1. Labor Sec. talks rights
2. Guidelines call for deportation
3. Judge blocks NM residency check
4. CA legislature set for DREAM Act
5. Legislation proposed in PA

1.
Labor Secretary: U.S. to ‘protect’ illegal workers
By Neil Munro
The Daily Caller, August 31, 2011

At a Wednesday breakfast event, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis defended her agreements with Mexico and other countries to apply U.S. labor protections to illegal immigrants.

“I protect all workers here in this country,” she told The Daily Caller at a breakfast hosted by The Christian Science Monitor. “I have a vested interest in protecting all workers that work here in the U.S. Period.”

Critics of illegal immigration say Solis’ deals and statements show that she doesn’t value American workers more than foreign workers, and that she’s undercutting U.S. workers’ marketplace clout.

“These comments are extraordinarily irresponsible and historically unprecedented,” said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. “This is a classic example of why this administration is so out of touch with Americans,” he said.

The U.S. should protect all workers in the United States from unscrupulous employees, said Mark Kirkorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies. But Solis should ensure that foreign workers’ compensation is delivered in their home countries, he said. “I’m all for [enforcement], because it makes it more expensive to hire them. I just want them to get the check back in Mexico,” he said.

The nation’s unemployment rate is at least 9.1 percent, at least 14 million Americans are unemployed, and the percentage of working Americans has fallen to 64 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Labor chief decries conservative proposal to cripple NLRB)

Between 11 million and 12 million illegal immigrants live in the United States, according to Janet Napolitano, head of the Department of Homeland Security. That total includes roughly seven million working-age migrants.

On Monday, Solis signed agreements with the governments of the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and El Salvador “to protect the labor rights of migrant workers from those countries who are employed in the United States,” according to a Labor Department statement. The department has already signed similar deals with Mexico, Nicaragua and Guatemala.
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http://dailycaller.com/2011/08/31/labor-secretary-u-s-to-protect-illegal...

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2.
US guidelines call for deporting Onyango Obama
My Fox Boston, August 31, 2011

US immigration authorities’ own guidelines call for treating President Obama’s uncle as a high priority case that should be on track for deportation, FOX Undercover has learned.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement priorities are laid out in an ICE memo issued in March, where people who are a threat to public safety, which includes drunk drivers, are a high priority for removal.

A federal official who doesn’t want to be named tells FOX Undercover that the government ordered Obama’s uncle, Onyango Obama, out of the country in 1992. But he didn’t leave, making him a fugitive, another high priority category for ICE under their most recent guidelines.

Obama was arrested last week in Framingham and charged with drunk driving. He is being held by ICE, which isn’t officially releasing details of his case. The federal agency that oversees the immigration courts also isn’t releasing information, so it’s not clear why he was ordered out of the country in 1992.

Records show that he has had a Massachusetts driver’s license since at least that year. The Mass. Registry of Motor Vehicles says Obama presented a valid social security number to get his license, which suggests he was in this country legally at some point. One common scenario is that immigrants come here legally, obtain a social security number, then stay in the country when their visas expire, which could trigger a deportation order.

Eve if ICE moves to deport Obama now, he could be granted asylum by an immigration judge and get to stay here, which is what happened with the president's aunt in South Boston.

But one expert says Obama is hardly the only illegal immigrant who obtained a driver’s license from the Mass. RMV.

FOX Undercover reported yesterday that, unlike what happens in some other states, the Registry does not check anyone's immigration status when they get a driver's license or renew it.

Because of that, one expert estimates there could be tens of thousands of illegal immigrants with valid Massachusetts licenses, people who were here legally at some point but have since been ordered deported.

“It’s still obviously too easy to get a license in Massachusetts and that license is a gateway to so many other benefits in oru society. If he can do it than lots of other people who are even more dangerous than a drunk driver can get that license and that ability to live here,-- hiding in plain sight,” said Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies.

A spokesman for the RMV says the Registry has no way to know how many illegal immigrants have drivers’ licenses.
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http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/undercover/us-guidelines-call-for-de...

View "Onyango Obama" Topic Page: http://cis.org/Onyango-Obama

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3.
Judge blocks NM governor on immigrant driver licenses
Reuters, September 1, 2011

Santa Fe, NM (Reuters) - A New Mexico judge on Wednesday blocked a move by the state's Republican governor to make it harder for illegal immigrants to keep driver's licenses in the state.

Governor Susana Martinez's administration last month ordered the state to reverify the physical residency of foreign nationals who hold New Mexico driver's licenses in order to get or keep their licenses.

But District Court Judge Sarah Singleton in Santa Fe issued a temporary restraining order blocking the program, arguing in a brief ruling that "irreparable injury" would occur from "constitutional deprivations to the applicants."

Martinez, a former prosecutor who made a crackdown on illegal immigration the centerpiece of her election campaign, issued the requirement after a bill to ban licenses for illegal immigrants died in the state legislature earlier this year.

