ImmigrationProf Blog

Latest Center for Immigration Studies Publications

Here's the latest from the Center for Immigration Studies, which publishes restrictionist research (and is proud of it)!

'The Impact of Non-Citizens on Congressional Apportionment'
Statement of Steven A. Camarota, Director of Research, Center for Immigration Studies
Testimony prepared for the House Government Reform Committee, Subcommittee on Federalism and the Census December 6, 2005 http://www.cis.org/articles/2005/sactestimony120605.html

EXCERPT: . . . This hearing is going to discuss one of the most often overlooked, but nonetheless important, effects they have: on political representation. If you take nothing else away from my testimony, it should be that allowing in people, even as guest workers or just tolerating illegal immigration, has broad-ranging effects. These effects include such things as the redistribution of House seats. For example, if we take the 11 million illegals already here and grant them temporary status, the Census in 2010 will still count them, and seats will still be apportioned to states based on their presence. On the other hand, if we enforce the law and make most illegals go home, this too will have apportionment consequences in 2010. In our discussion of immigration, therefore, we should not compartmentalize its various impacts; instead, we must recognize the broad implications of immigration on virtually every aspect of American life, including apportionment. . . .

'The Impact of Immigration on the American Workforce' Statement of Steven A. Camarota, Director of Research, Center for Immigration Studies Testimony prepared for the House Committee on Education and the Workforce November 16, 2005 http:///www.cis.org/articles/2005/sactestimony111605.html

EXCERPT: . . . As in the past, immigration has sparked an intense debate over the costs and benefits of allowing in such a large number of people. One of the central aspects of the immigration debate is its impact on the American economy. While the number of immigrants is very large, as I will try to explain in this paper the impact on the overall economy is actually very small, or 'minuscule' in the words of the nation's top immigration economist. And these effects are even smaller when one focuses only on illegal aliens, who comprise one-fourth to one-third of all immigrants. While the impact on the economy as a whole may be tiny, the effect on some Americans, particular workers at the bottom of labor market may be quite large. These workers are especially vulnerable to immigrant competition because wages for these jobs are already low and immigrants are heavily concentrated in less-skilled and lower-paying jobs. In this paper I will try to explain some of the ways immigration impacts natives and the economy as a whole. . . .

'Dual Allegiance: A Challenge to Immigration Reform and Patriotic Assimilation'  by John Fonte
Foreword by Newt Gingrich, formerly of the U.S. House of Representatives (recall the contract on America). Introduction by Thomas L. Bock, National Commander of the American Legion, and Dr. Herbert I. London, President of the Hudson Institute  Center for Immigration Studies Backgrounder, November 2005 http://www.cis.org/articles/2005/back1205.html

EXCERPT: . . . Dual Allegiance is incompatible with the moral and philosophical basis of American constitutional democracy for two major reasons. First, dual allegiance challenges our core foundation as a civic nation (built on political loyalty) by promoting a racial and ethnic basis for allegiance and by subverting our 'nation of (assimilated) immigrants' ethic. Second, dual allegiance violates a vital principle of American democracy: equality of citizenship. . . .

'Dual Allegiance and the Politics of Immigration Reform' Panel discussion transcript Hudson Institute, Washington, D.C. November 30, 2005 http://www.cis.org/articles/2005/back1205transcript.html

PANELISTS:
John Fonte, Hudson Institute

Michael Barone, U.S. News and World Report

David Keene, American Conservative Union

Mark Krikorian, Center for Immigration Studies

Moderator: John O' Sullivan, Hudson Institute

L'Intifada en Los Estados Unidos by Mark Krikorian National Review Online, November 17, 2005
http://www.cis.org/articles/2005/mskoped111705.html

EXCERPT: . . . As Muslim insurgents burn France's suburban Occupied Territories, Americans can be forgiven for thinking 'Thank God we have Mexicans and not Arabs.' Mexicans are Christian and politically passive, and large numbers of them and their children have assimilated thoroughly into the American people. Niall Ferguson made just this point in the Los Angeles Times.

But American supporters of mass immigration might want to postpone the self-congratulation. While it's true that in this area, as in so many others, America's problems are less acute than other nations', the proposals before Congress to massively increase the importation of foreign workers could create two, three, many Clichys-sous-Bois in our future. . . .

'The French Riots and U.S. Immigration Policy' Panel discussion transcript Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. November 14, 2005
http://www.cis.org/articles/2005/frenchriotstranscript.html

PANELISTS:

Frank Gaffney, Center for Security Policy

Steven Steinlight, Fellow, Center for Immigration Studies

Moderator: Mark Krikorian, Executive Director, Center for Immigration Studies

Punish Employers Who Hire Illegals
by Mark Krikorian
The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 4, 2005
http://www.cis.org/articles/2005/mskoped120405.html

EXCERPT: . . . Elsewhere in his speech Monday, the President made his views clear: 'We will not be able to effectively enforce our immigration laws until we create a temporary-worker program.' The President's refusal to undertake even those enforcement measures which cost nothing and require no new laws or complex computer systems is powerful evidence that the President's tough talk on enforcement is simply a smoke screen to camouflage the President's amnesty program. A genuine commitment to enforcing immigration law -- demonstrated not with words but with deeds -- is the most important immigration policy change that America needs.

