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1. CIS report warns $30b deficit
2. Feds requiring verification
3. Border traffic down
4. SBI project extends contract
5. BP increasingly attacked

1.
New report shows undocumented could raise deficit $30 billion under proposed health care plan
By Nicole C. Brambila
The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA), September 8, 2009
http://www.mydesert.com/article/20090908/NEWS01/90908021/New-report-show...

A new study released today shows that, without enforcement, the undocumented could gain health care coverage through President Barack Obama's proposed plan, costing Americans more than $30 billion annually.

Roughly 6.6 million uninsured, undocumented immigrants – or about half of the nation’s undocumented population – could, because of lack of enforcement, receive benefits under the proposed health care plan, according to a study released by the Center for Immigration Studies.

"It reminds us immigration and illegal immigration looms as a large facet of the healthcare debate," said Steven Camarota, director of research. "They make up a huge percentage of the uninsured."

The report did recognize that it is likely many undocumented immigrants would not enroll in the proposed plan out of fear or the lack of knowledge about the program.

Founded in 1985, the Center for Immigration Studies is an independent research organization that exclusively studies the economic, social, demographic and fiscal impact of immigration.

Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for benefits under the proposed America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, or HR 3200.

However, the study argues the bill’s lack of an enforcement provision opens the door to the undocumented taking advantage of the program.

"If you have a bar on illegal immigrants getting the affordable credit and it’s unenforced, it’s kind of like a speed limit on a highway that police say they’re never going to enforce," Camarota said.

Congress voted down an amendment in July that would have required the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program be used to verify eligibility.

Among the report’s findings:

* The cost of treating uninsured, undocumented immigrants is roughly $4.3 billion annually, in emergency rooms and free clinics.

* In 2007, 38 percent of undocumented immigrants had health insurance.

Under the proposed plan, the bill establishes government subsidies to reduce the cost of purchasing insurance to the qualifying poor; expands Medicaid eligibility and imposes an income tax on high-income individuals.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that HR 3200, or America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, would increase the federal deficit $239 billion over the next 10 years. The proposed bill would also reduce the number of non-elderly without health insurance by 37 million.

Immigration advocates said they were not surprised the undocumented were brought into the health care debate.

"There are a number of Americans that are adamantly opposed to any support," said Juan Lujan, a Latin American expert and dean of off-campus programs for College of the Desert.

"They don’t look at the whole picture; at what they contribute, what they do, the jobs they have.

"You’re not going to change these folks minds, least of all in the times that we are in right now."

Immigration opponents have long argued that the undocumented are a drain on public services.

In 2006, though, a Desert Sun analysis found undocumented immigrants pump nearly $1.5 billion annually into the Riverside County economy while costing residents roughly $220 million for the social services they use.

President Barack Obama plans to address Congress on his health care reform proposals tomorrow.

The reform proposals have set off a firestorm of protests nationwide.

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2.
Disputed E-Verify rules go into effect
By Chris Strohm
Congress Daily (Washington, DC), September 8, 2009

A coalition of business groups continued to wage a legal battle Tuesday as a government mandate took effect requiring federal contractors to verify the immigration status of employees working on government projects.

After months of delay, the Homeland Security Department implemented a rule requiring most federal contractors and subcontractors to use its E-Verify system to prove employees working on government projects are legally in the country.

The path to implementing the mandate cleared Friday when the U.S. District Court for the Southern Division of Maryland refused to grant a business coalition led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce an emergency injunction that would prevent the rule from taking effect.

"Any contractor that lets a contract on or after today requires the E-Verify clause in that contract," said Bill Wright, a spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Services, which operates E-Verify, a system that compares employee information to department and Social Security databases.

Nonetheless, the business coalition is challenging the court ruling at the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, said Angelo Amador, the Chamber's executive director for immigration policy.
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http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=43543&dcn=todaysnews

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3.
Border traffic plunges under passport policy
By Emily Bazar
USA Today, September 8, 2009

The number of people crossing the northern and southern land borders into the USA has dropped sharply since a passport requirement began June 1.

