1. DHS touts enforcement
2. IL Co. defies Feds
3. PA targets employers
4. No changes to AL law
5. AL student enrollment

1.
Napolitano to promote DHS work on immigration
By Alicia A. Caldwell
The Associated Press, October 4, 2010

Washington (AP) — The Obama administration is making a very public point of promoting its new effort to target criminals who are in the country illegally.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was delivering a speech at American University on Wednesday outlining what she calls the department's "smart, effective enforcement" of the nation's immigration laws.

Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced the arrests of nearly 3,000 criminal illegal immigrants rounded up in a weeklong, nationwide sweep. Those people will now face deportation proceedings.

ICE Director John Morton said the roundup was another example of the department's efforts to use its limited resources to focus on those illegal immigrants who pose a threat to public safety or national security.

"We are charged with enforcing the national immigration laws and we are trying to do that in a thoughtful, balanced way," Morton said. "Our principal priority is public safety. That makes a ton of sense with limited resources."

On Tuesday, Morton's deputy, Kumar Kibble, reiterated that sentiment during a House border and maritime subcommittee hearing focusing on how the department decides which illegal immigrants should be deported first.

"We are effectively managing our resources by carrying out our responsibilities in a smart, fair and efficient way," Kibble said in written testimony.

Kibble also testified that despite the focus on criminals, immigration enforcement for other illegal immigrants hasn't stopped.

Napolitano's speech will focus on deportation issues and security at the border, according to a DHS official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the speech in advance.

Homeland Security has been the target of criticism from both sides of the immigration debate in recent months.
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jGr84ZGZISteoznS0pInGM...

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2.
Pennsylvania Enters Immigration Debate with Undocumented Immigrant Bill
Fox News Latino, October 04, 2011

If you hire an undocumented immigrant in Pennsylvania, you could lose your professional license.

The Republican-majority State Government Committee approved the Professional Licensees Illegal Employment Act, which would cover anyone licensed by the Bureau of Occupational and Professional Affairs. The bill, which would revoke the professional license of anyone who hires undocumented workers, penalizes first-time violators.

Supporters said the proposed law would help prevent people who are in the United States illegally from holding jobs that legal residents could otherwise have.

"We have some employers who are looking the other way, and there aren't any ramifications," said the sponsor, Rep. Mark Mustio, R-Allegheny. He said passage of the bill would have a deterrent effect on businesses.

Democrats said they worried the bill could lead to large institutions going out of business because of a single hire, and that the standards by which someone would be subject to a complaint and investigation were not spelled out.

Rep. Babette Josephs of Philadelphia, the committee's ranking Democrat, said some of the state's large hospitals or universities and even large chains of barbershops could find themselves in jeopardy if the bill is enacted.

Mustio said the complaint and investigation procedures would be those already in place at the Department of State, which includes the Bureau of Occupational and Professional Affairs. The bureau oversees roughly 30 licensing boards for various professions and occupations, including doctors, nurses, cosmetologists, funeral directors and crane operators.

The bill is among more than a dozen in the "National Security Begins at Home" package that has been developed by the committee's chairman, Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler. It was unclear when the committee would consider the other measures.
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http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/10/04/pennsylvania-enters...

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3.
Cook County Defies Government On Immigration Detainers
By Don Babwin
The Huffington Post, October 4, 2010

Chicago - The release of more than 40 suspected illegal immigrants jailed in Cook County on felonies has added fuel to a contentious debate over public safety and local authorities' defiance of a White House program that aims to pursue more criminal deportations.

The program depends on police and sheriff's deputies to hold suspected illegal immigrants who get arrested beyond the time when they would otherwise be released. But commissioners in the county around Chicago recently adopted a new law that orders the sheriff to ignore all federal requests to detain immigrants after they complete their sentences or post bail.

Other places, such as San Francisco, have taken similar measures, part of a backlash against the Obama administration, which many say is unfairly seeking to deport immigrants accused of traffic violations and other minor offenses. But Cook County's new ordinance is the first to forbid a sheriff from holding suspected felons as well as those accused of misdemeanors.

"It puts residents at risk, and it puts my police officers at risk," said Rod Craig, mayor of Hanover Park in suburban Chicago, who is livid about the release of three suspected illegal immigrants charged with assaulting two officers and trying to take one of their guns.

Detaining the immigrants is supposed to give federal agents time to pick up the suspects and begin the deportation process. But one after another, local governments have complained about that the Secure Communities program, which gives immigration agents access to fingerprints collected at jails. They say the practice costs too much money and treats immigrants unfairly, especially those accused of only small-time offenses such as shoplifting, traffic violations or drunken driving.

Some states have pulled out of the program. In Illinois, for instance, Gov. Pat Quinn declared the government would not cooperate. New York's governor also suspended participation. And in San Francisco, the sheriff refuses to honor detention requests from the Customs and Immigration Enforcement for illegal immigrants charged with misdemeanors.

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4.
Immigration law author tells farmers: No changes
By David Martin
Buisness Week, October 4, 2011

Steele, AL - A sponsor of Alabama's tough new immigration law told desperate tomato farmers Monday that he won't change the law, even though they told him that their crops are rotting in the field and they are at risk of losing their farms.

Republican state Sen. Scott Beason of Gardendale met with about 50 growers, workers, brokers and business people Monday at a tomato packing shed on Chandler Mountain in northeast Alabama. They complained that the new law, which went into effect Thursday, scared off many of their migrant workers at harvest time.

"The tomatoes are rotting on the vine, and there is very little we can do," said Chad Smith, who farms tomatoes with his uncle, father and brother.

"My position is to stay with the law as it is," Beason told the farmers.

Beason helped write and sponsor a law the Legislature enacted in June to crack down on illegal immigration. It copied portions of laws enacted in Arizona, Georgia and other states, including allowing police to detain people indefinitely if they don't have legal status. Beason and other proponents said the law would help free up jobs for Alabamians in a state suffering through 9.9 percent unemployment.

The farmers said the some of their workers may have been in the country illegally, but they were the only ones willing to do the work.
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http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9Q5JJF81.htm

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5.
Alabama: Students don’t need birth certificates
By MJ Lee
Politico, October 4, 2010

Trying to calm fearful parents after many Hispanic students stopped showing up in school in response to Alabama’s new immigration law, the state’s top education officialsaid kids will be enrolled even if they don’t have birth certificates.

The state’s interim superintendent, Larry Craven, issued a statement Tuesday evening in a bid to “alleviate any confusion” and “clarify details specific to enrollment and attendance in public school.”

Craven said that while a contentious provision of the law upheld by U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn last week requires all students enrolling on or after Sept. 29 to present their birth certificate, they will be accepted at school even without documents.

“We would like all parents and students to know, regardless of whether the enrolling student has an original or certified copy of their birth certificate, the student will be enrolled and receive full participation in all of the academic, co-curricular and extra-curricular programs that will be offered by the local school system,” Craven said.

The information schools are required to collect “will not be used to individually identify your child,” but rather be used only to report “statistical data,” he added.

State officials have said because federal law mandates that schooling cannot be denied based on immigration status, the ability to produce a birth certificate shouldn’t hinder a student’s ability to enroll.

Craven also emphasized that the new rules do not apply to students that enrolled in the state’s public school system before Sept. 29, and that once a student is enrolled, “they are always enrolled unless they graduate or withdraw.”
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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/65197.html