Center for Immigration Studies
1522 K St. NW, Suite 820
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 466-8185 / fax: (202) 466-8076
center@cis.org / www.cis.org

KJ

Mexico's Migration Issues

It has been frequently (and sometimes hysterically) noted during recent immigration debates that the U.S.-Mexico border provides a portal not only for Mexican migrants, but also for many migrants from around the world who pass through Mexico as a point of entry into the U.S. An op-ed in today's Washington Post by freelance writer Michael Flynn has a headline suggesting it would fall into the "hysterical" category. Instead, the op-ed takes a more nuanced approach, choosing to highlight U.S. failures to cooperate with Mexico in tackling the migration issues.

Flynn writes: "By focusing its attention on hardening its own borders, the United States leaves Mexico to shoulder a burden not of its own making and does nothing to address the root causes of global migration, including poverty at home. And Mexico's sometimes draconian attempts to shift that burden jeopardize the lives of those who seek to cross the country in search of a better future." With respect to the latter statement, Flynn describes the harsh conditions under which migrants in Mexico are detained in the more than 50 migration detention centers across that country.

Flynn points out several ways in which the U.S. has made Mexico's migration control tasks harder rather than easier in recent years. Most signifcantly, he asserts that the White House has basically abandoned a promise made during Bush's first term that if "the Mexicans would shut down the migrant route through their country, the United States would improve the status of undocumented Mexicans in the United States." Since political discussion around improving the plight of Mexicans in the U.S. have been languishing in favor of harsh anti-immigration measures, many in Mexico feel they have received nothing for their own efforts to comply with U.S. requests for greater Mexican border enforcement.

The full article is here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/10/AR2005121000103.html

As discussions around U.S. border control efforts grow increasingly myopic, Flynn's op-ed provides a reminder that the control of international migration requires international cooperation. But recent immigration discussions in Washington do not suggest this is a priority.

-jmc

Economic Impact of Immigrants in California

A 64-page study, "The Impact of Immigration on the California Economy," has been released. Commissioned by the California Economic Strategy Panel and authored by Stephen Levy of the Continuing Center of the California Economy is characterized as an effort to gauge the economic and fiscal impacts of immigration. Its principal finding is that California has done better than the national average over the past 15 years according to such measures as wages, job creation and unemployment.  All the indicators of economic activity have improved relative to the nation, so Levy asks, "How can it be that immigrants have messed up the economy?"

The report can be downloaded in pdf format at:

www.labor.ca.gov/panel/impactimmcaecon.pdf

bh

Starnge but True Factoid?

My friend Jack Ayer passed on this interesting message:

The presence of feral hogs in a state is a strong indicator of its support for Bush. Twenty-three of the twenty-eight states with feral hogs voted for Bush. That’s more than four-fifths; states that went for Kerry, by contrast, were feral-hog states less than a fifth of the time.

    The solidly feral-hog South was, of course, solidly for Bush. The small islands there without wild hogs—Little Rock, Raleigh Durham—voted for Kerry. Democrats who predicted a Kerry win in Florida in ‘04 might have been less confident had they known that all of Florida’s sixty-seven counties, even its urban ones, have feral hogs. Texas, a gimme for Bush, is the state in the Union with the most feral hogs. All the Northeastern states voted for Kerry. None of the Northeastern states have feral hogs—with one exception. That is New Hamphshire…. Is it merely coincidence that New Hampshire (Kerry fifty per cent, Bush forty-nine percent) is the Northeastern state Bush came closest to winning?

    Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois are among the states that have acquired feral-hog populations since 1982. Of the twenty-two counties (all rural) that have feral hogs in those states, seventeen voted for Bush in ‘04. Ohio and Indiana both have more feral hog counties than Illinois; Bush won [SIC] Ohio and Indiana, lost Illinois.

    A prominent feature of the red state—blue state maps is the sweep of red coming up from Texas and the South through the center of the country. Experts say that feral hogs are starting to do the same.

Coincidence? You be the judge.

Anonymous

Fourth Amendment Protections for Undocumented Immigrants

United States v. Atienzo, 2005 US Dist LEXIS 31652 by Paul G. Cassell, United States District Judge, begins as as follows:

This case is before the court on defendant Ray Atienzo's motion to suppress incriminating evidence against him for alleged violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. Atienzo is in this country illegally, creating the question of whether he is entitled to claim the Amendment's protections, which extend to "the People " of this country. In an earlier decision--United States v. Esparza-Mendoza --the court agreed with the government that previously deported alien felons illegally in this country fell outside the Amendment's coverage. The court, however, specifically reserved the issue of whether the same conclusion would apply to someone who, while an illegal alien, was not a previously-deported felon. The court now holds that the sole fact that someone is an illegal alien does not deprive them of the protections of the Fourth Amendment, at least in situations where the government does not raise any contrary argument.

