1. DOJ sues AL over law
2. USCIS seeks EB-5 applicants
3. AZ attracts donations
4. AL law won't keep kids out
5. NYC bill hits enforcement

1.
DOJ sues Ala. over immigration law
By Reid J. Epstein
Politico (DC), August 2, 2011

Arguing that the federal government sets immigration policy, the Justice Department has filed a lawsuit to stop Alabama’s toughest-in-the-nation law before it takes effect on Sept. 1.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in Birmingham, is the third major legal challenge to the Alabama law, which would, among other things, make it illegal for undocumented immigrants to apply for work, require law enforcement to determine the legal status of people they arrest, transport or “conceal” undocumented people in the state, and force public schools to determine the citizenship status of their students.

“To put it in terms we relate to here in Alabama, you can only have one quarterback in a football game. In immigration, the federal government is the quarterback,” U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance said, according to the Birmingham News.

Attorney General Eric Holder, in a statement released by the Justice Department, said states cannot set their own immigration laws.

“Today’s action makes clear that setting immigration policy and enforcing immigration laws is a national responsibility that cannot be addressed through a patchwork of state immigration laws,” Holder said. “The department is committed to evaluating each state immigration law and making decisions based on the facts and the law. To the extent we find state laws that interfere with the federal government’s enforcement of immigration law, we are prepared to bring suit, as we did in Arizona.”

The Obama administration suit is the second major legal challenge to the Alabama law, which Gov. Robert Bentley signed in June. The American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center and other groups filed a joint suit last month arguing, like the federal government, that the Alabama law unlawfully claims federal immigration authority for the state.

A federal judge in Birmingham is scheduled to hear arguments on that suit Aug. 24, according to the Associated Press.
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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/60469.html

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2.
U.S. to Assist Immigrant Job Creators
By Miriam Jordan
The Wall Street Journal, August 2, 2011

In its quest to spur job growth and jump-start the economy, Washington is reaching out to foreign entrepreneurs.

Alejandro Mayorkas, chief of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, on Tuesday will unveil several initiatives designed to attract and retain foreign entrepreneurs, particularly in the high-tech sector, who wish to launch start-up companies in the U.S.

Among the initiatives is a plan to make it easier for some foreigners to qualify for legal permanent residence, or green cards, if they can demonstrate their work will be in the U.S. national interest. The changes will also include a way for entrepreneurs to obtain work visas without a job offer from an established company.

Mr. Mayorkas also plans to announce that his agency will be training its examiners on how visa-eligibility requirements apply to entrepreneurs.

"In this economy, it certainly is in the interest of this nation to welcome foreign talent," Mr. Mayorkas said in an interview.

The changes come as increasing numbers of software entrepreneurs have been taking their start-ups to other countries, often after completing advanced degrees in the U.S., because of the difficulty in securing temporary work visas and permanent residency here.

Vivek Wadhwa, a visiting scholar at the University at California, Berkeley, who studies immigrant entrepreneurs, estimates the new measures could yield "tens of thousands of start-ups and hundreds of thousands of jobs."

The measures won't require congressional approval because they don't constitute changes in current immigration law. Instead, clarifications will be issued for existing visa categories with the objective of enabling more entrepreneurs to gain entry into the U.S. and of bringing more speed and efficiency to the visa-application process.

"The Obama administration is getting the immigration system engaged in creating jobs," said Steve Yale-Loehr, a professor of immigration law at Cornell University Law School. "They are trying to facilitate the ability of entrepreneurs to get temporary work visas and green cards when the economy is in the doldrums."

Generally, immigrant entrepreneurs must have a specific job offer to qualify for an employment-based immigrant visa or green card, such as in the category for individuals with exceptional ability in the arts, sciences and business.

As part of the new initiatives, foreign entrepreneurs will be eligible for a so-called EB-2 immigrant visa without a specific job offer, as long as they demonstrate that their business endeavors will be in the U.S. national interest.

The government is also seeking to bolster use by foreign entrepreneurs of H-1Bs, which are temporary work visas for foreign workers in a specialty occupation.

The H-1B program has been a mainstay of software companies and other businesses that seek foreign nationals to fill certain jobs, and an employer-employee relationship has generally been a prerequisite for qualifying.
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405311190429250457648257320335815...

Related Topic: EB-5 Permanent Investor Visa Program

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3.
Arizona’s State-Owned Mexico Border Fence Attracts Donors From Across U.S.
By Amanda Crawford
Bloomberg, August 2, 2011

Arizona, whose immigration law sparked a lawsuit by the Obama administration and national boycotts, aims to collect tens of millions of dollars in private donations to build a border fence with inmate labor.

The plan, created by lawmakers and signed into law by Republican Governor Jan Brewer in April, would turn donations over to a group of Republican legislators, political appointees and four county sheriffs who have criticized U.S. efforts to combat illegal immigration. They say the fence is needed to stop an “invasion” that may include violent criminals and Middle Eastern terrorists disguised as Mexicans.

“Arizona once more has to step in and do a job the federal government won’t do,” Republican state Senator Steve Smith, who sponsored the bill, said in a telephone interview. He said he believes the Obama administration has failed to secure the border and has now given up. “It is a massive invasion on our social and economic systems. Nobody can deny that.”

