1. DREAM Act may go forward
2. Stephen Colbert testifies
3. Many receive deferrals
4. MA governor criticized
5. Union ends AZ boycott

1.
DREAM Act on hold after Senate filibuster
By Jazmine Ulloa
The Brownsville Herald, September 23, 2010

The DREAM Act is in a holding pattern after the U.S. Senate failed this week to take action on the 2011 defense authorization bill that included the legislation as an amendment.

Possible action on the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act will now have to wait until after the November elections following a Republican-led filibuster on Tuesday that derailed action on the defense bill.

The DREAM Act would provide a road to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. before age 16 and have a high school diploma or GED by requiring them to enroll in college or join the military.

For an estimated 2.1 million children or young adults eligible, citizenship would mean a better opportunity to gain employment after graduation.

The defense bill also included language to repeal the controversial the Clinton-era rule on homosexuals serving in the military known as the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” law.

The final vote Tuesday was 56-43, with all Republicans present and three Democrats voting to block debate on the legislation. Sixty votes were needed to advance the legislation.

One young woman in Brownsville expressed her disappointment in the delay of the DREAM Act.

Claudia, who moved to the United States illegally at age 8, said the result of vote Tuesday shattered some of her optimism that someday she would become a U.S. citizen. It also may have put a hold on her plans to become a bilingual teacher.

She graduated in May from the University of Texas at Brownsville and Southmost College but can only serve as a tutor because she has no legal documents.

“It is confusing, I still have hope and at that same time ... it’s frustrating,” said the young woman, who declined to give her last name out of concern for her safety and that of her family. “I was counting on the DREAM Act to pass to continue with my plans. I did have a lot of plans, but they all depended on the act passing.”

Her dismay is echoed by local immigrant advocates who say the DREAM Act would provide relief to those hurt by a complicated immigration system and would represent a step toward reform.

Stand-alone bill?

Local immigration groups are now shifting their focus and working with national organizations to ask Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to introduce the act as a stand-alone bill.

Reid had pledged last week to bring up the DREAM Act as an amendment to the defense bill. First introduced in 2001, the legislation once held bipartisan support when it was attached to the issue of comprehensive immigration reform. It was said to be the only facet of reform legislation that lawmakers could agree on.

But with elections looming, the act has become a heated. Issue. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona called Reid’s move to attach the amendment to the defense bill a “blatant and cynical attempt to galvanize the Hispanic vote,” according to news reports.

Opponents of the act say it is too expensive and endorses amnesty not only for children but to their parents.

In a previous interview, Jon Feere, a legal policy analyst for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based research organization, said it also would have encouraged fraud.

“The DREAM Act in its current version has no clear regulations as to how an applicant should prove that they in fact entered before they were age 16,” said Feere. “How can we verify they came in when they said they came in?”
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http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/act-117169-dream-action.html

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2.
Fresh off farm gig, comedian Colbert set for House hearing
By Jason Hanna
CNN, September 24, 2010

Stephen Colbert shined his comedic light on farm labor and immigration for his TV show. Now a House subcommittee is about to have him draw attention to the issues on Capitol Hill.

The Comedy Central funnyman, fresh off Thursday night's "The Colbert Report" episode showing him packing corn and picking beans on a farm as part of a challenge from a pro-immigrant-labor group, is to appear before a House subcommittee on immigration.

He is expected to relate his experiences during the "Take Our Jobs" campaign, in which he spent a day with immigrant farm workers.

"They say that you truly know a man after you've walked a mile in his shoes, and while I have nowhere near the hardships of these struggling immigrants, I have been granted a sliver of insight," according to his opening statement released in advance of his testimony.

He didn't answer any questions as he entered the chamber, but tweeted, "There's no good emoticon for testifying before Congress. This'll have to do: [8^($) The $ represents the value of the truth I'll be spewing."

Colbert will appear alongside United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez, whose group over the summer launched "Take Our Jobs," a campaign that challenged U.S. citizens to replace immigrants in farm work.

The group, which says only seven citizens or legal residents have taken it up on the offer, argues that immigrant workers aren't taking citizens' jobs, and is pushing for a bill that would give undocumented farm workers currently in the United States the right to earn legal status.

Pedro Ribeiro, a spokesman for the panel's chairwoman, Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, said he didn't know how much in character -- the hyper-patriotic, mock-conservative talk show host that he plays on TV -- Colbert would be. According to The Daily Caller website, Colbert would appear before Congress in character.

Two sources told CNN that Colbert's prepared testimony is straightforward.

"It's not quite clear which way it's going to come out, but it's not going to be the same bombastic style you see on TV because there's a certain decorum, and he's aware of it," an aide familiar with the testimony said. "It will be funny, but not insulting."

"I don't think its a stunt," Lofgren said. "Celebrities add pizzazz to an issue."

On his show Thursday night, Colbert mocked those who deride his appearance, saying he agreed that showing up in character would "sully the good name of experts that Republican-controlled Congresses have actually called to testify in the past," like Elmo, the Sesame Street character who promoted music education before a House subcommittee in 2002.

Ribeiro said the Colbert's appearance in Washington was precipitated by his day on the upstate New York farm, which Lofgren also visited.