Judge Cassell seems to use a membership kind of analysis to determine that Atienzo was entitled to Fourth Amendment protections because of his ties to US society. Je seems to leave open the question whether some undocumented persons might not have the necessary contacts to warrant the protections. This is his second published opinion on the general topic.

KJ

Suspended for Speaking Spanish

A 16-year-old student at a small public high school in Kansas City was suspended for speaking Spanish in a hallway conversation.

Most of the time, Zach Rubio converses in clear, American teen-speak, a form of English in which the three most common words are "like," "whatever" and "totally." But Zach is also fluent in his father’s native language, Spanish.

"It was, like, totally not in the classroom," the high school junior said, recalling the infraction. "We were in the, like, hall or whatever, on restroom break. This kid I know, he's like, 'Me prestas un dolar?' ['Will you lend me a dollar?'] Well, he asked in Spanish; it just seemed natural to answer that way. So I'm like, 'No problema.' "

But the conversation turned out to be a big problem for the staff at the Endeavor Alternative School, in an ethnically mixed blue-collar neighborhood. A teacher who overheard the two boys sent Zach to the office, where Principal Jennifer Watts ordered him to call his father and leave the school.

Watts won't discuss the case. But in a written disciplinary message explaining her decision to suspend Zach for 1-1/2 days, she noted: "This is not the first time we have [asked] Zach and others to not speak Spanish at school."

Source: The Washington Post, Dec. 9, 2005
bh

Labor and immigration in Ireland

More than 10,000 labor union members protested Friday in Ireland's capital and other cities over shipping company Irish Ferries' plan to replace its workers with Eastern European immigrants (primarily from Latvia) who are willing to work for far less pay. The New York Times called the protest "the country's most bitter industrial showdown in decades." The story is here:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Ireland-Labor-Protest.html

-jmc

Southwest Borderlands Initiative Openings

The Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences at Arizona State
University at the West Campus seeks names of potential applicants for a
Southwest Borderlands Initiative hire to join the faculty beginning fall
semester 2006.  The Department wishes to hire in the areas of Latino
political representation, participation, and public policy
formation-three areas that represent crucial research and teaching gaps
at ASU at the West Campus.  The hire's Latino policy focus may include
but is not limited to Latino public health policy, immigration policy,
and the study of decades-old efforts to close gaps between Latino
population and political representation and participation. The hire
could complement existing research and teaching strengths in the New
College on public health policy, or on immigration broadly considered,
including the global economic forces that push and pull immigrants to
the United States. The Department anticipates that the candidate will
strengthen the overall campus emphases on social justice and social
embeddedness. 

The hire is open with respect to rank, including to ABD candidates who
are nearing completion of the PhD.  The hire should demonstrate high
scholarly productivity or promise of such productivity commensurate with
rank.  

Please email the names of potential applicants (and, if possible, their
institutional affiliations) to Julie Murphy Erfani, Chair, Southwest
Borderlands Initiative Search Committee, by 12:00 noon on Monday,
December 19, 2005: Email:  Julie.murphy.erfani@asu.edu
bh

Harold Pinter on Iraq, Blair, and Bush

In his video-taped Nobel acceptance speech, writer Harold Pinter excorciated a "brutal, scornful and ruthless" United States. He argues that the invasion of Iraq was a "bandit act," and that Tony Blair and George Bush should be arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice for their acts of "blatant state terrorism." For the full text, see

http://books.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5350697-114241,00.html

bh

Congressional Immigration Reports

The Role of Immigrants In The US Labor Market:  Nabeel A. Alsalam and Ralph E. Smith of the Congressional Budget Office write "a large number of studies have attempted to
estimate the effects of immigration on native workers, but their conclusions reveal little consensus."  http://www.ilw.com/articles/2005,1212-alsalam.pdf
http://www.cbo.gov

CRS Report On DHS Reorganization

The Congressional Research Service issued a report summarizing the conclusions and proposals resulting from Secretary Michael Chertoff's comprehensive second stage review (2SR) of the DHS's
organization, operations, and policies. http://www.ilw.com/immigdaily/news/2005,1212-crs.pdf

KJ

Green Card "Recall"?

According to the Los Angeles Time, incorrect residency start dates caused by computer error led to a recall of 60,000+ green cards. For the full story, see here. http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-me-greencard6dec06,1,1018906.story?coll=la-headlines-politics

What the heck?

KJ   

60 Minutes on the Border

Two weeks ago, President Bush promised to spend more than ever before to stop illegal immigrants from crossing our 2,000-mile mile border with Mexico. It's not the first time a president has pledged to do that; in the early 90s, the Clinton Administration also vowed to tighten the US-Mexican border. Since then, the U.S. government has tripled the budget for border control, spending a small fortune on surveillance technology, not to mention thousands of additional border patrol agents. All of that was supposed to make it harder for illegal immigrants to cross over in cities and towns along the border. And it did. So why are some of the same people who designed the strategy now saying it's been a huge waste of taxpayers' money?  60 MINUTES will take a hard look at the problem on this week's show. Sunday, Dec. 11, 7PM ET/PT on CBS.

