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1. NY, CA congressional gains
2. Justice redefines language
3. Illegal aliens and poverty
4. Panel calls for amnesty efforts
5. SC Census to reach illegals

1.
Population shifts could boost Calif, NY in census
By Hope Yen
The Associated Press, December 9, 2009

Washington, DC (AP) -- A steady flow of new immigrants is providing a late-decade population boost to major metropolitan areas such as Chicago, Miami, New York and Los Angeles, whose states are seeking to stem declines before the 2010 census.

Even with a recent dip in immigration, the addition of foreign migrants into those major cities most attractive to them has cushioned substantial population losses from native-born Americans who had migrated to interior parts of the U.S. in search of jobs, wider spaces and affordable housing before the recession.

Now that many U.S. residents are staying put in large cities due to a housing crunch, California, Illinois and New York each are on track to avert a loss of at least one House seat. Florida could add one or two seats to its delegation depending on how much recent mortgage foreclosures have erased earlier population gains.

"From all that we have been seeing, there is a definite slowdown in the migration trends that had put these states at risk," said Kimball Brace, president of Election Data Services, a Virginia-based firm that crunches political numbers. Those states have "been given a grace of God."

Still, noting that many of the population numbers remain in flux, Brace cautioned: "A whole congressional seat can change at the drop of the hat."

An analysis by the Brookings Institution think tank finds immigration is buoying many of the nation's larger cities. New York and Los Angeles picked up 1.1 million and 815,000 immigrants since 2000, respectively, and together account for one-fourth of the foreign-born arrivals. That lessened the impact of an exodus of 1.8 million residents from New York and 1.2 million from Los Angeles.

Chicago, Washington and Miami have been hurt by overbuilding and foreclosures in parts of their metro regions, but last year they reversed trends from earlier in the decade and posted increases in immigrants that more than offset losses in native-born Americans.

In all, 20 out of the 40 largest metropolitan areas sustained losses in American-born residents from 2000 to 2008, including Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco, according to the Brookings study being released Wednesday. But in 15 of those 20 metro areas, immigration made up for at least half of the associated population loss.

In contrast, declining Rust Belt areas, such as Detroit, Pittsburgh and Milwaukee, failed to reap substantial population benefits from immigrants.

The population projections are based on 2008 census estimates. The Census Bureau later this month will release new 2009 figures that are expected to highlight a continuing decline in U.S. mobility.
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gWKOuujT_-Tpw-ahKjqwlj...

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2.
Sotomayor Draws Retort From a Fellow Justice
By Adam Liptak
The New York Times, December 8, 2009

Washington, DC -- The Supreme Court released its first four decisions in argued cases this term on Tuesday. They were all minor, but one was notable for being Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court debut and for prompting a testy concurrence from Justice Clarence Thomas.

The case concerned whether federal trial-court rulings concerning the lawyer-client privilege may be appealed right away. Justice Sotomayor, with methodical reasoning and a formal writing style, said no.
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In an otherwise dry opinion, Justice Sotomayor did introduce one new and politically charged term into the Supreme Court lexicon.

Justice Sotomayor’s opinion in the case, Mohawk Industries v. Carpenter, No. 08-678, marked the first use of the term “undocumented immigrant,” according to a legal database. The term “illegal immigrant” has appeared in a dozen decisions.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/us/09sotomayor.html

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3.
An undesirable inheritance
U.S.-born kids of illegal immigrants twice as likely as others to face poverty
By N.C. Aizenman
The Washington Post, December 9, 2009

Eight-year-old Alex picked up a 75-cent can of fruit punch from one of the grocery store's shelves and called excitedly to his mother in Spanish.

"Mami! Can we buy something to drink?"

Maria, 38, gave her stocky third-grader a sympathetic smile. She'd already made Alex and his 3-year-old sister, Emelyn, walk 30 minutes under a broiling sun from their house in suburban Maryland to the Safeway, the closest place that accepts Emelyn's federal milk and cereal vouchers. Then they'd trekked 20 minutes more to this cheaper Latino grocery so Maria, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who can't afford a car and wouldn't be eligible for a driver's license anyway, could save $3.40 on chicken.

"At home, my son," Maria said soothingly. "When we get home, you can drink some water."

"But I'm really thirsty," Alex persisted.

"No, son. At home."

"But I need to drink now."

"No! No!" snapped Maria. "I already said, 'No!' "

She hates these moments, she said later -- these unavoidable reminders of the hardships her U.S.-born children face because she and their father, Luis, are illegal immigrants.

Of all the disadvantages that U.S.-born children of Hispanic immigrants might confront, none is more significant than being raised by parents who are in the country illegally.

