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1. Unemployment at record high
2. Admin appoints USCIS chief
3. DHS focuses enforcement
4. Sen. lauds ICE strategy
5. Border safety questioned

1.
For immigrants, Colo. jobs vanishing
The number of foreign-born workers has fallen by more than for U.S.-born laborers.
By Bruce Finley
The Denver Post, May 1, 2009
http://www.denverpost.com/nationalpolitics/ci_12267517

As Congress reopened immigration debate Thursday, new data indicated immigrants are bearing the brunt of economic hard times.

Immigrants in Colorado are particularly hard-hit, according to an analysis of government census data by the Center for Immigration Studies.

The number of foreign-born workers employed in Colorado decreased by 20 percent to 252,000 in the first quarter of 2009, from 315,000 in the third quarter of 2007, the analysis found.

By comparison, the number of U.S.-born workers employed in Colorado decreased by 0.8 percent, to 2.28 million from 2.29 million, the analysis found.

Jobless rates similar

Released Thursday, the analysis was based on the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey — a primary source of workforce data. Researchers looked at numbers of workers employed as well as joblessness rates, which are based on the percentage of workers seeking employment who can't find it (9.7 percent for immigrants, versus 8.6 percent for U.S.-born workers).

CIS researchers compared the most recent available numbers of workers employed with data from the third quarter of 2007, when the recession began.

Other states where immigrant employment decreased sharply include Georgia (19.6 percent), North Carolina (18.8 percent), Arizona (17.8 percent), Nevada (16.5 percent) and California (12.3 percent).

Nationwide, the number of employed immigrants decreased by about 9 percent, or about 2.1 million workers, since 2007. By contrast, the number of employed U.S.-born workers decreased by about 4 percent, or 4.5 million workers.

"There's now this huge pool of unemployed immigrants seeking work in Colorado and nationally," said Steve Camarota, director of research for CIS, a think tank in Washington, D.C., that advocates reduced immigration.

"Each year, we let in over 1 million new immigrant workers," he said. "The question is: Should we continue to do that?"

Some may have gone home

Previously, U.S.-born workers had unemployment rates as high or higher than immigrants in many parts of the country. Immigration analysts say that low-skilled workers from Mexico and Central America have been especially hard-hit and that some may be returning home, only to find more hard conditions.

This week as senators began exploring the feasibility of immigration reforms, some experts are calling for a mechanism that could fine-tune immigration levels in response to workforce needs.

"More frequent adjustment" of immigration flows "would mean we could get the workers we need during prosperous times and reduce competition with native workers in less prosperous times," said Randy Capps, senior analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. "We also could cut down on the unauthorized workers."

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Unemployment rising faster for immigrants
By Tony Lee
Metro International (Boston), April 30, 2009
http://www.metro.us/us/article/2009/05/01/00/1420-72/index.xml

Boston -- Unemployment rates for immigrant workers in Massachusetts are rising at a more rapid rate than those for native-born Americans, according to a report released Thursday by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).

Since the third quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2009, the unemployment rate among immigrants in the Bay State has more than doubled from 3.3 percent to 7.8 percent.

The rate for natives in Massachusetts rose during that time frame from 4.4 percent to 8.1 percent.

Other notable numbers in the report:

+105 percent - the rise in the number of unemployed immigrants in Massachusetts from the third quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2009, from 20,000 to 41,000.

+85.7 percent - the rise in the number of unemployed native-born workers during the same time frame, from 126,000 to 234,000.

-15.4 percent - the change in the percentage of employed immigrant workers in Massachusetts during the same time frame, the seventh largest decline in the country.

-3.1 percent - the change in the percentage of employed native-born workers during the same time frame.

9.7 percent - the unemployment rate for immigrants nationwide in the first quarter of 2009, 3.0 percent more than the last quarter of 2008.

8.6 percent - the unemployment rate for native-born workers in the first quarter of 2009, 2.0 percent more than the last quarter of 2008.