"It stems from [Colbert and Lofgren] having worked together on the farm for a day," Ribeiro said.

Phil B. Glaize, chairman of the U.S. Apple Association, and Carol M. Swain, a Vanderbilt University professor, also will testify at the hearing, according to the committee's witness list.
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http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/09/24/colbert.house.testimony/?hpt=T1

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3.
Illegal immigrant is second here to get reprieve from deportation
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star, September 24, 2010

A Tucson man scheduled for deportation today will be able to stay long enough to see his daughter graduate from high school after receiving a one-year federal deferral.

Alfonso Morales-Macias, a 40-year-old father of two who has has lived illegally in the U.S. for 20 years, learned Wednesday night that he won't be deported to Mexico, said Phoenix attorney Mel Rodis, who led a campaign to help him.

No one was more happy than his daughter, Ana Morales, 18, a senior at Sunnyside High School. She and her brother, 11-year-old Alfonso Morales Jr., were born in Tucson and are U.S. citizens.

"I'm really happy because he's going to be able to stay with us and he's going to be here for my graduation in May," said Morales, who hopes to study to be a veterinarian at the University of Arizona.

Morales-Macias is the second illegal immigrant living in Tucson who has been granted a once-rare deferral from deportation in the last two months. In early August, Marlen Moreno Peralta, a 28-year-old mother of two, was granted one-year deferred action on deportation orders.

Both Tucsonans appear to be among a growing contingent of illegal immigrants who are being allowed to stay in the U.S. because they were either brought here as children, like Moreno, or who have been living here since 1996, like Morales-Macias.
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It's possible that the Obama administration is handpicking sympathetic people such as Moreno and Morales-Macias to grant deferral to gain favor with immigrant advocates while avoiding alienating mainstream voters who favor more immigration enforcement, said Steve Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based organization that advocates for slowing immigration.

"It's one guy; he's pretty sympathetic; nobody notices that much," Camarota said. "Whereas for the advocacy group that is pushing for it, and for this one guy, it means a lot."

Camarota said he's not opposed to selecting certain deserving people for pardons, but the problem is that too many people are manipulating the system. He points to the fact that there are still 500,000 fugitive illegal immigrants in the U.S. who were given deportation orders and never showed up.

"The basic idea of tempering justice with mercy is sound and we ought to have it, and this guy may well qualify," Camarota said. "But the rule of law is being mocked. The rule of law is so weak that we don't need to be thinking about making exceptions."
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http://azstarnet.com/news/local/border/article_535ffc6a-3ea2-5fe5-9682-1...

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4.
Candidates for governor hit Patrick over immigration program
By Mike Beaudet
MyFoxBoston, September 23, 2010

Candidates for governor pounced today on the Patrick administration's refusal so far to sign up for a federal program aimed at finding and deporting immigrants with serious criminal records.

'It's outrageous the Governor is dragging his feet about signing an agreement with federal immigration officials for a year now. Governor Patrick needs to step up and sign this agreement,' Republican candidate Charlie Baker said at a press conference on the steps of the State House.

The denunciation came a day after FOX Undercover reported that Massachusetts has not yet signed an agreement with the federal government to join a program called Secure Communities, which runs the fingerprints of suspects arrested by local police through federal immigration databases.

Massachusetts officials haven't signed an agreement given to them in September 2009 by the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Immigration Enforcement. Without signing the agreement, federal immigration officials can't activate Secure Communities statewide.

At Baker's side was former US Attorney and fellow Republican Michael Sullivan, who said, 'There are criminal aliens that are allowed to walk the streets of the Commonwealth and across our country because Massachusetts is refusing to enter into this memorandum of agreement.'

Gov. Patrick's Independent challenger in the race, state Treasurer Tim Cahill, also called for approving this agreement, saying in a letter to Patrick, '"The Commonwealth's illegal immigration laws, are currently not adequately enforced, and approving this federal program is a step in the right direction."
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http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/undercover/candidates-for-governor-h...

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5.
Union denies ending boycott is political
Capitol Media Service, September 24, 2010

With its endorsed candidates under pressure, leaders of state's largest grocery union on Thursday called off its boycott of Arizona.

James McLaughlin, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 99, said in a prepared statement that the boycott calls followed the April decision of Gov. Jan Brewer to sign what was billed as the toughest state immigration law in the country. He said that is no longer necessary because a federal judge barred the state from enforcing "the most problematic provisions" of SB 1070. McLaughlin said that injunction paves the way for a calmer discussion of the issues.

He acknowledged that the injunction was issued in late July but denied that the decision by UFCW International to rescind the call now was the result of the political buffeting that both the union and those it supports are taking.

"The decision-makers (at the international level) were dealing with other things," he said.

McLaughlin said the boycott was never the idea of his local. But that did not stop Republicans, led by Brewer, from using it to bash not only the union but anyone it supports.

In fact, Republicans organized a coordinated effort calling on anyone endorsed by the UFCW to renounce the union support because of the boycott call, including a TV commercial by Brewer saying Terry Goddard, her Democratic opponent, is endorsed by "big labor organizations who are financially supporting the boycott of Arizona businesses."

That put Goddard in the position of having to say that while he's proud of his union endorsements, he never supported the boycott.
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http://azstarnet.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/article_8451...