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1. Senate tables DREAM Act
2. Senator defends position
3. Fed law draws scrutiny
4. TN considers enforcement
5. Advocates fight policy

1.
Senate tables its DREAM Act for House version
Politico (washington, DC), December 10, 2010

Senate Democrats voted to kill their own version of the DREAM Act on Thursday so they can consider the one passed Wednesday in the House, but final passage of the bill still seems like a long shot.

The Senate will move to the House bill "later this month," according to a joint statement Thursday afternoon from Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who introduced the immigration bill in the Senate.

"The DREAM Act is not a symbolic vote," Reid and Durbin said. "We owe it to the young men and women whose lives will be affected by this bill, and to the country which needs their service in the military and their skills in building our economy, to honestly address this issue. Members on both sides of the aisle need to ask themselves if we can afford to say to these talented young men and women there is no place in America for you."

The DREAM Act offers a path to citizenship for up to 2 million illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children, provided they attend college or join the military for two years, among other requirements.

But the House bill isn't expected to survive a lame-duck vote in the Senate. Republicans have vowed to block any legislation this month that is unrelated to extending expiring tax cuts or funding the government, and Democrats don't appear to have the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.
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http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/1210/Senate_tables_its_DREAM_A...

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2.
Graham, who helped immigrant, sees no conflict with current stand
By James Rosen
McClatchy Newspapers, December 10, 2010

Six years ago, Sen. Lindsey Graham introduced a rare type of bill that blocked the U.S. government from punishing an South Carolina high school girl for a crime her mother had committed long ago by smuggling her across the Mexico border.

Seven months ago, Griselda Lopez Negrete graduated from the University of South Carolina with an honors degree in business administration - and as a permanent legal resident of the United States on a path toward citizenship.

Graham, though, has trod a different path.

Three years after promoting a landmark immigration reform bill, Graham, a South Carolina Republican, is now joining hard-liners in opposing a measure that would grant the same protections to children of illegal immigrants that he provided Negrete in 2004.

Graham sees no contradiction between his past support for immigration overhauls - branded as "amnesty" by his fellow South Carolina Republican, Sen. Jim DeMint - and his current stance against a measure to create a conditional route to citizenship for as many as 500,000 children of illegal immigrants.

The House of Representatives passed the DREAM Act - Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors - late Wednesday, and the Senate is expected to vote on it next week.

"I'm not saying the DREAM Act is bad," Graham told McClatchy Thursday. "I'm saying that the DREAM Act done by itself is a formula for disaster because you're inviting people to come here illegally."

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., however, said the bill applies only to those already in the country at the time it passes.

"I am proud that in this toxic political climate, the House did the right thing and passed good common-sense bipartisan legislation that gives our Latino brothers and sisters a chance to contribute to our country's future," Clyburn said.

Graham, who voted against a similar Senate measure in 2007, said it must be part of broader legislation that secures the U.S.-Mexico border, overhauls federal guest-worker programs and enacts other changes.

The House-passed bill makes immigrants younger than 30 eligible for legal residency if they entered the U.S. before age 16, lived here for at least five years without committing a serious crime and graduated from high school.

The undocumented youths would also have to attend college or serve in the military for two years or more under the House measure.

Graham, however, accused Democrats who pushed the legislation of playing "a silly, stupid game" aimed at alienating Hispanics from Republicans.

Predicting that the DREAM Act will "go down in flames" in the Senate with at least eight Democrats opposing it, Graham said the party's congressional leaders are pushing it to fulfill a promise by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid during the Nevada Democrat's tough re-election campaign.
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http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/09/1966464/graham-who-helped-immigran...

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3.
Border battle re-ignited with federal wilderness law
By Erik Ness
American Farm Bureau Federation, December 10, 2010

Dudley Williams can see Mexico from his ranch on the common and conflicted international border in southern New Mexico. He has also seen first hand the problems caused by smuggling and other illegal activities that are part of the daily landscape for ranchers and farmers all along the 1,969 mile border that stretches from Brownsville, Texas to San Diego, Calif.

When word got out that federal legislation (S.1689) had been drafted to create federal wilderness areas along this border, Williams and other ranchers were rightly concerned. Law enforcement agencies, especially the U.S. Border Patrol, could be ham-strung when it comes to enforcing law and order along the border, due to strict wilderness-area rules. Strict limits on vehicle use in designated wilderness areas is one example. As rancher Williams points out, “you can’t even ride a bicycle in a federal wilderness area.”

After hearing about the proposed expansion of wilderness areas in their border region, ranchers in New Mexico organized and have worked diligently to inform the non-ranching pubic about all sides of the debate. Their organization started out with a handful of families and grew to a coalition of more than 800 businesses and organizations opposed to this move. The New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau joined the effort and produced a documentary covering the issue.

Pressure from the ranching group led to some changes that reflect their concerns about public safety and national security, including allowing low-level surveillance flights and some law enforcement buffer zones. However, due to their experiences with other failed federal promises, these ranchers remain concerned.
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Janice Kephart, an internationally recognized border security expert, recently issued a report for the Center for Immigration Studies in which she concludes that designation of new border wilderness areas would “provide the Border Patrol with little ability and little incentive to do its job under law, let alone state, local and other federal law enforcement.” She says actual conservation of public lands would be better served by, “protecting our public safety and national security with adequate law enforcement and infrastructure.” The ranchers who live and work in this rugged outlaw country are inclined to agree with that assessment.
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http://naturalresourcereport.com/2010/12/border-battle-re-ignited-with-f...

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4.
Tennessee Considers Arizona-style Immigration Law
EFE, December 10, 2010

Tennessee’s legislators plan to consider a bill next year styled after Arizona’s SB 1070, even though the state already has strict laws targeting illegal immigrants.

State Sen. Bill Ketron and Rep. Joe Carr, both Republicans, are preparing a bill that criminalizes illegal immigrants and authorizes local law enforcement authorities to detain “any person” suspected of being in the country unlawfully.

“You can’t deny how [illegal immigration] is affecting us, from education to healthcare to the judicial system to incarceration, and more importantly the number of jobs it’s taken away,” Ketron said.

Like Tennessee, other nearby states, including North Carolina and South Carolina, have expressed an interest in starting out the new legislative session in 2011 reviewing measures similar to the law in Arizona, the first in the nation to criminalize being in the country unlawfully.
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http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2010/12/10/tennessees-legislat...

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5.
Immigrants want Mayor Bloomberg to cool ICE's heat, fight fingerprint policy
By Erica Pearson and Adam Lisberg
New York Daily News, December 10, 2010

Immigrant advocates Thursday demanded Mayor Bloomberg take a stand on a new program that forces cops to give Immigration and Customs Enforcement the fingerprints of anyone arrested.

"We hope that he would take a stand on this. It's supposed to be a sanctuary city," said Angela Fernandez, executive director of the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights.

Bloomberg was noncommittal, though, saying there are times when city authorities must ask about immigration status.

"If there is a public safety reason to do it, if you get arrested," Bloomberg said.

ICE officials say the program, called Secure Communities, will flag and remove dangerous criminals who are here illegally.
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http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/12/10/2010-12-10_immigrants_wan...