The campaign is ratcheting up rhetoric between the state and the federal government over border security. It is modeled after a similar effort by Brewer that taps into the same nationwide discontent over U.S. policy to pay for the defense of Arizona’s immigration law. The campaign, Keep Arizona Safe, has raised more than $3.8 million from about 45,000 donations since June 2010, said Matthew Benson, a spokesman for Brewer.

$50 Million Goal

For the border fence, more than $146,000 has been collected from about 3,000 private donors in 50 states since fundraising began July 20. At least 568 were from Arizona, 329 from California, 182 from Texas, 173 from Florida, 88 from New York and 42 from New Jersey. The goal is to raise a minimum of $50 million, said Smith.

Smith acknowledged that the fund will have to collect several million dollars to do anything. Existing fencing on the U.S.-Mexico border cost an average of $1 million to almost $4 million a mile (1.6 kilometers) to build, with some areas costing as much as $15 million per mile, according to a 2009 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The state would use inmate labor to keep costs down, Smith said.

The law doesn’t specify where or how the fence would be built. The 16-member Joint Border Security Advisory Committee, which includes Smith and nationally known border-hawk Sheriffs Joe Arpaio and Paul Babeu, would control the money and the project.

The 368-mile-long border between Mexico and Arizona now has 306 miles of fencing built by the federal government -- 123.2 miles of pedestrian fencing and 182.8 miles of vehicle fencing, said Victor L. Brabble, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman in Arizona. About 61 miles don’t have fencing because of mountains or other difficult terrain, he said.

‘Unparalleled Invasion’

The Arizona campaign site features a photo of a fence across the open desert that is intended to block vehicles -- vertical poles placed too close to one another for a car to drive through -- with the question, “Does this look like a secure border?”

In a letter posted to the site, Smith said donors’ help is needed to stop “an unparalleled invasion.” He cites statistics on deaths in Mexico and an estimate by the anti-immigration group FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform) that illegal immigrants cost the nation $100 billion per year, a figure opponent groups say is inflated.

He also notes that the total number of non-Mexican immigrants detained (45,279 in 2009) includes those from Middle Eastern countries and quotes FBI testimony that immigrants from Islamic nations might change their names and learn to speak Spanish to pretend to be Hispanic.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-02/arizona-s-state-owned-mexico-bo...

Related Topic: Arizona

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4.
Ala. immigration law won't keep kids out of school
By Jim Van Anglen
The Associated Press, August 1, 2011

Officials say the state's tough new immigration law won't prevent any child — including illegal immigrants — from enrolling in Alabama's public schools.

Tommy Bice of the Alabama Department of Education said Monday that state officials are sending information to local schools about how to deal with enrolling students. It requires only that public schools determine students' immigration status for record-keeping.

State officials had said previously that the measure, which became law in June, was not intended to keep illegal immigrants from enrolling.
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gwsn1P8_RvmHVAllZamlYq...

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5.
Council Bill Would Curb Assistance by Rikers to Immigration Officials
By Sam Dolnick
The New York Times, August 1, 2011

Rikers Island officials have long compiled lists of foreign-born inmates who end up in their custody. They routinely give this information to federal immigration officials, who have their own office at the jail. Deportations often follow.

Amita Lopez, in the Bronx, said a program at Rikers Island led to her husband's deportation. With the city's assistance, immigration authorities annually detain and deport thousands of inmates charged with a range of offenses.

With the city’s assistance, immigration authorities annually detain and deport thousands of inmates charged with a range of offenses, from misdemeanors for theft to felony drug dealing.

But now the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, wants to curtail this practice by permitting the jail to cooperate with the federal immigration authorities only in limited circumstances.

Ms. Quinn is proposing legislation, to be introduced this month, that could touch off tensions over immigrant rights between the City Council and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who has defended the program in the past.

“On Rikers, there is a dragnet as it relates to every foreign-born person,” Ms. Quinn said. “Stop needlessly and excessively deporting people.”

Ms. Quinn, a Manhattan Democrat who is a candidate for mayor in 2013, added that she had deep support on the City Council, saying, “I could pass this bill and override a veto.”

Opponents said the bill would improperly tie the hands of immigration officers, threatening public safety and weakening federal law.

The role of states and localities in immigration enforcement is a highly contentious issue across the United States. Some jurisdictions assert that the federal government has not done enough and have tightened their own laws. Others have characterized the federal response as overbearing, and refused to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In June, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo suspended New York’s participation in a key federal program, called Secure Communities, that makes it easier for immigration authorities to access the fingerprints of everyone booked into a local jail and to begin deportation proceedings against noncitizens.

The program at Rikers, which also operates in jails across the country, is supposed to be aimed at criminals who have committed serious offenses.

Federal authorities at Rikers place holds, or “detainers,” on noncitizen inmates they want to deport. The detainers let the city jail hold inmates for 48 hours after their scheduled release, so they can be transferred to immigration custody.

Mr. Bloomberg has defended the arrangement, calling it a public safety measure. Administration officials declined to comment on the proposed bill, saying they had not yet seen it.

Proponents of tough immigration laws said the City Council was impinging on federal jurisdiction.

“It’s a bad idea, unequivocally,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, which favors reduced immigration. “They are essentially playing Russian roulette with public safety and putting people at risk needlessly, all because of the politics of immigration.”

Daniel J. Halloran, a Republican councilman from Queens, said he was skeptical of the bill’s legality. “You’re legislating in the realm of the federal government,” he said. “Do we even have the authority to do this?”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/nyregion/nyc-bill-would-curb-jails-rol...