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1. States introduce bills
2. RI may reinstate E-Verify
3. Journalist seeks asylum
4. First Haitians deported
5. Frustration over death

1.
More bills seek crackdown on immigration
By Alan Gomez
USA Today, January 21, 2011

At a recent meeting of conservative leaders in Miami to discuss how they must appeal to Hispanic voters for the 2012 election, former Florida governor Jeb Bush spoke of softening the tone some have used against Hispanics. He pointed to the inflamed rhetoric used throughout the immigration debate.

Despite that plea, most of the bills that have been filed in the new Congress are aimed at cracking down on immigrants — both legal and illegal.

There's a proposal by Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas to add 1,500 federal agents, 100 helicopters and 250 power boats to patrol the Southwest border. Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California wants to eliminate the 55,000 visas awarded through a lottery and grant them to foreigners who graduated from American colleges.

GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee proposed building 20 federal prisons to house illegal immigrants, and Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa wants to alter how the 14th Amendment is interpreted so the children of illegal immigrants born in the USA are no longer granted citizenship.

The fact that most of the roughly dozen immigration-related bills filed so far clamp down on immigrants shows that even moderate Republicans will have a hard time courting Hispanic voters, says Clarissa Martinez, director of immigration and national campaigns for the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights group.

"It is these very extreme voices that are so much more visible on the issue," Martinez says. "That begs the question of Republican leadership in the House of what role they are going to play."

Rep. Joe Baca, a Democrat from California who has filed a bill that would help illegal immigrants brought to the USA as children become citizens, said he expects Republicans to soften their tone as the 2012 elections draw closer. He said GOP leaders will start hammering that point to legislators who have taken hard stances on immigration.

"They realize the importance of those dynamics," Baca said.

Bush made the point succinctly while addressing the Hispanic Leadership Network in Miami. "It will be incredibly stupid to ignore the burgeoning Hispanic vote," he said.
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-01-21-immigration21_ST_N.htm

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2.
Gov. Chafee to reinstate executive order on illegal immigrants
The State Column, January 21, 2011

Within a day of taking office, Gov. Lincoln Chafee made good on a campaign promise and issued an executive order, terminating the state’s participation in the federal E-Verify program.

Within days of that, Rep. Peter G. Palumbo (D-Dist. 16, Cranston) and Rep. Joseph A. Trillo (R-Dist. 24, Warwick) followed through on a promise they had made and filed legislation that requires the state to retain some of the tenets of the program. Specifically, it requires the Department of Administration to order the Executive Department to utilize the E-Verify program to verify the employment eligibility of new hires in state departments and by entities that do business with state departments.

Implementation of the repeal order signed by Governor Chafee is expected to take up to three months, and Representatives Palumbo and Trillo are hopeful their legislation will receive a fair hearing and a House floor vote by that time, effectively restoring the E-Verify process that the state has operated under since early 2008, when the “Illegal Immigration Control Order” was originally put in place by former Gov. Donald Carcieri.

The two legislators said that the E-Verify system is an easy and effective way to ensure the legal citizenship of individuals seeking employment with the state or those working for businesses that want to do business with the state.

They discounted claims that their legislation is about prejudice or lack of tolerance, but is instead about fairness to legal residents. “The presence of a significant number of people illegally residing in the state,” says their legislation, “creates a burden on the resources of the state and local human services, law enforcement agencies, educational institutions and other governmental institutions and diminishes opportunities for citizens and legal immigrants.”

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, a non-partisan, independent research institute, an evaluation of E-Verify by the Department of Homeland Security found that 96 percent of employers using the system think it’s an effective tool for status verification, and 92 percent say using it has not overburdened their staff.

“This is not about legal immigrants, but about illegal aliens,” said Representative Palumbo. “Hiring individuals whose status in this country is not proper should not be done, because it condones and continues these illegal activities and state government should set an example in that regard by upholding the law.”
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http://www.thestatecolumn.com/state_politics/rhode-island/gov-chaffee-to...

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3.
Mexican journalist to ask judge for US asylum
The Associated Press, January 21, 2011

A Mexican journalist who said he fled across the border with his teenage son in 2008 after receiving daily death threats while covering the country's bloody drug war was scheduled Friday to finally plead his case for U.S. asylum before a federal immigration judge.

Emilio Gutierrez Soto and his son, then 15, showed up at a border checkpoint in New Mexico and declared their intent to seek asylum. Gutierrez had written a series of stories about alleged Mexican military abuses of civilians and claims he received daily death threats.

Since crossing the border 2½ years ago, Gutierrez's wait for an asylum hearing included seven months at a federal detention center in El Paso, separated from his son. His court date comes four months after another Mexican journalist, Jorge Luis Aguirre, claimed similar threats and had his U.S. asylum request granted — making him the first reporter to receive asylum since Mexico's bloody drug war erupted and cartels began targeting the media to silence coverage.

Aguirre fled across the border after Gutierrez, but pleaded his case through an application rather than in court. The September decision to grant Aguirre asylum was heralded by supporters as a potential indication that the U.S. was recognizing the country's reporters as a targeted group.

