1. Angle targets Reid on imm.
2. Deportations reach high
3. Poll: Texans want security
4. Poll: Iowans on immigration
5. MA gov. talks Sec. Comm.

1.
Angle Ads Increase Tensions Over Immigration
By Alexandra Berzon
The Wall Street Journal, October 7, 2010

Sharron Angle’s series of ads attacking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on immigration has ratcheted up tensions in the closely fought Senate race in Nevada.

An ad released Tuesday by the GOP candidate, a favorite of tea party activists, is the third in recent weeks that accuses Reid of favoring illegal immigrants over lawful residents. It shows three people on a dark night looking for a way around a tall chain link fence. The narrator says Reid tried to give “preferred college tuition rates” to illegal immigrants and asks, “What does Harry Reid have against you?”
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The Reid campaign called the ad untrue and denounced it as “fear-mongering.”
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http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/10/07/angle-ads-increase-tensions-ove...

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2.
U.S. deportations reach record high
By Shankar Vedantam
The Washington Post, October 7, 2010

The Obama administration announced Wednesday that in the past year it has deported a record number of unauthorized immigrants - more than 392,000, about half of whom were convicted criminals.

Officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said removals during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 included more than 1,000 murderers, nearly 6,000 sex offenders, 45,000 drug offenders and 28,000 drunk drivers. The number fell short of the agency expectation of 400,000 deportations but still surpassed the 2009 total of 389,834, the previous record, according to the Associated Press.

The percentage targeting criminals rose sharply - up from 35 percent in the previous fiscal year - in keeping with a new emphasis at the Department of Homeland Security to use immigration enforcement as a crime-fighting tool.

"It has been another record-breaking year at ICE - one that has seen ICE enforce the law at record levels, and in sensible, firm and thoughtful ways," said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

Officials said that they had also stepped up audits of employers suspected of using unauthorized immigrants as workers, part of a strategy to undercut the magnet of jobs that draws many migrants. Officials said that 180 owners, employers or managers had been criminally charged and $50 million had been levied in fines.

The announcement comes less than a month before November's midterm elections, in which Democrats are fighting to retain control of Congress. Obama administration officials, always wary of criticism that they are insufficiently committed to immigration enforcement, pointed out that the actions against employers and the number of deportations were higher than during the Bush administration.

The new enforcement measures appear to be correlated with declines in illegal border crossings but also with record numbers of deaths among migrants entering the country by crossing the Arizona desert. More than 250 deaths have been recorded in the past year, and advocates believe that tougher border enforcement has caused migrants to venture farther out into the desert to reach the United States.

Napolitano credited programs known as 287G and Secure Communities, both of which leverage the reach of local law enforcement officials, for the stepped-up deportations. She said that crime along the border was either stable or falling, and that "some of America's safest cities are right along the southwest border."

But some ICE critics say the effort to target criminals for deportation, which often involves assistance from state and local law enforcement officials, has swept up unauthorized immigrants who had committed minor offenses - or no offenses at all.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/06/AR201010...

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3.
Poll: Texans want tough border security, path to citizenship
By Doug Miller
KENS 5 TV (Texas), October 7, 2010

A new poll indicates most Texas voters want to get tough on border security, but they also want to give undocumented immigrants already living in the state a way to become citizens.

Voters surveyed for the KHOU-Belo Texas Poll cite immigration and border issues second only to the economy as the most important issue in the current governor's race. And most of those voters believe Gov. Rick Perry will handle the issue better than Bill White.

Immigration is the top issue for 12 percent of likely voters surveyed in the KHOU-Belo Texas Poll, with another 7 percent citing border security. When the two issues are combined, they become the top concern of 19 percent of surveyed voters.

"I think it has a lot to do with the frustration that there hasn't been anything really done about the illegal immigration issue in most people's minds," said David Iannelli, a pollster with Public Strategies, Inc., the Austin-based group that conducted the survey.

The issue seems to play into Perry's hand. When asked which candidate they thought was better able to handle the issue, 51 percent named Perry and 36 percent named White.

An overwhelming majority of surveyed voters – 70 percent -- believe Texas should adopt a strict immigration law similar to the one recently adopted in Arizona. Only 29 percent oppose such a law, which would give police in Texas the power to ask about the immigration status of anyone they detain.
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http://www.kens5.com/news/Poll-Texans-urge-immigration-reform-including-...

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4.
Iowa Poll: Attitudes shift on immigration
By Lee Rood
Des Moines Register, October 7, 2010

A new Iowa Poll shows 50 percent of Iowans believe the state should continue to encourage people from other countries to settle here, but the sentiment is not as strong as it was just three years ago.

In 2007, nearly two-thirds of Iowans favored encouraging people from other countries to come to the state, according to poll results.

Today, 41 percent of Iowans would discourage the newcomers — an attitude more prevalent among older or conservative respondents. That figure stood at 27 percent three years ago.

