View the Center's new report concerning Rick Perry's claims on job growth.

1. U-visas gain momentum
2. Perry takes hit
3. Guidelines on deportation
4. MA sheriff considers Sec. Comm.
5. Students question CA Dream Act

1.
U-visas gaining momentum
By Paloma Esquivel
Los Angeles Times, September 26, 2011

For years Norma endured her husband's physical and mental abuse. But the undocumented mother of five finally decided to call police when her 10- and 11-year-old daughters told her that their father had sexually abused them.

"In that moment," said Norma, who asked that her last name not be used to protect her children, "I felt — not scared, mostly I just felt angry at myself for hiding so many things, for letting it get to that point."

She was in deportation proceedings at the time and just days away from a hearing that could have seen her removed from the country.

Lawyers with Legal Aid Foundation Los Angeles helped get her deportation deferred until the U-visa program, which provides temporary legal status to abuse victims who help police investigate crimes, took effect in 2008. In that time, Norma's husband was sentenced to six years in prison for a forcible lewd act on a child under 14 and Norma and her children secured the right to stay in the country long term.

The U-visa program got off to a sluggish start, with advocates complaining that immigration officials were slow to approve applications. It grew quickly, however, with the help of outreach efforts, including local visits by officials with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

But with increasing awareness has come increasing demand. In the three years that the program has been in place, more than 30,000 applications have been filed and more than 25,600 have been approved. Soon after a visit to Los Angeles this month to promote the program, immigration officials announced that all 10,000 available U-visas had been issued for the fiscal year, which ends Friday.

"We can see the volume already. At some point it's going to be an issue," said Betty Song, an attorney with the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in Los Angeles. "I don't know what purpose the cap serves, because if people are eligible, they are eligible."

Since last year, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Reps. George Miller (D-Martinez) and Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) have pushed the Power Act, which would expand U-visas to include victims of labor exploitation and increase the number of such visas to 30,000 annually. But the legislation has gained little traction in Congress. Others hope an increase will be included in separate legislation to benefit crime victims.

Proponents of immigration restriction, such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and the Center for Immigration Studies, said visas for crime victims should be further limited to the most extreme cases.

"The historic pattern with these special interest visa set-asides is that once they become popular and the use expands to the limits set by Congress, then you get a backlog," said Bob Dane, a FAIR spokesman. "Then that pressure begins to be applied to Congress to deal with the backlog by increasing the ceiling."
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-crimevictim-visas-20110926,0,599...

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2.
Perry downgraded on illegal immigration
By Chad Groening
OneNewsNow, September 26, 2011

An immigration enforcement activist believes Texas Governor Rick Perry destroyed his chances of winning the GOP nomination when he recently defended his support for in-state tuition for illegal immigrants in Texas.

William Gheen is president of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC). After watching Thursday's GOP presidential debate on the Fox News Channel, he believes the governor proved without a shadow of doubt that he is not the right choice for America by supporting in-state tuition for illegal aliens. (See related article)

"At this point he's not only just defending a past decision, Perry is actively promoting his support for in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, which is opposed by 81 percent of Americans -- [and] probably a higher percentage of GOP primary voters," the ALIPAC leader says. "And we feel very confident that if enough people hear this message, Rick Perry's presidential campaign will be over."

William Gheen (ALIPAC)Gheen points out that Perry has also defended his opposition to erecting a security fence along the southern border with Mexico.
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Gheen notes that according to a recent study by the Center for Immigration Studies, 81 percent of the "new jobs" created in Texas under Rick Perry have been taken by legal and illegal immigrants instead of American citizens.
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http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=1442754

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3.
New guidelines push deportation to last minute
By Eli Saslow
The Washington Post, September 25, 2011

She had spent her final week praying for one outcome while preparing for another.

With five days left before she was supposed to leave the United States, Paula Godoy explained to her three children what it meant to be deported. With three days left, she packed her clothes and rosary beads into a makeshift suitcase. With two days left, she arranged to live in Guatemala with the only relative still there, a distant uncle whom she would identify at the airport by his orange Hawaiian shirt.

And on the last day, Godoy awoke next to her boyfriend in their Richmond apartment and confessed she had all but given up hope.

“There’s no time,” she told him. “We need a miracle now.”

Godoy had thought she might be given a last-minute reprieve based on the government’s new deportation guidelines, which were put into place last month. Faced with 11 million illegal immigrants and limited funds with which to remove them, the Obama administration announced it would focus only on deporting the worst of the worst while dismissing cases against people such as Godoy, who have clean records and long histories in the United States.

The government said it plans to reconsider the status of 300,000 illegal residents under the new guidelines, including many who already received deportation orders. But sometimes in Washington, a solution isn’t necessarily a fix. Even with the guidelines in place, there is no way for illegal immigrants to apply for review, and the government has yet to announce which cases will be reevaluated, when, and by whom. The new guidelines are not a law or a bill or even a policy; they are a suggestion that will be interpreted day by day, case by case.

One of those cases was Godoy’s. “I just need an answer,” she said.

A life in Richmond? Or a morning flight out of Dulles, already confirmed by deportation officials?

Twenty-four hours left to determine her fate.

She picked up her cellphone at 7:45 a.m. and called her attorney in Manassas. He spoke little Spanish and she spoke little English, but he was her only chance left. She had gone through four lawyers and $10,000 since November 2009, when a police officer pulled her over for driving with a suspended license and discovered she had entered the country twice without documentation. While the government began to push for her removal, Godoy e-mailed congressmen and took a bus to New York to meet a self-proclaimed immigration specialist who charged her $1,500 and then stopped returning her calls.

