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1. Inquiry into Sec. Comm.
2. States' efforts lose steam
3. MI Gov. anti-enforcement
4. AL lawmakers to vote soon
5. Pakistani deported

1.
Government Starts Inquiry Into Program Leading to More Deportations
By Ruxandra Guidi
KPBS (CA), May 23, 2011

Secure Communities was launched in 2008, with plans for mandatory nationwide participation by 2013. It requires local jails around the country to share detainees' fingerprints with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Twelve-hundred counties nationwide were assigned the program without the ability to opt out, as part of a federal effort to increase deportations.

"A major concern around this program is whether or not it's doing what it says it's doing," said Britney Nystrom, Director of Policy at the National Immigration Forum in Washington, a think tank that has criticized the program from the start. "Its priority should have been identifying and removing individuals who pose a threat to national security or a risk to public safety."

Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-California) requested an investigation into Secure Communities late last month. According to ICE, about 28,000, or 35 percent, of those who have been deported so far under the program have been convicted of serious felonies like murder and rape.
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http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/may/23/government-starts-inquiry-program-l...

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2.
AP Enterprise: States' immigration efforts fizzle
The Associated Press, May 23, 2011

Nearly every state in the union tried to tackle immigration on its own this year in the absence of any federal movement on the matter, and more than half considered Arizona-style enforcement measures, up from just six in 2010.

But an Associated Press review found that in legislature after legislature, nearly all the most punitive measures failed.

What had passed as of Monday mostly reinforced current federal law, though a small number of states actually passed legislation that was helpful to illegal immigrants.

Many measures were set aside so lawmakers could focus on pressing budget crises, but immigrants have also developed more sophisticated lobbying efforts, and business owners came out strongly against tougher sanctions. Some worried about losing sources of labor and gaining extra paperwork. Others feared tourism boycotts like the one organized against Arizona.

Early in the year, high unemployment, a slew of newly Republican-dominated legislatures and nationwide frustration over the failure by the White House or Congress to address the problem suggested Arizona's law would be copied.

That law makes it a state crime for an illegal immigrant to work, penalizes employers who hire them and encourages local authorities to turn over illegal immigrants to federal authorities, among other measures. An appellate court has blocked provisions that require immigrants carry visa documents and allow police broad leeway to question the immigration status of those they suspect are in the country illegally.

Louisiana State Rep. Joe Harrison, a Republican, said federal inaction prompted his interest in state laws on immigration.

"I'm just trying to give them a little Taser move in the right direction," he said.

But Harrison's bill has yet to move out of committee, and most of the others failed, as did most of the proposals requiring businesses to use the federal government's electronic E-verify system to check the eligibility of new hires. Only a few states made any serious attempt to crack down on employers.

So far, only Georgia and Utah have passed comprehensive bills. South Carolina and Alabama are still considering them. Utah's law includes a provision to allow illegal immigrants to work in the state, and the American Civil Liberties Union has already sued Utah over the law's enforcement provisions.

Georgia was the shining example for those hoping to step up enforcement and the closest to Arizona. Its new law allows local officers to check the immigration status of a suspect who can't produce an accepted form of ID. It also includes a provision requiring employers with more than 10 employees to use E-Verify by July 2013, similar to a 2007 law Arizona. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal signed the bill earlier this month and opponents say they plan to sue the state.

Following the failure of the recent Dream Act in Washington — which would have provided a path to legalization for qualified illegal immigrant students and other young adults — several states adopted legislation this session that helps illegal immigrant students. Maryland approved in-state college tuition for illegal immigrants, Illinois is likely to set up a private scholarship fund for them, and Connecticut expanded in-state tuition for graduate school. An in-state tuition bill in Oregon passed the Senate but has yet to reach the House floor.

Arizona lawmakers ordered school districts to report students' residency, but that was geared toward keeping children who live across the Mexican border from enrolling in Arizona schools.

Only Indiana passed a law to prohibit in-state tuition for those in the country illegally, a largely symbolic move.

Most legislation never gets out of committee, and compromise is always key.

But experts on both sides credit businesses for much of the legislations' failure.

"Business owners came out of the woodwork in a way they hadn't done before," said Tamar Jacoby, president of ImmigrationWorks USA, a national federation of mostly small-business owners who support immigration reform.

Many Florida businesses said they feared the economic damage that would be caused if the state were hit by a tourism boycott like the one immigrant rights groups organized against Arizona.

In Arizona, 60 top executives signed a letter to Arizona's Senate president, asking for a moratorium on immigration bills.

Indianapolis-based drug maker Eli Lilly was among those who publicly opposed an Arizona-style bill. Last week, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels signed into law more modest bills: the in-state tuition ban and an end to tax credits for companies that hire illegal immigrants.

In Utah, businesses helped create the Utah Compact, the basis for the most comprehensive immigration law to come out of the states. It resembles Arizona on enforcement but allows illegal immigrants to work in Utah. A judge blocked the bill last week, following the ACLU lawsuit.

Jacoby acknowledged many businesses particularly opposed E-verify.