KJ

Expansion of Ag Felonies and Restrictions on Judicial Review Again

A bill introduced by Congressman Sensenbrenner on Tuesday deals with both border enforcement and expanding aggravated felonies/restricting judicial review (yet again). The House Judiciary Committee scheduled an immediate markup of the bill with a possible House floor vote next week.

http://judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/SENSEN_104_XML.pdf
bh

TAMAR JACOBY ON "THE 50% AMERICAN"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/30/AR2005113002167.html

Tamar Jacoby, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, reviews "THE 50% AMERICAN: Immigration and National Identity in an Age of Terror" by Stanley A. Renshon in the Washington Post (Dec. 9). The review begins "There's nothing more disappointing in a public-policy book than a good idea pushed too far: an author who raises probing and important questions and then, instead of exploring them thoughtfully, crushes the topic with a sledgehammer." You get the idea

KJ

Immigration News Bits from the Beltway

Extension of Patriot Act

Congressional leaders reached a deal Thursday to extend key provisions of the Patriot Act, the government's premier anti-terrorism law. However, prominent Democratic senators said they opposed the compromise, and one threatened a veto. Under the deal, two of 16 provisions set to expire at the end of the year will be extended for four years, Sen. Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee announced. The remaining 14 provisions will be made permanent. The controversial U.S. anti-terrorism law passed in the months after the September 11, 2001, attacks and expanded government surveillance powers. The deal marks Congress' first revision of the law.

Border Enforcement

On December 8, 2005, the House Judiciary Committee approved legislation "preventing illegal immigration and bolstering border security," or so says the Committee. http://judiciary.house.gov/

KJ

Database Errors and Immigration Enforcement by Local Police

Thousands of times each year, police officers checking the name of an individual stopped or detained against records in the nation’s main criminal database have received an initial “hit” for an immigration violation that, upon further investigation, the Department of Homeland Security could not confirm. These “false positives” have likely caused wrongful detentions and diverted scarce police resources from local public safety priorities, finds a report to be released on Thursday by the Migration Policy Institute.

The study, based on government data, finds that from 2002 to 2004, when police queried names in the FBI's National Crime Information Center database, the officer received erroneous immigration hits in almost 9,000 cases. The rate of false positives was 42% overall, and some individual law enforcement agencies had error rates as high as 90%.

“The incredibly high number of false positives in the database means that police resources, which are always stretched thin, are being wasted on detaining immigrants and non-immigrants alike who haven’t done anything wrong,” said MPI President Demetrios Papademetriou.

The report, Blurring the Lines: A Profile of State and Local Police Enforcement of Immigration Law Using the National Crime Information Center Database, 2002-2004, uses data released by DHS in partial settlement of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.  The report provides the first glimpse of how immigration data in the NCIC is being used, by which local law enforcement agencies, and against which immigrants.

bh

More tidbits...

Stewart Elliott has asked the acting governor of New Jersey for a pardon, which would allow the Kentucky Derby-winning jockey to avoid possible deportation over a 2001 guilty plea for aggravated assault. A short story on the matter is here:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/sports/AP-RAC-Elliott-Immigration.html

His lawyers note that he has a clean record since he entered his 2001 plea for aggravated assault and that he's kicked the drinking problem that apparently led to the incident. Under these circumstances, the pardon seems warranted. Unfortunately, that is also the case for many people who are deported every year. But if you're not a "highly successful rider," it is exceptionally difficult, if not impossible, to have your arguments heard.

-jmc

LULAC on the Repeal of Birthright Citizenship

League of United Latin American Citizens PRESS RELEASE December 8, 2005

Proposed Immigration Legislation Challenges U.S. Constitution by Eliminating Birthright Citizenship to Babies Born to Undocumented

