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1. Admin under fire for stance
2. Military seeks foreign recruits
3. Cases overwhelming courts
4. MA city welcomes USCIS branch
5. Radio hosts attack Obama

1.
Obama takes heat from other side of immigrant healthcare debate
He suggests that those here illegally be kept from taking part in an insurance exchange set up by the government. Some on the left say that's bad policy that panders to the likes of Joe Wilson.
By Peter Wallsten
The Los Angeles Times, September 16, 2009

Washington, DC -- Trying to quell a conservative uproar over his healthcare agenda, President Obama has proposed barring illegal immigrants from a possible government-arranged health insurance marketplace -- even if the immigrants pay with their own money.

The move has surprised some of Obama's fellow Democrats and infuriated immigrant advocates, who on Tuesday attacked the position as political pandering and bad policy.

The White House revealed its stance Friday, after a renewed debate over illegal immigration that was triggered when Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) heckled Obama on the issue during the president's televised address to Congress.

Wilson yelled out, "You lie!" when Obama said that illegal immigrants would receive no benefit from his healthcare proposals.

But some on the political left say that the White House -- wary of more damaging battles with the right -- has given in to Wilson and other conservatives.

Wilson "acted like a buffoon, and everybody criticized him -- but then at the end of the day he sort of got his way," said Brent A. Wilkes, national executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

"It rewards bullying in a way that begets more bullying," said Frank Sharry, who directs the pro-immigrant group America's Voice and has been advising the White House and congressional Democrats on broader immigration issues.

After a sharply partisan debate Tuesday, the House voted 240 to 179 to formally rebuke Wilson for his outburst.

A White House official said that Obama's stance barring undocumented immigrants from participating in the insurance marketplace did not reflect a change of heart after Wilson's outburst -- only that the specific question had just come up in recent days.

"The president has been clear since the campaign that he does not intend for health insurance reform to cover undocumented immigrants," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity while discussing official White House policy.

But several White House allies said Tuesday that the policy was a shift designed to position Obama to the right of his critics.

Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.), an early Obama ally, said Tuesday that members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus were reevaluating their support for the healthcare overhaul.

Wilson's outburst, Gutierrez said, was "said in a mean, ugly way. And what the president did was create an even meaner, uglier public policy to accompany it."

Congress is working on plans to give low- and moderate-income people subsidies to buy health insurance in an effort to reduce the number of uninsured in the country.

None of the measures would allow illegal immigrants to receive subsidies.

Obama's proposal, circulated in an e-mail to reporters, would go further, barring undocumented immigrants from an insurance marketplace designed to make it easier for consumers to find coverage.

As they can today, undocumented immigrants still could buy insurance in the private market. But the White House e-mail noted that if the Democratic legislation passed, private insurers could be expected to sell more insurance through the so-called exchange and less coverage outside of it, leaving the private market to shrink over time.

The White House also has embraced a verification system to validate that people buying insurance were in the country legally. That idea had been rejected by House Democrats, who cited studies showing that such systems were costly and prone to mistakes.

The White House has not, however, proposed changing the law that requires emergency rooms to treat people who need care, including illegal immigrants.

Immigrant advocates said Tuesday that the insurance issue could be a political headache for the White House if members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, after hearing from their constituents, felt pressured to vote against the healthcare legislation.

Some said they intended to organize activists in the coming days to push the White House and Democratic leaders to make the bill more favorable to illegal immigrants.

Obama's policy statement, some activists said, was motivated by politics -- an effort to build credibility with conservatives and defuse criticism that the president was soft on illegal immigration.

Latino leaders and immigrant advocates aired their concerns during a meeting Monday at the White House. Administration officials said that the insurance coverage restriction was needed for the sake of clarity, according to several meeting participants.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/healthcare/la-na-health-i...

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2.
Military offers a path to citizenship
Immigrants without a green card but who have specific language or medical skills get a big incentive to enlist. The Army has recruited more than 100 people in Los Angeles under the pilot program.
By Alexandra Zavis
The Los Angeles Times, September 16, 2009

Looking more like a student than a soldier, the young Indian in jeans and a T-shirt snapped his heels together and stood at attention in front of an American flag. He raised his right hand and pledged to defend the United States against all enemies.

The enlistment ceremony earlier this month at a military center near Los Angeles International Airport took less than five minutes. With that, he became the 101st person in Los Angeles to join the Army under a program that significantly increases the number of immigrants eligible to serve.

"I think I'm in seventh heaven," he said, grinning.

Until recently, the 25-year-old with a master's degree from Purdue University in Indiana would not have been permitted to sign up. He had come to the U.S. on a student visa, and only citizens or permanent residents who carry green cards were eligible to join the armed forces. That changed in February when the Army started taking applications from foreigners with specific language and medical skills who are here on temporary visas or as refugees or asylum seekers.

Although all military branches are meeting or exceeding their recruitment goals, they have struggled to find individuals with critical skills needed in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond, officials said. In exchange for their service, the foreign recruits -- who offer skills it would take years to teach -- get an expedited path to citizenship.

Since the pilot program began in New York, expanding to Los Angeles in May, the foreign recruits have included 34 healthcare professionals and 385 people who speak languages such as Arabic, Polish and Swahili.

More than 69% of them have at least a bachelor's degree, compared with just under 10% for the Army as a whole.

"These are really accomplished individuals," said Naomi Verdugo, the Army's Pentagon-based assistant deputy for recruiting.

More than 200 slots remain for recruits with language skills in the Army's pilot program, as well as more than 260 for healthcare professionals.

