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1. Illegals displacing native workers
2. ICE scrutinized over arrest quotas
3. Stimulus jobs destined for illegal aliens
4. Hispanics rising as share of convicts
5. MD co. begins enforcement

1.
More Than 6 Million Illegals Hold Jobs
By Jim Meyers
Newsmax, February 18, 2009

From 6 million to 7 million illegal immigrants currently hold jobs in the U.S. — jobs that could be taken by the millions of less-educated native Americans who are now unemployed.

A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) discloses that 12.8 million native-born high school dropouts and young American natives with only a high school education are unemployed.

Among all native-born adults with a high school diploma or less, 24.3 million are unemployed.

The unemployment rate among native-born high school dropouts is 17 percent. But the rate among legal and illegal immigrants without a high school diploma is only 10.6 percent.

The CIS, an independent research organization, notes that illegal immigrants are “overwhelmingly employed in lower-skilled and lower-paying jobs,” but adds that “it is difficult to find any evidence of a shortage of less-educated workers…
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http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/illegal_aliens_jobs/2009/02/18/183149...

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2.
Report: Immigration agents pressured to meet arrest quotas in 2007 raid in Baltimore
By Gillian Gaynair
The Associated Press, February 18, 2009

Langley Park, MD (AP) -- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 24 Hispanics at a convenience store in Baltimore two years ago after their supervisor told them to "bring more bodies" because they were behind their annual quota of 1,000 arrests per team, according to an ICE report released Wednesday.

The immigration rights group CASA de Maryland, which has accused ICE of racial profiling in the 2007 raid, released the agency's internal investigation report and said it shows that the agents acted improperly.

The report contradicts some sworn declarations made by ICE agents involved in the sweep, prompting the agency's Acting Assistant Secretary John Torres to ask for an investigation into inconsistencies, ICE spokeswoman Ernestine Fobbs said Wednesday. Meanwhile, CASA officials have called on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to review the agency's enforcement policies.

"Government agents should not be in the business of judging people based on the color of their skin, clothing and employment, which is what seems to have occurred here," the Rev. Simon Bautista Betances, vice president of CASA's board of directors said Wednesday.

CASA officials have charged that ICE agents ignored blacks and whites at the 7-Eleven store as they rounded up all of the Hispanics, even crossing the street to detain Hispanics waiting at a bus stop.

Soon after the raid, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) asked for an investigation into whether the ICE officers racially profiled the people they arrested. ICE's internal probe found the allegations to be unsubstantiated, Fobbs said.

"I have confidence that the new Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will fairly address this and other immigration issues," Mikulski said in an e-mailed statement in response to Wednesday's report.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-ice-raids,1,4...

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3.
Stimulus dollars may end up helping illegal workers
Some construction jobs created as a result of federal aid could go to illegal immigrants.
By Franco Ordoñez
The Charlotte Observer (NC), February 19, 2009

Thousands of N.C. jobs and millions in wages created from the federal economic stimulus package could wind up going to illegal immigrants.

Congress stripped language from the $789billion package that would have required employers to verify the legal status of workers paid with stimulus money.

The White House estimates the package will generate or save an estimated 105,000 jobs in North Carolina over the next two years.

While it's impossible to say definitively how many illegal immigrants will get jobs, multiple studies estimate at least 14 percent of the construction labor force is in the U.S. illegally. Experts say actual numbers are likely much higher.

North Carolina could get $1.3 billion for highway and school construction, which, based on federal estimates, could mean more than 5,000 jobs for undocumented workers.

“That's not right,” said Jon Holstead, 24, a Charlotte electrician helping to build Salome Church Road Elementary School near Lowe's Motor Speedway. “You have Americans out of work, but you have illegal immigrants coming to work.”

The stimulus package was a popular topic this week at the school construction site where Americans and immigrants work side-by-side. Several immigrants on the project told the Observer they are working without proper legal papers.

A masonry worker, Juan Luis, 28, said Latinos are struggling as much as anyone.