Sixty-six percent of Iowans also favor passing an illegal-immigration law like the one enacted this year in Arizona, requiring local law enforcement to check the legal residency status of people stopped for other offenses. The feeling is strongest — more than 80 percent — among tea party supporters, Republicans, born-again Christians and people who say they intend to vote for former Gov. Terry Branstad as he seeks the office again.

David Cook-Martin, a professor of sociology at Grinnell College and researcher for the National Science Foundation, said the poll results reflect the impact of both election-year politics and increased economic fears.

Historically, people's views on illegal immigration do not always follow party lines, he said. But the Republican Party has succeeded in making the issue a critical one this year, in part because of people's worries over the long-lasting recession, Cook-Martin said.

"If you take a very long view, nativist groups have been successful in making immigration an issue in times of crisis," he said.

The poll of 803 Iowa adults, conducted by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines from Sept. 19 to 22, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Branstad: State should be part of enforcement

In recent years, Iowa's Democrat-led Legislature and Gov. Chet Culver have largely stayed out of the national fray over immigration. But some believe that will change if Branstad is re-elected in November.

Branstad, a Republican who led Culver by 19 points in the most recent Iowa Poll, has taken a more rigid stance on illegal immigration as the governor's race has progressed. He has said drivers who are stopped by law enforcement for offenses, as well as their passengers, should have to prove their legal status — a move Culver's campaign calls politics based on "fear and division."

Branstad used to say, as Culver still does, that immigration enforcement was the federal government's province. But Branstad now says states are right to take action that meets their own needs if the federal government will not act on reform.

"I think we should be very welcoming to legal immigrants, and we ought to encourage people to locate in Iowa," he said in a statement. "When I was governor, we welcomed people from Bosnia and Eastern Europe, and it worked out very well. It is a different situation when someone comes here illegally. I believe the law should be uniformly enforced, and that employers should be required to do E-Verification to ensure people hired are here legally."

If re-elected governor, Branstad has said he would abide by the U.S. Supreme Court requiring equal access to education for immigrant children. But he has said he disagrees with that decision and believes children of immigrants in the country illegally should not be allowed to attend public schools — which Culver calls "extreme."

"As governor, (Branstad) never challenged the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that children of unauthorized immigrants are eligible for K-12 public education," Culver said in a written statement. "Now, he has decided to pander to the base of his party and opposes the Supreme Court's ruling. He would rather turn these kids loose on the street than have them receive a basic education."
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http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20101007/NEWS10/10070346/-1/SPO...

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5.
Local police looking at ICE immigration program
By David Riley
The MetroWest Daily News (Mass.), October 7, 2010

As federal officials press the state to get on board with a national program to deport illegal immigrants who commit major crimes, local police chiefs are trying to get up to speed on the initiative.

The program has also become a political football in the governor's race, with Republican Charlie Baker and independent Tim Cahill slamming Gov. Deval Patrick for not acting sooner. Baker recently accused Patrick of "turning a blind eye to the problem."

Patrick's administration said it is now in talks with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while suggesting the federal agency until now had done little to explain the program.

"There's been a lack of consistency and clarity from ICE over the years as to what the parameters and restrictions of the program are, and what it is, if anything, they would like the state to do," said John A. Grossman, an undersecretary in the state Executive Office of Public Safety.

Under the program, called Secure Communities, local and state police departments would automatically share fingerprints of all people arrested, checking them against a federal database, according to an ICE fact sheet.

If there is a match, ICE would check the person's immigration status. The federal agency says it would prioritize and possibly seek to hold those accused of major crimes, such as murder or sex offenses.

ICE hopes to have the program running nationally by 2013.

Some immigration advocates worry the program could lead to deportation for people who have not committed serious crimes and could discourage immigrants from working with police.

"The work of the local police is to keep local communities safe from crime," said Frank Soults, communications director for the Mass. Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. "To do that, they need to have good relations with everyone living in the community, which is why many police chiefs are wary of being part of Secure Communities."

In participating towns and cities, more than one-quarter of those deported had not committed a major crime, according to a study this year by the Center for Constitutional Rights, National Day Laborers' Organizing Network and the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

ICE has disputed those findings.

Locally, police chiefs are reviewing what the program could mean for their departments.

Framingham Police Chief Steven Carl could not be reached for comment yesterday. His department last year withdrew from a separate program that allowed officers to enforce immigration laws after Carl said U.S. authorities pressed the department to expand its role.

Milford Police Chief Thomas O'Loughlin said there are legal nuances to work out between local and federal law enforcement, but for the most part, he has no problem with Secure Communities.
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In an op-ed piece submitted to the Daily News, Jessica Vaughan of Franklin, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, said claims of immigrants being likely to mistrust police are "unfounded and misleading." There is no evidence, she said, of a chilling effect or abuse of the program.

Vaughan, whose group favors tighter immigration control, also questioned how people can trust law enforcement if officers must look the other way at immigration law violations.

She wrote that the only people who need fear Secure Communities are those who commit serious crimes.
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http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x2029544487/Local-police-looking-...