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1. Congress may re-visit REAL ID Act
2. Senators pushing for DREAM Act
3. Senator wants to root out H-1B fraud
4. Former Fed Chairman to testify
5. Deportee tests bar on sedatives

1.
Obama, Congress to revisit Real ID
By John Gramlich
Stateline.org, April 23, 2007

Congress and the Obama administration are considering ceding key ground in a long-running battle between the federal government and the states over Real ID, the 4-year-old federal program that requires all states to start issuing more secure driver’s licenses by the end of the year.

Proposed legislation being circulated on Capitol Hill would give states more time, flexibility and money to meet federal Real ID requirements.

For the nation’s more than 245 million drivers, the legislation would allow them to keep using their current driver’s licenses to board commercial flights or enter federal buildings for the foreseeable future. Under Real ID, residents of states that do not meet a checklist of license upgrades would be unable to use those licenses for federal purposes beginning in January.

The congressional proposal may have the backing of the Obama administration. In an appearance Wednesday (April 22) in Washington, D.C., Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano gave the clearest indication to date that the administration plans to push for changes that are favorable to the states.

“We’ve been, over the last weeks, meeting with governors of both parties to look at a way to repeal Real ID and substitute something else that…accomplishes some of the same goals. And we hope to announce something on that soon,” Napolitano said. As governor of Arizona, Napolitano signed a bill prohibiting the state from complying with Real ID; she now oversees the program.

The Real ID Act, passed by Congress in 2005, was intended to create nationwide security standards for driver’s licenses to prevent them from falling into the hands of terrorists and illegal immigrants. The law is based on a recommendation by the 9/11 Commission, the independent panel that investigated the 2001 terrorist attacks and found that the Sept. 11 hijackers had obtained 30 pieces of state identification.

But states have revolted at Real ID, calling it an “unfunded federal mandate” that infringes on a core state responsibility: the issuance of driver’s licenses.
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While state officials are cheering possible changes to a federal policy they have long criticized, others say the revisions would take the teeth out of the law and ignore the 9/11 Commission.

The proposal is “a complete gutting of Real ID,” said Janice Kephart, former counsel to the 9/11 Commission and director of national security policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank opposed to illegal immigration. In a recent analysis of the proposal, Kephart said it would allow criminals and illegal immigrants to obtain state identification easily and “return license and ID issuance to pre-9/11 standards.”
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http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=394594

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2.
DREAM Act creates path to citizenship for undocumented high school students
The Examiner (Washington, DC), April 23, 2009

Over 65,000 highs school students each year don’t apply to college for one simple reason: their parents chose to enter the United States illegally. Senators Richard Durbin of Illinois and Richard Lugar of Indiana, and Rep. Howard Berman of California and Lincoln Diaz-Balart of Florida are trying to change that with the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM). Act, which would create a conditional path to citizenship in exchange for a mandatory two years in higher education or military service.

According to the official DREAM Act website, the current Senate vote is 52 yea and 26 nay. Durbin and company are looking for 8 more votes to pass their bill, and they just got an interesting endorsement—The College Board. James Montoya, vice president of the College Board, made the announcement yesterday, saying the board is supporting the Dream Act so that more students can attend college. The College Board’s report found that 90 to 95 percent of undocumented high school students don’t attend college because federal law prevents them from receiving financial aid and working.
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http://www.examiner.com/x-766-College-Admissions-Examiner~y2009m4d23-DRE...

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3.
Grassley proposes visa immigration crackdown
The Pilot Tribune (Storm Lake, IA), April 23, 2009

In a press conference from Washington, D.C. Wednesday, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley said that he is co-writing legislation to reform some visa immigrant work programs.

The law would be expected to directly effect few legal immigrants in Storm Lake, where most newcomers are labor class, as Grassley says his concerns are aimed at people being brought into the country to take well-paid managerial and technical positions, as well as those being allowed into the country to take jobs because the foreign companies that employ them have operations within the U.S.

"The reason for our bill is we want to root out fraud and abuse," Grassley says. "We want to ensure that Americans are given every consideration when applying for jobs."

