Please visit our YouTube and Facebook pages.

1. Raids open jobs for workers
2. DHHS Sec. dubs issue a 'red herring'
3. Issue at stake in health care
4. U.S. denies Honduran leader visa
5. Seaborne smuggling on the rise

1.
Immigration raids yield jobs for legal workers
By Alan Gomez
USA Today, September 14, 2009

When federal agents descended on six meatpacking plants owned by Swift & Co. in December 2006, they rounded up nearly 1,300 suspected illegal immigrants that made up about 10% of the labor force at the plants.

But the raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents did not cripple the company or the plants. In fact, they were back up and running at full staff within months by replacing those removed with a significant number of native-born Americans, according to a report by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).

That was the most extreme example of what has become an increasingly common result of the raids: "They were very beneficial to American workers," according to Vanderbilt University professor Carol Swain.

"Whenever there's an immigration raid, you find white, black and legal immigrant labor lining up to do those jobs that Americans will supposedly not do," said Swain, who teaches law and political science.

Exactly who is filling the jobs has varied, depending on the populations surrounding the plants:

* Out West, one of the Swift plants raided by ICE, had a workforce that was about 90% Hispanic — both legal and illegal — before the raids. The lost workers were replaced mostly with white Americans and U.S.-born Hispanics, according to the CIS.

* In the South, a House of Raeford Farms plant in North Carolina that was more than 80% Hispanic before a federal investigation is now about 70% African-American, according to a report by TheCharlotte Observer.

* Throughout the Great Plains, a new wave of legal immigrants is filling the void, according to Jill Cashen, spokeswoman for the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represents 1.3 million people who work in the food-processing industry. Plants are refilling positions with newly arrived immigrants from places such as Sudan, Somalia and Southeast Asia.

Recession plays a factor in shift

Steven Camarota of CIS said native-born Americans are not only willing to take on those jobs, but currently fill a majority of them.

Native-born workers outnumber immigrants 3-to-1 in construction jobs and 2-to-1 in farming, fishing and forestry jobs, according to Camarota.

T. Willard Fair, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Miami, said it has taken the greatest recession in a generation for poor Americans to line up to work in fields and factories.

"We'll take anything now," Fair said. "We're willing to be exploited for a while."

After ICE agents descend on poultry-processing plants, pork factories and meatpacking facilities across the USA, in some cases plant owners are forced to raise wages to get Americans to sign up, Swain said.
. . .
http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2009-09-13-plants_N.htm

********
********

2.
Sebelius: Illegal immigrant debate a 'red herring'
The Politico (Washington, DC), September 13, 2009

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) may have said that Barack Obama was lying when he said the health care bill won't cover illegal immigrants, but the secretary of Health and Human Services said Sunday that opponents are drumming up a false debate over the issue.

"The language will be clear when the final draft is written," Kathleen Sebelius said on ABC's "This Week." 'There's a section in the House bill -- as Congressman Wilson well knows that says that [illegal immigrants won't be covered] very explicitly.

"I think this is a red herring."
. . .
http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/0909/Sebelius_Illegal_immigra...

********
********

3.
Health care for immigrants at issue
Proof of citizenship should be required for coverage, critics of reform plans say
By Erin Kelly
The Arizona Republic (Phoenix), September 13, 2009

Washington, DC -- When a conservative congressman shouted "You lie!" at President Barack Obama last week, it reignited an emotional debate over how the president's health-care-reform plan would affect the nation's 11 million-plus illegal immigrants.

Although Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., apologized for being rude, he and other Republicans still dispute Obama's assertion in his speech to a joint session of Congress that, "The reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally."

Health-care legislation crafted in the House does specify that federal subsidies are barred for "individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States." And Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., released an outline of pending Senate legislation that says, "No illegal immigrants will benefit from the health-care tax credits."

Critics say that doesn't mean much because there's no requirement in the legislation for low-income people to verify their citizenship before receiving federal subsidies to help them buy health insurance.

Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona told reporters Thursday that Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee defeated amendments that would have required verification of eligibility.

"And so if there is no verification of eligibility required, it is quite likely - indeed, I would say probable - that a lot of people who are not eligible, including illegal immigrants, will end up receiving the benefits of the legislation," Kyl said.
. . .
"I think there's a general skepticism among the public when it comes to the federal government's willingness to enforce our federal immigration laws," Feere said. "I think the president would find increased support for the health-care bill if he required Congress to mandate use of (a citizenship-verification provision). His credibility would go up."
. . .
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/09/13/20090913health-immigra...

********
********

4.
Honduran leader says U.S. voids visa because of coup
Reuters, September 12, 2009

Tegucigalpa (Reuters) --Honduran de facto ruler Roberto Micheletti said on Saturday the United States has revoked his visa to pressure him to step down and reinstate exiled President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a June military coup.

Micheletti, however, was defiant of the latest move by Washington, which said earlier this month it was cutting more than $30 million in aid to the poor Central American country.

"We will not back down. Dignity does not have a price in our country," Micheletti told Honduran radio.

Asked if he his visa had been canceled, Micheletti said: "Yes."

"We received letters from the U.S. Consulate in Honduras which say that because of the what happened on June 28, our visas have been suspended," Micheletti said.

Micheletti has not visited the United States since the June 28 coup. A month after the coup, the U.S. State Department said it had revoked the diplomatic visas of four members of Honduras' de facto government, but did not name them.

Zelaya was ousted after he angered the judiciary, Congress and the army by seeking constitutional changes that would allow presidents to seek re-election beyond a four-year term.

The Honduran Congress named Micheletti to be interim president, and the country's Supreme Court said it had ordered the army to remove Zelaya.

The State Department said last week that it could not, for now, regard as legitimate Honduran elections scheduled for November because of Zelaya's overthrow.
. . .
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE58B1BD20090912?feedTy...

********
********

5.
Overall illegal entry arrests down for the first time in four years
The North County Times (Escondido, CA), September 12, 2009

For the third year in a row, authorities have seen an increase in the smuggling of people and drugs along the San Diego County coast, officials said.

But this also is the first year the region has seen a drop in arrests of illegal immigrants since 2005, they said.

Authorities continue to chalk the changes up to the 2005 Secure Border Initiative, a Department of Homeland Security plan to tighten the nation's borders and reduce illegal immigration, though some groups cite the weak economy.

Coast Guard Cmdr. Guy Pearce, whose agency is one of several involved in the regional anti-smuggling effort, said smuggling activity on the water appears to be up about 50 percent from the same time in the last federal fiscal year.

Last year, the Coast Guard handled 33 smuggling boats and processed 221 migrants, Pearce said.

Those numbers have risen this year to 42 vessels and 311 migrants, he said. He said the numbers represent a mix of human and drug smuggling incidents.

"Across the board, we're seeing an uptick in all forms of transnational crime taking place in the water," Pearce said.

Overall, though, Border Patrol arrests of illegal immigrants in the region are down about 25 percent, said Border Patrol spokesman Mark Endicott.

The Border Patrol recorded 112,228 apprehensions in the first 11 months of this federal fiscal year, down from 149,415 apprehensions for the same period last year, Endicott said.

A July report by the nonprofit Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C., said the fact the legal immigration numbers have remained steady while illegal immigration has dropped shows that increased enforcement in border areas has been effective.

But illegal immigrants also are likely to be discouraged from crossing the border when the U.S. economy is weak, the report stated.

"It seems likely that when the economy recovers, the illegal population will resume its growth," it stated.
. . .
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/sdcounty/article_a9328381-f15c-5c59-87...