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1. AgJOBS bill has support
2. Swine flu plan was prepared
3. Detainees' treatment questioned
4. Recession stems illegal flow
5. Tuition at issue in MA

1.
Newest AgJOBS bill enjoys bipartisan House support
By Wes Sander and Cookson Beecher
The Capital Press, May 16, 2009

The AgJOBS bill that is back in Congress shows early bipartisan support in the House of Representatives. But its chances of passage, as usual, are up in the air.

California's Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced the Agricultural Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act to the U.S. Senate on Thursday, May 14. Reps. Howard L. Berman, D-Calif, and Adam Putnam, R-Fla., simultaneously introduced the same legislation in the House of Representatives.

The bill would start a five-year program to find undocumented farmworkers, legalizing those having worked in the U.S. for two years. It would also tweak the H-2A guestworker program, which is said to be cumbersome and seldom used.

"Today across the United States, there are not enough agricultural workers to pick, prune, pack or harvest our country's crops," Feinstein said in a statement. "This legislation would help to ensure a consistent, reliable agriculture work force to ensure that farmers and growers never again lose their crops because of a lack of workers."

Similar legislation died in Congress in 2007. Other immigration-reform bills have also failed in recent years, running alone or as part of comprehensive immigration measures. Those efforts have enjoyed varying levels of bipartisan support in both houses.

The current bill shows such support only in the House, where it has 26 co-sponsors, 11 Republicans among them. Two of those - Reps. George Radanovich and Devin Nunes - are from California.

Feinstein's bill has sixteen co-sponsors, all Democrats.

Reform of immigration law has kept the United Farm Workers union occupied for at least the past decade. Spokeswoman Maria Machuca says the current effort has strong chances of success with stronger Democratic representation in Washington, in addition to a president who supported similar efforts as a senator.

"I think that everybody understands that farmworkers need immigration reform," Machuca said. "Even if we don't get comprehensive reform, we need to do something for farmworkers."
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http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?SectionID=94&SubSectionID=801&Arti...

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2.
Border Czar: U.S Had Plan To Stem Swine Flu Spread
The NPR News, May 15, 2009

The idea of closing the border with Mexico was raised as one possible defense against the spread of the swine flu, but rejected. Alan Bersin, the Obama administration's "border czar," more formally known as assistant secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs, says the U.S. does have contingency plans in case such a measure were ever needed, but the country was never even close to enacting that in reaction to this particular virus.
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http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104196375

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3.
Mentally ill detainees' treatment at hospitals worries advocates
By Greg Moran
The San Diego Union Tribune, May 18, 2009

Federal immigration officials send mentally ill detainees to a private psychiatric hospital in La Mesa, where they are shackled to beds 24 hours a day, prohibited from watching television or using the telephone, and cut off from family.

Disability-rights lawyers and advocates for the mentally ill say the conditions at Alvarado Parkway Institute in La Mesa violate state and federal laws governing treatment of mentally ill people.

They also say the hospital, known as API, is one of a little-known network of private hospitals that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses to hold severely mentally ill detainees around the country, often out of reach of lawyers and even their families.

Ann Menasche, a lawyer with the legal advocacy group Disability Rights California, said she has been to API and has spoken to detainees there. In an eight-page letter sent to immigration officials April 24, Menasche said the conditions are “excessive, unjustifiable and punitive.”

Menasche also said they violate California laws covering the rights of patients in psychiatric hospitals, as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement's own standards and rules for detaining immigrants.

“We have toured and talked to people,” Menasche said in an interview. “They are held like this for no other reason than they are in this category of people who are immigration detainees.”

Other patients are not routinely subjected to such conditions, she said.

Patrick Ziemer, the CEO of the hospital, said the measures taken for the detainees are done for security reasons and are required by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Ziemer said the shackles are “security shackles, not restraints” as defined under state law.

He said that detainees' movements are restricted but that it is not as bad as Menasche said.

“Patients can move about and walk around, a few steps from their bed,” Ziemer said.

One day last week, there were two mentally ill immigration detainees at the facility, Ziemer said. At other times, as many as five detainees are held at API, Menasche said. Stays range from a few days to several weeks, she said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to answer specific questions about the treatment of patients at API. In a statement, the agency said it is reviewing “visitation and telephone access practices for immigration detainees being housed in private psychiatric facilities to ensure they have appropriate access to both.”

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano also has ordered a broader review of all ICE detention conditions.
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http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/may/18/1n18detain233238-ment...

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4.
Recession Means Far Fewer Mexican Immigrants
By Dan Weil
Newsmax, May 15, 2009

What’s the best way for the U.S. to stanch the flow of illegal Mexican immigrants? Engineer the worst recession of the past 70 years, apparently.

Mexico’s census data shows that its emigration to all other countries dropped 25 percent (or 226,000 people) in the year ended last August from the prior year, The New York Times reports.

Nearly all Mexican émigrés – legal and illegal – choose to move to the U.S. The decrease is largely due to Mexicans forgoing illegal immigration to the U.S. because of limited job opportunities here.

In the eyes of some experts, the drop-off in immigration will help U.S. workers. While it’s commonly believed that unskilled Mexicans who come here merely take jobs Americans don’t want, The Center for Immigration Studies claims that’s not completely true.

“It is… clear that there are millions of Americans who do precisely those kinds of [unskilled] jobs,” according to a report on the center’s web site. “There are 8.3 million native-born workers 18 years of age or older working full-time who have not completed high school.”
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http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/mexicans_immigration/2009/05/15/214881....

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5.
From in-crowd to out
Illegal immigrants often find the road to college blocked
By Maria Sacchetti
The Boston Globe, May 17, 2009

Until his final year of high school, Filipe fit right in.

A strong student at one of Boston's best schools, he excelled in sports and won a scholarship to state colleges because of his high test scores. He liked rock 'n' roll, video games, and the Red Sox. He spoke English like an American, with barely a hint of an accent.

Then he graduated, and all the doors closed. He couldn't claim his scholarship, a state college charged him the pricey nonresident tuition, and financial aid was unavailable to him.

The reason: Filipe is an illegal immigrant.

Across America, Filipe and students like him are welcomed into the public school system by a narrow 1982 Supreme Court ruling that guarantees them a basic education, regardless of their immigration status. After graduation, for those who want to attend college, the rules dramatically change.

The story that is rarely told is what happens to them next.

Filipe got a loan, enrolled in college, and sank $46,000 into debt. He took this semester off to work at a gym and pay down the debt. When he couldn't provide a Social Security number, he lost his job.

Now, he is broke, unemployed, and subject to deportation to Brazil, after spending nearly half his life in the United States.

"I never thought I'd be here," the 20-year-old said recently, speaking on the condition that his last name not be used. "It's a hard place to be."

Every year as many as 65,000 undocumented students like him graduate from high school nationwide, including hundreds in Massachusetts, according to the National Immigration Law Center in Washington. Ten states, including California and Texas, allow students to pay resident tuition and continue their studies, while several states actively prohibit it, including South Carolina. Private colleges set their own rules; some grant students private scholarships, and others do not.

Massachusetts rejected legislation that would have allowed students to pay resident rates in 2006. The nonresident costs here are double the resident rate, as high as $21,729 a year at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Advocates of stricter immigration controls say the students should not take spaces away from US citizens or legal residents. They say resident tuition is a privilege that should be for US citizens or legal residents only.

"The fault here lies with parents," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. "I have a real moral problem with these parents claiming that we have a responsibility to fix their mistakes."
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http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/05/17/from_...