Immigration and work visa issues are important in Storm Lake, where unemployment remains well below state and national levels, and many employers depend on a flow of newcomer workers. Two decades ago, less than 1 percent of the people in Buena Vista County were Hispanic, for example. By 2006, it was estimated that the county had the highest percentage of Hispanics of any county in Iowa, at 19.2 percent, compared with less than 4 percent statewide at the time. Buena Vista County also ranks highest in Iowa in percentages of young international immigrants being served by English Language Learner programs.
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http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20303083&BRD=1304&PAG=461&dept...

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4.
Alan Greenspan talks…Immigration?
FOX News, April 22, 2009

That’s right.

The former Fed Chairman, who once commanded the world’s ear when he uttered even one word, will travel to Capitol Hill next week not to talk about the economy (he’s done that), but to talk about comprehensive immigration reform.

The Obama Administration has not seemed anxious to deal with this political hot potato, at least not this year, but recently Congressional Democrats committed to trying, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, asking for a bill to be ready by September.

Greenspan will testify before the immigration subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, who took over this year from Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-MA, tireless champion of a comprehsive reform effort that put illegals on a path to citizenship.

It’s important, no doubt, in the midst of an economic crisis, that you prove why bringing in a whole new work force would not make a bad situation worse. Who better to talk about this than someone like Greenspan, asked one aide to the subcommittee.

A Schumer aide tells Fox that the new chairman wants to see if it’s even possible to do the reform this year. Greenspan has said he supports an increase in visas for highly-skilled workers.

Also appearing before the committee, a representative from the powerful union - SEIU (Service Employees International Union), which recently announced an agreement with a coalition of liberal groups to legalize the approximately 12 million illegals currently in the U.S. Among the principles agreed to, that temporary worker programs be improved but not expanded and not made permanent.
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http://congress.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/04/22/alan-greenspan-talksimmigra...

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5.
An unruly deportee puts the U.S. in a legal bind
By Mike McGraw
The McClatchy Newspapers, April 23, 2009

Kansas City, MO -- What do you do with a Kenyan on an expired visa who just won't go home?

In the curious case of David Kihuha, the government wants to resume a rarely used and controversial practice and sedate him, then put him on a one-way flight to Nairobi.

But that has proven to be difficult, at best.

Indeed, the case of the 36-year-old Kenyan, a former Olathe, Kan., resident, has frustrated federal prosecutors, hobbled the government's deportation system and led to the unusual tactic of indicting Kihuha on federal felonies for, in essence, refusing to leave.

As the drama plays out in U.S. District Court in Kansas, Kihuha (pronounced Kee-hoo-ha) remains in a cell in Leavenworth, and he's made it abundantly clear he prefers prison in America over freedom in Kenya.

Fearful that returning home could be dangerous, Kihuha - who has been in the United States 13 years on an expired student visa - sought asylum because of violence in Kenya.

"That is the fuel that feeds his intransigence," his federal public defender, Melody Evans, said in court. "Whatever his circumstance here, it cannot be worse than what he faces at home," wrote Evans, who declined to comment further on the case.

How determined is Kihuha? Since he was denied asylum, he has used every means available to avoid deportation.

Twice last year, when immigration agents tried to deport him, Kihuha managed a last-minute reprieve. He bit, he spit and, according to government records, managed to "cover himself in his own excrement." He also chewed up a head covering known as a "spit mask."

"I told them I did not want to go. I told them to take me back to jail," Kihuha said in a phone interview from his cell.

Belaboring the obvious, the government noted in court filings that commercial pilots "will not accept a violent, feces-besmeared passenger who chews off protective clothing and spits and bites."

The government's frustration with Kihuha is evident in documents filed after his indictment last year for refusing to leave.

"Dumping defendant out the door of the plane with a parachute is not practically or diplomatically prudent," the government noted at one point.

"Delivering defendant to the front gate of the nearest Kenyan Embassy is also not on the list of approved repatriation techniques," the government said in another court filing.

As for his methods, government prosecutors said, he has "crafted a relatively painless plot" to prevent his deportation "and he has done so at the mere cost of occasional dignity."

Some who know him say Kihuha is no poster child for the sympathetic immigrant. And since going to jail, he has become so obsessed with remaining here that he has reportedly become unpredictable and uncooperative, even with those who are trying to help him.
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http://www.flcourier.com/News/2009/0424/diaspora/0009.html