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1. New round of talks with Cuba
2. Issue is about jobs for GOP
3. SC AZ-style bill moves forward
4. Ambassador says teen shot
5. TX Pastor accused of ID fraud

1.
US, Cuba set new round of immigration talks
The Associated Press, January 6, 2011

Senior U.S. and Cuban officials will meet next week in a new round of immigration talks, the State Department said Thursday, even as the Obama administration continues to press for the release a detained American aid contractor.

Spokesman Mark Toner said U.S. and Cuban diplomats will meet in Havana on Jan. 12 to monitor adherence to a 17-year-old agreement under which the United States issues 20,000 visas to Cubans a year. They will discuss "policies and procedures that promote safe, legal and orderly migration," he said.

However, in the past, both sides have used the meeting to delve into more contentious issues, including U.S. criticism of Cuba's human rights record and Cuban complaints about the 48-year U.S. trade embargo.

In making the announcement, Toner repeated U.S. demands for Cuba to release jailed contractor Alan Gross, whom Cuba has accused of spying. Gross has been jailed for more than a year in Havana without charge.

"We urge his immediate release so that he can return to his family," Toner said. "We're engaged with Cuba to promote safe, legal and orderly migration, and to prevent the dangers and loss of life associated with illegal migration but the release of Alan Gross remains an important objective that we'll continue to advance."
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iokcGpauGPyI75qXWMBGRO...

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2.
To House GOP, illegal immigration is a jobs issue
By Byron York
The Washington Examiner, January 7, 2011

With Republicans now in control of the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Eric Holder and other Justice Department officials are going to be answering a lot of questions in the next two years. "We're going to start fast," promises Rep. Lamar Smith, new chairman of the committee, as he lists a bunch of priorities: immigration, national security, the constitutionality of Obamacare, lawsuit abuse, intellectual property, and more.

There are many areas in which Republicans and Holder are likely to disagree, but the most contentious could be immigration, starting with the enforcement of federal laws to prevent the employment of illegal immigrants. Ask Smith what he'll be investigating, and it's the first thing he mentions. "One initial hearing will be on work site enforcement," he says. "We want to find out why the administration is not doing more to enforce current laws. Workplace enforcement has dropped 70 percent under the Obama administration."

To Smith, that's a bad idea at any time, but particularly so in a period of 9.8 percent unemployment. "We need every available job in America to go to legal workers, to citizens and legal immigrants," he says. While the administration seems focused almost exclusively on illegal immigrants who have felony records, Smith wants to concentrate on workplaces, with more use of the E-verify system and other ways to ensure that businesses hire only workers who are in the country legally.

Talk to Republicans these days, and everything is about jobs. They campaigned by slamming Democrats for not paying enough attention to the issue in 2009 and 2010, and now that they are in power they are determined to frame their actions in terms of jobs. So the bill to repeal Obamacare is titled the "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act." Likewise, when Smith appeared on Fox News on Tuesday and was asked what he will do about illegal immigration, he answered simply, "The main thing we're going to do is create jobs for Americans."

At the moment, the focus on jobs means Smith is steering away from some of the hottest-button immigration issues. Asked about the Obama administration's lawsuit against the state of Arizona, the Texas Republican is quick to condemn it -- he says it is "misguided and unnecessary" and sends the message that the administration "is not interested in having our immigration laws enforced" -- but doesn't see much that he can do about it as chairman. "Not any more than I have already done, which is I have weighed in on the side of Arizona," Smith says. "That's now in the courts, and it is the courts who will make that determination."

But other GOP voices on the Judiciary Committee are speaking more forcefully on those hot-button issues. Rep. Steve King of Iowa has served as ranking Republican on the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law, and he is passionate on the subject. "There are two areas in America where the law is ignored and sometimes laughed at, and immigration is one of them," King says. (The other, he adds, is election law.) King wants to change that.
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http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/01/house-gop-illegal-immigra...

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3.
Arizona-style bill OK'd in 3-1 vote
By Sarita Chourey
Morris News Service, January 6, 2011

A new exemption to the Freedom of Information Act and greater accountability for subcontractors were part of an Arizona-style illegal-immigration bill that an S.C. Senate subcommittee approved Thursday.
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The bill, S. 20, does not include part of the legally problematic Arizona proposal to allow authorities to jail a suspect while determining immigration status. However, the South Carolina bill does allow law enforcement to check the legal status of someone who has been stopped for a non-immigration offense, if the officer suspects the individual is in the country illegally.

In a 3-1 vote, lone Democrat Sen. Robert Ford, of Charleston, voted against the bill. He cited the potential for profiling Hispanics, added burdens placed on law enforcement and the absence of appropriate legal representation for detainees.

He also argued the bill would hinder agricultural activities, which he said rely on a labor pool that is hard to fill with resident South Carolinians.

The bill, which heads to the full Judiciary Committee for consideration next week, contains a host of other elements, including:
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http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/government/2011-01-06/arizona-style-bi...

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4.
Mexico's ambassador: Teen died from gunshot wound in Nogales incident
The Associated Press, January 6, 2011

Mexico's ambassador to the United States says it appears a teenager who threw rocks at Border Patrol agents in Nogales, Ariz., died from a gunshot wound.

The death of 17-year-old Ramses Barron Torres has been in dispute since a Mexican official said the teen died Wednesday after he fell from a border fence and hit his head on a rock.

But state police in Sonora, across the border from Arizona, said companions of the Barron Torres claim he was shot by a U.S. Border Patrol agent after the youths had illegally crossed the border.
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http://azstarnet.com/news/local/article_33980fac-1a13-11e0-b775-001cc4c0...

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5.
Texas pastor accused of selling fake IDs
The Associated Press, January 7, 2011

A Texas minister and an associate are accused of selling fake identification documents to illegal immigrants.

A federal grand jury has indicted Felipe DeJesus Coronel Pacheco and Luis Angel Tovar Cisneros on charges of conspiracy to defraud the government and manufacturing counterfeit permanent-resident cards.

The San Antonio Express-News reports both were arrested Dec. 16 in an undercover investigation and remain in custody. A bond hearing Thursday in San Antonio for Coronel was canceled after he was indicted.

Coronel served at Ministerios Epicentro Donde Nace La Bendicion in Austin. He's also charged with making a false statement to immigration officers.
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/7370223.html