LULAC condemns the House Republicans for introducing bills that destroy a system of integration, creates a permanent underclass of children and reverts the American way of life to an era of systemic oppression. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) condemned today House Republicans for introducing a series of immigration proposals that have taken an illegal, radical and cruel turn in immigration reform - eliminating birthright citizenship to babies born to undocumented parents.Bills that contain language to eliminate birthright citizenship include: "The Reducing Immigration to a Genuinely Healthy Total (RIGHT) Act" introduced by Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO); the "Citizenship Reform Act" introduced by Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA); and the "Enforcement First Immigration Reform Act" introduced by Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ). The latest attack on immigration by House Republicans challenges the U.S. Constitution, which the Supreme Court has upheld this basic right for more than 150 years. The 14th Amendment codifies that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States." Rights and safeguards guaranteed under the 14th Amendment prohibit the government from depriving citizens of due process of law, guarantee citizens equal protection, and extend citizenship and voting rights to persons born in the U.S. Historically, the 14th Amendment was designed to protect the rights of Southern blacks and restrict the political power of former Confederates. It added into the Constitution the definition of U.S. citizenship that was enacted in the Civil Rights Bill; barred states from abridging "the privileges or immunities of citizens" or depriving "any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law"; encouraged Southern states to allow blacks to vote; barred former officials who had rebelled against the Union from holding public office; and repudiated both Confederate war debts and claims of former slaveholders to compensation for the loss of their slaves. "The U.S. Constitutions is clear and any measure that strips the citizenship of anyone born in the United States is unlawful and damaging to the structure of the United States," said Brent Wilkes, executive director of LULAC. "America has had a long trajectory of integrating newcomers into this country, which creates a sense of belonging, pride and the ability to become productive members of society. These bills will destroy that system of integration and instead create a new, permanent underclass of children." Wilkes continued: "Punishing children in the name of immigration reform is a poor and unlawful attempt to resolve very real immigration challenges, and it reverts the American way of life to an era of systemic oppression. No U.S. law currently on our books punishes children for their parent's lawbreaking. All Children born in the United States should be treated equal under the law." LULAC strongly opposes bills that offer no real solutions toward comprehensive immigration reform and jeopardizes the quality of life by creating an unfair system that punishes children. The League of the United Latin American Citizen (www.lulac.org) advances the economic conditions, educational attainment, political influence, health and civil rights of Hispanic Americans through community-based programs operating at more than 700 LULAC councils nationwide.

KJ

AILF Newsletter

AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAW FOUNDATION, LEGAL ACTION CENTER, LITIGATION CLEARINGHOUSE NEWSLETTER , Vol. 1, No. 1 December 7, 2005 Check it out at Download 12705_litigation_newsletter.pdf

AILF does great work!

KJ

Immigration News Tidbits

Good News:  Jim Gilchrist, Minutemen founder, lost in his bid for Congress.

Bad News:  Gilchrist got 25% of the vote.  His was a one-issue, anti-immigrant campaign that apparently struck a chord with a good chunk of the voters in the OC.

Bad News:  Tom Tancredo is trying to attach as a rider to a bill a provision that would deny birthright citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants.  The idea is to create a constitutional challenge and have the Supremes revisit the issue.

Kevin

New Immigration Article

"Immigration Law and Federal Court Jurisdiction through the Lens of Habeas Corpus" Cornell Law Review, Vol. 91, January 2006 BY: HIROSHI MOTOMURA University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection: http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=868588 Paper ID: UNC Legal Studies Research Paper No. 05-26 The focus of this article is habeas corpus in immigration cases from 1996 to 2005, when it was a principal vehicle for federal court jurisdiction to review removal orders. Although the REAL ID Act of 2005 seemed to eliminate habeas review of removal orders in favor of petitions for review in the federal courts of appeals, the decade of experience with immigration habeas is not just a matter of historical interest. It holds important lessons for federal courts as they define their jurisdiction in immigration cases after the REAL ID Act.

KJ

UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic Wins Again!!!

The UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic had two big wins this week in the Immigration Court in San Francisco. Jim Smith and Amagda Perez, the two sage staff attorneys in the Clinic, supervised an excellent group of UC Davis law students on these cases.

Brazilian asylum case

The Immigration Clinic represented a Brazilian man with his application for asylum before the Immigration Court in San Francisco. The client was persecuted by community and family members because of his sexual orientation. Students Andrea Anapolsky, Melyssa Minamoto, and Katie Ruhl did an outstanding job preparing the pre-hearing brief, getting experts ready to testify at the hearing, and preparing their client for his hearing. A few minutes before the removal hearing began, the Department of Homeland Security attorney asked the students if our client was homosexual. The students responded that he was, and then the DHS attorney told the students and professor Smith that he was interested in justice and would not oppose a favorable grant of asylum by the Immigration Judge. When the Immigration Judge walked in to the courtroom, the DHS attorney reiterated his position to the Immigration Judge. Immigration Judge Lawrence DiCostanzo indicated that he was ready to make a decision on the case based on the pleadings, but if the students wanted the opportunity to present their case, he would allow them to do so. Taking into account the best interest of their client and not wanting to subject him to painful testimony, the students forewent their opportunity to do a full removal hearing. At the conclusion of the hearing, both the Immigration Judge and the DHS security congratulated the students on their excellent work preparing the case. Immigration Judge DiCostanzo noted that the UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic has the reputation of doing exceptional work and these students once again demonstrated the high caliber of work that comes from UC Davis.

Mexican Cancellation/Withholding Case

The Immigration Clinic representedg a young Mexican man placed in removal proceeding following bad advice he received from his public defender. Our client suffers from schizophrenia. During one of his delusional moments, our client, hungry and confused, attempted to enter a home. He shook the door handle, but did not enter the home. The homeowners called the police and our client was arrested. The public defender, not having taken a careful look at the criminal history record before him, advised our client to plead to attempted first degree burglary, despite the fact that our client did not have the mental capacity to form the intent to burglarize. The public defender incorrectly believed that the Clinic's client had prior convictions and did not investigate further. Because of the plea and accompanying sentence, our client was subjected to mandatory immigration detention. For one year, our client was locked up. He was transferred to another detention facility far from his family members and denied his medication. Consequently, the client became incapable of testifying at his state court of immigration hearings. DHS refused to transport our client to state court proceedings to withdraw the plea that was based on a mistake of fact by his public defender. After great advocacy efforts, the Immigration Judge accepted the argument that given the circumstances that had lead our client accept a no contest plea and that the plea was scheduled to be set aside based on constitutional violations, the conviction was not final and our client could be released on bond. After one year of being detained, our client was released from immigration custody and will be able to spend the holidays with his family.

