Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Immigration News

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[FYI --
1. Mark Krikorian Discusses Alabama Immigration Law on FOX and Friends (Video)
2. Leo W. Banks Wins CIS 2011 Katz Award (Articles, Video, Transcript)
3. Butterflies Are Free, But Immigrants Too? (Blog)
4. A New Way for a State Government to Sabotage Immigration Enforcement (Blog)
5. It Takes a Heap of Immigration Law Violations to Keep a Slave at Home (Blog)
6. Mexican Complaint of U.S. 'Ignorance and Prejudice' (Blog)
7. Skills Gap Grows, Even as Immigrants Are More Educated (Blog)
8. USCIS Is to Be Commended for Taking Action Against Immigration Crooks (Blog)
9. Mormon Church's Efforts to Save Utah Amnesty Bill Could Pose Problems for Romney and Huntsman (Blog)
10. Secure Communities: Just Do It (Blog)
11. More Troubles for H-1B Users: A Roundup of Enforcement News (Blog)
12. Immigration Policy and Competitiveness: Two Nuggets (Blog)
13. Overseas Immigration News Roundup: Good and Bad Case Studies (Blog)

-- Mark Krikorian]


1.
Mark Krikorian Discusses Alabama Immigration Law on FOX and Friends
Fox News Channel, June 11, 2011
http://cis.org/Videos/Krikorian-FOX%2526Friends-061111

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2.
Arizona Reporter Wins CIS 2011 Katz Award
Leo W. Banks honored at National Press Club luncheon, June 3, 2011
http://cis.org/Announcements/2011KatzAward

Articles: http://cis.org/2011KatzAwardBooklet

Videos: http://cis.org/Videos/2011KatzAward

Transcript: http://cis.org/PanelTranscripts/2011KatzAward

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3.
Butterflies Are Free, But Immigrants Too?
By Jerry Kammer
CIS Blog, June 13, 2011
http://www.cis.org/kammer/butterflies-are-free

Excerpt: Last Friday this blog reported the complaint of a member of Mexico's political establishment that 'the ignorance and prejudice that there is in the United States about Mexico is staggering. It's mind-boggling.'

That observation came from former Mexican Congressman Carlos Heredia, who now directs the international studies program at the Center for Economic Research and Instruction in Mexico City (CIDE).

I think Mr. Heredia has good reason for his concern. Some Americans are indeed so poorly informed about our southern neighbor that they imagine it as nothing more than a nest of brutal drug lords and corrupt cops and impoverished peasants desperate to cross the Rio Grande.

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4.
A New Way for a State Government to Sabotage Immigration Enforcement
By David North
CIS Blog, June 12, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/washington-state-sabotages-immigration-enforcement

Excerpt: You have heard all about sanctuary cities, and some states' refusal to cooperate with the Secure Communities program, and state-sanctioned tuition breaks and driver's licenses for illegal aliens, but there is a new wrinkle in state-sabotage of immigration enforcement.

It comes to us from Washington State, one of three states that still issue driver's licenses to illegals.

I find it devious; others may find it creative.

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5.
It Takes a Heap of Immigration Law Violations to Keep a Slave at Home
By David North
CIS Blog, June 10, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/immigration-violations-to-keep-a-slave-at-home

Excerpt: You would not know it from reading a prominent news story in today's Washington Post, but you need to break the immigration law repeatedly if you are going to keep an alien worker as your household slave.

And it helps your slimy cause if the immigration authorities fail to notice violation after violation.

The story is about a poor Filipina, who was, as the indictment put it, 'uneducated, illiterate, impoverished, and in need of employment'. In 1999 she was lured to the United States by a middle class couple from Upper Marlborough, Md., Alfred and Gloria Edwards, who had promised her employment to support her eight children in the Philippines. Instead they 'held the woman in domestic servitude for a decade, paying her minimal or no wages for working long days' according to the Post.

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6.
Mexican Complaint of U.S. 'Ignorance and Prejudice'
By Jerry Kammer
CIS Blog, June 10, 2011
http://www.cis.org/kammer/mexican-complaint

Excerpt: A prominent member of Mexico's political establishment complained Thursday about 'mind-boggling' U.S. disregard for his country.

'The ignorance and prejudice that there is in the United States about Mexico is staggering. It's mind-boggling – starting with Capitol Hill,' said Carlos Heredia, a former Mexican congressman who now directs the international studies program at the prestigious Center for Economic Research and Instruction in Mexico City.

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7.
Skills Gap Grows, Even as Immigrants Are More Educated
By Steven A. Camarota
CIS Blog, June 9, 2011
http://www.cis.org/camarota/skills-gap-grows

Excerpt: A new Brookings Institution study entitled 'The Geography of Immigrant Skills: Educational Profiles of Metropolitan Areas' examines the education level of immigrants at the national and local levels. The education level of immigrants is a very important topic because there is no better single predictor of how an immigrant will do in the United States than his or her educational attainment.