“People say Latinos take our jobs, but no one wants to do the kind of work we do,” he said. “Americans just don't see it that way.”

More than $770 million of the state's stimulus money is expected for roads. A 2006 Observer investigation found illegal immigrants – using Social Security numbers that were fake, stolen or belonging to dead people – working for major N.C. road-building companies. Using a sample of payroll records from large contractors, including Rea Contracting and Blount-Sanford Construction, the newspaper found questionable Social Security numbers for a third of 85 workers.

Observer calls to several road companies were not returned Wednesday.

The unemployment rate in North Carolina was 8.7 percent in December; in South Carolina, 9.5 percent. Last year, S.C. Gov Mark Sanford, who's one of a handful of Republican governors who are considering turning down money from the stimulus package, signed legislation that requires S.C. businesses to verify immigration status. North Carolina has no such law or policy.

The House of Representatives included an amendment in the original stimulus bill that would have required all recipients of stimulus money to use E-Verify, a federal program that checks Social Security numbers. House and Senate negotiators removed the requirement in the final version.

U.S. Rep. John Spratt, a Democrat from York County, S.C., has voted for verification systems and supported the House bill with the E-Verify provision included. But he noted, “I don't think E-Verify should be made mandatory until it is made accurate and reliable.”

Supporters of E-Verify acknowledge errors but say the program still effectively identifies illegal immigrants.

“Would it keep out every illegal? No,” said Steven Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that advocates stronger immigration enforcement. “Like in anything, is there going to be fraud? Sure. … The point is this could be an important tool to deter illegal employment.”

Although they voted against the overall stimulus package, local GOP legislators such as Rep. Sue Myrick, supported keeping verification in the bill.
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http://www.charlotteobserver.com/business/story/546586.html

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4.
New face of offender in federal courts is Hispanic
By Suzanne Gamboa
The Associated Press, February 18, 2009

Washington, DC (AP) -- Hispanics outnumber other ethnic groups among criminal offenders in the federal courts due in part to the crackdown on illegal immigration, according to a study released Wednesday.

The Pew Hispanic Center, which analyzed federal sentencing data, found that in 2007, 40 percent of the offenders were Hispanic, compared with 27 percent white, 23 percent black and 10 percent from other groups. In 1991, whites comprised 43 percent of those sentenced in federal courts and 24 percent were Hispanic.

The Hispanic offenders were more likely to be non-citizens and nearly half of the crimes were immigration-related. Three-quarters of the crimes were for re-entering or remaining in the country illegally, while about a fifth were for smuggling, transporting or harboring an illegal immigrant.

Black and white criminal offenders were sentenced most often for drug-related crimes.

"There's been a general increase in the population of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. ... Second, there has been a change to policy with regards to immigration," said Mark Hugo Lopez, the center's associate director.

There are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country, up from about 4 million in 1992. During the 1990s and much of this decade, most immigrants to the United States have come from Mexico and Latin America.

Lopez linked the increase to a 1995 federal program dubbed Operation Gatekeeper, which stopped undocumented immigrants at the border. Also, a 1996 immigration law that designated certain crimes as "aggravated felonies" has led to increasing caseloads in federal courts.

Immigration prosecutions have quadrupled since 2001 as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the Homeland Security Department, has deployed fugitive operations teams to arrest illegal immigrants and those who have committed crimes.
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jSz5FTY0a2fIA-HrlYwiWH...

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5.
The ICEman Cometh
Montgomery County is no longer a haven for immigrants and their advocates.
By Christine MacDonald
The Washington City Paper (DC), February 19, 2009

By many accounts, Lila Meizell was a nice lady who died a horrific death. The 83-year-old Wheaton resident was beaten and then burned alive in her home last year, a casualty of an alleged check-cashing scheme that went bad.

Despite the lurid headlines and public consternation, her murder might have been quickly forgotten, stored away in memory like so many other grisly crimes. But the three people in custody are all Salvadoran immigrants, including a man who had done yardwork for Meizell. So her death has become a new front in the political battle over illegal immigrants in Montgomery County.

