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1. BP Washington expansion delayed
2. Amnesty deferred to Senate
3. UC Davis prof. fights H-1Bs
4. WI provides in-state tuition
5. UT strike force comes online

1.
New Border Patrol headquarters on hold
By Paul Gottlieb
The Peninsula Daily News (Port Angeles, WA), June 30, 2009

Port Angeles, WA -- Plans for a new Border Patrol headquarters on the North Olympic Peninsula will be delayed for the foreseeable future and could inhibit further efforts at expanding enforcement of immigration laws, Border Patrol and General Services Administration officials said this week.

"It's on hold because of budgetary issues," said Ross Buffington, a spokesman for the General Services Administration's Seattle office.

The agency is in charge of buying, leasing and managing property for federal agencies.

"The bottom line on the project is it's on hold," Border Patrol spokesman Doy Noblitt said Tuesday.

The Border Patrol headquarters would be wholly distinct from the Office of Air and Marine Operations, which is leasing a 6,028-square-foot Port of Port Angeles building in the Airport Industrial Park near William R. Fairchild International Airport. Port commissioners approved the lease June 22.

The Border Patrol and Office of Air and Marine Operations are separately managed but operate under the aegis of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which in turn is overseen by the federal Department of Homeland Security.

Border Patrol headquarters

The General Services Administration had intended to lease property in the Port Angeles area for a Border Patrol headquarters for Clallam and Jefferson counties to accommodate the agency's stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws.

Enforcement activities have increased over the last 10 months, while the number of Border Patrol agents has expanded from four to the current 24 over the last two years.

"We haven't been able to find space to meet our requirements," Buffington said.

"In this case, what happened was that we have not been able to find a market solution that will fit the requirements. We are looking at the budget, and that's where we are.

"We are waiting for further direction at the national level at the General Services Administration and Customs and Border Protection. We'll have to go back to the drawing board and come up with another plan."

Buffington said GSA will seek an arrangement under which the agency would lease land and have a facility built with a lease option on the building.

He would not say how much is budgeted for the project.

"GSA would not release information about how much it's planning to spend on a lease action in advance of going on the market and finding what is available on the market," Buffington said.

"We don't want to give out information that might tell prospective lessors what we intend to spend."
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http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20090701/news/307019992

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2.
US immigration reform to be put to Senate
By Mark Hennessy
The Irish Times (Dublin), June 30, 2009

Major immigration reform in the United States will be put to the US Senate before the summer, a leading US Congresswoman has said in Dublin.

Making a special one-to-one deal between Ireland and the US is not possible, said Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez.

But Ireland's need would be dealt with if such immigration legislation was passed by the Houses of Congress.

The Irish American immigration groups have been long campaigning for changes to benefit the undocumented Irish who have been living in many cases in the US illegally for over two decades.

Currently the Irish Government and the US are working on a short-term immigration deal which would allow young Irish to work in the States for up to two years.

US president Barack Obama has recently backed the passage of comprehensive immigration legislation, which could reach the Houses of Representatives before the summer holiday break.

New York Democrat Congresswoman Ms Velazquez said the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi has made it clear that immigration legislation should first be passed by the US Senate, before going to the House.
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http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0630/breaking40.htm

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3.
An Academic's Labor Helps Fight H-1B Visas
Norm Matloff, a computer science professor with a Chinese-born wife, says the U.S. skilled-immigrant visa system exploits workers everywhere
By Moira Herbst
Business Week, June 28, 2009

Not many computer science professors are activists on immigration policy. But Norm Matloff of the University of California, Davis wears both hats. He has been a vocal critic of the H-1B visa program for skilled immigrants since the mid-1990s, and now maintains a Web page and e-mail listserv discussing offshoring and the H-1B visa program, which he calls a "sham." He says his motivation is to protect and preserve tech job opportunities for the students he teaches.

"I have no personal stake in any of this," says Matloff, who is 60. "If the H-1B program were disbanded tomorrow, my personal well-being would not improve one iota. [But] when I see something that is not right and about which I know something, I tend to speak out. On this issue, I know where the bodies are buried."

The H-1B visa program inspires heated debate, especially online. The program is controversial for a number of reasons. Some critics say the program allows U.S. companies to import cheaper labor, dampening wages and displacing U.S. workers. Others say it facilitates outsourcing, as it allows Indian-born tech workers to train in the U.S. and then return home and perform the work there. Still others point to mounting evidence of fraud in the program and a lack of government oversight.

"De Facto Indentured Servants"

Matloff stresses that the problem is not fraud or crime but the H-1B visa law itself. He says that the law as currently written allows H-1B visa holders to receive below-market wages. The policy also allows for age discrimination as older U.S. tech workers are displaced by a younger workforce from abroad. "Though the industry lobbyists portray it as a remedy for labor shortages and as a means of hiring 'the best and the brightest' from around the world, the visa is used to access workers that cost less and are de facto indentured servants," Matloff writes on his blog.

Matloff has written extensively about the effects of globalization and offshoring on U.S. IT workers and has been quoted on the issue in most major media outlets. He has also testified before Congress as an expert on the work visa law. Some of his most influential academic work includes a fall 2003 article in the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform on the H-1B work visa called "On the Need for Reform of the H-1B Nonimmigrant Work Visa in Computer-Related Occupations." A 2006 article that linked H-1B visas to age discrimination in the computer industry was published by the California Labor & Employment Law Review.

As are most advocates on immigration issues, Matloff is a controversial figure. He's admired by supporters—including activists on H-1B visa issues—but criticized by other academics who don't share his views and who chafe at his often-abrasive rhetorical style. Critics also suggest there could be a xenophobic undertone implicit in his critique of the H-1B visa program. Matloff posts opinionated blog entries on the Web site of Numbers USA, a group calling for lower levels of immigration. His writing prompted one tech worker, Arthur Hu of Bothell, Wash., to create a Web page criticizing Matloff, whom he calls the "Hatchet Man of Asian Immigration."
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http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jun2009/db20090626_5...

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4.
Some illegal immigrants will be able to get in-state tuition
By Georgia Pabst
The Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, WI), June 29, 2009

Some illegal immigrant high school graduates will be able to attend Wisconsin state universities by paying in-state tuition, under a provision in the two-year budget Gov. Jim Doyle signed into law Monday.

Wisconsin now becomes the 11th state to enact such a law.

To qualify, students would have to reside in the state for three years, graduate from a Wisconsin high school or earn an equivalency degree here.

The students would have to apply through the normal channels.

It's estimated from 400 to 650 illegal immigrants annually graduate from state high schools, but they must pay out-of-state tuition if they enroll in the state university system or technical colleges.
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http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/49470657.html

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5.
Immigration law, other new statutes go into effect Wednesday
By Arthur Raymond
The Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City), July 1, 2009

Along with the start of the state's fiscal year, 31 pieces of legislation passed by Utah lawmakers last winter spring to life today.

The new laws provide cash infusions to kick-start transportation and technology projects, stiffen penalties for underage drinkers who drive and reach a little deeper into taxpayer wallets.

July 1 also marks the official starting date of Utah's new immigration strike force, a new crime-fighting crew that will target felony-level crimes committed by undocumented residents. Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, whose office runs the unit, said last week that the work has already started.

"We've got all the personnel hired and have four, full-time investigators," Shurtleff said. "Operations have begun with some initial successes."

Shurtleff declined to comment on those successes, citing ongoing investigations, but said reports would be forthcoming.
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http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705314118/Immigration-law-other-new-s...