On Aug. 31, Army recruiters in Atlanta, Chicago and Dallas also began taking applications from qualified foreigners proficient in any of 35 languages. (Spanish is not on the list.) Healthcare workers can apply at any Army recruiting station in the country. An additional 110 slots are earmarked for other military branches. The Navy, which is taking applications only for medical posts, signed up its first recruit last month in Houston.

The pilot program has raised concerns among some veterans groups and advocates for tighter immigration controls, who worry that the policy shift could pave the way for large numbers of foreigners, including ones who may not have entered the country legally, to join the armed forces. Still, Army officials say they have not encountered the resistance some had anticipated.

"People seem to recognize that these are folks who want to serve, and I think people respect service," Verdugo said.

Defense officials underscore that the program is open only to foreigners who have lived legally in the U.S. for at least two years. Under a wartime statute invoked in 2002, those who serve can apply for citizenship on the first day of active duty. But to continue the program in peacetime would require a change in existing laws.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-recruit16-2009sep16,0,2130477.story

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3.
Official Cites Case Overload, Says More Judges Needed
By Keith Perine
The Congressional Quarterly (Washington, DC), September 15, 2009

The need for more federal judges was the topic at a news conference Tuesday with Anthony J. Scirica, executive committee chairman of the Judicial Conference.

Scirica, who serves on the 3rd Circuit appeals court, said that since 1990 -- the last time Congress enacted a major judgeship bill -- appellate court caseloads have gone up by 45 percent, and district court caseloads have gone up 27 percent. Scirica said there has been a "huge influx" of immigration appeals to circuit courts, and that "border courts," such as the Southern and Western districts of Texas have seen a big jump in cases.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy has introduced a bill that would create dozens of new appellate and district court judgeships.

"Judges are working extremely hard," Scirica said. He said that the current workload means civil cases often have to wait because judges are so busy with criminal cases.
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http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/legal_beat/2009/09/judicial-conference-execu...

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4.
US immigration agency branches out
Lawrence celebrates opening of new office
By Maria Sacchetti
The Boston Globe, September 16, 2009

Lawrence, MA -- The state’s “immigrant city’’ unveiled its own federal immigration agency yesterday.

US officials opened the state’s only field office outside Boston where immigrants in Northern, Central, and Western Massachusetts can apply for work permits, green cards, citizenship, and other benefits.

Denis Riordan, the agency’s district director, said he hoped that the Lawrence office would allow the agency to reach more immigrants.

“We are celebrating both the past and the future today,’’ he told dozens of federal, state and city officials at the ribbon cutting ceremony. “It has been said that home is not where you live; home is where you belong, and USCIS belongs in Lawrence.’’

The unveiling in Massachusetts, where as many as 290,000 immigrants are eligible to become citizens, arrived at a daunting time for the agency: Projected revenues are down in the state and nationwide, and fees are under review after a sharp increase two years ago.

In 2007, the agency raised the citizenship application fee from $400 to $675, and the fee to obtain a green card, which confers legal permanent residency, rose from $395 to $1,010.

“Everything’s on the table,’’ said Michael Aytes, acting deputy director of Citizenship and Immigration Services in Washington, who traveled to Lawrence for the event. “We’d love to charge less money, but the question is can you deliver the level of service that these folks need at that lower cost, or are you charging them a lower fee and then making them pay through your inability to be able to deliver the service they need?’’

Eva Millona, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, said in an interview that it would help to reduce fees so that more immigrants could afford to apply for benefits. “The fees do present a barrier to many people,’’ she said.

The Associated Press reported yesterday that the federal government is collecting $282 million less than expected from the fee increases this budget year, which ends Sept. 30, possibly as a result of the battered economy.

In Massachusetts, citizenship applications declined by almost half since 2007, to 15,652 this year. Green card applications dropped from 10,266 in 2007 to 7,970 this budget year.

The decision on fees in the coming months will have a direct impact on the new building unveiled yesterday in Lawrence, a former mill city about 30 miles north of Boston.

The city is nearly 70 percent Latino, the highest in the state; 35 percent of its residents are foreign-born.

Almost two years ago, immigrants in Massachusetts could wait as long as 18 months to become US citizens, for instance. But federal officials said the processing rate is now one of the fastest, if not the fastest, in the agency’s history, making it an excellent time to apply.
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http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/09/16/us_im...

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5.
'Obama to make illegals eligible for health care'
Upcoming immigration bill seen as 'backdoor' to bring millions into plan
By Jerome R. Corsi
The World Net Daily, September 15, 2009

The Obama administration intends to "backdoor" illegal immigrants into its proposed health-care plan by passing an immigration reform bill that would give legal status to as many as 12 million illegal immigrants currently in the U.S., charged Radio America talk-radio host Rodger Hedgecock today in Washington, D.C.

Calling comprehensive immigration reform the Obama administration's "second act," Hedgecock said illegal immigrants initially would be excluded from the health care plan but would have access to it once comprehensive immigration reform is passed by Congress.

Hedgecock charged the administration's immigration plan amounts to providing amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants already in the United States.

He suggested the administration will follow the steps of the twice-defeated comprehensive immigration reform legislation proposed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., by including ample provisions for establishing a "pathway to citizenship" and providing for "guest workers" to give legal status to illegal immigrants already in the U.S.

Pointing to the anti-big-government rally in the nation's capital last weekend, Hedgecock said "America is waking up and is determined to have a say."

When asked by WND what his illegal immigration reform suggestions would be, Hedgecock responded, "Enforce the immigration laws already on the books."

Hedgecock told WND that some 150 radio listeners from his nationally syndicated show have traveled to Washington at their own expense to lobby members of Congress during the annual "Hold their Feet to the Fire" event, which began yesterday.

Hedgecock is headlining some 45 radio talk show hosts from across the nation who are participating in the two-day event, hosted by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR.
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http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=109973