KJ

Ninth Circuit Case: Tchoukhrova v. Gonzales, 404 F.3d 1181 (9th Cir. 2005)

The Ninth Circuit has denied the government's petition for rehearing en banc in Tchoukhrova v. Gonzales, 404 F.3d 1181 (9th Cir. 2005). This was the case involving a disabled Russian child who suffered horrible abuse and separation from his mother, who was the principal asylum applicant. The panel decision held that harm to the child could be considered ("imputed") in determining whether his mother had suffered persecution. A dissent from the denial of the petition for rehearing en banc by Judge Alex Kozinski, joined by several other judges, argued that the panel in effect had created "reverse derivative asylum," that the Board had not considered the construction of the statute argued before the circuit, and that the panel decision was "nothing but a big end-run around [INS v. Ventura, 537 U.S. 12 (2002) (per curiam)]." The full dissent is at 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS. There are memos on the case, as well as a copy of an amicus brief (largely written by Matt Muller) at http://www.gbls.org/immigration/index.htm

KJ

Latino Political Progress Derailed by DOJ Appointees

Washington, DC-- Today the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) released the following statement relating to recent Department of Justice, Voting Rights Section rulings

"We are deeply troubled about recent media reports suggesting that top political appointees at the Department of Justice (DOJ) have overruled determinations by career attorneys that electoral changes in Texas and Georgia endanger the voting rights of Latinos and other minorities. In Texas, it appears that top-level DOJ officials allowed the state to implement a mid-decade redistricting that dilutes minority electoral opportunities despite concerns expressed by several DOJ staffers, including the head of the Voting Rights section. A few weeks ago, the national news media reported that top agency officials ignored objections by career attorneys to Georgia's new discriminatory voter identification requirements, which impose an unfair and unnecessary burden on minorities, the elderly, the poor, and rural voters.

The DOJ has the important responsibility of enforcing the laws that gurantee all of our nation's citizens fair and equal access to the electoral process. One of its most powerful tools is Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), which requires states with a history of discrimination against minority voters to obtain DOJ approval before implementing election changes. However, the media reports about the Texas and Georgia decisions suggest that the top DOJ officials may be putting political considerations before the protection of our citizens' fundamental right to vote. This is particularly disturbing at a time when Congress has just started to address the renewal of key provisions of the VRA, including Section 5. Congress' renewal of Seciton 5 must go hand-in-hand with vigorous enforcement of Section 5 by the DOJ.

Every American should be extremely troubled by what seems to be the choice of officials charged with upholding our nation’s laws to compromise fair and equal political representation for potential political gain.  The DOJ must not turn the clock back on the progress made by Latino and other minority communities in Texas and Georgia – progress that makes our democracy and more accountable to all of its citizens’ voices.”

bh

Terrorism Charges Fizzle: Where's the Beef?

FROM www.CNN.com

Terror trial is defeat for prosecutors

Case was touted as a test for Patriot Act powers

Wednesday, December 7, 2005

It was one of the biggest courtroom tests of the Patriot Act's new powers: a former professor on trial, accused of helping lead a terrorist group that has carried out bombings against Israel. But a jury Tuesday acquitted Sami Al-Arian on nearly half the charges and deadlocked on the rest, dealing federal prosecutors a stinging defeat. Al-Arian, 47, wept after the verdicts, and his attorney, Linda Moreno, hugged him. He will return to jail until prosecutors decide whether to retry him on the deadlocked charges. The 2003 indictment against Al-Arian was hailed by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft as one of the first triumphs of the expanded search-and-surveillance powers of the Patriot Act, which was enacted weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But after a five-month trial and 13 days of deliberations, a jury acquitted Al-Arian of eight of the 17 counts against him, including a key charge of conspiring to maim and murder people overseas. The jurors deadlocked on the others, including charges he aided terrorists. http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/12/07/professor.terror.ap/index.html

Don't you all feel safer now?

KJ

Driver's License Fraud

The FBI has busted a second ring in six months accused of shuttling illegal immigrants to Tennessee to obtain state driver's certificates.   Claudio Galvan, the accused leader operating out of the Atlanta area, and driver Armando Rodriguez-Riveros were arrested Friday with five Hispanics believed to be clients as they tried to get driver's certificates at a Maryville testing center.