Businesses in tourism-dependent border communities blame the policy for making a bad year worse.

At Martin's Fantasy Island, an amusement park in Grand Island, N.Y., about 10 minutes from the Canadian border, "our Canadian business is way off," spokesman Mike McGuire says. Nearly one-third fewer Canadian families of four have come for discounted "Canadian Wednesdays" compared with last year, he says. He blames the recession, a soggy summer and the passport rule.

The park is in the Buffalo border crossing region, which saw a 13% decline in privately owned vehicles coming into the USA in June and July compared with the same period last year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Along both borders, traffic was down 12.5%.

The change is part of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, an effort to make borders more secure after 9/11. The rules affect U.S. citizens entering by land or sea, who once could get across by simply declaring themselves citizens. The change also affects citizens of Canada and Bermuda, who previously did not have to show passports.

Now, they must have passports or a handful of other documents including enhanced driver's licenses, which have more security features and are available in some Canadian provinces and Michigan, New York, Vermont and Washington.

The passport rule went into effect at airports in 2007. The rules for Mexicans have not changed; they have long needed special border crossing cards or passports plus visas.
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http://www.usatoday.com/travel/2009-09-08-borders_N.htm

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4.
Boeing border-sensor work extended
By Brady McCombs
Bloomberg News, September 9, 2009

The Boeing Co. will get a one-year extension worth as much as $300 million on its contract to build a network of cameras, radar and sensors to stop illegal crossings at U.S. borders, said the federal official in charge of the project.

Mark Borkowski, executive director of the Secure Border Initiative, said it made sense to retain Chicago-based Boeing as tests begin on the system deployed along a section near Tucson. The original three-year contract wraps up at the end of this month.

"We need to get this system built, and we need to confirm it's the system we want, and we need to have a single contractor that's accountable for that," he said in an interview. "It's probably not a good time to be talking about changing our acquisition strategy" by hiring another contractor.

Customs and Border Protection estimates it will cost $6.7 billion to install the system so that it covers the most heavily traveled parts of the U.S.-Mexico border by 2014.

The project has been plagued by technical glitches and delays since its start in 2006. Early on, technicians had trouble with cameras that took too long to focus and radar images that were obscured by raindrops.

Initial testing on the Tucson section will begin in "less than two months" with an evaluation completed by the end of the year, he said. The Border Patrol then will examine the system for several additional months to see if other changes are needed, he said.

Federal officials will test to see if the system can detect 70 percent or more of people and vehicles crossing the border illegally, Borkowski said.

Construction along a second section of the Arizona border is to begin next month. That installation has been delayed for six months because it includes environmentally sensitive land, limiting options for erecting towers that hold the cameras and sensors, Borkowski said.
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http://www.azstarnet.com/business/308259

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5.
Border Patrol Agents Face Rockings
The KYMA News (Yuma, AZ), September 8, 2009

Getting pelted with rocks -- it's an increasing trend for some local Border Patrol Agents.

Border Patrol Agents in Calexico, part of the El Centro sector, say they've seen an increasing number of rockings. Since the 2009 fiscal year began, agents say they've seen more than 100 rockings.

Agent Keith Croxton has experienced this first hand, and says it can be scary. First thing, his "adrenaline level spikes; you clear yourself and check your vehicle." After all, "anytime threat of health or well being there is a level of fear involved."

Most of the rockings within the El Centro sector occur in Calexico. In the past week, Calexico Agents have been attacked eight times.

One area prone to rockings -- first street along the border fence. There, people sit on top of the fence or in trees typically on the Mexico side of the border. They rock the agents below. Their goal can be anything from distracting to hurting agents.

A lot of rockings also happen in between the border fence and the truck lot fence by the New River. That's because illegal immigrants hide next to the fence, and smugglers don't want them caught by Border Patrol Agents.

To protect themselves, Agents use vehicles designed to be "rock proof." But usually only five to six of these vehicles are taken out at a time. If Agents are not in a "rock proof" vehicle, and they are attacked, they must rely on their self-deffense.
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http://www.kyma.com/slp.php?idN=2712&cat=News