1. Indians illegally crossing
2. AL law could strain budgets
3. New GA law targets fake IDs
4. MI Gov. to discuss immigration
5. Family questions gun source

1.
More illegal immigrants from India crossing borde
By Christopher Sherman, Will Weissert
The Associated Press, July 17, 2011

Police wearing berets and bulletproof vests broke down the door of a Guatemala City apartment in February hunting for illegal drugs. Instead, they found a different kind of illicit shipment: 27 immigrants from India packed into two locked rooms.

The Indians, whose hiding space was furnished only with soiled mattresses, claimed to be on vacation. But authorities quickly concluded they were waiting to be smuggled into the United States via an 11,000-mile pipeline of human cargo — the same network that has transported thousands of illegal immigrants from India, through Central America and Mexico and over the sandy banks of the Rio Grande during the past two years.

Indians have arrived in droves even as the overall number of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. has dropped dramatically, in large part because of the sluggish American economy. And with fewer Mexicans and Central Americans crossing the border, smugglers are eager for more "high-value cargo" like Indians, some of whom are willing to pay more than $20,000 for the journey.

"Being the businessmen they are, they need to start looking for ways to supplement that work," said Rosendo Hinojosa, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley Sector, at the southernmost tip of Texas, which is the most active nationwide for apprehending Indian nationals.

Between October 2009 and March 2011, the Border Patrol detained at least 2,600 illegal immigrants from India, a dramatic rise over the typical 150 to 300 arrests per year.

The influx has been so pronounced that in May, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told a Senate committee that at some point this year, Indians will account for about 1 in 3 non-Mexican illegal immigrants caught in Texas.

Most seek jobs

Most of the border-jumpers are seeking jobs, even though India's economy is growing at about 9 percent per year. Once safely inside the U.S., they fan out across the country, often relying on relatives who are already here to arrange jobs and housing.

Indians have flooded into Texas in part because U.S. authorities have cracked down on the traditional ways they used to come here, such as entering through airports with student or work visas. The tougher enforcement has made it harder for immigrants to use visas listing non-existent universities or phantom companies.

Also contributing to the spike was a quiet change in travel requirements in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras. Beginning in 2009, those nations sought to attract investors by allowing visitors from India to enter without visas.

Mexican authorities have been unable to stop smugglers from moving illegal Indian immigrants over their country's southern border, then north to Texas. Instead, Mexico asked neighboring Guatemala to restore the visa requirement for Indians, which it did June 6.

Still, the lack of a visa requirement allowed at least 8,300 Indians to enter Guatemala and fewer than 28 percent of them exited legally, according to Enrique Degenhart, director of Guatemalan immigration. The others disappeared to continue heading north.

Indeed, the group of Indians police discovered in Guatemala City eventually went free because, at the time, they were in Guatemala legally.

Meanwhile, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras still don't require visas for Indians, meaning smugglers can shift routes and use those countries as alternate jumping-off points for the journey north.

El Salvador's director of immigration, Ruben Alvarado, said officials have begun quizzing arriving Indians about what Salvadoran tourist sites they intend to visit in an attempt to spot those entering the country simply to head north.

Claim persecution

Indians caught by U.S. authorities often claim they fled their homeland because of religious persecution. Then they wait for months in federal detention centers like Port Isabel, in the town of Los Fresnos, about an hour's drive from the Texas-Mexico border.

On a recent morning at Port Isabel, young Indian men wearing navy blue detention uniforms filled the benches in Immigration Judge Keith Hunsucker's courtroom. Sixteen of the 32 cases on the docket were Indian immigrants, including Salimbhai Mansiya, from the state of Gujarat, who had been detained more than a month earlier.

Through an interpreter, Mansiya told the judge that he needed more time to find an English speaker who could help him fill out an application for asylum. The judge ordered his case delayed.

The Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review received 951 requests for asylum from Indian nationals between October and March — a six-month tally nearly equal to 1,002 asylum requests received from Indians in all of fiscal 2010.

Some seeking asylum can arrange to have their bond paid and are set free. Then they melt into American society and skip subsequent court dates. Immigration courts eventually order them deported, but only in absentia.

Many of those detained in Texas hail from Indian states such as Punjab and Gujarat, places that are relatively prosperous and where it's common for people to seek greater fortunes abroad even if they are financially secure at home.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43784029/ns/us_news-security/

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2.
State’s new immigration law would strain budgets
By Tim Lockette
The Anniston Star (AL), July 18, 2011

If Alabama’s new immigration law never takes effect, prosecutors and court officials across the state might just breathe a sigh of relief.

The new law — a sweeping bill that establishes criminal penalties for being an undocumented immigrant, or for hiring or transporting one — could add substantially to the docket in some criminal courts. With the state’s judicial system facing $13.2 million in cuts this year and circuit courts across the state planning to lay off workers, officials say they don’t know how they’re going to pay for enforcement of the new law.

“I don’t know what the costs are going to be,” said Calhoun County District Attorney Brian McVeigh. “And I don’t know how we will pay for them.”

The new immigration law, signed by Gov. Robert Bentley last month, could be the toughest in the nation. Like Arizona’s much-debated law, the Alabama bill allows local law-enforcement officers to check the immigration status of people they stop on streets and highways. But Alabama’s law goes even further, establishing criminal penalties for anyone who knowingly gives an illegal immigrant a ride in a vehicle, or for “harboring” if someone even rents a home to an illegal immigrant.

Civil rights groups have challenged the law in federal court, arguing that the bill’s criminalization of everyday interactions with immigrants is an unconstitutional overreach. The bill also has been panned by Hispanic and civil rights groups as a potential green light for racial profiling.

But for local court systems, the problem is one of dollars and cents.

‘A law… nobody can afford’

The new immigration law establishes several new criminal offenses, none of which has been tried in state courts before. Under the bill, any immigrant who cannot produce proof of citizenship or legal residency is guilty of a misdemeanor, requiring up to 30 days in jail. There are stiffer penalties for people who transport or hire undocumented immigrants, including fines of up to $1,000, as well as felony charges and prison time for anyone who hires more than 10 illegal immigrants.

The new offenses will come on the books just as Alabama’s courts absorb a $13.2 million cut to their budget, which is now at $138.8 million. The cuts have forced drastic staff reductions in courthouses across the state. In Calhoun County, court officials have said they plan to cut 13 of 25 employees.

“My guess is that we’ve got another law on the books that nobody can afford to enforce,” said Talitha Powers Bailey, who directs criminal law clinics at the University of Alabama’s law school.
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http://annistonstar.com/view/full_story/14734702/article-State%E2%80%99s...

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3.
New immigration law targets use of fake IDs
By Craig Schneider and Jeremy Redmon
The Atlanta Journal Constitution, July 18, 2011

Any Georgia adult who uses a fake ID to get a job could go to prison for 15 years and pay a fine of $250,000.

The new offense, called aggravated identity fraud, went into effect July 1 under a little-noticed provision of the state’s new immigration law. It applies to everyone, not just illegal immigrants. The penalties are on par with possessing up to 10,000 pounds of marijuana.

"It's a harsh penalty," said Frank Rotondo, executive director of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police. "But it is meant as an eye-opener, to send a message."

In addition to illegal immigrants, those the law might snare, officials said, are deadbeat parents who are trying to hide income and young people lying about their age in order to get a job. (However, penalties are lower -- no more than three years and $5,000 -- for culprits younger than 21.)

Before July 1, the crime of using a false form of identification often resulted in probation and a small fine, Rotondo said.

Supporters of the law say it will help deter illegal immigrants from coming to Georgia and burdening the state’s taxpayer-funded public schools, hospitals and courts. Many come to Georgia to find work.

