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1. "Virtual fence" resurrected
2. Mexican data shows decline
3. Immigrant unemployment rising
4. CA co. to implement program
5. Two arrested at White House

1.
Reboot for "virtual" border fence
After years of snags, work on the electronic surveillance system along the US-Mexico border restarted this week.
By Daniel B. Wood
The Christian Science Monitor, May 14, 2009

Los Angeles - The "virtual fence" is back.

A year after the idea bit the Arizona dust – a victim of high expectations and a failed prototype – construction began this week on nine surveillance towers along a stretch of desert south and west of Tucson, Ariz., intended to be part of a high-tech alternative to a physical barrier on the border.

The technology remains similar to that of a failed prototype that was deployed in late 2007, but according to Mark Borkowski, executive director of the Secure Border Initiative within Customs and Border Protection, this time around, the "technology has been changed, tested and retested" and now "does work."

Up to 140 feet high and equipped with cameras, radar, and a microwave link to other towers, the surveillance turrets are supposed to communicate the coordinates and images of moving figures near the border to remote command centers and border patrol vehicles on the ground.

The "fence" is intended to help US border patrol agents stop illegal immigrants and drug smugglers from crossing into the country.

The Department of Homeland Security, which had virtually halted the project a year ago, plans to spend $6.7 billion for the entire Southwest border in the next few years. Boeing, which was paid $20 million for the prototype, has a $100 million contract for building the first section near Tuscon.

That means 30 miles of border completed by mid-2010, all of Arizona by the end of 2011, and possibly, depending on tests and budget decisions, most of the almost 2,000-mile southwest border by 2014.

In the original prototype, a rotating radar dish atop the tower was supposed to detect moving figures on the ground and radio the coordinates to an integrated camera which would then focus on the targets while agents in the vehicles or command post determined if the figures were human or animal. They then radioed the coordinates to the roving patrol cruisers who would swoop in.

But software glitches, wind, and rain affected the camera image quality. And the radar had trouble distinguishing sage-brush from camping migrants or animals.

Such snags raised questions last year from congressional investigators about the viability of the entire project.
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http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0515/p02s01-usgn.html

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2.
Mexican Data Say Migration to U.S. Has Plummeted
By Julia Preston
The New York Times, May 15,2009

Mexicali, Mexico -- Census data from the Mexican government indicate an extraordinary decline in the number of Mexican immigrants going to the United States.

The recently released data show that about 226,000 fewer people emigrated from Mexico to other countries during the year that ended in August 2008 than during the previous year, a decline of 25 percent. All but a very small fraction of emigration, both legal and illegal, from Mexico is to the United States.

Because of surging immigration, the Mexican-born population in the United States has grown steeply year after year since the early 1990s, dipping briefly only after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, census data in both countries show.

Mexican and American researchers say that the current decline, which has also been manifested in a decrease in arrests along the border, is largely a result of Mexicans’ deciding to delay illegal crossings because of the lack of jobs in the ailing American economy.

The trend emerged clearly with the onset of the recession and, demographers say, provides new evidence that illegal immigrants from Mexico, by far the biggest source of unauthorized migration to the United States, are drawn by jobs and respond to a sinking labor market by staying away.

“If jobs are available, people come,” said Jeffrey S. Passel, senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group in Washington. “If jobs are not available, people don’t come.”

The net outflow of migrants from Mexico — those who left minus those who returned — fell by about half in the year that ended in August 2008 from the preceding year. The figures are based on detailed household interviews conducted quarterly by the census agency in Mexico, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography.

Along the border, the signs of the drop-off are subtle but ubiquitous. Only two beds are filled in a shelter here that houses migrants hoping to sneak into the United States. On the American side, near Calexico, Calif., Border Patrol vans return empty to their base after agents comb the desert for illegal crossers.

In recent weeks, the spread of swine flu in Mexico and the government’s response of shutting down schools and canceling public gatherings brought migration here and elsewhere nearly to a halt. But demographers expect the deep flu-related decline to be temporary.

