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1. Labor unions take stand
2. Haitians ignore TPS offer
3. Census targets "hard to reach"
4. Immigrants avoid large cities
5. Ex-official arrested

1.
Labor opposed to immigration deal
By Stephen Dinan
The Washington Times, March 16, 2010

Sen. Lindsey Graham walked out of his immigration meeting with President Obama last week and said the president needs to pressure labor unions to accept a temporary-worker program as part of any bill.

Less than a day later, the AFL-CIO said that was a no-go.

Among all the other potential pitfalls, the divide over how to handle the future flow of foreign workers, which has bedeviled the immigration issue for years, once again threatens to halt any progress on immigration reform.

"By taking this position, the AFL-CIO ends any realistic chance of legislation this year," U.S. Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President Randel K. Johnson said this weekend, only deepening the rift between businesses and unions.

Businesses say they need to make sure they can get access to foreign workers because there are jobs Americans won't take. But labor unions fear such a program would depress wages for American workers, and in the current economy, with unemployment hovering at 10 percent, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said a new temporary-worker program "would be political suicide."

It's such a bitter dispute that those who are fighting against an immigration bill say they can sit back and watch the two sides implode while fighting each other.

"Can you feel my smile? It's great not to be needed," said Rosemary Jenks, director of government relations at NumbersUSA, which rallied opponents to flood senators' offices with calls and faxes during the 2006 and 2007 immigration-reform debates.

Josh Bernstein, director of immigration for the Service Employees International Union, which is heavily involved in negotiations, said he doesn't read too much into the back-and-forth between the AFL-CIO and the Chamber, saying the business group overreacted to one part of a statement.

He has sat in on many of the key immigration conversations, and said he's encouraged.

"The vast majority of those in labor and the vast majority of those in business really desire to come up with a solution, a comprehensive solution, for immigration reform, because it's good for the economy, and that's good for all of us," he said.

In recent weeks, the White House, lawmakers and immigrant rights activists have raised hopes that the Senate may once again tackle the issue this year. Mr. Graham, South Carolina Republican, and Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, are working on writing a bill to legalize illegal immigrants and boost enforcement.
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http://washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/16/union-objection-puts-immigra...

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2.
Immigration Offer Draws Few Haitians
By Anne Barnard
The New York Times, March 15, 2010

Within days of the devastating earthquake in Haiti on Jan. 12, the United States government declared that Haitians living illegally in the United States were eligible for temporary protected status, a special immigration designation that temporarily allows them to work here legally.

While advocates and government officials alike said that this was one of the most effective ways to get help to needy quake victims, the number of applicants has fallen short of expectations.

Two months after the earthquake, and a third of the way to the July deadline to file for the special status, just 34,427 of the estimated 100,000 to 200,000 undocumented Haitians who were in the United States before Jan. 12 have applied, said the Department of Homeland Security. The protected status allows 18 months of legally working.

Charitable groups blame the lag on the application fees, which total about $500. The average monthly amount that Haitians abroad send to relatives in Haiti — a pillar of the country’s economy — is just $150, according to the Inter-American Development Bank. On Monday, a broad coalition of charities called on the government to make it easier for applicants to have the fee waived.

Haitians who are granted the special immigration designation could add as much as $1 billion to the Haitian economy over the next three years, Hunton & Williams, a law firm for Catholic Charities Immigration Legal Services, wrote in a letter backed by the Episcopal bishop of Haiti and 49 American charity groups. The letter was sent to Congress and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, which administers the program.

Applicants for the special status are usually working class and, because they are working illegally, may not be receiving fair wages, said Debi Sanders, a government liaison for Catholic Charities Immigration Legal Services. And the cost is not the only obstacle: To get the fee waived, applicants must supply extensive financial information, a challenge for workers who have “gone out of their way not to have anything on paper,” she said.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/nyregion/16haiti.html

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3.
Area census workers out for the count of minorities, immigrants
By Dianne Solis
The Dallas Morning News, March 16, 2010

Irving -- A conga line shimmies to a Bhangra beat as revelers throw magenta- and marigold-colored powder in an Indian celebration of spring known as Holi.