The Brookings report is certainly interesting and worth reading. Moreover, the large share of immigrants who have a college degree, which is the focus of the report, is certainly good news and a reminder that while many immigrants are unskilled many others are highly educated. Putting aside non-economic issues, highly educated immigrants tend to earn good wages and, on average, will pay more in taxes than they use in services.

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8.
USCIS Is to Be Commended for Taking Action Against Immigration Crooks
By David North
CIS Blog, June 9, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/USCIS-taking-action-against-immigration-crooks

Excerpt: USCIS and related agencies are to be commended for their planned joint action against phony practitioners of immigration law and others who prey on migrants seeking help within the morass of the American immigration system.

That agency and several others announced today, with some fanfare, that they were going to take several steps to mitigate this problem, and to punish the malefactors. They managed to obtain this morning a long, favorable story on the subject by Julia Preston, the New York Times reporter who covers (and cheers on) that agency.

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9.
Mormon Church's Efforts to Save Utah Amnesty Bill Could Pose Problems for Romney and Huntsman
By Ronald W. Mortensen
CIS Blog, June 9, 2011
http://www.cis.org/mortensen/church-efforts-to-save-utah-amnesty

Excerpt: As the Mormon Church sinks deeper and deeper into the battle over amnesty for illegal aliens in Utah, it risks raising questions about the influence that the Mormon Church will attempt to exercise over Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman should one of them eventually be elected President of the United States.

Questions have already been raised about the influence the Mormon Church has exercised over Utah's elected officials when it comes to illegal immigration. In 2005, at the behest of the Mormon Church, former U.S. Sen. Robert Bennett snuck an amendment into an agriculture appropriation bill that allows the Mormon Church to use the services of illegal aliens. Then in 2011, Utah's Republican legislators set aside their promise to uphold the Republican Party platform on illegal immigration when, encouraged by the Mormon Church, they passed HB116, that would grant a Utah-specific amnesty to illegal aliens and their employers.

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10.
Secure Communities: Just Do It
By Jessica Vaughan
CIS Blog, June 8, 2011
http://www.cis.org/vaughan/secure-communities-just-do-it

Excerpt: A vital and effective immigration law enforcement program – Secure Communities – that should have been an easy immigration policy score for the Obama administration is now in a state of disarray, all because the president and his Get Smart-like immigration appointees cannot bring themselves to stand up to sanctuary cities and a trio of governors who would rather see residents of their states killed by illegal aliens (see here and here) than to allow local police and sheriffs to help with immigration enforcement.

The latest fiasco is Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick's announcement on Monday that he will not sign an agreement with ICE to participate in Secure Communities. He joins Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in shunning the program. Several jurisdictions in California and Virginia also wish to opt out, but their governors won't allow it.

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11.
More Troubles for H-1B Users: A Roundup of Enforcement News
By David North
CIS Blog, June 7, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/more-troubles-for-h1b-users

Excerpt: It is refreshing to see H-1B users being monitored by various sets of authorities; this is one or our periodic round-ups of H-1B news. (See here for an earlier one.)

While H-1B users routinely get away with little or no monitoring, as they operate under a very loose federal law, today we have four reports of at least some surveillance: one from overseas, two from the federal courts, and a disappointing one regarding the U.S. Labor Department, plus a mention of the use of H-1B visas by a group of Turkish charter schools in the U.S.

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12.
Immigration Policy and Competitiveness: Two Nuggets
By Jerry Kammer
CIS Blog, June 7, 2011
http://www.cis.org/kammer/immigration-and-competitiveness

Excerpt: The Migration Policy Institute today hosted an interesting discussion on immigration policy and economic competitiveness. Here are two thoughtful nuggets from the discussion that are worthy of consideration.

The first is from Pia Orrenius, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The second is from Jared Bernstein, who recently left his job as chief economic adviser to Vice President Biden and is now a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.


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13.
Overseas Immigration News Roundup: Good and Bad Case Studies
By David North
CIS Blog, June 7, 2011
http://www.cis.org/north/good-and-bad-case-studies

Excerpt: There are probably about 200 separate and distinct national and insular immigration-control systems around the world – and sometimes they make interesting decisions; some laudable, some not. Here are three of them.

The Philippines. This over-populated set of islands has long sent immigrant and non-immigrant workers to other nations – to the U.S., to the Middle East, and to other East Asian nations. The remittances these workers send back are important to the nation's economy, and the government is also aware that some of its people are treated very badly overseas.