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--illegallicenses1206dec06,0,6052447.story?coll=ny-region-apnewjersey

KJ

Bush Immigration Reform Proposal Unpopular

"While most people asked say immigration is good for the United States, a Gallup Poll indicates displeasure with President Bush’s handling of the issue.  A November poll showed 26 percent of U.S. residents asked approved of the way Bush is handling immigration, while 65 percent disapproved, a Gallup Tuesday Briefing analysis said. The poll was conducted three weeks before Bush traveled to the U.S. Southwest to talk about immigration…."  For a full story, see

http://hispanictips.com/2005/12/06/poll-bush-immigration-stance-unpopular/

KJ

Elian Gonzalez Turns 12

Immigration icon Elian Gonzalez turned twelve on Tuesday. According to CNN, young Elian celebrated by listening to a speech by Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Some observers have opined that the Clkinton Administration's return of Gonzalez to Cuba to his father, and the infamous picture of an armed INS officer taking him from his Miami relatives, cost Al Gore the state of Florida and the 2000 Presidential Election. It makes one wonder what might (or might not) have been.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/12/07/elian.cuba.ap/index.html

KJ

African Americans, Latinos, and Immigration

Check out the string on blackprofs.com at  http://www.blackprof.com/archives/2005/12/african_americans_latinos_and.html#comments on Africans, Americans, Latinos, and Immigration.  Below is the entry that triggered responses:

Immigration often has been a political dividing line among Latinos and African Americans, who often feel in competition for low wage jobs in major urban centers (and have for decades). The events following Hurrican Katrina have highlighted the tensions. New Orleans Major C. Ray Nagin, who had exprienced perhaps the toughest month in city history, made the Spanish language newspapers with a question about the rebuilding of New Orleans: "How do I make sure New Orleans is not overrun with Mexican workers?" Undocumented Latinos are the invisible victims of Hurricane Katrina. Rather than provided assistance, they have been ejected from shelters and subject to deportation by U.S. Immigration & Custom Enforcement (ICE) officiers. In part, the Bush administration seems to be cracking down on immigrants in the New Orleans area as a response the Black leaders who claim (and rightly so) that race contributed to the federal government's slow initial response to the disaster. Immigrants also have responded to the call for workers to rebuild the Gulf Coast, only to be exploited, abused, and attacked as tressspassers.

Hurricane Katrina is not the only sign of Black/Latino tension over immigration. Its an issue in many cities, such as Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, and Chicago. The murder of five Latino immigrant workers by African Americans in the small town of Tifton, George in October is another example ripped from the headlines. As immigration has come to thr rural parts of the country, tensions have arisen in Georgia, North Carolina, and many other states now seeing more Latinos.

One wonders whether there is any possiblitity of African Americans and Latinos working together on the volatile issue of immigration. This will require leadership, sensitivity, and a good amount of listening. Is this possible?

****

The responses run the gamut.

Kevin Johnson

Who's Who Among Naturalized Citizens

Here's a pretty cool list of naturalized citizens:

Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State

Isabel Allende, Author

PAMELA ANDERSON, "actress"

Mario Andretti, race care driver

Paul Anka, singer

Desi Arnaz, actor

Alexander Graham Bell, inventor

Pierce Brosnan, actor

Frank Capra

Primo Carnera, boxer

JIM CARREY, actor

CARLOS CASTANEDA, author

Charo, entertainer

Tommy Chong, comedian

Hume Cronyn, actor

Dinesh D'Souza, author

Olivia de Havilland, actress

Viet Dinh, law professor

Sheena Easton, singer

ALBERT EINSTEIN, genius

Tony Esposito, hockey player

Gloria Estefan, singer

Patrick Ewing, basketball player

Glenn Ford, actor

Peter Frampton, singer

Greta Garbo, actress

Andy Garcia, actor

Cary Grant, actor

ALFRED HITCHCOCK, director

BOB HOPE, actor

Anthony Hopkins, actor

Leon Jaworski, of Watergate fame

Teresa Heinz Kerry

HENRY KISSINGER, fomer Secretary of State

Mila Kunis, actress on That '70s Show

Angela Lansbury, actress

Herbert Marcuse

James Naismith, creator of basketball

Hakeem (the Dream) Olajuwon, basketball star

I.M. Pei, architect

Wolfgang Puck, restauranteur

AYN RAND, writer

Helen Reddy, singer

Max Reinhardt, theater director and(step-father of Judge Stephen Reinhardt

ARNOLD (THE TERMINATOR) SCHWARZENNEGGER, terminator

Monica Seles, tennis player

Martin Short, actor

Brett Somers, celebrity

Sammy Sosa, baseball player

Tracey Ullman, entertainer

For a longer list, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Naturalized_citizens_of_the_United_States

KJ

Myths About Immigration

Five Myths About Immigration: Common Misconceptions Underlying US Border-Enforcement Policy by Douglas S. Massey For the full article see http://www.ilw.com/articles/2005,1207-massey.shtm

The current crisis of undocumented immigration to the United States has its roots in fundamental misunderstandings about the causes of immigration and the motivations of immigrants. A growing body of evidence indicates that current border enforcement policies are based on mistaken assumptions and have failed. Undocumented migrants continue to come to the United States, rates of apprehension are at all-time lows, and migrants are settling in the United States at higher rates than ever before. Developing effective and realistic immigration policies requires overcoming five basic myths about immigration:

MYTH 1. Migration is Caused by Lack of Economic Development in Migrants’ Home Countries

• International migrants do not originate in the world’s poorest nations, but in those that are developing and growing dynamically. The largest single source of U.S. immigrants, Mexico, is not a poor nation by global standards. Mexico has a one-trillion dollar economy, a per capita income of almost $9,000 (compared to $9,700 in Russia), a fully industrialized economy, a high level of urbanization, and an advanced life expectancy.

