Please visit our YouTube and Facebook pages.

1. New law relaxes restrictions
2. Lawmakers negotiating on care
3. Bill would send costs abroad
4. OR city screens inmates
5. NFL star supports alma mater

1.
New immigration law goes into effect; "widow's penalty" ends
A new immigration law is now in effect, and this means new changes for Americans who marry foreign nationals.
By Melissa Tune
The WRDW News (Augusta, GA), November 3, 2009

Augusta, GA -- A new immigration law is now in effect and this means new changes for Americans who marry foreign nationals.

What's known as the widow penalty has ended now that President Barack Obama put the pen to the paper. This is especially meaningful to our military community, but it can affect anyone.

Under the old law, if a United States citizen married someone from outside the country and then died within two years of the marriage, the spouse was deported. Now the spouse can stay.

"Tomorrow is tomorrow. We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow," said Rev. Masaki Chiba.

Rev. Chiba is Japanese born and can't imagine a "tomorrow" without his wife and children. He married his wife Charisse, an American, after they met in college. He became a U.S.citizen almost 20 years ago.

"What I did was, when we went back to Japan, I applied for a green card in Japan," he said. "That was five years after we got married."

Marrying a foreign national can be as beautiful as it has been for the Chibas, or it can be a nightmare experience.

Up until October 29, 2009, the "widow's penalty" was in effect, meaning hundreds of people were forced to leave the states.
. . .
http://www.wrdw.com/politics/headlines/69023852.html

********
********

2.
Dems get health ready for House vote
By Jennifer Haberkorn
The Washington Times, November 5, 2009

Democratic House leaders are pushing for a final vote on a health care reform bill scheduled for Saturday with last-minute negotiations continuing over taxpayer-funded abortions and other contentious issues.

Leaders and at least a handful of pro-life Democrats appear to be close to a deal on language that would assure them that taxpayers would not have to pay for abortions, which is the most significant hurdle to final passage.

The 10-year, $1.2 trillion House bill would establish a government-run insurance plan, require individuals to obtain insurance and employers to provide it, and provide tax subsidies to help the poor and middle class obtain coverage.

Final passage in the House would put President Obama's goal of reforming the health care system within sight of the White House. From there, the Senate would have to pass its bill and then the two pieces of legislation would have to be combined, though neither is expected to be easy tasks.

It's not clear yet whether Democrats have the votes required to pass the bill. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, when asked whether he has the 218 votes, simply said, "We'll see."

Democrats plan to make final changes to their bill - expected to include the abortion compromise - by Friday, when the Rules Committee meets. Chairman Louise M. Slaughter, New York Democrat, said there will likely be five hours of floor debate and no floor amendments accepted in a rare Saturday session in the House.

During that time, Republicans hope to be able to offer their reform plan, released Wednesday, which would allow insurance companies to sell across state lines, establish high-risk insurance pools and limit medical malpractice awards. They rebuffed the idea that Democrats would try to pass the bill with one day of formal debate.

"The idea that Congress would enact a government takeover of one-sixth of the American economy and debate it for half a working day would be deeply offensive to the millions of Americans would cherish limited government," said Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, chairman of the House Republican Conference.

There are expected to be conservative Democrats who vote against the bill over worry that it adds to the debt, allows for taxpayer-funded abortion or provides illegal immigrants access to the insurance exchanges.
. . .
Immigration also threatens to stall health care reform. In recent days, groups that support a crackdown on illegal immigration have warned that the House bill would allow people in the country illegally to get access to the insurance exchanges or other government benefits provided by the bill.

"If powerful special interests prevail, the final version of a health care reform bill will have been used to transform immigration policies as aggressively as it was used to transform the U.S. health care system itself," said Dan Stein, president of Federation for American Immigration Reform.

But at least one supporter of expanding health insurance access to illegal immigrants said Wednesday that preventing access would threaten his support.

"I would find it extremely difficult to vote for any measure that denies undocumented workers health care," said Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, Illinois Democrat. He said undocumented workers should be allowed access to insurance coverage provided that they get no tax assistance.
. . .
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/05/dems-get-health-ready-fo...

********
********

3.
New Bill Targets Illegal Immigrant Health Care Costs
By Dena Richardson
The KFOX News (El Paso, TX), November 4, 2009

El Paso, TX -- Legislation introduced in Congress Wednesday attempts to pass the bill for illegal immigrants' health care to their country of origin.

Rep. Zack Space, D-Ohio, introduced the bill saying it will save the U.S. billions in health care costs for illegal immigrants. The bill calls for deducting the cost of illegal immigrants' health care from the foreign aid their home countries would normally receive from the U.S.

