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1. Sen. may face Lou Dobbs
2. MPI: foreign unemployment higher
3. MA: licenses, tuition for illegals
4. AZ co. sweeps nab 32
5. Activists blast deportation

1.
Lou Dobbs Gets $8M Goodbye; Will He Challenge Menendez?
By Rob Kuznia
HispanicBusiness.com, November 17, 2009

Lou Dobbs' abrupt departure from CNN may have been a victory for his detractors, but for Dobbs, the bitter pill was no doubt sweetened by CNN's parting gift of $8 million.

And for his detractors -- in particular Hispanic immigration activists -- the sweet victory could soon be dampened. That's because many are speculating that Dobbs may challenge the nation's only Hispanic U.S. Senator, Robert Menendez, a Democrat, for his New Jersey seat.

A firebrand on illegal immigration, Dobbs had become an enemy of immigration activists, and a liability to CNN, which has sought to position itself as the middle-of-the-road cable alternative to Fox News on the right and MSNBC on the left.

Dobbs' $12 million contract wasn't set to expire until the end of 2011, but The New York Post reported that he was paid $8 million to terminate it early. He'd been at the station for 27 years.

During his first post-resignation interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, Dobbs said he believed his style become untenable to CNN after the election of President Obama.

Asked if speculation that he might run for the Senate in New Jersey had any truth, Dobbs didn't deny it.

"A lot of things are on my mind," Dobbs responded. "I'm not going to be coy about this....I'm thinking — my wife and I are thinking about a lot of opportunities. I'm very blessed to have a lot of opportunities."
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http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/politics/2009/11/17/lou_dobbs_gets_8m_go...

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2.
Immigrant jobless rate soared during recession 8:08 AM CT
By Brendan Case
The Dallas Morning News, November 18, 2009

Immigrants had a lower unemployment rate than native-born workers during the last economic boom but the Great Recession reversed that trend, according to a study released Wednesday by the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

Hit hard by the housing bust, immigrants had an unemployment rate of 9.2 percent during the first three months of 2009, compared to 7.8 percent jobless rate for those born in the United States.

Foreign-born workers had a lower unemployment rate between 2005 and 2007, hitting a low of 3.4 percent in 2006 compared with 4.5 percent for the native-born.

“Despite the longer-term trend of rising employment and falling unemployment rates for foreign-born workers, the current recession offers new evidence that economic outcomes for immigrants in the short run are more strongly tied to the business cycle than for natives,” said Pia Orrenius, an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas who co-authored the study.

Orrenius and co-author Madeline Zavodny, an economics professor at Agnes Scott College in Georgia, cited several possible explanations of the trend.

For example, they said, immigrants tend to have less education, and less educated people have experienced greater job losses.

In addition, foreign-born workers are more likely to work in sectors that rise and fall with the overall business cycle, such as construction and manufacturing. On the other hand, however, they are more mobile across geographic areas and types of jobs.
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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/111909...

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3.
State report urges financial aid, driver's licenses for illegal immigrants
By Michael Morton
The Easton Journal (MA), November 18, 2009

Gov. Deval Patrick released a state-sponsored report on foreign-born residents yesterday that calls for allowing illegal immigrants to apply for college financial aid, in-state tuition and, eventually, drivers' licenses.

pdf icon PDF: Read the entire New Americans report

The report, called the New Americans Agenda, was prepared by an executive branch advisory council, an immigrant advocacy group and a state agency, and is meant to better integrate immigrants and refugees into the state's social, economic and civic spheres.

Rep. John Fernandes, a Milford Democrat whose father emigrated from Portugal, said his quick scan of the study revealed that it had not addressed enforcement of existing laws and the burden his town and others have seen from illegal immigration.

"It's an advocacy document," he said. "It's not a balanced document. That was my fear and that's what I see."

