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1. Study shows VA cost
2. Prisoner release debated
3. AZ activist blasts enforcement
4. Recession hitting businesses
5. Smuggling tactics advance

1.
Illegal immigration costs Va. $625 per household
By Cheryl Chumley
The Star Exponent (Culpeper, VA), June 30, 2009

Woodbridge, VA -- A new study from a nonprofit group that wants tighter border security and immigration controls finds the costs of providing certain services to those in Virginia illegally is about $625 per household.

That number represents the costs per household after deducting for money illegal workers give to the state by way of tax revenues, the Federation for American Immigration Reform states in its report, “The Costs of Illegal Immigration to Virginians.”

On an annual basis, taxpayers in the commonwealth pay $1.7 billion to educate and provide medical care for illegal immigrants, as well as incarcerate those who break other laws, FAIR reports.

“These costs,” wrote report author Jack Martin, director of special projects, “are especially burdensome at a time when the state is confronting a major general fund budget deficit of $1.1 billion.”

In a telephone interview, Martin also referred to the indirect costs borne by residents that come in the form of remittances — or, when the state’s illegal immigrant working force sends money home to relatives outside America. The FAIR report includes an estimate from the Inter-American Development Bank that remittances from Virginia to Latin America in 2006 surpassed $1.1 billion.

“That really has a significant impact on the economy of a state,” Martin said. “When large flows of money that are earned in the state are leaving the state … production and jobs are diminished in the state.”
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http://www.starexponent.com/cse/news/local/article/illegal_immigration_c...

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2.
Prosecutors’ warn against changes to prison, criminal policy
State group headed by Lieberstein sends letter to Schwarzenegger
The Napa Valley Register (CA), June 30, 2009

The California District Attorneys Association and CDAA incoming President Gary Lieberstein of Napa County are urging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to abandon the proposal to commute the sentences of criminal aliens in state prisons in order to refer them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation.
Such a policy is not only dangerous to public safety, but would “confer on criminal aliens benefits that are not available to inmates who are citizens of the United States,” according to the CDAA.

In a letter delivered Monday to the governor and lawmakers, CDAA cautioned against the deportation plan. “We believe that all inmates, regardless of their immigration status, should be held to the same level of accountability for their conduct,” stated the letter. “If you were to exercise your constitutional power to commute the sentences of any portion of the inmate population, we urge you to do so only after there has been an assessment of the risk of each individual for re-offending.”

CDAA also took issue with the administration’s proposal to reduce so-called “wobbler” offenses, i.e., crimes that can be charged as either felonies or misdemeanors, to straight misdemeanors, citing a host of unintended consequences that would “subvert prosecutorial efforts in numerous ways.”

The letter noted that crimes such as grand theft, vehicle theft, identity theft and other fraud offenses rob Californians of millions of dollars each year. Eliminating the ability of prosecutors to charge such “wobbler” offenses as felonies would jeopardize public safety by “blurring the lines between degrees of criminality such that participants in complicated, high-dollar theft rings would be subject to the same punishment as petty thieves.”
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http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2009/06/30/news/local/doc4a49...

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3.
ADL head: Immigration bills unnecessary
Arizona lawmakers have plenty of things to do besides considering bills to crack down on illegal immigration, according to the head of the Valley's Anti-Defamation League.
By Mike Sauceda
The KTAR News (Phoenix), June 29, 2009

Arizona lawmakers have plenty of things to do besides considering bills to crack down on illegal immigration, according to the head of the Valley's Anti-Defamation League.

Bill Strauss, appearing on News/Talk 92-3 KTAR's Jay Lawrence Show, said he is disappointed at the immigration bills surfacing in the Legislature -- including one which would require schools to gather information on students who can't prove they are U.S. citizens.

"I despise it," Strauss said of that bill. "I just think it's unnecessary at a time when we can be concentrating on a lot of other things."
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http://ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=1184326

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4.
Recession hits immigrant business
Economists worry about ripple effect throughout Austin economy.
By Jeremy Schwartz
The Austin American Statesman, June 30, 2009

Evelia Arrellano surveys the empty barber chairs with a worried look. It's 1 p.m. on a recent weekday, and she has yet to see a client at her salon, which also sells phone cards, compact discs and sodas to a cluster of mostly Mexican immigrants in the St. Johns neighborhood in North Austin.

She traces her salon's woes to hard times among Austin's immigrant workers, especially those in the hard-hit construction industry. "If they don't work, we don't work either," she said. "Things are getting worse. It's disillusioning. They say the economy is getting better, but it's not true."

Arrellano is feeling the effects of a recession that is hitting Austin businesses that cater to immigrants with a pronounced fury, according to interviews with more than a dozen managers, cashiers and business owners. With construction jobs dwindling, money is no longer flowing freely through Austin's immigrant community, hurting the many businesses selling Norteño records, phone cards, boots, groceries and other goods.

It's a far cry from the go-go days of a few years ago, when Austin's home construction industry helped power boom times for many businesses serving immigrants.

Austin officials say they don't study the economic impact of immigrant businesses or track business closures. But experts say that declining immigrant buying power has ripple effects throughout the city's economy, driving down tax revenue and sparking layoffs.

A November 2008 study by the U.S. Small Business Administration found that nearly 30 percent of all new business owners in Texas are immigrants.

Nestor Rodriguez, an immigration expert at the University of Texas, said immigrant-aimed businesses tend to provide a clear picture of economic conditions in immigrant communities. "When something is happening among immigrants — either prosperity or economic restrictions — they are the first to feel it," he said. "These mom-and-pop immigrant stores are on the front lines. They trust those places, they speak the same languages."
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http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/2009/06/30/0630...

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5.
Marisela Chavez-Ramirez's journey from Mexico ended when U.S. border officials found her and her 3-year-old daughter curled up in the gas tank of a Dodge Caravan.
The Associated Press, June 29, 2009

A smuggler had squeezed the pair into the tank, accessible through the floor of the van, to try to sneak them through the San Ysidro Port of Entry south of San Diego. They were discovered after an inspection revealed that a second tank had been added to carry fuel.

"To see a child, with a baby bottle in its mouth, that was shocking," said Adele Fasano, director of field operations for the San Diego district of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Smugglers and individual migrants have a long history of adapting their tactics to try to circumvent whatever barriers immigration officials put in their way. But they've shown more creativity in recent years as the government has launched repeated crackdowns along the frontier.

Fasano said there has been a spike in California in cases where smugglers place women and children in small compartments in vehicles to drive them across the border. Migrants have also been found inside washing machines and sewn into car seats.

Arizona-based agents also have found smugglers who disguised their vehicles to look like TV news trucks or U.S. Border Patrol vehicles. A fake FedEx truck has even been used to haul migrants.

In Texas, authorities once found a man rolling down a street disguised as a tumbleweed. People have also tried attaching cow hoofs to their feet to disguise their footprints.
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http://en.terra.com/lifestyle/articles/html/hof5975.htm