MYTH 2. Migration is Caused by Rapid Population Growth in Migrants’ Home Countries

• The fertility rate in Mexico is about 2.3 children per woman, which is only slightly above “replacement” level. The highest fertility levels are generally observed in the Arab world and Sub-Saharan Africa, but these regions contribute few migrants to global streams.

MYTH 3. Migrants Move Mainly in Response to Differences in Wages

• Households use international migration as a tool to overcome failed or missing markets for insurance, capital, and credit at home. For example, because Mexico has virtually no mortgage banking industry, a large share of the money earned by Mexican immigrants in the United States is channeled into the construction or purchase of homes in Mexico.

MYTH 4. Migrants Are Attracted to the United States by Generous Public Benefits

• Immigrants are less likely than natives to use public services. While 66 percent of Mexican immigrants report the withholding of Social Security taxes from their paychecks and 62 percent say that employers withhold income taxes, only 10 percent say they have ever sent a child to U.S. public schools, 7 percent indicate they have received Supplemental Security Income, and 5 percent or less report ever using food stamps, welfare, or unemployment compensation.

MYTH 5. Most Immigrants Intend to Settle Permanently in the United States

• Mexico-U.S. migration has historically been circular: 80 percent of Mexican immigrants report that they made no more than three trips to the United States and three quarters stayed less than two years.

KJ

Minuteman Runs for Congress

FROM www.ilw.com

On Tuesday, December 6th, a special election is being held in California for a safe Republican seat to fill the vacancy left by Christopher Cox, who was appointed chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The election features a run-off between Republican state Senator John Campbell against anti-immigrationist self-syled "minuteman" vigilante Jim Gilchrist.  His candidacy has a single issue: illegal immigration.  Immigration Daily is confident that he will lose, underscoring once again that anti-immigration sentiments are not widely endorsed by the general public. No doubt, the anti-immigrationists will attempt to spin Mr. Gilchrist's expected loss into a symbolic victory for their misguided cause. We are

confident that the voters of California will make the wise choice and reject Mr. Gilchrist.

KJ

NPR Story on Death of Detainee

NPR ran its story on the death on Richard Rust, a Jamaican immigrant held in Oakdale, Louisiana.  See http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5022866  Although deaths in detention do not appear to be common, less extreme abuses of immigrant detainees are not.  See, e.g., Mark Dow, American Gulag (2004).  Margaret Taylor, Jim Smith, and others have written thoughtful articles on the lawfulness of immigrant detention, which has become much more common after the 1996 reforms.  Detention in Oakdale brings back memories.  I worked on a class action in the 1980s (Committee of Central American Refugees v. INS) in which the INS transferred Salvadoran and Guatemalan asylum seekers from the Bay Area where they were arrested (and could get pro bono counsel), to remote locations, such as El Centro, California, Florence, Arizona, and Oakdale, Louisiana, where the detainees generally could not obtain counsel and often grudgingly accepted immediate deportation.  This was one of a series of cases, including Orantes-Hernandez v. Thornburgh, challenging INS detention policies.  The more things change, . .  .

KJ

ID Quagmire: US v. Deborah Davis

Deborah Davis, a 50-year-old mother of four who lives in Denver, was riding a bus when a security officer boarded and demanded to see everyone's ID. She refused and now is facing federal charges for failure to present an ID when requested.

source:

http://www.papersplease.org/davis/

bh

Non-Immigration News: The Ascendancy of UC Davis

New Division I AA school UC Davis defeated Stanford in men's basketball yesterday.  Combined with the UC Davis football team's defeat of Stanford last fall (which kept Stanford out of a Bowl game), this victory represents a significant milestone for the UC Davis campus.  In its pre-season issue, Sports Illustrated magazine had ranked Stanford No. 14 in the nation. 

Officials of UC Davis SChool of Law were in attendance at Sunday's game.

KJ

Interesting Blog

Check out Scott Henson's blog, which yesterday has an entry on the drug trade along the U.S./Mexico border, which starts off as follows " Today's New York Times offers the best who's-who explanation I've seen of the violence in Nuevo Laredo between competing Mexican drug cartels ("Rival drug gangs turn streets of Nuevo Laredo into war zone," Dec. 4).  The blog is titled Grits for Breakfast, a most appropriate name for a blog based in Austin, Texas. 
http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2005/12/mexican-border-wars-only-leaders-who.html

KJ