1. Obama says no special treatment
2. IRS allowed billions in tax credits
3. GOP contenders face questions
4. GOP alleges coverup in agent's death
5. AZ wants private briefings

1.
No special treatment for uncle, Obama says
By Maria Sacchetti
The Boston Globe, September 2, 2011

President Obama expects his uncle’s deportation case to be treated like any other immigration matter, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said yesterday.

Carney said the president was unaware of his uncle Onyango Obama’s arrest last week in Framingham until his press secretary told him about it this week. When he was arrested, Framingham police said Obama told them he would like to call the White House to arrange bail.

Obama “became aware of this story when I walked into his office and among other subjects mentioned it to him, and it was new to him on Monday,’’ Carney said at a press briefing.

He added that the president expected all laws to be enforced in the case. “We expect it to be treated . . . like any other immigration case.’’

Onyango Obama, 67, who is originally from Kenya, is the half-brother of the president’s late father, who was rarely in the president’s life.

Police arrested him last week on charges of drunken driving, failing to yield, and negligent operation of a motor vehicle. After the arrest, federal immigration authorities discovered that Obama had been living and working in Massachusetts in violation of a 1992 deportation order, two federal law enforcement sources told the Boston Globe on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the case.

Obama has pleaded not guilty in Framingham District Court and is being held in the Plymouth County House of Correction on an immigration detainer.

One of his lawyers, Scott Bratton in Cleveland, said this week that Obama would fight the deportation since he has lived in the United States for nearly 50 years.
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http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/09/02/treat...

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

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2.
Undocumented workers got billions from IRS in tax credits, audit finds
By Lisa Rein
The Washington Post, September 2, 2011

The Internal Revenue Service allowed undocumented workers to collect $4.2 billion in refundable tax credits last year, a new audit says, almost quadruple the sum five years ago.

Although undocumented workers are not eligible for federal benefits, the report released Thursday by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration concludes that federal law is ambiguous on whether these workers qualify for a tax break based on earned income called the additional child tax credit.

Taxpayers can claim this credit to reduce what they owe in taxes, often getting refunds from the government. The vagueness of federal law may have contributed to the $4.2 billion in credits, the report said.

The IRS said it lacks the authority to disallow the claims.

Wage earners who do not have Social Security numbers and are not authorized to work in the United States can use what the IRS calls individual taxpayer identification numbers. Often these result in fraudulent claims on tax returns, auditors found.

Their data showed that 72 percent of returns filed with taxpayer identification numbers claimed the child tax credit.

The audit recommended that the IRS seek clarification on the law and check the immigration status of filers with taxpayer indentificaion numbers.

IRS officials, in response to a draft of the report, agreed to consult with the Treasury Department on the law. But they said they have no legal authority to demand that filers prove their legal status when the tax agency processes returns.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/post/undocumented-worker...

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3.
Illegal immigration is flash point for Republican White House hopefuls
By Philip Rucker, Amy Gardner
The Washington Post, September 1, 2011

Mitt Romney opened his town hall meeting here talking about the economy — his thoughts on growing business, getting government out of the way — just as he does nearly every other campaign event. But when he opened last week’s forum for questions, the first voter he called on didn’t seem concerned about any of that. He wanted to know the Republican presidential candidate’s stance on border security.

A similar scene played out in South Carolina a few days later, when Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) attended a town hall meeting she assumed would center on the economy, jobs and the federal deficit — only to see the assembled voters react most passionately to her comments on illegal immigration.

Polls may not suggest it, and the candidates may not be catering to it, but immigration is an issue that voters won’t let the GOP White House hopefuls escape.

Republican primary voters keep bringing immigration up as the candidates campaign in back yards, opera houses and recreation halls across Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. To a sizable chunk of those who will pick the GOP’s presidential nominee, immigration is an urgent issue, even a litmus test.

“Immigration is not even close to the top issue for most Republicans today, but it is an issue that is heavy with symbolic importance to Republican voters,” said GOP pollster Jon Lerner, who advised Tim Pawlenty until he dropped out of the race last month. “If a candidate is squishy on immigration, that symbolically suggests that he’s probably unreliable on a whole host of other conservative issues.”