Indeed, in Florida, the House and Senate couldn't reach a compromise on the E-verify component, and the proposals died. The Indiana and Alabama legislatures faced similar splits between their House and Senate over measures targeting employers.

Jacoby said it was the Arizona-like enforcement sections of the bills that generated the attention and public debate, and that in many states, E-verify went down along with them.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates stricter limits on immigration, believes many businesses concerned about E-verify cynically stoked opposition to the bills by emphasizing the enforcement angle.

"The businesses community really did pull out all the stops on this, and I have to give them props," Krikorian said. "The strategy was to make a big deal about Arizona-style legislation in order to scare off E-verify."
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h95TRQhPL5o4DIe8Peq5wI...

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3.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder Says An Arizona-Style Law Would Hurt His State
By Elizabeth Llorente
Fox News Latino, May 22, 2011

The governor of Michigan, where an immigration bill is pending in the legislature, said that such a measure would be detrimental.

Speaking to the Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, Gov. Rick Snyder said that an immigration law such as the one passed last year in Arizona would "encourage a divisive atmosphere."

The governor, a Republican who was elected to his post in November, on several occasions has said the state, whose economy has been among the hardest-hit in the country, needs immigrants.

The bill introduced in the legislature would get police more involved in checking the immigration status of people they pull over.

Earlier this year, in a talk before a Muslim group, Snyder said Census 2010 data showed a steep decline in Michigan’s population, and therefore the state needed to attract immigrants.

At that talk, Snyder said the state’s diversity – it is home to the nation’s largest Arab and Muslim population and a growing community of Latinos – could attract more businesses to Michigan.

"We need to celebrate diversity; it's one of our strengths,” Snyder said, according to published reports. “One of the things I'm proud to say I'm already encouraging, that was in my state of the state message, is the idea of more immigration, particularly for advanced degree people."

Arizona's law was passed last year amid years of complaints that the federal government hadn't done enough to lessen the state's role as the nation's busiest illegal entry point. Its passage has sparked protests and lawsuits seeking to overturn the law and a debate about whether the law would lead to racial profiling.

Parts of Arizona’s law have been blocked as courts look at the constitutionality of aspects of the measure. The U.S. Department of Justice sued Arizona in federal court last year, saying that Arizona’s immigration law was improperly stepping into an area that is solely within the jurisdiction of the federal matter.
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http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/05/20/michigan-gov-rick-s...

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4.
Alabama lawmakers expect votes on immigration and tenure by June 9
By David White
The Birmingham News, May 23, 2011

State lawmakers end a two-week break and return to the State House Tuesday to face key votes on next year's state budgets, plans dealing with tenure and immigration and other high-profile bills that top Republicans say have good chances of passing by June 9, when the legislative session ends.
Alabama State House 2-11.jpgLegislators expect votes on key issues by June 9, 2011. (Birmingham News file/Frank Couch)

"Obviously, there's still plenty to do, a lot of big stuff out there, a lot of lifting to do," said Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston, the top-ranking state senator.

But Marsh said he and Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, leader of the House of Representatives, mapped out a plan for passing a laundry list of bills into law in the seven meeting days that remain in this year's regular legislative session, which started March 1.

"I think we've got a well-laid-out plan to get it done," Marsh said.

Hubbard and Marsh predicted the Legislature would give its final approval to the budgets, a bill to overhaul tenure and a plan that would let voters decide whether to renew for 20 years the Forever Wild program, which has purchased or otherwise secured more than 220,000 acres statewide for preservation and recreation.

Marsh also predicted lawmakers would pass an immigration bill modeled on a law passed in Arizona last year. Hubbard wasn't as definite, but said he's optimistic.

Marsh added that he thinks chances are good the Senate will approve a House-passed plan that gradually would raise, from 5 percent to 7.5 percent of their paychecks, the amounts employees of public schools and state agencies must pay for pension coverage.
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http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/05/alabama_lawmakers_expect_votes.html

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5.
Pakistani with money tie to failed bomber deported
By Jerry Seper
The Washington Times, May 22, 2011

A Pakistani man arrested in Massachusetts during the investigation last year into the failed Times Square bombing was deported Sunday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after pleading guilty in federal court to fraud charges.

Aftab Ali Khan, 28, formerly of Watertown, Mass., had been in federal custody since May 2010 when he, his uncle and another man were arrested after the failed attempt to bomb New Yorks Times Square on May 1, 2010.

He pleaded guilty to charges of unlicensed money transmitting and immigration document fraud. U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper sentenced Khan to time served — 11 months — and three years of supervised release and then was ordered into the custody of ICE for deportation proceedings.

Khan was accompanied by ICE agents on a flight from Boston's Logan International Airport to Benazir Bhutto International Airport in Islamabad, Pakistan.

After the attempted bombing, investigators obtained evidence that Khan provided $4,900 to Faisal Shahzad, who was later convicted of the failed attack. Khan borrowed the money and transferred it to Shahzad in February 2010 as part of a “hawala” transaction in which Khan’s family received an equivalent amount of money in Pakistan.
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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/may/22/pakistani-with-money-tie...