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1. SCOTUS pick deflects pressure
2. GA candidate seeks end to "birthright"
3. CA city proposes ID card
4. Cancer drug challenges system
5. Immigrant sentenced for fraud

1.
Court pick could buy time on immigration
By Silla Brush and Jared Allen
The Hill (Washington, DC), May 26, 2009

President Obama’s decision to nominate federal appeals court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court may help him delay a thornier challenge: what to do with millions of illegal immigrants living in the United States.

The nomination of the first Hispanic justice drew praise Tuesday from the Latino community at a time when many are growing anxious over inaction on broad legislation that would put illegal immigrants — most from neighboring Mexico — on a path to citizenship. Hispanic lawmakers have been pressing Obama to deliver for a key demographic that helped put him in office, with immigration reform the top priority.

The White House has yet to commit fully to taking up broad immigration policy changes this year, with Obama instead pushing forward in tough fights over healthcare, climate change and closing the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Former President George W. Bush twice failed to enact “comprehensive immigration reform” and Obama has kept a relatively low profile on the topic. While many advocates say the two are not directly related, some admit Obama has bought himself a little time with the nomination.

“The Latino community — and not just Latinos, but anyone who’s had a set of life experiences like Sotomayor — will always remember Barack Obama for this,” said Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus and the only Hispanic in House leadership. “This will inspire people who were hungry to see a reform of our broken immigration system to stand behind the president on this issue and behind the decisions he makes.”

Senate Democrats and allied interest groups say they’re committed to legislation by the end of Obama’s first year in office. But the stark realities of the calendar, the harsh politics of the issue and unemployment figures nearing double digits are fully within view.

Even some of the movement’s biggest advocates are lowering expectations, saying much depends on Obama’s desire to enact sweeping healthcare changes and the president’s own popularity in the months ahead.

Obama is set to hold a high-profile meeting on immigration with key lawmakers June 8, but the congressional calendar is already bogged down with complicated legislation.

Any effort on immigration must overcome the politics that shreds party unity on the issue and the grassroots opposition from talk radio and cable television that helped kill Bush’s attempts.

“I’m not sure I would even expect anything to pass in this Congress, much less this year,” said James Gimpel, a professor at the University of Maryland and expert on immigration politics. “I think it’s a lot to expect.”

On the campaign trail, Obama spoke sparingly about reforming the country’s immigration laws. Still, he won widespread support among the Latino electorate, with 67 percent of the vote. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) won only 31 percent, despite co-sponsoring legislation with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) that came to symbolize the push for legalization.

Obama’s favorability rating among Latinos continues to climb. A little more than a year ago, Obama had ratings in the mid-60 percent range; a recent poll by Matt Barreto, professor at the University of Washington, put that figure at 81 percent.

But an immigration debate in 2009, which would further affect Obama’s ratings, would come during a recession. Unemployment numbers — already near 9 percent — are likely to exceed 10 percent by next year.

“There is just no way it’s going to happen this year. It’s just fantasy,” said Mark Krikorian, of the Center for Immigration Studies, a conservative think tank that opposes legalization of illegal immigrants.

The recession has lawmakers consumed with other issues. Even among Democrats, only 34 percent in January said immigration reform was a top concern, down 14 percent from two years ago, according to a study by the Pew Research Center.
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http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/choice-could-buy-time-on-immigration...

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2.
Deal Wants Change To Citizenship Rules
By Michael King
The WXIA News (Atlanta), May 26, 2009

Atlanta -- There's a big push on to changing American immigration policy, and it's starting in Georgia.

A Georgia congressman is behind a plan to change a long standing federal law that gives citizenship to any baby born on US soil.

It's a long-standing policy stemming from the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.

The current language states:

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherin they reside."

Under his proposal, Georgia congressman and Republican gubernatorial candidate Nathan Deal says that babies born in the United States would be granted citizenship if at least one of their parents is already an American citizen or national.

So the notion of one literally being born in the US automatically making them a citizen would be tossed out.

Deal says the country for years has loosely interpreted the 14th Amendment, adding, the US has seen hundreds of thousands of births to parents who are illegally in our country.
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http://www.11alive.com/news/national/story.aspx?storyid=130632&catid=166

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3.
Oakland proposes ID card for undocumented
By Matthai Kuruvila
The San Francisco Chronicle, May 27, 2009

Oakland wants to offer its residents an identification card, a move that would primarily help undocumented immigrants engage with - and, some lament, blend into - broader society.