Until Meizell’s murder and a series of other area homicides police say were committed by Hispanic immigrants, Montgomery County officials had clung to a sort of don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy when dealing with foreign-born residents; they left immigration enforcement to the feds.

All that changed last week, when the Montgomery County Police Department joined a growing number of law enforcement agencies in the D.C. metropolitan area that have stepped up scrutiny of immigrants. These days if you get arrested for handgun possession or a violent crime in Montgomery County, police will forward your name to federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to find out if you are deportable.

The policy reversal is a blow to CASA of Maryland, one of the most influential immigrant advocacy organizations in the country. CASA Executive Director Gustavo Torres and other immigrant allies vigorously lobbied county officials against wading into immigration issues, warning that such a move could violate the Constitution and set police on a slippery slope toward racial profiling. They also raised the specter of civil rights lawsuits like the one CASA and the American Civil Liberties Union initiated against the Frederick County Sheriff’s Department.

But with the economy tanking and crime and anti-immigrant sentiment on the rise, Montgomery County Executive Isiah “Ike” Leggett bowed to the restive activists on the other side of the debate, who for more than a year had lobbed fiery op-ed salvos at CASA and pressed for more police enforcement of immigration laws.

The new rules don’t go as far as those imposed in Frederick and several Virginia communities. Instead of checking the status of every immigrant crossing their path, Montgomery police now notify ICE of arrests made for two dozen of the most violent crimes. Nevertheless, Leggett’s about-face leaves Montgomery County in curious company among other jurisdictions that have taken to aiding a federal immigration crackdown. How did this happen in CASA’s backyard?

When immigrants come to advocates at CASA of Maryland for help, there’s one thing they don’t need to worry about. “We will never give a single name to immigration authorities,” Torres declared earnestly to an audience of laborers in December in Langley Park, not far from the D.C. line.

It is the kind of statement that brings tears to the eyes of CASA members, many of whom are in the country illegally. But the stance also kindles emotion in the right-wing blogosphere, where Torres, 47, a naturalized citizen originally from Colombia, has been accused of such things as refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance and denounced as a “domestic terrorist.”

Such attacks have intensified in recent years, says Torres, who has almost two decades’ experience in the immigrant advocacy business.

“We receive tons of hate e-mail all the time,” he says. “Anything that happens with my community—for good or for bad—I receive e-mail telling me how bad I am and how bad CASA is.”

Not everyone has stopped at words. In May 2007, someone set fire to the doublewide trailers that house the group’s Shady Grove center; though it did minimal damage, it was investigated by county police as a hate crime. Then, last May, CASA staffers received a couple of death threats that rattled Torres. He had security cameras installed and called in the Anti-Defamation League to provide advice and staff training.

“It can be tough to take,” Jennifer B. Freedman, CASA’s director of development, says of the threats, “but it just motivates us more, and it motivates our supporters, as well.”

Some Montgomery residents said they were surprised and disturbed by the anti-immigrant vitriol that followed the homicides.

Besides Meizell’s killing, Montgomery County Police arrested immigrants with alleged ties to the Hispanic gang MS-13 for two other 2008 homicides. In one of the cases—the Nov. 8 killing of 14-year-old high school honors student Tai Lam—police had previously arrested and released suspects Hector M. Hernandez and Gilmar L. Romero. Critics say Lam’s murder might have been prevented if police had learned that the two were in the country illegally during the earlier detentions. Romero was taken into custody briefly the previous June in Silver Spring for possession of a machete. Hernandez had a run-in with police after allegedly threatening a Northwood High School student with a switchblade in October, a month before Lam’s shooting.

Takoma Park City Councilor Doug Barry says people got whipped up by press coverage of the murders, particularly a Jan. 11 front page Washington Post story that chronicled rising fear among native-born residents of their immigrant neighbors.
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http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=36826