Among the guests here are U.S. Census Bureau workers, eager to spread the word about the government's own mission of renewal. The biggest ever decennial head count of the nation begins in full force this week with the mailing of 10-question census forms to more than 130 million addresses.

Texas' population is now more than 50 percent minority. Nearly a fifth of the Dallas-Fort Worth area's population is foreign-born. Worries are high that immigrant, minority and young populations won't be accurately counted, so the census is using more resources to make sure it reaches hard-to-count populations.

"There is a fear of government in people," said Kay Jain, a census specialist working in immigrant communities. "I tell them that there are no questions on the form about residency, immigration status or Social Security numbers."

In 2000, an undercount cost Dallas County $156 million in federal funds, and Texas more than $1 billion, according to a PriceWaterHouseCoopers study commissioned by an independent board monitoring the Census Bureau.

An undercount could mean less funding renewed for government programs ranging from schools to roads to foster care to hospitals. Each year, the federal government allocates more than $400 billion to states and communities based in part on census data.

It might also mean that Texas doesn't gain four congressional seats that redistricting after the census is expected to bring.
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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-ce...

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4.
New immigrants avoiding big cities, study finds
By Daniel B. Wood Staff writer
The Christian Science Monitor, March 15, 2010

Los Angeles -- US immigrant populations are spreading out, a study released Monday found.

New immigrants and their US-born descendants are expected to grow by 117 million by 2050, making up 82 percent of the US population growth over that period, and will “have important implications for housing demand at a time when aging baby boomers are expected to retire and leave the housing market,” the study predicts.

New immigrants who once flocked to the large "gateway" cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Chicago are now heading for smaller metropolitan areas like Detroit and Minneapolis, Colorado Springs, Colo., Sarasota, Fla., and El Paso, Tex., according to the the study, released by the Lusk Center for Real Estate at the University of Southen California. The census data used for the study didn't take into account respondents' legal status.

“Every city in the US is getting a sizable immigration population,” said Gary Painter, director of research at the Lusk Center and co-author of the study, in a phone interview. “We are no longer a country where immigration is largely confined to just a few places.”

The typical immigrant seen in these new places is likely to have been in the US fewer than 10 years, he says, whereas the typical immigrant in a larger city has likely been here much longer. The implication of this is that new immigrants probably have less English language skills, are less likely to be integrated, and are less likely to own a home.

“We found that the immigrant communities in these smaller metro areas are much less developed," Mr. Painter said. "The questions we need to ask ourselves are 'what sorts of policies do we want to pursue because of this?' ”

The study, “Immigrants and Housing Markets in Mid-Size Metropolitan Areas” by Painter and co-author Zhou Yu, an assistant professor at the University of Utah, looked at census data from 2000 to 2005 in 60 cities with housing priced lower than in the major gateway cities. Over those five years, these mid-size areas showed an average 27 percent rise in new immigrant population at the same time that more traditional gateways registered a 6 percent decline.

Painter and Yu found that immigrants continue to have lower homeownership rates than native-born Americans having the same income and education levels. "Many of these immigrants may be waiting for other family members to join them before setting down more permanent roots," explained Painter, who plans future research into the disparity in homeownership rates.
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http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2010/0315/New-immigrants-avoiding-b...

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5.
Boston immigration trial starts for Homeland boss
The Associated Press, March 15, 2010

Boston (AP) -- A trial has begun in Boston for a former top U.S. Department of Homeland Security official accused of encouraging her Brazilian housekeeper to remain in the United States illegally.

Lorraine Henderson was a regional director of homeland security, customs and border protection. She was responsible for stopping illegal immigrants from entering the country through Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

During opening statements in Henderson's trial in U.S. District Court on Monday a prosecutor told jurors she violated the immigration law she had taken an oath to uphold. The charge carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence upon conviction.
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hKoXFmVv6enoVH4tkVstzv...