With so many Mexicans remaining in their home villages, the population of illegal immigrants in the United States stopped growing and might have slightly decreased in the last year, an abrupt shift after a decade of yearly influxes, research by demographers in the United States shows. Mexicans account for 32 percent of immigrants in the United States, and more than half of them lack legal status, the Pew center has reported.

Still, at least 11 million illegal immigrants remain in the United States, the demographers say. Despite collapsing job markets in construction and other low-wage work, there has been no exodus among Mexicans living in the United States, the Mexican census figures show. About the same number of migrants — 450,000 — returned to Mexico in 2008 as in 2007.

Some researchers argue that the drop in crossings from Mexico proves that tough law enforcement at the border and in American workplaces can reduce illegal immigration in times of rising unemployment in the United States. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials stepped up factory and community raids last year, and the Border Patrol expanded its force by 17 percent in one year, to nearly 17,500 agents.

“The latest evidence suggests that you can reverse the flow,” said Steven A. Camarota, a demographer at the Center for Immigration Studies, a research group in Washington that calls for reduced immigration. “It is not set in stone, so with some mix of enforcement and the economy, fewer will come and more will go home.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/us/15immig.html

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3.
Immigrants especially hard hit by down economy
By Sarah M. Barrett
The Pilot (Boston), May 15, 2009

Times are tough for everyone but they are turning out to be especially hard on new immigrants working to stake their claim to a piece of the American dream. Increasingly, they are turning to the Church for help.

Evenson Guerrier is one of the 1.45 million immigrants who came to the U.S. in 2008, was imbued with the same dream of freedom, equality and opportunity that inspired millions before him.

In search of a refuge from the violence back home, and with a confident hope in the promise of the American dream, Guerrier emigrated from Haiti in September, joining his wife and 10-year-old daughter at their apartment in Mattapan.

After nine months of searching, Guerrier is still unemployed. His wife is supporting the family with her house keeping job at a hotel, while he takes English classes, attends job fairs and passes out resumes. Despite having extensive work experience as a Christian pastor back in Haiti, Guerrier said he would be so happy to find a job, -- any job -- “mechanic, cook, plumber, anything,” he said.
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The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a group which favors limiting immigration, released a report April 30, tracking the rate and distribution of unemployment in the U.S. among native and immigrant workers since the onset of the recession in late 2007. The census data used in the report found a marked deviation from the recent past, showing the country’s immigrant populations as enduring the brunt of the recession and losing jobs to the economic crisis at a significantly higher rate than native-born Americans.

According to the report, immigrant workers account for more than half of the 172,000 jobs lost in Massachusetts since the recession began though they comprise a mere 17 percent of the workforce. Massachusetts was listed among the states with the largest decline in immigrant employment.

This radically disproportionate ratio reflects, among other things, the volatile nature of the service industry jobs held by many immigrants--an industry hit hard by the recession--and the inability of many immigrants to compete with American-born individuals who speak English fluently and have at least a high school education, said Perhot.
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http://www.thebostonpilot.com/article.asp?ID=10395

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4.
Screening of inmates to expand
Dangerous illegal immigrants to be deported
By John Scheibe
The Ventura County Star (CA) , May 15, 2009

Ventura County authorities will soon get more help from the federal government in checking the immigration status of inmates at the county jail.

For some time now, agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have helped Ventura County Sheriff deputies check the immigration status of inmates, Sheriff Bob Brooks said on Thursday.

While the system has worked well, the existing set up leaves some things to be desired.

For starters, Brooks said deputies have been unable to access a federal immigration list containing the identities of those who are in this country illegally.

This, together with the lack of an automated system, meant that the immigration status of some inmates who were here illegally was going unnoticed.

Under the new Secure Communities program, all inmates will be screened when they are booked into the County Jail.
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http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/may/15/screening-of-inmates-t...

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5.
2 adult students taken into custody at White House
The Associated Press, May 14, 2009

Washington (AP) -- Two people facing deportation from the United States have been taken into custody at the White House gate. They had arrived for a tour of the executive mansion.

The pair was part of an adult education program, and a routine background check showed they had an outstanding immigration order against them.

White House spokesman Nick Shapiro says they were taken into custody Thursday morning before they entered the compound.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090514/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_white_house_immigr...