Gov. Deval Patrick called the report a "values statement" but has not yet endorsed any of the recommendations, choosing to create an interagency task force to draft a plan over the next three months. Fernandes said some changes could likely be made by executive order, while others will require legislative approval.

While no decisions have been made, Sen. Scott Brown, R-Wrentham, was also quick to criticize the proposals on drivers' licenses and in-state tuition, which he said would act as a magnet for new arrivals and impose further costs on taxpayers.

"Government should strictly enforce the law, not ignore it with a wink and a nod, or even worse, pass laws that condone illegal behavior," said Brown, who is running for U.S. Senate.

The report, issued by the Governor's Advisory Council for Refugees and Immigrants, the Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants and the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, found a diverse immigrant population representing at least 16 percent of the work force.

While 24 percent of immigrants hold at least a master's degree, as a whole the group is still more likely than the general population to lack a high school diploma.

Two-fifths are unable to speak English "very well." Roughly half are naturalized citizens, with many others here legally, the report found. Combined, immigrants pay $1.2 billion in state incomes taxes annually and $1 billion in property taxes.

Beyond the high-profile recommendations for those here illegally, the report's authors urged the state to push for comprehensive federal immigration reform, decrying a debate they feel has grown toxic at times.
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http://www.wickedlocal.com/easton/news/x870218909/State-report-urges-fin...

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4.
32 arrested in Arpaio's latest crackdown
By Glen Creno and Kathleen Gormley
The Arizona Republic (Phoenix), NOvember 17, 2009

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has arrested 32 people during its two-day "crime suppression" crackdown, officials said Tuesday.

Three people were arrested Tuesday at Airport Enterprises, a Phoenix auto-body repair shop near Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, on suspicion of identity theft and forgery, said Lt. Brian Lee, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office.

An employee had tipped off the Sheriff's Office in April 2008, Lee said. Further details on the arrests were not immediately available.

On Monday, Arpaio kicked off the operation by targeting areas along Interstate 17 in Anthem.

In one instance, 18 people in one vehicle were arrested on allegations that they violated the state human-smuggling law, which allows recent illegal immigrants to be charged as co-conspirators in their own smuggling, officials said.

Others were arrested on charges that ranged from unpaid traffic offenses to possession of marijuana to refusing to show ID.
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http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2009/11/17/20091117a...

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5.
After accidental deportation, critics say immigration officials making mistakes
After a Salvadoran man was mistakenly deported, immigration rights activists have complained about toughened enforcement by authorities.
BY Alfonso Chardy
The Miami Herald, November 18, 2009

Two months after questions were raised about the legality of his deportation by U.S. authorities, a Salvadoran man returned from his homeland Tuesday to a tearful reunion with his wife in Miami.

Meanwhile, friends and relatives of two Miami Dade College students are drumming up support to keep the two men from being deported to their native Venezuela.

The cases, say immigrant rights advocates, have rekindled fears that immigration authorities are stepping up detentions and deportations.

``The immigrant community expected reform, that was promised, and all they've got is increased enforcement,'' said Jonathan Fried, executive director of WeCount!, a Homestead-based immigrant rights group planning a public meeting Saturday on immigration enforcement. ``The Obama administration has no heart. It's all about politics.''

U.S. immigration authorities counter that they continue to focus their enforcement efforts on criminal aliens -- immigrants who are convicted of crimes while in the United States, said Barbara Gonzalez, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman in Washington.

Arrests Increasing

The latest numbers show that ICE arrested nearly 16,000 criminal aliens in fiscal year 2009, up from less than 8,000 in the previous year. In Miami, arrests have climbed from 263 to 725 during the same time period.

``Our numbers are a clear indication that our focus is on criminal aliens,'' Gonzalez said.

ICE officials would not provide details on the case of José C. Rodríguez-Portillo, the Salvadoran man allowed to return to the United States or that of the students, Guillermo and Jesús Reyes.

None of the three immigrants are criminal aliens but the legal status of all three remains in question.
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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/5min/story/1338772.html