A number of U.S. states have passed laws to curb illegal immigration in recent years -- there an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States -- but have had key parts blocked by federal courts.

New Mexico is one of three states -- with Utah and Washington -- that allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses if they show proof of residency. Other states bordering Mexico -- Arizona, California and Texas -- do not.

Some officials fear the state's lenient driver's license rules were making New Mexico a magnet for illegal immigrants from out-of-state seeking licenses unavailable to them where they live. They say the measure would cut down on fraud.
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-rt-us-newmexico-licen...

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4.
Legislature in California Set to Pass a Dream Act
By Jennifer Medina
The New York Times, August 31, 2011

Los Angeles — The California Legislature is poised to pass a law that would allow illegal immigrants to receive state-financed aid for college. Known as the California Dream Act, the bill underscores the ways states are navigating their own way through controversial immigration issues, as the Obama administration has been unable to make headway on plans for an overhaul of immigration laws.

While the state law would do nothing to provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, it would provide them with more education benefits than they have in any other state. Advocates of the legislation say it would also send a powerful message to President Obama and Congress, forcing them to reconcile a patchwork of state laws that contradict one another.

Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, said during his campaign last fall that he would support such a law and signed legislation this summer that gave illegal immigrants access to privately financed state scholarships and other aid. While he has not publicly said that he would sign this second measure, Mr. Brown’s staff members have been working with legislators to amend the bill in order to trim some costs.

The Democratic-controlled Senate overwhelmingly approved the bill on Wednesday along a party-line vote. The amended bill is expected to pass the Democratic-controlled State Assembly in the next week.

Assemblyman Gil Cedillo of Los Angeles, the lead author of the bill, has persistently made an economic argument to convince his colleagues.

“We will soon have to replace one million workers who leave the work force,” Mr. Cedillo said. “Why would we cut ourselves off from students who have demonstrated since they got here that they have tremendous talent and resilience? This is a very smart decision for the state. It’s not necessarily popular or without controversy, but we have to get these students fully educated.”

The bill is particularly controversial at a time when the state is facing major budget problems and drastically cutting spending on higher education.

The legislation is expected to cost about $40 million, according to an analysis by the State Senate, about 1 percent of the state’s total $3.5 billion budget for college financial aid.

Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, a Republican who represents San Bernardino, said that he would try to organize a ballot referendum to overturn the legislation.

“The governor is coming to the folks and saying they need to pay more, and then he’s going to turn around and say we still have money to hand over to people who are in the country illegally,” Mr. Donnelly said. “That is absolutely wrong. We are saying to the world: ‘If you haven’t come to California yet illegally, come as soon you can.’ And we’re saying to the people who came legally: ‘You guys are idiots.’ ”

The law would allow illegal immigrants and out-of-state students who attended California high schools for three years or more to apply for the financial aid.

In 2001, the state passed a law allowing those same students to be eligible for in-state tuition. The University of California, California State University and community college systems now enroll roughly 40,000 such students, about 1 percent of the total enrollment.

Because they lack work visas, many of those students are still unable to secure jobs for which they may be qualified. Opponents of the state Dream Act argue that such legislation would only increase the number of college graduates without jobs.

But supporters contend that many students may get legal status while they are in school, because they have already applied for legal residency or citizenship, a process that can take decades. And they are holding out hope that the Obama administration and Congress will approve the federal Dream Act, which would give students who have graduated from college or served in the military a path to citizenship.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/01/us/politics/01dream.html

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5.
Illegal immigration could affect jobs
By Eric Boehm
Altoona Mirror, September 1, 2011

Harrisburg - The economic impact of Pennsylvania's illegal immigrant community is at the center of proposed legislation by some Republicans who want the state to join Arizona and others, which recently have cracked down on illegal immigration.

Proponents of the bills say illegal immigration directly affects the three largest chunks of the state's discretionary spending: public education, public welfare and corrections. Opponents say illegal immigrants are not the cause of the state's economic problems and evicting them would be bad for the state's economy.

The bills in the state House package include: requiring photo identification for public benefits; directing businesses to use a federal registration system known as E-Verify to ensure workers are American citizens; and allowing law enforcement to check for photo identification randomly, similar to controversial legislation passed in Arizona last year.

While the federal government is responsible for controlling and regulating immigration, Republican state lawmakers nationwide are starting to take the issue into their own hands, citing a lack of responsiveness from Washington.

"Every state in the nation is affected by illegal immigration when we're talking about federal taxpayer money," said state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler, chairman of the House State Government Committee and a leading sponsor of the package.

He said the state's illegal immigrant population costs taxpayers about $1 billion each year, citing information from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which supports stronger immigration policy.
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About 150,000 of Pennsylvania's 12 million residents are estimated to be illegal immigrants, with about 110,000 of them having jobs, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based policy center.
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http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/553145/Illegal-immig...