Finally, late last month, a friend recommended that Godoy visit Ricky Malik, a young lawyer in Manassas. He told Godoy about the just-released guidelines and helped her apply for a stay of removal for two more years in the United States. He stapled a copy of the guidelines to her request. Godoy had been calling him for updates five or six times every day since.

This time, her call went directly to voice mail, and with 23 hours left Godoy decided to leave another message.

“Señor, por favor,” she said. Please.

It was the first day of school for her two sons, so Godoy tried to lose herself in the details of the life she still had. She filled up her boyfriend’s car with gas, even though the boyfriend and the car would both be staying behind. She breast-fed her 4-week-old baby, Marilyn Nicole, even though the baby was too young to have received a birth certificate or a passport and would stay in the United States to be cared for by her father.

She drove her two sons, ages 10 and 6, across south Richmond to their elementary school, even though they would need to transfer later in the week if they moved in with relatives. The boys jumped over puddles in the parking lot and followed Godoy into the building. She walked Diego, 10, to his fifth-grade classroom.

“The first day makes me nervous,” he said.

“I know,” she told him. “Be brave.”

The boys wanted to move with Godoy to Guatemala, but she had decided that they would stay in the United States with their grandmother. Godoy finally had built the life she wanted for her family since she crossed the border in 2000, paying a smuggler $6,000 and spending two months traveling on buses and foot trails before finally entering the United States through Texas. Her siblings and cousins lived nearby in Richmond. Despite the sluggish economy, she still managed to clean enough houses to pay the rent on a two-bedroom apartment. Her kids rode around the neighborhood on bikes and came home to play their Nintendo Wii. Two of them were U.S. citizens. Their lives were here.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/amid-new-guidelines-va-womans-dep...

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4.
4th sheriff eyes immigration plan
By Chris Cassidy
The Boston Herald, September 26, 2011

Another Bay State sheriff plans to bail on Gov. Deval Patrick’s immigration plan and sign onto a different version of the Secure Communities program.

“All these things are tools,” Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousins told the Herald yesterday. “I tell this to people all the time. It’s very important to put all these tools on the table when you’re dealing with people here illegally committing crimes — and violent crimes.”

The Herald reported yesterday that three Massachusetts sheriffs seeking a tougher immigration policy than what Patrick is offering traveled to Washington, D.C., last week to broker their own deal with federal officials.

They include Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph McDonald Jr. and Worcester County Sheriff Lewis Evangelidis.

The deal allows county corrections officers to run arrestees’ names through an Immigration and Customs Enforcement database. Cousins said he wants to review the plan, but said he expects to sign on.
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http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/2011_09264th_sheriff_eyes_imm...

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5.
Dream Act legislation could complicate student aid picture
By Teresa Watanabe
Los Angeles Times, September 25, 2011

Sacramento native Shawn Lewis knows the value of student financial aid. The son of a struggling single mom, Lewis says he never would have been able to attend UC Berkeley without the $24,000 in annual state grants and private scholarships he receives to pursue his political science degree and dreams of law school.

But Gov. Jerry Brown is now considering whether to sign landmark legislation that would extend state financial aid to illegal immigrants who are college students. And that makes Lewis anxious.

Will the law pit illegal immigrants against U.S. citizens at a time of skyrocketing demand for student aid? Can the state afford the largesse in this bleak economy?

"The issue is not students who are undocumented through no fault of their own wanting an education," said Lewis, president of the Berkeley College Republicans club. "The problem is that the public dollars are not there to meet the needs of even [legal] California residents."

Such questions have mounted, along with pressures on Brown from all sides, as he prepares to act on the bill. In July, Brown signed a companion measure giving undocumented students and others who qualify for reduced in-state tuition access to private scholarships. The package of legislation is known as the California Dream Act.

Despite the passions, many financial aid experts say they expect little displacement of legal students by illegal immigrants if Brown signs the bill. Many also argue that the costs will be relatively small, but the investment will reap substantial returns for state taxpayers — who already are legally required to pay for schooling through high school regardless of students' immigration status.

"These students have worked hard to get to college," Diana Fuentes Michel, executive director of the California Student Aid Commission, said of undocumented students. "By not furthering their education, we're preventing them from realizing their full potential, which will reduce state revenues in the future that supports all of our citizens."

She said the Dream Act would not affect U.S. citizens or legal residents receiving funds from the state's biggest pot of college financial aid, the $1.3-billion Cal-Grant entitlement program. Those grants are unlimited and given to everyone who meets the academic and low-income requirements, she said. Last year, the aid commission made available an average $4,500 grant to all 372,565 eligible applicants — an increase of more than 145,000 students in three years.

The $127-million fund for Cal-Grant competitive awards, which are limited, will almost certainly not be available to illegal immigrants. That's because the bill prohibits undocumented students from receiving those grants before eligible U.S. citizens and legal residents are served, and at present there are 10 applicants for every award, Michel said.

A Senate committee analysis estimated the annual added cost to the Cal-Grant program at $13 million. But it is not actually known how many undocumented students will be eligible for the grants. One hurdle is the financial aid application process, which involves a federal form used for both state and federal awards that requires a Social Security or taxpayer identification number. Another potential issue for illegal immigrants is the requirement to produce evidence of income, such as tax returns. Michel said the state would need to come up with a different process for them.

"We still have barriers to overcome," she said. "We're going to have to look at this very carefully."

Another source of financial aid is known as institutional grants, which are funded through student fees and awarded to low-income students by individual campuses. Campuses in the California State system, for instance, awarded more than 100,000 grants averaging $3,462 in the 2009-10 school year.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-student-aid-20110925,0,181589.story