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1. Health care debate issue
2. Rep's dissent helps opponent
3. Slate of hawks eye AZ
4. CA co. joins Sec. Comm.
5. Woman seeks reprieve

1.
Shout Draws Focus to Illegal-Immigrant Issue
Coverage Question Is Complex, Experts Say, but Less Ominous Than Reform Foes Warn
By Alec MacGillis
The Washington Post, September 11, 2009

Republican Rep. Joe Wilson's shout of "You lie!" during President Obama's speech Wednesday night brought renewed attention to swirling questions about whether Democratic health-care legislation would extend coverage to illegal immigrants. Although the answer is more complicated than reform proponents acknowledge, it also does not square with the dark warnings of opponents who say the proposals would bring waves of undocumented immigrants into taxpayer-funded plans.

To counter claims that universal health care would cover illegal immigrants, Democrats and independent arbiters have pointed to language in the House legislation that says the federal subsidies, or "affordability credits," that would be the main avenue to expanding coverage would not be available to illegal immigrants.

This language does not assuage the bill's critics, who say the proposals lack the verification tools needed to assure that illegal immigrants do not gain coverage either through federal credits or expanded Medicaid eligibility for the poorest of the uninsured.

House Republicans have proposed amendments to close potential loopholes, but those measures have so far failed in committee. House Democrats say that the stricter rules could prevent eligible people from getting coverage and that eligibility regulations would be drawn up by federal officials. The bill's opponents say such a process would be inadequate.

"The other side appears to be saying, 'Trust us, [the government] will do the right thing.' Well, the trust issue is the core problem in immigration -- the political class is telling the public, 'We'll do the right thing,' and the public doesn't believe them," said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for stricter immigration policy.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/10/AR200909...

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Illegal Immigrants Trigger Fight by Foes Over Obama’s Overhaul
By Meg Tirrell and Nicole Gaouette
Bloomberg News, September 11, 2009
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ahHoBkIjOqd4#

Illegal immigrants in the U.S. won’t gain insurance benefits for their medical care under the health overhaul proposed by President Barack Obama.

That may not stop some uninsured and undocumented U.S. residents from getting government subsidies, Republican critics said. Current proposals lack enforcement provisions to ensure that ineligible applicants are kept from programs, causing a gap between law and practice, according to a group seeking curbs on immigration.

Benefits for immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally have been among the most contentious issues in Congress during debates on immigration policy. The dispute spilled into health care during Obama’s Sept. 9 address when U.S. Representative Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, shouted “You lie!” after the president said his proposed changes “would not apply to those who are here illegally.”

“President Obama is correct that the legislation that has been proposed in Congress, the legislation that he’s considering, would not provide federal subsidies for the undocumented,” said Leighton Ku, a professor of health policy at George Washington University in Washington, in a telephone interview yesterday. “Can some people cheat? Some people can cheat at virtually anything.”

How many ineligible residents may get U.S. help paying for health care is in contention. The Center for Immigration Studies, the Washington-based policy group that advocates for greater immigration controls, estimates that as many as 6.6 million uninsured illegal immigrants could get federal subsidies for health insurance under legislation in the House, at a cost of as much as $30.5 billion a year.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/10/AR200909...

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2.
Democrats raise money off 'You lie' outburst
'We will not stand for our president to be called a liar in front of the nation'
By Chelsea Schilling
The World Net Daily News, September 10, 2009

The House Democrat campaign operation is using an outburst during President Obama's health speech to a joint session of Congress to make at least $100,000 in donations in the next 48 hours.

As Obama delivered his Sept. 9 health-care speech and claimed his plan would not be provided to illegal aliens, Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., shouted, "You lie!"

A video of the incident follows:

As WND reported, the version of Obama's universal health-care plan pending in the U.S. House specifically states that illegal aliens should not receive benefits. However, Stuart Bybee, spokesman for Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., told WND restrictions on illegal alien enrollment are not clearly enforced under the current House bill.

"Essentially, it's just a very vague provision, and it really doesn't have any enforcement capability to it," Bybee said. "It just says if you go in and claim that you are a citizen, that's good enough."

"You Lie!" Get the bumper sticker that immortalizes American opposition to Obama

He said Heller offered an amendment to H.R.3200 during the House Ways and Means Committee markup that would have ensured that illegal aliens would not qualify for health-care benefits under the bill.

Heller's amendment would have required the federal government use the same database it currently uses to determine eligibility for welfare recipients to ensure illegal aliens do not enroll in the government health-care plan. Applicants would have to show eligibility through the Income and Eligibility Verification System and the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system.

"Under the affordability credits, they have to verify your income in order to make you eligible for the subsidy for the government-run program," Bybee said. "It is simply one extra step just to insist on verification. It doesn't require a new agency. It doesn't require a new program. It's stuff that's already there and available, and it's a step that should be taken to ensure fraud and abuse does not occur in the system."

