanced himself from his support of amnesty during the presidential race, though his call for comprehensive reform re-surfaced in recent months.
“I don’t want to fail again to achieve comprehensive immigration reform,” McCain told The National Council on La Raza in July.
“We must prove we have the resources to secure our borders and use them, while respecting the dignity and rights of citizens and legal residents of the United States. When we have achieved our border security goal, we must enact and implement the other parts of practical, fair and necessary immigration policy.”
Related Stories:
On top of fearing that their homes would be destroyed, illegal immigrants in the Gulf Coast apparently worried this weekend about being deported.
As Hurricane Gustav drew near, Immigrations and Customs officials recieved calls from New Orleans churches wondering if immigration rules would be enforced during the evacuation. Many immigrants were reluctant to board the evacuation buses, ABC news reported.
ICE said that immigration laws would not be enforced during the evacuation.
Related stories:
An Iowa meatpacking plant that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents raided in May employed illegal immigrants who were minors, according to a report yesterday from National Public Radio.
At least 57 people under the age of 18, including some as young as 13, worked at Agriprocessors, in Postville, Iowa, NPR reported Monday.
The May ICE raid in Postville has been very controversial, especially after an interpreter who helped in the aftermath of the raid wrote a tell-all essay about what he saw there. The interpreter claimed that the illegal immigrants were treated unfairly.
Related stories:
Immigration could play a big role in the battleground states of Colorado, Florida, Nevada, and New Mexico this November, according to an article in D.C. political pub TheHill.com.
Mishandling of the immigration issue could swing Hispanic voters, who helped elect George W. Bush, away from John McCain and toward Barack Obama, according to the story.
McCain once championed comprehensive immigration reform, but backed away from that stance in the presidential primary – presumably to avoid alienating Republicans who don’t want to see amnesty for people here illegally.
While the change may appeal to some, McCain has already alienated anti-illegal immigration activists in Orange County. These folks tend to favor Libertarian Bob Barr or Republican Ron Paul, who they see as tougher on illegal immigration.
But with the economy struggling, we wonder how great a role immigration will really play in the presidential election. What do you think? We’d like to know.
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