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1. Hispanics to hit 50m
2. KS bill at dead end
3. NY drops "DREAM Act" bill
4. CA cities embrace enforcement
5. GA Group plans protest

1.
New census milestone: Hispanics to hit 50 million
The Associated Press, March 24, 2011

In a surprising show of growth, Hispanics accounted for more than half of the U.S. population increase over the last decade, exceeding estimates in most states. Pulled by migration to the Sun Belt, America's population center edged westward on a historic path to leave the Midwest.

The Census Bureau on Thursday will release its first set of national-level findings from the 2010 count on race and migration, detailing a decade in which rapid minority growth, aging whites and increased suburbanization were the predominant story lines. Geographers estimate that the nation's population center will move southwest about 30 miles and be placed in or near the village of Plato in Texas County, Mo.

"There is excitement," said Brad Gentry, 48, of Houston, Mo., who publishes the weekly paper in Texas County, noting that the U.S. population center typically carries symbolic meaning as the nation's heartland. "It is putting a spotlight on a corner of the world that doesn't get much attention. Most residents are proud of our region and like the idea that others will learn our story through this recognition."

Racial and ethnic minorities are expected to make up an unprecedented 90 percent of the total U.S. growth since 2000, due to immigration and higher birth rates for Latinos.

Based on 2010 census data that has been released so far on a state-by-state basis, the number of Hispanics is now at roughly 47 million with figures for New York, Maine and the District of Columbia to come later Thursday. The 2009 census data estimated the Hispanic count in those places at over 3 million, putting Hispanics on track to exceed 50 million. Demographers widely believe the 50 million threshhold will be reached, with a total count close to 50.5 million.

Currently the fastest growing group, Hispanics now comprise 1 in 6 Americans; among U.S. children, Hispanics are roughly 1 in 4.
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gPEtCwluBUSlEHZEvPel1A...

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2.
Immigration bill may be dead in Kansas
By Brad Cooper
The Kansas City Star, March 24, 2011

A major immigration bill similar to a controversial Arizona law suffered a potentially fatal blow Wednesday when the Kansas House refused to consider the measure.

The House voted 84-40 to kill a last-ditch effort to bypass a committee where the bill had been bottled up by opponents for a couple of weeks.

“Today’s action makes it much less likely the bill will pass this session, but it doesn’t make the issue will go away,” said Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who helped write the bill.

Kobach’s bill is the second piece of major immigration legislation that has run into roadblocks this session.

Last week, a Senate committee killed a bill that would have denied in-state tuition for children of undocumented immigrants at Kansas universities, colleges and trade schools.

The Kobach measure, described by critics as “grossly broad,” would require police to check the legal status of those they suspect might be in the United States illegally.

It also would require state and local governments and their contractors to run citizenship checks on new hires and require proof of citizenship for anyone seeking public aid.

Supporters contended that the law was needed to deal with an estimated 90,000 illegal immigrants in Kansas.

The problem was compounded because Kansas’ neighbors Nebraska, Oklahoma and Missouri have taken steps to stem the tide of illegal immigration. Failure to act would lead Kansas to become a magnet for illegal immigration, Kobach has argued.
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http://www.kansascity.com/2011/03/23/2748503/immigration-bill-may-be-dea...

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3.
Bill Seeks to Expand Rights for New York’s Immigrants
By Kirk Semple
The New York Times, March 24, 2011

Three months after the defeat of the Dream Act, a Congressional bill that would have provided a path to legal residency for young illegal immigrants, a state senator from New York City has introduced his own version of the legislation in Albany.

Unlike its federal counterpart, the bill would not offer those immigrants a path to legal residency. But it would give some of them certain rights now granted only to legal residents and citizens, including the ability to hold some state jobs — a provision that appears to challenge federal laws that prohibit the hiring of undocumented workers.

The bill would allow illegal immigrants to get driver’s licenses, a proposal that will undoubtedly reprise the fiery debates that compelled Gov. Eliot Spitzer to drop a similar plan in 2007.