Forty percent -- or 3.3 million of these children -- have at least one parent who is an illegal immigrant, mostly from Mexico or Central America, according to a recent analysis of census data by demographer Jeffrey S. Passel of the Pew Hispanic Center. And researchers warn that the long-term consequences for the country could be profound.

"The fact that so many in this population face these initial disadvantages has huge implications in terms of their education, their future labor market experience, their integration in the broader society, and their political participation," said Roberto Gonzales, a professor at the University of Washington who has studied this generation.

The most immediate result has been a substantial increase in the number of American children growing up in poverty. Partly because illegal immigrants tend to have low levels of education and partly because their immigration status makes it harder to move up the job ladder, their U.S.-born children are almost twice as likely to be poor as the children of legal immigrants or native parents, the Pew Hispanic Center found.

To supporters of immigrants, that's an argument for offering a path to legalization for the adults in "mixed-status families." These are households in which the parents are in the country illegally while their U.S.-born children are entitled to all the benefits and aid that their parents are not.

"When you talk about someone who is undocumented, the chances are extremely high that they are in a mixed-status family. . . . Legalization would be one of the best anti-poverty strategies we could employ," said Frank Sharry, executive director of the advocacy group America's Voice.

But advocates for stricter immigration laws see these families as one of the most compelling reasons to clamp down on illegal immigration.

"Not because [illegal immigrants] are ripping us off or don't work hard," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, "but because they're collecting benefits for their children. In our society, people with a fifth-grade education can hold two or three jobs and still not afford to support their families. There's no way for them to avoid putting a strain on the social-welfare system."
A family on the edge
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/08/AR200912...

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4.
Panel pushes immigration overhaul
By Diana Washington Valdez
The El Paso Times (TX), December 9, 2009

El Paso, TX -- The time has come for the U.S. government to focus on other aspects of immigration besides enforcement, a panel of national security and law- enforcement experts said Tuesday.

"While we have made unprecedented investments in security at the border, more enforcement resources alone will not make us more secure," said James W. Zig lar, ex-commissioner of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service and a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute.

"We must find a pragmatic way to prevent future unlawful immigration and deal with the existing undocumented population already here by enacting comprehensive immigration reform."

The experts said an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants are living in the United States.

El Paso police Chief Greg Allen was invited to join the experts for a national telephone conference on the topic.

"Comprehensive immigration reform will allow law enforcement to focus limited resources on criminals who continue to evade the law, and help re-establish trust between law enforcement and everyone living in our communities," Allen said.
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http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_13957042?source=most_viewed

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5.
Census to count minority groups, illegal immigrants
The Independent Mail (SC), December 8, 2009

Anderson, SC -- U.S. Census Bureau officials in South Carolina are stepping up efforts to count minority groups, including illegal immigrants, for the 2010 census.

The Anderson census office, on 1504 N. Fant St., will open today.

The people who are most difficult to count include rural residents, speakers of other languages, low-income people, immigrants and minorities.

Terry Plumb, a spokesman for the Regional Census Bureau Office in Charlotte, which covers the Carolinas, said South Carolina will execute its most ambitious outreach program for minority communities. He said at least 14 partnership specialists, including at least two Spanish speakers, will work throughout South Carolina to build bridges between businesses and census officials.

Plumb said many centers will be set up in Upstate South Carolina, including one at Westside Community Center in Anderson, to help people fill out questionnaires.

“The influx of Hispanics is new to the Carolinas,” Plumb said. “It is certainly not new to other parts of the United States.”

Plumb said the census forms that will be mailed out to people in mid-March will be in English and Spanish. There will be a number of Spanish-speaking workers at the Anderson office, he said.

The Census Bureau will hire people to knock on the doors of people who do not return their census form to encourage them to fill the forms out, Plumb said. He would like the people who knock on the doors to be members of their communities so that they understand the people who live there.

Plumb said that the U.S. Census Bureau cannot provide any personal information to Immigration Customs Enforcement, so illegal immigrants who participate should not worry about being deported. Workers who share personal census information can face up to five years in prison, he siad.

Plumb said the census workers in the South Carolina have been working with the state’s budget and control board to reach out to ethnic media. The census questionnaire does not ask people whether they are legal U.S. citizens, he said.
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Steve Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors tighter immigration standards, said he was undecided on whether illegal immigrant should be counted in the census. He said that it does not seem right when people say illegal immigrants have a right to be counted.

“There are many parts of the country with few illegals,” Camarota said. “If you count illegals it has to mean that you take representation away from areas comprised of entirely U.S. citizens.”

Camarota said that counting illegal immigrants could take political power away from South Carolina and give it to the suburban Charlotte area, which has a higher concentration of illegal immigrants.
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http://www.independentmail.com/news/2009/dec/08/census-count-minority-gr...