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1. Admin to move with contractor requirement
2. DHS chief to speak at security conference
3. Senate approves construction of fencing
4. Sen. Schumer: bill to emerge by Labor Day
5. NJ SC affirms higher bail

1.
Obama Revives Bush Idea to Catch Illegal Workers
By Spencer S. Hsu
The Washington Post, July 9, 2009

President Obama will abandon a controversial immigration crackdown, sought by his predecessor, to pressure U.S. companies to fire 9 million workers with suspect Social Security numbers, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced yesterday.

Instead, Obama will mandate that federal contractors confirm the identities of 4 million workers against federal databases beginning in September, pushing ahead under pressure from Senate Republicans with another long-stalled Bush administration initiative.

Napolitano said her department will rescind a 2007 rule, tied up in federal court, that would have sent Social Security "no-match" letters to 140,000 U.S. employers. The notices were to warn companies to resolve discrepancies or fire suspect workers within 90 days, or face criminal penalties.

Instead, she said, the Department of Homeland Security will take a "more modern and effective" approach, ordering an estimated 170,000 federal contractors to confirm employees' work documents against E-Verify, until now a voluntary electronic government system for companies to check new hires' immigration and Social Security data.

Combined with a renewed emphasis by the DHS on targeting companies that hire illegal immigrants with civil fines and audits instead of high-profile raids, the moves mark the clearest sign yet of Obama's efforts to chart a middle course on immigration enforcement, analysts said.

The administration's announcement appeared aimed at satisfying law-and-order conservatives on Capitol Hill, where Senate Republicans successfully amended Homeland Security's $43 billion 2010 budget yesterday to extend E-Verify to federal contractors and to expand construction of fencing on the U.S.-Mexico border.

"The American people have made it clear that immigration reform should start with better enforcement of the laws already on the books," said Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. "Making [E-Verify] permanent and mandatory for federal contractors would be a big step toward meeting the public's expectations."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/08/AR200907...

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2.
Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano to speak at Border Conference
By Diana Washington Valdez
The El Paso Times (TX), July 9, 2009

El Paso, TX -- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is among the top-ranking U.S. officials who plan to address the Border Security Conference in El Paso next month.

U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, who helped establish the annual conference, said this year's event is especially timely because policymakers are dealing with such issues as Mexico's drug-related violence, U.S. immigration reform and binational trade in a recession.

"I am pleased that Secretary Napolitano and other high-ranking officials have accepted my invitation to come to El Paso to participate in this year's Border Security Conference," Reyes said.

"As the largest border community in the world, the El Paso-Juárez region is the ideal location to bring together top leaders from the U.S. and Mexico to address the many border security issues that continue to challenge communities such as ours."

Other featured speakers at the Aug. 10-11 event will include John Brennan, White House counterterrorism official and a CIA veteran; Kenneth Melson, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Alan Bersin, the U.S. border czar; David Aguilar, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol; Sigrid Arzt Colunga, a Woodrow Wilson Center scholar and security consultant for Mexico's president; and Joseph Arabit, special agent-in-charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's office in El Paso.

DEA officials have testified before Congress that weapons and bulk cash from the U.S. were fueling Mexico's drug cartel violence.

Earlier this year, Melson announced that 100 people were added to the agency's Houston field office in support of Project Gunrunner, which was created to reduce the flow of weapons from the United States to Mexico.

Napolitano, a former governor of Arizona, was in El Paso in April to name Bersin the border czar and to announce initiatives aimed helping Mexico fight the drug cartels.
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http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_12790548?source=most_emailed

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3.
U.S. Senate wants 'real' fencing, not barriers and equipment on border
By Andrew Taylor
The Associated Press, July 8, 2009

Washington, DC -- The Senate voted Wednesday to require actual fencing along 700 miles of the border with Mexico rather than vehicle barriers and high-tech equipment.

The plan by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., won approval by a 54-44 vote as the Senate began a second day of debate on a $42.9 billion measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security for the budget year beginning Oct. 1.

DeMint said the U.S.-Mexico border “has become a battleground” as drug and weapons traffickers, along with illegal immigrants, move too freely. He said the department is spending too much on “virtual” fencing such as motion detectors. Those barriers, he said, don’t work as well as a real fence designed to block people crossing the border on foot.

Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, countered that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency was the best judge of the preferred fencing for various parts of the border. He said some stretches of physical fencing can cost up to $5 million per mile.

Separately, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., pushed through a plan to extend permanently the E-Verify program, which uses the Social Security database to check whether workers are illegal immigrants. His plan also would require companies doing business with the federal government to use the system.

The two developments demonstrated the extent to which spending bills can serve as vehicles for policy debates.
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http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/300180.php

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4.
Schumer: Immigration bill to be ready by Labor Day
By Suzanne Gamboa
The Associated Press, July 8, 2009

Washington, DC (AP) -- The lead Democrat steering an immigration overhaul through the Senate said Wednesday he expects to have a bill ready by Labor Day that is more generous to highly skilled immigrant workers than those who are lower skilled and is tough on future waves of illegal immigration.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Sen. Chuck Schumer said an immigration bill can be done by the end of the year or early next year that works out disagreements between labor and business interests on the flow of legal foreign workers.

"I think we'll have a good bill by Labor Day," said Schumer, D-N.Y. "I think the fundamental building blocks are in place to do comprehensive immigration reform."

Schumer said the way to get the bill done is to be very tough on future waves of illegal immigration. He declared himself pro-immigration and said the U.S. should encourage legal immigration and find some kind of path for people now here to find a way to legal citizenship.

"We have a shortage maybe of engineers here or Ph.D's in physics, but we probably don't have a shortage of people who can do construction work," Schumer said.

The AFL-CIO and the Change to Win labor unions earlier this year announced their support for immigration reform, which they have opposed in the past.

But the unions' continued opposition to increases in visas for foreign workers is at odds with the demand by business for legal foreign workers in industries ranging from high-technology to agriculture.

"I think one of the ways to bridge it is to look at the different areas of labor and where there are shortages and where there are not and where just workers are being brought in for exploitive purposes — broadly put meaning just get lower wages — rather than having a shortage," Schumer said. "I think if you look at each broad field you can see that one size does not fit all."
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hrL7yuyUVclkim1xKb98eQ...

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5.
N.J. rules bail can be set higher for illegal immigrants
By Samantha Henry
The Associated Press, July 9, 2009

Newark, NJ (AP) -- The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled yesterday that bail can be set higher for illegal immigrants facing deportation to prevent them from dodging prosecution in the state.

The court ruled unanimously that bail can be increased for immigrants who have posted bail but then fall under a detainer by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for likely deportation. The court said the detainer amounts to a change in circumstances that can trigger a new bail hearing.

Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi sought higher bail for suspects facing serious charges and deportation after a Honduran man was deported in 2008 before he could be tried on sexual-assault charges in Morristown.

Bianchi also worried that in a pending case, another Honduran who posted bail on a charge of sexually assaulting a child would be sent back to his country before prosecution.

"I'm very proud of the fact that not only were we vindicated by the Supreme Court, but they looked at our system of doing things as what should be the statewide standard," Bianchi said yesterday. "Everyone wants to make this an immigration issue. It's a bail issue."

A civil-rights group executive disagreed, saying the ruling would create inequities in the judicial system in dealing with illegal immigrants.

"The public policy consequences of this are going to result in a different set of results and treatment for noncitizens in the criminal justice system," said Paromita Shah, associate director of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, which has been monitoring similar cases around the country.
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http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/nj/20090709_N_J__rules_bail_can_be_...