The view in the Republican Party on immigration has shifted dramatically to the right since 2006, when President George W. Bush proposed an overhaul that would have combined a legalization plan with tighter border security.

The issue is likely to take on even greater significance in the race for the Republican nomination with the recent entrance of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who oversees the nation’s biggest border state and who has a longer and more complicated record on immigration than his opponents.

Since entering the race, Perry has taken a tough stance on the issue.

“Once we secure the border, we can have a conversation about immigration reform in this country, but not until,” Perry told reporters after a campaign stop last month in South Carolina. “You must have the federal government putting the resources, the boots on the ground, the aviation assets in the air, and secure that border so that we know that the border is secure before we have a conversation about any immigration reform.”

Perry’s history with the border is more nuanced than that. He has long advocated a more seamless border between his state and Mexico, and he has traveled there to drum up business for his state. In 2007, he called the proposed construction of a fence between the United States and Mexico “idiocy,” saying “it absolutely would not work.”

Ray Sullivan, Perry’s communications director, said that remains Perry’s position.

“Fencing a 2,000-mile border is not practical,” Sullivan said. “The governor does and has always supported what he calls ‘strategic fencing’ in urban and high-trafficked areas.”

During Perry’s first year in office, he signed a law allowing any student who has lived in Texas for three years and graduates from a Texas high school to pay in-state tuition at state colleges, regardless of their citizenship status.

The bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support but now is criticized by some Republicans as a precursor to the federal DREAM Act, a Democratic proposal to create a path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants brought into the country as children.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/illegal-immigration-is-flash-poin...

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4.
GOP lawmakers: Coverup attempted in death of Border Patrol agent
By Melanie Eversley
USA Today, September 1, 2011

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona tried to cover up a link between a government operation and the December 2010 death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, two Republican members of Congress are telling CBS News.

This undated photo provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian A. Terry.

Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Rep. Darrell Issa of California say there's evidence that officials at ATF and the U.S. Attorney's Office sought to hide the link, CBS reports.

The two lawmakers say in a Sept. 1 letter to the Arizona U.S. Attorney's Office that Emory Hurley, the lead prosecutor on the "Fast and Furious" program that allowed illegal guns on the streets, learned almost immediately that firearms involved in the program had been recovered at the scene, according to CBS.

In the hours after Terry died, Hurley "contemplated the connection between the two cases and sought to prevent the connection from being disclosed," CBS reports.
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http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/09/gop-lawm...

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5.
AP NewsBreak: Arizona legislative committee eyes private briefings on border from US officials
The Associated Press, September 1, 2011

An Arizona legislative advisory committee assigned to make recommendations on improving security along the U.S.-Mexico border wants to hold private meetings with federal officials away from the Capitol.

The move raises questions about whether the move would comply with the state’s open meeting law.

Officials with Department of Homeland Security agencies responsible for border security and immigration have declined invitations to brief the panel in public but indicated they’re willing to brief members behind closed doors.

Rep. Russ Jones, a Yuma Republican who is the panel’s co-chairman, said federal officials initially indicated they felt it was inappropriate to appear before a state legislative committee.

Their concern now apparently centers on the sensitivity of information that would be presented on border enforcement intelligence and operations, Jones said.

“We want them to feel free to be as candid as possible about the unique threats and issues that they may have, without fear of divulging something that might be of use ... to the bad guys,” Jones said during an interview Wednesday.

Department of Homeland Security officials did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment.

Jones said his panel needs the information so they can be fully informed before it prepares a report due at the end of the year.

However, he acknowledged that the open meetings law’s requirements may not line up with his desire to have the entire committee meet privately with federal officials at the same time.

The open meeting law is intended to provide transparency for the public. It generally requires the Legislature and other public bodies — and their advisory committees — to meet in public.

House Rules Attorney Tim Fleming said he wasn’t privy to the committee’s plans but said sensitive security matters aren’t among the meeting law’s exceptions that permit closed-door sessions.

Security-related questions about the meeting law’s requirements have come up when other legislative committees have toured prisons and the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, Fleming said.

“There are questions about it,” Fleming said when asked about the committee’s intentions. “Certainly under the statute, there are unanswered questions about how you do it.”
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/ap-newsbreak-arizona-legislative-...