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1. DHS chief calls for amnesty
2. Laws create security gaps
3. MA to consider tuition bill
4. GA co. implements program
5. Coalition against amnesty

1.
Napolitano sees hope for immigration reform
The Homeland Security chief sees a shift in support of such an effort. She calls for a 'tough pathway' to legal status for undocumented workers.
By Joe Markman
The Los Angeles Times, November 14, 2009

Washington, DC -- The government has beefed up border security and workplace immigration enforcement, and now should begin the work of overhauling immigration laws, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Friday.

"The hope is that when we get into the first part of 2010, that we will see legislation begin to move," Napolitano said. The legislation should not only give law enforcement officials more tools to fight illegal immigration but create a "tough pathway" for undocumented workers to gain legal status, she said.

Napolitano said the government's progress in shoring up the border with Mexico and enforcing laws at the workplace meant that more Americans and more lawmakers would support an overhaul of laws than during the last effort, in 2007.

"I've been dealing hands-on with immigration issues since 1993, so trust me, I know a major shift when I see one. And what I have seen makes reform far more attainable," Napolitano told the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington.

She said the "tough pathway" to legal status would require illegal immigrants to register, pay a fine, pass a criminal background check, pay all taxes and learn English.

Critics responded that immigration reform was code for a blanket amnesty, and that the strides Napolitano cited in enforcement were overstated.

They also said that economic turbulence, with 10.2% unemployment, meant the timing was bad for an effort to legalize undocumented workers.

"The substance of her case is divorced from the reality of America's economy today," said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which opposes creating a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. "The arguments against amnesty are far stronger today than they were in 2007. You have a much tighter job market."

An estimated 12 million illegal immigrants live in the United States.

Napolitano pointed to improved border security as the strongest argument for immigration reform's better chances. Since 2007, more than 600 miles of border fence have been built in the Southwest, and there are now more than 20,000 patrol officers guarding the nation's southern boundary, she said.

But she said a path to legal status was important too. "We will never have fully effective law enforcement or national security as long as so many millions remain in the shadows," she said.

Despite Napolitano's optimism about passing reform next year, the 2010 congressional elections remain an obstacle.

"Congress does not want to debate amnesty during an election year," said Jon Feere, a legal policy analyst at the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors "low-immigration" policies. "The year after that, Obama is looking at reelection himself, and he's not going to want to make immigration an issue."
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immigration14-2009n...

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2.
Environmental laws put gaps in Mexico border security
By Stephen Dinan
The Washington Times, November 16, 2009

In the battle on the U.S.-Mexico border, the fight against illegal immigration often loses out to environmental laws that have blocked construction of parts of the "virtual fence" and that threaten to create places where agents can't easily track illegal immigrants.

Documents obtained by Rep. Rob Bishop and shared with The Washington Times show National Park Service staffers have tried to stop the U.S. Border Patrol from placing some towers associated with the virtual fence, known as the Secure Border Initiative or SBInet, on wilderness lands in parks along the border.

In a remarkably candid letter to members of Congress, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said her department could have to delay pursuits of illegal immigrants while waiting for horses to be brought in so agents don't trample protected lands, and warns that illegal immigrants will increasingly make use of remote, protected areas to avoid being caught.

The documents also show the Interior Department has charged the Homeland Security Department $10 million over the past two years as a "mitigation" penalty to pay for damage to public lands that agencies say has been caused by Border Patrol agents chasing illegal immigrants.

"I want this resolved so border security has the precedence down there. If wilderness designation gets in the way of a secure southern border, I want the designation changed," said Mr. Bishop, Utah Republican, who requested the documents. "If it means you lose a couple of acres of wilderness, I don't think God will blame us at the judgment bar for doing that."

The conflict between the environment and border security has raged for the past decade as better enforcement in urban areas has pushed the flow of illegal immigrants into Arizona and straight into some of the nation's most remote and fragile desert.

A major problem is wilderness - lands deemed so pristine that they should be maintained in that condition, free of man-made structures.

Wilderness is governed under a 1964 law that imposed strict rules that tie Border Patrol agents' hands, and there is a lot of that land along the border. According to the Congressional Research Service, California has 1.8 million acres of wilderness within 100 miles of the border, and Arizona has 2.5 million acres. New Mexico and Texas have smaller plots.

According to e-mails obtained by Mr. Bishop, Park Service officials at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and at the Denver office that oversees the park said they will not allow the Border Patrol to place electronic surveillance towers on parts of the park that are designated wilderness.

In one 2008 e-mail, officials tell the Homeland Security Department to "pursue alternative tower locations." In another 2008 memo, the superintendent of Organ Pipe says Park Service officials could reject towers even beyond wilderness areas if they deem the effects would spill over into wilderness.

Organ Pipe has 32 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border on its land, and 95 percent of the park is designated wilderness. Officials have shut down much of the western side of the giant park, saying the threat of encounters with illegal immigrants and drug smugglers makes that land not safe enough for visitors.

Homeland Security considers SBInet critical to gaining control of the border. The concept is to mix manpower, technology and infrastructure to form the "virtual fence" that government planners say can curtail illegal immigration and drug smuggling.

The project is way behind its original schedule, having slipped from a 2009 deadline all the way back to 2016. The Government Accountability Office, in a report released in September, blamed both testing flaws and environmental rules for holding up the system.

A spokesman for the National Park Service Denver office, which oversees Arizona, didn't return calls for comment.
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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/16/national-park-service-pu...

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3.
Mass. immigrant tuition bill to get new push
By Russell Contreras
The Associated Press, November 15, 2009

Chelsea, MA (AP) -- It seemed like a given that Mario Rodas would go to college.