That, by itself, would be enough controversy. But Oakland officials are debating much broader uses than what other cities, including San Francisco, have done. In particular, they propose including:

-- A debit card function, allowing poor people to avoid exorbitant fees of check cashing shops and to be less vulnerable to muggings by carrying less cash.

-- Eliminating gender identity, which they say would allow transgender people to more comfortably avoid discrimination.

The details have yet to be worked out, and they will be up for discussion June 2 at the city council meeting. The council will ask acting City Administrator Dan Lindheim to come up with a plan for implementation, which the council would need to approve.

The city's finance committee, which includes four council members, unanimously and enthusiastically approved sending it to the full City Council Tuesday.

"I'm very happy to support this," said Council Member Pat Kernighan.

The card would probably cost somewhere around $15 and be available to anyone, from children to senior citizens. To buy a card, people would have to prove their identity and that they live in Oakland.

A host of existing identifications, such as a school identification card - be it from elementary school or graduate school - or a foreign driver's license, could be used to verify identity to get a card.

Council Member Jean Quan said that the card's biggest proponent was the Oakland Police Department. She said the card would encourage crime victims and witnesses to come forward. In addition, Quan said police are forced to arrest and jail people they stop, even for minor traffic infractions, if they don't have identification.

"It will make our jobs easier," Deputy Police Chief David Kozicki told the finance committee. "We do support it and we like the idea."

He did say he had two conditions: The card has to be secure against counterfeiting, like the card San Francisco introduced this year, and it cannot be used as a valid driver's license.

The cards issued in San Francisco offer a number of protections against counterfeiting, according to Oakland city staff. These include micro text, laser engraving, images only seen through ultraviolet light, and a biometric feature that captures an individual's facial characteristics and would flag any mismatches.

Nonetheless, critics say such measures don't prevent people from creating new identities out of whole cloth.

"What it conveys to everyone in the community - whether it's immigrants, employers or anyone else - is that the city of Oakland does not take federal immigration law seriously," said Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies.
. . .
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/27/BAN217RDG8.DTL

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4.
Checking fingerprints when a person has none
By Rita Rubin
USA Today, May 27, 2009

Before they can enter the USA, virtually all non-U.S. citizens 14 to 79 have their fingerprints screened at the airport or seaport to confirm their identity and make sure they're not a security threat.

But what if you don't have fingerprints?

That was the dilemma faced by a Singapore cancer patient whose chemotherapy drug caused severe peeling of the skin on his hands and feet, which erased his fingerprints. His oncologist describes the case in a letter published online today by the Annals of Oncology.

The 62-year-old man was taking capecitabine, sold in the USA as Xeloda, for head and neck cancer that had spread to his bones, chest and abdomen (in the USA, Xeloda is approved for the treatment of breast and colorectal cancer that has spread). He developed hand-foot syndrome, a drug side effect that causes the skin on the hands and feet to peel.

After taking capecitabine for more than three years, the man, who wasn't identified by doctors, flew to the USA to visit relatives. He was detained at the U.S. airport by Customs and Border Protection officers for four hours because they couldn't detect his fingerprints, his doctors, from the National Cancer Centre Singapore, write.

Finally, the officers were satisfied that he wasn't a security threat and allowed him to enter the country. They told him to travel with a letter from his oncologist explaining his lack of fingerprints.
. . .
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-05-27-fingerprints_N.htm

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5.
Prison for man who 'phished' and hooked $700K from Minnesotans, others
By Paull Walsh
The Star Tribune, May 27, 2009

A Romanian immigrant has been sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison for running a lucrative computerized "phishing" scheme for several years that collected financial records and personal identification from thousands of individuals, including nearly 100 from Minnesota.

Sergiu D. Popa, 23, of Shelby Township, Mich., was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Minneapolis in a plot that cost his 7,000 or so victims about $700,000, by his own admission.

"Because there were so many victims who were hurt badly, the court believes the sentence is appropriate in order to protect the public," said Judge John Tunheim, who sentenced Popa. "There needs to be a deterrent to others who are trying similar crimes over the Internet."
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http://www.startribune.com/local/46231247.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP...