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1. Feds to 'reform' system
2. Napolitano: border is secure
3. Green card petitions down
4. Latino activists slam admin
5. Industry preps for audits

1.
U.S. to Reform Policy on Detention for Immigrants
By Nina Bernstein
The New York Times, August 6, 2009

The Obama administration intends to announce an ambitious plan on Thursday to overhaul the much-criticized way the nation detains immigration violators, trying to transform it from a patchwork of jail and prison cells to what its new chief called a “truly civil detention system.”

Details are sketchy, and even the first steps will take months or years to complete. They include reviewing the federal government’s contracts with more than 350 local jails and private prisons, with an eye toward consolidating many detainees in places more suitable for noncriminals facing deportation — some possibly in centers built and run by the government.

The plan aims to establish more centralized authority over the system, which holds about 400,000 immigration detainees over the course of a year, and more direct oversight of detention centers that have come under fire for mistreatment of detainees and substandard — sometimes fatal — medical care.

One move starts immediately: the government will stop sending families to the T. Don Hutto Residential Center, a former state prison near Austin, Tex., that drew an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit and scathing news coverage for putting young children behind razor wire.

“We’re trying to move away from ‘one size fits all,’ ” John Morton, who heads the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency as assistant secretary of homeland security, said in an interview on Wednesday. Detention on a large scale must continue, he said, “but it needs to be done thoughtfully and humanely.”

Hutto, a 512-bed center run for profit by the Corrections Corporation of America under a $2.8 million-a-month federal contract, was presented as a centerpiece of the Bush administration’s tough approach to immigration enforcement when it opened in 2006. The decision to stop sending families there — and to set aside plans for three new family detention centers — is the Obama administration’s clearest departure from its predecessor’s immigration enforcement policies.

So far, the new administration has embraced many of those policies, expanding a program to verify worker immigration status that has been widely criticized, bolstering partnerships between federal immigration agents and local police departments, and rejecting a petition for legally binding rules on conditions in immigration detention.

But Mr. Morton, a career prosecutor, said he was taking a new philosophical approach to detention — that the system’s purpose was to remove immigration violators from the country, not imprison them, and that under the government’s civil authority, detention is aimed at those who pose a serious risk of flight or danger to the community.

Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, said last week that she expected the number of detainees to stay the same or grow slightly. But Mr. Morton added that the immigration agency would consider alternative ways to assure that those who face deportation — and are not dangerous — do not flee.

Reviewing and redesigning all facilities, programs and standards will be the task of a new Office of Detention Policy and Planning, he said. Dora Schriro, special adviser to Ms. Napolitano, will become the director, assisted by two experts on detention management and medical care. The agency will also form two advisory boards of community groups and immigrant advocates, one focusing on detention policies and practices, the other on detainee health care.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/us/politics/06detain.html

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2.
Napolitano: U.S.-Mexico border more secure
By Jim Cross
The KTAR News, August 6, 2009

The United States is safer now than it was prior to 9/11, according to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

The former Arizona governor told "USA Today" that the U.S. always will live with the threat of terrorism -- from Al Qaeda, other groups and wannabes, but she said it has made strides toward stopping attacks in the past eight years.

"Many of the things we have done would prevent all but a couple of the 9/11 terrorists from even being able to get into the country," Napolitano said.

She also said the U.S.-Mexico border is far more secure than it was in the 1990s.

"It is very, very difficult to cross the border," said Napolitano. "Not impossible, as the numbers show. But it is very, very difficult."

She said there has been a decline in both money being shipped out of the U.S. and the number of illegal immigrants apprehended.

"I would say it's a combination of two things -- the declining economy and increased enforcement," said Napolitano.

As for critics of border security, she said, "Whenever I hear somebody say, 'The border's out of control. Nothing happens, there's a flood of illegal immigrants across the border,' I know that that's somebody who's just trying to gin people up."

A recent report from the Center for Immigration Studies said the number of illegal immigrants living in the United States is down 1.7 million from its peak of 12.5 million.
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http://ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=1196584

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3.
Petitions for US Worker Green Cards Down Sharply
The Associated Press, August 6, 2009

Dallas (AP) -- The number of petitions from employers trying to bring foreigners to work permanently in the U.S. has declined dramatically over the last two years, an Associated Press review of government data has found.

With the nation facing a deep recession and high unemployment, the government has received about half the number of employer-sponsored applications for work-based green cards in fiscal years 2008 and 2009 than it did in each of the previous years. There were almost 235,000 applications submitted in fiscal 2007, almost 104,000 the following year, and fewer than 36,000 through the first eight months of fiscal 2009, according to data obtained by the AP.

In addition to the weak job market, long application processing times, deep job cuts in sectors that have traditionally lured large numbers of applicants and more competition from American job seekers have led to the sharp decline, experts say.

''It mirrors the recession. Employers aren't hiring as much,'' said Kristi Barrows, deputy director of the Texas Service Center.

At the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' Texas Service Center in Dallas, would-be immigrant workers once waited a year or longer for a decision. Now, with the drop in applications and addition of staff, the Texas center has trimmed the average wait for those petitions and the others it processes to about five months, a marked improvement that's still a month shy of the agency's target timeframe.

The Texas processing center and one in Lincoln, Neb., handle the nation's foreign worker applications for permanent residence, known as green cards.

To bring in a foreign worker, employers must prove that they couldn't find a staffer in the U.S. who met the minimum requirements for the job, that they're financially healthy and that they will pay the prevailing wage. The potential worker must have specialized skills, be able to fill a job Americans aren't or have extraordinary abilities, such as those of musicians or pro athletes.

In fiscal year 2007, the latest year for which the statistics were available, most applicants came from India, Mexico, the Philippines, China and Korea, according to the Department of Labor.
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http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/08/06/us/AP-US-Meltdown-Green-Cards...

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4.
Latino Groups Criticize Obama On Immigration Raids
The NPR News, August 5, 2009

President Obama is taking heat from a growing number of critics on several issues. Among them are Latino leaders who say Obama has not only continued, but expanded many Bush-era immigration policies and tactics — such as home raids — which some see as discriminatory.
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http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111572284

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5.
WA farmers preparing for strict immigration rules
By Manuel Valdes
The Associated Press, August 5, 2009

Seattle (AP) -- Farmers in Washington are taking part in special training sessions in preparation for immigration investigations that the Obama Administration says will audit employers suspected of hiring undocumented workers, hoping to avoid the heat of the crackdown.

The training sessions, hosted by the Washington State Farm Bureau, will focus on the filing of I-9 forms, the employment eligibility documents that employers fill out for all workers, citizens or not.

In July, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began notifying hundreds of businesses around the country of plans to audit I-9 forms.

That hits close to farmers. The labor work force they hire from is often made up of migrants who are illegally in the country.

The training sessions aim at explaining the steps farmers need to take to file and retain the I-9 forms correctly to form a good defense against any charges of hiring unauthorized workers, and steps to prepare in the case for an ICE investigation, said Dan Fazio, director of employer services for the Washington Farm Bureau.

Last month, the Homeland Security Department began serving "Notices of Inspection" to 652 businesses around the country, including 26 in the Pacific Northwest. The department said it would not release the names or locations of the businesses that are being audited because of the ongoing investigations.

At least one member of the farm bureau in Washington received a notice of an audit this past month, Fazio said.

"We have to respond, it's that simple," Fazio said. Farmers "are very scared. The reason they're scared is because they know that if you're a small employee the government can come in and shut you down, just by an allegation."

To Fazio, farmers comply with the law and make the checks required by the government.

Under the I-9 rules, Fazio said, a worker attests that he or she is authorized to work in the country. Concurrently, the employer attests they saw the document and appears legal on its face.

Fazio said farmers can't deny employment to person if they think the person is illegally in the country because of discrimination laws.

Farmers also say they run into obstacles in hiring practices, including working with a seasonal labor force that may number in the hundreds. Also, the Department of Homeland Security introduced changes to the I-9 form earlier this year.
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http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_wa_immigration_audits_farmers.html