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Recession Hits Immigrants Harder
By Marilyn Peguero
The NBC17 News, April 30, 2009
http://johnston.mync.com/site/johnston/news|Sports|Lifestyles/story/33339/recession-hits-immigrants-hardest

Johnston County, NC -- A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies says the recession has hit immigrants harder.

Nationally, 9.7 percent of immigrants are unemployed, according to the report titled "'Trends in Immigrant and Native Employment." That's about one percent higher than the general unemployment rate.

The report says the number of unemployed immigrants increased by 130 percent since 2007. The increase among Americans was 81 percent.

Andrew Behnke, an assistant professor at North Carolina State University who works with programs for immigrants across the state, says he sees the trend locally.

"We're seeing a lot of families being laid off from factories, especially our undocumented families losing their jobs because they are the lowest on the totem pole, the easiest to fire," he said.

Immigrants are particularly affected because they tend to work in industries hit hard by the recession, including construction, the report says.

Some immigrants are moving to other states or returning to their home counties, Behnke says.

"There's always a flow back and forth. But there have been families that I see out of work that are returning for that reason," he said.

Others are staying put and surviving with help from friends.

"Here I know a lot of people, they can give me a job easily," said Jose Gallegos, a Honduran immigrant who is unemployed for the first time since he came to the U.S. 15 years ago. "If I move somewhere else, I don't know anybody over there and they don't know me either."

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2.
Alejandro Mayorkas picked to head immigration agency
The former U.S. attorney played a role in a 2001 decision by President Clinton to commute a drug dealer's prison sentence.
By Josh Meyer
The Los Angeles Times, May 1, 2009

Washington, DC -- A former top Los Angeles federal prosecutor who was involved in a Clinton-era clemency controversy has been tapped to head an influential Department of Homeland Security immigration agency.

Alejandro Mayorkas is President Obama's pick to be director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which adjudicates a broad range of immigration and naturalization issues and oversees international adoptions, asylum, refugee status and foreign student authorization.

"Alejandro's expertise covers a wide array of issues critical to the department, including law enforcement, civil rights, computer crime and international money laundering," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement Thursday.

Born in Cuba, Mayorkas was the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California from 1998 to 2001. He since has served as a litigation partner at the Los Angeles-based law firm O'Melveny and Myers, where he represents large corporations and other clients in high-profile cases here and overseas.

The White House noted in a statement that Mayorkas, who was on Obama's justice and law enforcement transition team, was named one of the 50 most influential minority lawyers in America by the National Law Journal.

Robert C. Bonner -- a former federal judge, U.S. attorney in Los Angeles and the first commissioner of Customs and Border Protection -- said Mayorkas had the skills to run the overburdened and underfunded agency, which will play a central role in the Obama administration's promised overhaul of U.S. immigration policy.

Among the proposed changes are a path to citizenship for as many as 12 million people living in the country illegally. That would place tremendous burdens on an immigration and citizenship agency already plagued by delays, processing backlogs and a lack of the modernized technology needed to keep pace with demand, Bonner said.

"Improving the capabilities of CIS is critical to dealing with immigration reform," said Bonner, who is now in private practice in Los Angeles. "I have the highest regard for Ali, who is the right person and at the right time to make CIS functional. He has the personal and management skills that will be needed for what is one of the most difficult jobs in Washington."
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-mayorkas1-2009may01...

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3.
Gov't going after companies hiring illegal workers
By Eileen Sullivan
The Associated Press, April 30, 2009

Washington, DC (AP) -- An Obama administration policy to go after employers who knowingly hire and exploit illegal workers is not significantly different from the Bush administration strategy, according to a copy of the guidelines obtained by The Associated Press.

The new guidelines for immigration agents, which the Homeland Security Department calls a "renewed department-wide focus," will impose fines and criminal charges against employers who break the law.