“We just can’t afford it,” said Bob Andrews, a salesman from Smyrna who followed the new law’s progress through the state Legislature this year. “The costs are astronomical for the healthcare they get, for education… not counting the court systems and clogging that up and causing all kinds of problems.”

But critics said the penalties are extraordinarily harsh and could trigger constitutional challenges.

“Not only does it not fit the crime, it’s absolutely anti-human rights,” said Teodoro Maus, president of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, which has successfully fought other provisions of the law in court. “It’s ridiculous. It’s unbelievable.”

This facet of the law has not been placed on hold, unlike two other provisions that would empower police to investigate the immigration status of suspects and punish people who, while committing another offense, knowingly transport or harbor illegal immigrants.

Compared to those provisions, the fake ID section received relatively little attention. Consequently, many police agencies around the state said they are not sure whether they or some other law enforcement agency should enforce it, or even how they would do it.

For now, numerous metro Atlanta police agencies are taking a go-slow approach.

"We're still evaluating how we are going to proceed," said Mekka Parish, spokeswoman of the DeKalb Police Department. "There's not a lot of clarity."

Given the department's lack of experience in handling immigration offenses, it would probably try to hand off the investigation to another agency more familiar with those issues, she said.

In Cobb County, police spokesman Dana Pierce said the police department handles crimes in which someone uses a fake ID to buy beer, but the sheriff's department handles investigations into identity fraud.

But over in the sheriff's department, Col. Don Bartlett said, "My best guess is that the police get this." He added that the use of fake IDs by illegal immigrants seeking work is a big problem.

The Republican author of the law, state Rep. Matt Ramsey of Peachtree City, acknowledged that it applies to anyone. But he said it could help stop the flow of illegal immigrants to Georgia.

Ramsey argued that the maximum penalty is not too harsh because illegal immigrants who use fake identification to get jobs are “putting another person or entity in legal jeopardy -– an employer –- because it is a violation of federal law to employ an illegal alien.”

Several police agencies said they're unclear on how they would learn about the crime. Few expect the farmers, landscapers and others who employ immigrants to report someone they discovered using a false identification.
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http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/new-immigration-law-targets-1023275.html\

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4.
Gov. Snyder To Discuss Immigration At Conference
WDIV Detroit, July 18, 2011

On Monday, Governor Rick Snyder will speak on the campus of Wayne State University at the "Immigration and Michigan's Economic Future," conference. Among topics to be discussed will be how immigration can be a way to repopulate Michigan and boost the economy.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will participate in the opening panel, "Can Immigrants Save Detroit?" via video teleconference.

Also scheduled to attend is Compuware former-CEO Peter Karmonos, Detroit City Councilman Ken Cockrel, as well as several other business leaders.
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http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/28580471/detail.html

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5.
Family of U.S. agent slain in Mexico demands to know gun source
By Richard A. Serrano
Los Angeles Times, July 17, 2011

Five months after U.S. immigration agent Jaime Zapata was shot to death by a Mexican drug cartel, his family is demanding to know whether the weapons were purchased in the United States and smuggled into Mexico under the now-defunct Fast and Furious operation.

The family complains that U.S. authorities in Washington and Texas have refused to answer crucial questions about the Feb. 15 ambush on a four-lane highway in northern Mexico.

"What happened with Jaime needs to come out," the family's lawyer, Raymond L. Thomas of McAllen, Texas, said in a telephone interview Sunday. "And the likelihood that these were Fast and Furious guns is certainly plausible."

Mexican authorities have announced nine arrests in the high-profile case. Among them was Jesus Rejon Aguilar, a Zetas cartel leader who was captured near Mexico City this month.

In Washington, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is seeking information on the Zapata slaying.

Nelson Peacock, assistant secretary for legislative affairs for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the immigration and customs agency, told Issa in a letter Friday that investigating Zapata's killing was a priority.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-guns-cartel-2011071...