The House Ways and Means Committee rejected Heller's amendment on July 17 in a straight party-line vote.

Bybee said, "If the intention was to make sure that only citizens had access to this care, then the congressman's amendment should have passed."

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, as many as one-third – or 15 million – of the often-cited "46 million people" without insurance are illegal aliens and their children.

But in an interview with CBS News, Katie Couric asked Obama if illegal aliens should be covered under the proposed health plan.

Obama replied, "no."

"First of all, I'd like to create a situation where we're dealing with illegal immigration, so that we don't have illegal immigrants," he said. "And we've got legal residents or citizens who are eligible for the plan. And I want a comprehensive immigration plan that creates a pathway to achieve that."
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http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=109462

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3.
2010 Arizona ballot could include anti-immigrant slate
By Mike Sunnucks
The Phoenix Business Journal, September 10, 2009

There could be an anti-immigration slate of candidates running for key elected posts in the 2010 elections.

State Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, said he would be interested in running for Maricopa County Sheriff if Joe Arpaio opts to run for governor next year.

Pearce has been a main advocate of hard-line immigration policies, including punishing businesses that hire undocumented workers and denying state services to illegal immigrants.

“First of all Sheriff Joe’s doing what Arizona and America need most: enforcing our laws and the best job in town. If he chose to run for governor, I certainly would give serious consideration to running for sheriff,” Pearce said.

Arpaio is considering a run for governor against Gov. Jan Brewer in the Republican primary and Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard (the likely Democratic nominee) in the general election.

Both Pearce and Arpaio favor get-tough approaches to illegal immigration, as does Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, who is considering a run for Arizona Attorney General.

Arpaio and Thomas would have to eventually resign their county jobs to run for statewide offices. County officials feel they would appoint interim officeholders to serve out their terms until 2012, although there could be a legal challenge to that policy which could compel elections for sheriff and county attorney in 2010.
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http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2009/09/07/daily63.html

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4.
Imperial County jail checks immigration records
The Associated Press, September 10, 2009

Imperial, CA (AP) -- Law enforcement agencies in Imperial County can now check the immigration status of people they arrest when fingerprints are taken during booking.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Thursday that Imperial joins about 80 other counties nationwide in the program called Secure Communities. Los Angeles and San Diego are among them.

The program lets local law enforcement check fingerprints against a federal immigration system in addition to criminal records. ICE is notified if the fingerprints yield a match in the immigration system.
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http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_13309972

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5.
Immigrant Finds Path Out of Maze of Detention
By Nina Bernstein
The New York Times, September 11, 2009

Holding tight to her sister’s hand in the bustling streets of New York’s Chinatown last week, Xiu Ping Jiang looked a little dazed, like someone who has stepped from a dark, windowless place into a sunny afternoon.

In a sense, she has. For a year and a half Ms. Jiang, a waitress with no criminal record and a history of attempted suicide, was locked away in an immigration jail in Florida. Often in solitary confinement, she sank ever deeper into mental illness, relatives say, not eating for days, or vomiting after meals for fear of being poisoned.

With no lawyer to plead for asylum on her behalf, she had been ordered to be deported to her native China, from which her family says she fled in 1995 after being forcibly sterilized at age 20. Too ill to obtain the travel documents needed for the deportation to take place, she was trapped in an immigration limbo: a fate that detainee advocates say is common in a system that has no rules for determining mental competency and no obligation to provide anyone with legal representation.

Then, through a fluke, her case came to the attention of The New York Times, which published an article on May 4 about her ordeal and the efforts of her sisters in New York to help her. An immigration judge in Florida reopened the case.

Now Ms. Jiang, 36, is free on bail, living in Brooklyn with her older sister, Yun, a United States citizen, and receiving the medical and psychiatric help she needs while awaiting a fresh immigration hearing close to home — this time with a lawyer. And her case is being held up as an example of the system’s worst and best approaches toward the mentally ill, as advocates press the Obama administration for change.

If immigration courts were required to offer the same basic protections for the mentally disabled as any other court, advocates say, Ms. Jiang’s prolonged detention — which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and put her life at risk — could have been avoided.

Hers is one of several cases cited in a 15-page letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. that asks for such protections, including the appointment of counsel to anyone with a mental disability in deportation proceedings, and the appointment of guardians ad litem to speak on behalf of those found mentally incompetent. The letter, signed by 77 mental health experts, civil rights lawyers and immigration advocates around the country, was sent July 24, but not made public until Thursday.

The Justice Department has made no formal response, but Matthew A. Miller, a spokesman, said the department provided specialized training on handling the mentally ill at the annual conference of immigration judges last month.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/nyregion/11mental.html?hp