While the priority is to go after employers, the policy states that agents will continue to arrest illegal workers. The Obama administration policy, however, stresses that humanitarian guidelines will be followed more broadly than in the previous administration.

The new policy was being circulated to immigration officers around the country on Thursday.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said that under her leadership the agency will now be focused on "renewing a priority on employers who are making money off of these illegal immigrants and giving them jobs that should be going to American workers, as opposed to just counting numbers."

In 2008, Immigration and Customs Enforcement brought criminal charges against 135 employers and 968 workers.

In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this month, Napolitano said using investigative tools such as auditing documents employees fill out when they join a company, having illegal workers go undercover and talking to people who regularly interact with the employers are all ways to build a case against a business that hires illegal workers.

"What I want to do is deter more employers from intentionally and knowingly hiring illegal workers," Napolitano said.

Worksite enforcement operations take up only a small percentage of ICE's nearly $6 billion annual budget. And the agency's immigration raids have become politically and emotionally charged, as federal agents dressed in SWAT-like gear have swept into businesses and rounded up hundreds of illegal workers.
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i4nY72M0hFVOHUzIrqYpD6...

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4.
McCaskill says immigration agency getting tougher
By Bob Priddy
Missourinet, April 30, 2009

Missouri employers who hire illegal immigrants might soon be hiring someone they don't want--a fake immigrant.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service is launching a more aggressive effort to catch employers who knowingly hire illegal workers. The focus has been on detaining illegal workers. But the Homeland Security Department says it's making an abrupt change of direction in going after the people who hire them.

Senator McCaskill, who has been pressuring the agency for stronger enforcement against employers since she arrived in Washington, could hardly wait to spread the word in the Senate. She says the new policy will be a major deterrent.
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http://www.missourinet.com/gestalt/go.cfm?objectid=F95F70AF-5056-B82A-37...

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5.
Questions Surface About Worker Protections at Border, Airports
Lawmakers Send Letter to Obama; TSA Employees Say Masks Are Not Available
By Kate Barrett, Rick Klein and Jack Date
The ABC News, April 30, 2009

A group of 20 congressmen have sent a letter to the White House voicing concerns that U.S. inspectors at the Mexico border are being barred from wearing protective face masks as they monitor people for swine flu -- though other government officials insist there's no official ban on masks.

"What I've learned is that there's a procedure that says primary inspectors at the border are allowed to wear gloves but not allowed to wear protective face masks unless they've observed something after the fact," Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif., told ABC News today.

However, Department of Homeland Security spokesman Sean Smith vehemently denied that there is any official restriction on federal employees wearing face masks at points of entry. And federal officials have encouraged employees to make use of any protective gear necessary.

"The Department of Homeland Security has not issued an order saying our employees cannot wear masks," Smith said today. "The health of our employees is of utmost importance to us, and today we are issuing department-wide guidance to our workforce."

This afternoon, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano likewise addressed the issue.

"I heard some of those members of Congress, and they just have incorrect information," she said. "There has been no departmental guidance given because we were waiting to assemble the best advice we could from others about what should happen with respect to our own employees. But we're in the process and will be issuing guidance out to our own employees, as will be issued to federal employees, I think, generally, over the next day or two."

For answers to frequently asked questions and information on the latest developments, visit ABC News' special section on the H1N1 virus.

Bilbray's letter reads, "It has been brought to our attention that Customs and Border Protection Officers are currently prohibited from wearing protective masks by a policy of the Department of Homeland Security. ... Many Customs and Border Protection Officers are stressed because they are unable to protect themselves."

The lawmaker's accusation that inspectors are "not given the free choice to wear the protective masks and protect their health" comes as a government employees' union says that it is hearing similar complaints from airport workers about supervisors restricting use of face masks.

"This is happening all over," said Emily Ryan, a spokeswoman for the American Federation of Government Employees. "They're not being given masks. They're asking for them, and they're being told no."
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http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/SwineFlu/story?id=7469798&page=1