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1. Report criticizes detention
2. Survey: CA negative on effect
3. AZ Senate rejects five bills
4. SEIU criticizes Obama
5. Illegal alien charged

1.
Report criticizes immigrant detention system
Reuters, March 17, 2011

Immigrants detained in the United States lack adequate access to legal representation and medical care, while the system itself is over reliant on detention, a human rights report released on Thursday found.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights study -- "Immigration in the United States: Detention and Due Process" -- examined the U.S. federal government's immigration enforcement and detention system.

It drew on research including visits to six immigration detention facilities in Arizona and Texas in July 2009, since when the U.S. federal government has announced its own comprehensive review of the immigration enforcement system.

"The IACHR is troubled by the lack of a genuinely civil detention system, where the general conditions are commensurate with human dignity and humane treatment," the report said.

The Commission "is also disturbed by the impact that detention has on due process, mainly with respect to the right to an attorney which, in turn, affects one's right to seek release." it added.

The IACHR, a body within the Washington-based Organization of American States, said it was "disturbed" that detention management and care was frequently outsourced to private contractors, while "insufficient information is available concerning the mechanisms in place to supervise" them.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/17/us-immigration-study-idUSTRE72...

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2.
Survey: Immigration having more negative than positive effect
By David Olson
The Press Enterprise (CA), March 18, 2011

About half of Californians don't believe immigration has had a major impact on the state's quality of life, but those whose personal financial situation is deteriorating are most likely to see a negative effect, a new poll finds.

The statewide survey, released today by The Field Poll and UC Berkeley, found that nearly four in 10 poll respondents said immigration is making life worse. People whose economic circumstances had declined in the previous year were much more likely to say immigration is reducing the quality of life in California, the poll found.

Only 12 percent of respondents said their financial well-being had improved during the previous year, and 38 percent reported it was worse. Half said there was no change. Karthick Ramakrishnan, an associate professor of political science at UC Riverside, said studies during the recession of the early 1990s did not find the same link between negative attitudes on immigration and respondents' declining personal finances.

"What might be different this time around is how prolonged a downturn this is," he said.

Even if people do not lose their jobs because of immigration, they may perceive it is happening to themselves or others, Ramakrishnan said.

The poll found that even 32 percent of Latinos and 34 percent of Asians and "others" see more of a negative than positive impact from immigration, suggesting that economic concerns are trumping cultural connections, he said.

The poll found that people 65 and older are twice as likely as adults under 30 to believe immigration is worsening the quality of life in California.

Ramakrishnan said that may be because young people are more likely than older residents to be friends with immigrants and people of different ethnicities, and because a higher percentage of young voters are themselves Latino or Asian.

Poll respondent Clark Cravey, 64, of Wonder Valley, which is east of Twentynine Palms, doesn't believe immigration has made a significant difference in the quality of life.

Excessive state spending and corporate greed are hurting the state far more, he said.

But Delmer Lock, 76, of Banning, said that, although he can't blame immigrants for seeking a better life in the United States, he believes they are costing the state too much in education, medical and other expenses.
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http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_fieldpoll18.3948adf....

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3.
Arizona rejects more immigration crackdowns
By Andy Barr
Politico (DC), March 18, 2011

Arizona’s anti-immigration push may have topped out.

The Republican-dominated state Senate on Thursday rejected a series of immigration enforcement and birthright citizenship bills pushed by the authors of last year’s S.B. 1070, the measure that would have initiated a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigrants had parts of it not been challenged by the Justice Department.

Perhaps the most controversial of the bills would have required hospitals to check the citizenship status of patients and notify authorities if they suspected anyone in their care of being in the country illegally.

Another reporting bill would have demanded public school districts record how many children of illegal immigrants attend classes and provide that information to authorities.

S.B. 1611, a measure written by state Senate President Russell Pearce that would have restricted illegal immigrants from attending state universities or collecting any federal benefits, also failed. The bill would have required proof of citizenship or legal immigration status in order to attend public schools and would have made it a crime for illegal immigrants to drive in Arizona.

The defeat marks a rare blow to Pearce, the author of S.B. 1070 and a rumored U.S. Senate candidate, who has effectively ruled the state from his perch over the last year.
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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51541.html

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4.
SEIU leader blasts administration on immigration enforcement
By Ben Smith
Politico (DC), March 17, 2011

Impatient immigration advocates typically view the Obama Administration as an ally, but a key force in the debate, the Service Employees International Union, is openly criticizing the Department of Homeland Security's shift in enforcement efforts for the first time.

The Obama Administration has shifted the emphasis of enforcement away from workplace raids -- which immigrant advocates had long described as punishing immigrant workers instead of their employers -- and toward so-called "I-9 audits," in which federal agents ask companies to verify their employees' legal status.

Groups pushing to legalize most immigrant workers are broadly uncomfortable with the audits, which often cost workers their jobs, but have largely avoided criticizing the Administration publicly. But SEIU has seen hundreds of members lose their jobs after I-9 audits: According to the union, 1,200 SEIU janitors in Minneapolis were fired following an I-9 audit last December, and just this week, 250 SEIU janitors in Minneapolis were fired after an I-9 audit, adding to 500 in the area who were fired from Chipotle after the company was examined by the feds.
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http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0311/SEIU_leader_blasts_administr...

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5.
Illegal immigrant charged for having machine gun
The Associated Press, March 18, 2011

An illegal immigrant who was living in Phoenix has been charged with possessing a machine gun and ammunition.

Ramon Antonio Arguelles-Lopez entered a not guilty plea earlier this week to the charge. He could get up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Authorities says the 35-year-old was found with a Colt M4 Commando machine gun, a Bushmaster assault rifle, a bullet proof vest and scales at a Phoenix house. A statement from the U.S. attorney's office says he was in Arizona as part of a drug trafficking organization.
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http://www.necn.com/03/18/11/Illegal-immigrant-charged-for-having-mac/la...