State Senator Bill Perkins, a Manhattan Democrat who introduced the bill this week, acknowledged the challenges confronting it. “There’s politics and other types of obstacles that must be overcome,” Mr. Perkins said in an interview on Wednesday.

The bill is one in a recent wave of state measures — some intended to empower immigrants, others meant to toughen the enforcement of immigration laws — that have been proposed in response to inaction in Washington. A number of state legislatures have considered versions of the Dream Act, most of them intended to allow students who are illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates for public colleges and universities, and to receive state financial aid.

This year, with Republicans newly in control of legislatures across the country, many state governments have vowed to pass bills to crack down on illegal immigrants; they include proposals resembling an Arizona law that expanded the powers of police officers to question the immigration status of people they stop.

State Senator Daniel L. Squadron, a Democrat who represents parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan who is co-sponsoring the New York bill, said the legislation was prompted by the failure of the Dream Act, which passed the House but was blocked by the Senate in December. “This allows New York to take the lead in a place where the federal government hasn’t yet succeeded,” he said.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/nyregion/24immig.html?src=twrhp

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4.
Some Calif. cities embrace immigration scrutiny
The Associated Press, March 23, 2011

A city that has taken numerous steps to crack down on illegal immigration is now joining a string of Southern California municipalities that are signing up to tap a federal database aimed at tighter scrutiny of employees' immigration status.

Escondido's measure is modest compared to how others have embraced the free E-Verify tool, an online federal database now used voluntarily by employers nationwide. The north San Diego suburb's City Council voted 4-1 Wednesday to require all city contractors to use the screening for new hires and earlier this month began doing the same for all new city employees earlier this month.

The city will urge — but not require — private businesses to perform enhanced checks on new hires. Lancaster, north of Los Angeles, became the first city in Southern California to require private businesses to use E-Verify in January 2010 and was followed by others including Murrieta, Temecula and Lake Elsinore in the economically battered Inland Empire.

"We don't really want to be a heavy-handed government," said Escondido Mayor Sam Abed, a Lebanese immigrant and former IBM Corp. employee who has made illegal immigration a signature issue. "It's in their self-interest. We hope businesses will realize the benefit."

The proposal has sparked a familiar, if relatively muted, debate in Escondido, a city of 140,000 people that is about 50 percent Latino. Supporters say tougher immigration enforcement is overdue, while critics worry about fueling anti-immigrant sentiment.

In 2006, the City Council voted to require landlords to verify tenants' immigration status. The city dropped the measure before it took effect when a federal judge questioned whether it would survive legal scrutiny.

That same year, police introduced drivers' license checkpoints that resulted in seizures of hundreds of cars a year. Illegal immigrants cannot get drivers' licenses in California, so many lose their cars.

And last year, the city formed an unusually close alliance with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has two agents stationed at police headquarters to respond when people who are pulled over a traffic citation or questioned for other violations are found to have deportation orders or criminal records.

Police say they have turned over more than 400 illegal immigrants to ICE since the alliance, called Operation Joint Effort, began in May.
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i9urxotj7T3Yiz_AA73OqC...

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5.
Groups plan immigration law protest for Georgia Capitol
CNN, March 24, 2011

Two groups against a tough immigration law now before the Georgia legislature say thousands will show up at the state capitol in Atlanta Thursday to protest it.

"Thousands of Georgia immigrants and allies are coming together to say no more to racial profiling and no more to the dangerous and unfair targeting of immigrant communities and communities of color," said Adelina Nicholls, director of the Georgia Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (GLAHR). "It makes no sense that Governor (Nathan) Deal seems intent on supporting legislation that will bankrupt the state -- both morally and financially. We call on him to veto such misguided policy."

In addition to GLAHR, the event is being organized by the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO). The folk duo the Indigo Girls, supporters of immigrant rights, will perform.

The bill would turn the state into a "'show me your papers' state," a statement from GALEO said. Opponents say the measure would encourage racial profiling, create second class citizens and would harm the state's economy, particularly the agricultural industry.
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http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/24/georgia.immigration.rally/