Gutierrez did not answer calls to his cell phone Thursday night. His attorney, Carlos Spector, declined comment through his staff, citing a heavy workload preparing for the closed-door hearing. But he scheduled a Friday evening news conference following the proceedings set to take place in El Paso's federal courthouse. The judge may not immediately make a ruling.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa said she could not comment, or even confirm whether a hearing was taking place. Asylum proceedings in the U.S. are not public, and federal officials routinely decline to even acknowledge individual cases, citing the need to protect applicants.

Gutierrez was a reporter in Ascension, Mexico, where he said he received death threats nearly every day for more than two years as he wrote stories about the Mexican army's rough treatment of civilians in its search for drug cartel members. He said that in June 2008, men identifying themselves as soldiers ransacked his house, and he was told they were planning to kill him.

Gutierrez headed with his son to a border crossing in New Mexico, about 170 miles west of El Paso. Since being released from an immigration jail following 7 months detention — without explanation to the public or Gutierrez himself — the reporter has supported himself by working odd jobs around Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Mexican asylum-seekers face long odds. The U.S. receives nearly 3,000 asylum requests from Mexico each year, but just 252 of those cases were granted between 2005 and 2009.
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hudYu0sLEyHoinzd9gakq2...

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4.
US deports first Haitians since earthquake
The Associated Press, January 20, 2011

Immigration authorities repatriated 26 Haitians previously convicted of crimes on Thursday, plus another man who was acquitted in a 2007 terror plot, the first such deportations since the Obama administration halted them following the devastating 2010 earthquake.

The deportations were immediately criticized by members of the Haitian-American community and immigration advocates who say the Haitians will face dire, inhumane conditions on their return.

"I think it's outrageous and it's inhumane and very insensitive," said Marleine Bastien, executive director of the Haitian Women of Miami. "We are outraged, really outraged."

An attorney for Lyglenson Lemorin, who was acquitted in 2007 of a plot to destroy the Sears Tower in Chicago, confirmed the 35-year-old man was among those deported.

Officials have said Lemorin remained a national security threat. Five others were convicted in the case.

"Mr. Lemorin's removal is a high water mark in the injustice inherent in our broken immigration system," Charles H. Kuck, his attorney, said. "Deporting an innocent man should never be condoned."

Kuck is appealing the Lemorin's deportation.

In a statement, Barbara Gonzalez, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the removals were "consistent with ICE's priority of removing aliens who pose a threat to public safety."

Gonzalez added that ICE will continue the deportations on a periodic basis.
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i-vkaq0Nm5h3ENU5Kc9LU9...

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5.
More attention urged for border agent's killing in Arizona
By Kim Murphy
Los Angeles Times, January 20, 2011

It was shortly after 11 p.m. one night in December when an elite unit of the U.S. Border Patrol, making its way through the inky darkness of Peck Canyon, ran into a pack of heavily armed men.

A gunfight broke out, and when it was over, Agent Brian Terry, a three-year veteran of the force, was dead. Four Mexicans were taken into custody, one of them shot in the abdomen and back. By daybreak, a massive sweep was underway in search of a fifth suspect who had disappeared into the night.

The agent's death happened in the wake of a wave of robberies, rapes and assaults — most unreported, police say, because they are directed at illegal migrants and drug runners.

Yet more than a month after Terry's death, prosecutors still have filed no homicide charges against the unidentified men in custody, nor have they caught the fifth suspect, who may have been the triggerman.

After the massive law enforcement response to the Jan. 8 shootings of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others, there is frustration here that Terry's death has not taken the same priority.

"Obviously, Congresswoman Giffords, we like her a lot, but all of this investigation of a guy who's deranged and he's in custody — what are they doing about Agent Terry's death?" said Susan Clarke Morales, who said she has regular, often frightening, encounters with strangers who traverse Calabasas Canyon outside of Nogales.

Here in the in the desolate hills stretching from the Mexican border, the battle between the law-abiding and the lawless, the vulnerable and the predatory, continues unabated.

While they mourn the deaths in the Tucson shooting, many feel their plight is easily overlooked, and rarely attracts much attention.

A memorial service for Terry, 40, is scheduled for Friday in Tucson, and his mother, Josephine Terry, said she hopes agents will be able to tell her what happened to her son, and who was responsible.

"He told me that nobody knows how bad it is out there. Nobody has a clue," she said.

A former U.S. Marine and police department veteran in Michigan, Terry's dream, his mother said, was to serve with the special tactical unit that authorities say was on the track of a "rip crew" preying on migrants and drug runners in the hills west of Nogales.

That he was keenly aware of the peril became apparent after his death. On his desk was a message he wrote to himself titled: "If Today Be the Day." Josephine said her son read it regularly before he set off for work.

"If you seek to do battle with me this day, you will receive the best that I am capable of giving. It may not be enough, but it will be everything I have to give, and it will be impressive," it said.

"I have kept myself in peak physical condition, schooled myself in martial arts, and have become proficient in the application of combat tactics. You may defeat me, but you would be lucky to escape with your life. You may kill me, but I am willing to die if necessary. I have been close enough to it on enough occasions that it no longer concerns me. But I do fear the loss of my honor, and would rather die fighting than to have it said that I was without courage…"
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http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/20/nation/la-na-border-agent-death-...