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1. Obama under pressure on immigration
2. BP: apprehensions lowest since 1973
3. CA PD chief a sanctuary supporter
4. Group says debate needs toned down
5. S.F. triple murder trial begins

1.
Dems face crucial immigration test
By Gebe Martinez
Politico, June 17, 2009

After twice postponing a highly anticipated meeting between President Barack Obama and congressional leaders on immigration reform, the White House is under increasing pressure to get legislation done this year.

Winning congressional approval of an immigration measure by December is a steep climb, with the economy, health care and energy higher on the president’s agenda. So far, Obama has promised only to begin the discussion at the summit set for next week.

But if the president does not move quickly, he will suffer the same fate as his predecessor, President George W. Bush, who left office acknowledging that failure to overhaul immigration laws was a top personal disappointment.

Bush promised reform but wasted political capital on other matters. When he finally turned to immigration, the GOP was deeply divided, and Hispanic voters — angered by conservatives’ nasty tone — rejected Republicans at the polls in 2006 and 2008.

Similarly, Obama now must answer not if but when immigration will be done. To succeed, he has to enlist the support of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a past champion of comprehensive immigration legislation, at least nine other Republicans in the Senate and a couple of dozen more in the House.
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With Obama owing his election to Hispanics, the Latino community will be unforgiving if nothing gets done while he is “at the apex of his political capital,” said Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).

The president “will be hurt with [Hispanics] if he talks about it but, at the end of the day, we cannot collectively achieve it,” Menendez said. “The challenge is not just for the president but for the Democrats in the Senate. There is a high expectation because it is the civil rights issue of our time.”

Another delay by the White House was “a mistake,” but Obama “is too smart not to move on immigration reform this year,” said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum.

The White House wants 15 to 20 Republicans in the House and 10 to 12 GOP senators on board before taking legislation to the floor of both chambers. Waiting until 2010 could make immigration a prime target for Republicans trying to knock off Democrats.

Hesitation could slow the momentum that immigration, faith, labor and business groups have been building since 2007, when Congress failed to pass a bill that combined stricter border control, tougher penalties for employers who hire illegal immigrants and earned legalization for undocumented immigrants.
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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23801.html

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2.
Immigrant detentions continue to decline
By Lynn Brezosky
The San Antonio Express News (TX), June 16, 2009

Brownsville -- Apprehensions of illegal immigrants dropped dramatically in 2008, continuing a three-year decline attributed to the increase in Border Patrol surveillance and the poor U.S. economy, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Immigration Statistics said Tuesday.

The 2008 tally was 724,000, putting apprehensions at its lowest level since 1973.

While there were some coastal apprehensions made by Border Patrol, 97 percent of the captures were made on the Southwest border.

Statistics track apprehension events rather than numbers of individuals, who may be apprehended more than once.

In 2007, there were 876,803 apprehensions, compared to a mid-decade peak in 2005 of nearly 1.2 million and an all-time peak of nearly 1.7 million in 1986 as immigrants streamed across the border ahead of legislation granting amnesty.

Most of those picked up, 91 percent, were Mexicans with a sprinkling of immigrants coming from Central American and other countries.
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6483641.html

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3.
San Francisco mayor says Mesa chief to lead PD
The Associated Press, June 16, 2009

San Francisco (AP) -- San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has chosen Mesa, Ariz. police Chief George Gascon as the city's next chief of police.

"I know going outside is a risk," Newsom told the San Francisco Chronicle Tuesday about his decision not to select a replacement for outgoing chief Heather Fong from within the police department. "But (Gascon) is a nuts-and-bolts-type of chief, a cop's cop and very active in community policing."

Gascon, 55, has been police chief of Mesa, a city of 460,000 that is part of the Phoenix metropolitan area, since 2006. Before that, he was an assistant police chief in Los Angeles.

"Any time you go into a new opportunity, there is going to be a level of uncertainty," Gascon told the Chronicle. "But I feel very comfortable."

Gascon is a supporter of sanctuary policies for illegal immigrants, which San Francisco has followed for years. He has described the use of officers to enforce immigration laws as a waste of resources, and he has clashed with a county sheriff in Arizona over the sheriff's efforts to arrest illegal immigrants.

"He shares the mayor's support for the sanctuary city policy and he has tackled some of the toughest immigration related law enforcement issues as a police chief in Arizona," said Nathan Ballard, a spokesman for the mayor.
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http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_12604571

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4.
Immigration Debate Tied to Rise in Hate Crimes
By Spencer S. Hsu
The Washington Post, June 17, 2009

U.S. civil rights leaders said yesterday that an increase in hate crimes committed in recent years against Hispanics and people perceived to be immigrants "correlates closely" to the nation's increasingly contentious debate over immigration.

Hate crimes targeting Hispanic Americans rose 40 percent from 2003 to 2007, the most recent year for which FBI statistics are available, from 426 to 595 incidents, marking the fourth consecutive year of increases.

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund issued a report that faulted anti-immigrant rhetoric in the media and mobilization of extremist groups on the Internet. The conference said that some groups advocating for tighter immigration laws have invoked "the dehumanizing, racist stereotypes and bigotry of hate groups."
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Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which was criticized in the LCCREF report, said it was "another salvo against free speech by the pro-amnesty coalition . . . to delegitimize any critic of mass immigration."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/16/AR200906...

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5.

Hearing starts in street killings of man, sons
By Demian Bulwa
The San Francisco Chronicle, June 16, 2009

San Francisco -- A year after the fatal daylight shootings of a San Francisco father and his two sons inflamed controversy over the city's sanctuary policies for protecting illegal immigrants, the 22-year-old suspect appeared in court Monday for a preliminary hearing that will determine whether he stands trial.

Edwin Ramos, a Salvadoran immigrant and alleged member of the MS-13 gang, was once shielded from possible deportation under an interpretation of San Francisco's sanctuary policy that officials have since disowned.

Ramos is accused of murdering Tony Bologna, 48, and his sons Matthew, 20, and Michael, 16. Prosecutors say he mistook his younger victims for gang rivals when he opened fire on them June 22 as they drove in the Excelsior district near their home.

The killings, authorities said, happened when Tony Bologna blocked a car making a left turn while he was driving home from a family picnic. The killer opened fire after Bologna backed up to let the other car past.

Ramos has pleaded not guilty to murder counts that carry the special circumstances of multiple murder and murder as part of a street gang. The charges make him eligible for life imprisonment without parole or the death penalty if he is convicted, although District Attorney Kamala Harris has never sought execution since taking office in 2004.

The preliminary hearing is expected to last several days in San Francisco Superior Court, after which Judge Teri Jackson will decide whether Ramos must stand trial. It began Monday after Ramos sought unsuccessfully to have the judge close the hearing to the public. His attorneys argued that some evidence or testimony could endanger Ramos' wife and child if it is aired.
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http://sfchronicle.us/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/15/BAT3187H16.DTL