The Guatemalan-born student certainly had the academic credentials, going from English as a second language classes to taking advanced placement exams for college credit his senior year at Chelsea High School.

But paying for it was another matter. As an undocumented immigrant in 2005, Rodas would have had to pay out-of-state tuition fees to go to a public college in Massachusetts, and he couldn't afford that. If he had lived in Texas or Utah, states that allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition rates, Rodas, now 22, might have graduated already.

"Every year we have more and more students in limbo here," Rodas said. "And every year we have more and more students taking advantage (of in-state tuition) elsewhere. I don't understand."

Nearly three years after Massachusetts House lawmakers soundly rejected a bill that would have allowed illegal immigrants to attend college at in-state tuition rates, lawmakers are preparing to revisit the issue.

Activists say 10 other states, some dominated by conservative lawmakers, have passed legislation with bipartisan support, and advocates see no reason why Massachusetts, a state controlled by Democrats, can't do the same.

That has been a frustration for advocates in this left-leaning state, which was the first to legalize gay marriage and the only so far to require health insurance for all its residents.

"Massachusetts is out in front of so many things," said Harris Gruman, executive director of the Service Employees International Union Massachusetts State Council. "But Massachusetts is behind on this."

Undocumented students say they plan to launch a campaign by lobbying key lawmakers and sharing their stories in face-to-face meetings. Meanwhile, activists have cultivated a broader coalition of supporters that includes union members, business leaders and academics — something lacking in 2006.

State Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz, D-Boston, said the state's Higher Education Committee is expected to hold hearings on the matter later this year or early next. Chang-Diaz, a co-sponsor of the bill, says it stands a better chance this time, with increased lobbying efforts and support from Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick. Former Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, opposed the measure in 2006.

"Time is our friend here," Chang-Diaz said. "We've had more time to talk to more people collectively ... and get them more comfortable with it."

On Tuesday, the governor is scheduled to release a list of recommendations from his Advisory Council for Refugees and Immigrants that is expected to include in-state tuition for undocumented students. Patrick sent the panel around the state last year to take public comment and to come up with suggestions for new immigration policy.

Currently, 10 states — California, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin — have such in-state tuition laws for undocumented students. Oklahoma repealed its law in 2008.

Meanwhile, four states — Arizona, Colorado, Georgia and South Carolina — have passed laws specifically banning undocumented students from being eligible for in-state tuition.

Steve Kropper, co-director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Immigration Reform, a group that seeks immigration restrictions, said Massachusetts residents have shown to be generally sympathetic to immigration. But he said the public remains resistant to granting illegal immigrants in-state tuition or driver's licenses.

"It doesn't make economic sense to us," Kropper said. "If they can't get a job when they're done (with college), then it doesn't make sense for the state to invest in them."
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gTcZWAsLpHuKr3C5T1JOTk...

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4.
Deputies finish immigration laws training
By Heath Hamacher
The Gwinnett Daily Post (GA), November 14, 2009

Lawrenceville, GA -- Starting Monday, the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Department will begin its limited enforcement of federal immigration laws.

The 287(g) program "named after the section of immigration law that governs it” has been in the works in Gwinnett since Sheriff Butch Conway applied for it in March 2008.

Department spokeswoman Stacey Bourbonnais said deputies are returning this weekend from four weeks of training in Charleston, S.C.

"(The training) was related to the federal immigration laws, procedures and rules involved in processing aliens," Bourbonnais said in an e-mail.

Conway will hold a press conference Monday to discuss more details about the program and how it will be implemented in Gwinnett. He said previously that 18 deputies will be devoted to the program, which will allow deputies to check the immigration status of anyone booked into the jail. Deputies then, under the supervision of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, can place an immigration hold on anyone found to be in the country illegally, Conway said.

Sheriff's departments in Whitfield, Hall and Cobb counties, along with the Georgia Department of Public Safety, already participate in the program.

In Cobb County, illegal immigration activist D.A. King said Sheriff Neil Warren has reported about 7,000 illegal aliens to federal authorities.
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http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/home/headlines/70113747.html

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5.
Area residents fed up with illegal immigration take it to the street
By Tony Reid
The Herald Review (Decatur, IL), November 16, 2009

Decatur, IL -- There was no tea but plenty of cold water Sunday afternoon as TEA Party protesters braved a steady rain to march silently through downtown Decatur to protest illegal immigration.

The event was organized by Restore Our Constitution, which calls itself the "Decatur TEA Party Group, with TEA standing for "Taxed Enough Already."

Members say the TEA Party is a grass-roots movement composed of people who want low taxes, limited government and those in government to follow the Constitution. The group says one of the few things the Constitution does empower the national government to do is to protect the nation's borders, and it claims that is not being done effectively, leading to a flood of illegal immigrants.

Robert Moon, a regional coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, a national body that assists local organizers, says America must not put up with illegal immigrants who compete for jobs and resources with citizens and legal immigrants. "We're just saying we're in such dire shape economically that we can't afford to have 15 million uneducated poor people in this country bottoming out our wages and taking our jobs," said Moon, 33, who lives in Forsyth.

Preparing to lead the march at the head of about 50 people who ignored the rain, Moon wore a sign around his neck saying "You Lie" in bold letters. This was a reference to the controversial words Republican Rep. Joe Wilson shouted at President Obama, who had denied proposed health care reform would cover illegal immigrants.

TEA Party members had been in Springfield on Saturday to protest what they call "Obama Care," and Moon says he doesn't believe the president, either, claiming health care reform will give illegal immigrants another way to drain American tax dollars.

"Joe Wilson was excoriated for yelling out ‘You Lie!' and I thought he was a hero for saying it," he added.
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http://www.herald-review.com/news/local/article_cf5d1816-d2b0-11de-afb9-...