"We can essentially send them a bill," said Space.

The money deducted from foreign aid would go to the border patrol, not the hospitals or health care systems treating illegal immigrants.

"Those funds then will be applied to border security to help our borders and help eliminate or help stop the bleeding when it comes to illegal immigration," said Space.

Some El Pasoans support the proposed bill.
. . .
http://www.kfoxtv.com/news/21526442/detail.html

********
********

4.
Oregon City: 'Where were you born?' Jail wants to know
By Rick Bella
The Oregonian (Portland), November 5, 2009

Nobody ever confused the Clackamas County Jail with a country club.

It's old. It's packed to capacity. And the inmates are observed and supervised from the moment they're booked until the moment they're released.

But for nearly two years, the jail has become even more inhospitable -- for illegal immigrants, that is.

Two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents now work full-time at the jail, weeding out those in the country illegally. The result has been a steady flow of inmates into federal custody, many to be deported.

And Clackamas County isn't alone. ICE agents have close relationships with counties across Oregon. Three agents are assigned to Washington County, while six work in Multnomah County.

Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts cracked down on illegal immigrants in 2007 after The Oregonian reported that Alejandro Rivera Gamboa, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, was not deported after he was first convicted of drunken driving, then later killed 15-year-old Dani Countryman in Milwaukie.

In response, Roberts referred 700 DUII cases to the county's probation officials. The search turned up 62 people who were not U.S. citizens and whose names were sent to federal authorities. ICE agents then determined that 10 were subject to deportation.

District Attorney John Foote enacted a similar policy for all Clackamas County cases.

Federal partners

At the same time, federal authorities began establishing partnerships with local law-enforcement and corrections authorities.

"After 9/11, ICE stepped up its efforts," said Bryan Wilcox, ICE deputy field office director for the Pacific Northwest. "We're scouring the jails nationwide, looking for ... foreign nationals arrested or convicted of a crime."

Roberts said the partnership is working well.

"Having ICE agents working in the jail really has improved communications between the two agencies," Roberts said. "They are really an asset for the sheriff's office."

Clackamas County's process starts at booking, when criminal suspects are brought in.

"One of the first things we ask is, 'Where were you born?'" said Undersheriff David Kirby, who oversees jail operations. "The answer they give can change everything."

Corrections deputies also are trained to spot potential problems where they may not be so obvious to others. Inconsistencies during questioning may warrant a second look. Same goes for an inability to speak English or failing to provide a Social Security number or a permanent address.

If a suspect raises red flags for a deputy, then he or she is referred to ICE agents, who begin an independent immigration-status investigation, which often runs parallel to the state's criminal justice process.

This year through September, in the last figures available, 587 inmates were referred to ICE for evaluation. After investigation, 319 of those were detained under federal supervision.

The number of foreign-born suspects arrested in Clackamas County isn't overwhelming, either by raw totals or percentages. Corrections staff members generally book in nearly 14,000 suspects a year. Of those, fewer than 800 raise immigration-status suspicion, and about 400 are later detained at ICE's direction.
. . .
http://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/index.ssf/2009/11/oregon_city_...

********
********

5.
Honoring his mother, and alma mater
By Daniel de Vise
The Washington Post, November 5, 2009

At 9, Madieu Williams immigrated to Prince George's County from Sierra Leone, one of the poorest nations on Earth. The move gave his family a sense of perspective. His mother told him over and over that if he ever found himself in a position to make a difference, he should do it.

At 28, Williams finds himself in a relatively prosperous position: He plays free safety for the Minnesota Vikings. And Wednesday, he made a difference.

In a morning news conference, the University of Maryland announced the creation of the Madieu Williams Center for Global Health Initiatives. The former U-Md. star is providing a $2 million endowment. It is the largest gift to the flagship school from an African American alumnus and the largest sum donated by someone so young.

"I realized a vision of what my mom would have liked to do," said Williams, whose mother, Abigail Burscher, died four years ago. "She would have liked this."

Williams doesn't remember the poverty in Sierra Leone, where, according to World Bank statistics, 27 of every 100 children die by age 5.

But he remembers the standard for compassion set by his mother, a nurse, who raised him as a single parent. And he remembers his experience working with sick, sometimes terminally ill, children as a college intern in the recreation therapy section of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda.

"I think she was raising my social consciousness," he said.

Williams grew up in Lanham and attended DuVal High School and Towson University before transferring to Maryland. He graduated in 2003 with a degree in family science and went off to play pro football.
. . .
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/04/AR200911...