1. Kobach touts immigration bills
2. Dayton to attract immigrants
3. Immigration office criticized
4. Tucson holds conference
5. Ex-ICE official guilty

1.
Kris Kobach: Immigration bills likelier to pass
By Brent D. Wistrom
The Wichita Eagle (KS), October 14, 2011

LAWRENCE — Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Thursday that bills targeting people living in the United States illegally may be more likely to pass this year because of the pressure conservative candidates are applying on moderate state senators.

That includes, he said, a possible repeal of in-state tuition for the children of illegal immigrants.

Kobach, one of the nation's most prominent advocates for tougher immigration laws, shared his opinion after a wide-ranging discussion of the impact of illegal immigration at the State of the State Kansas Economic Policy Conference on the campus of the University of Kansas.

Kobach defended the controversial laws he co-authored for Arizona and Alabama that, among other things, require law enforcement officers to check immigration status when they've stopped someone on suspicion of any other crime and are suspicious the person is here illegally.

Alabama's law allows police to detain people without bond who can't prove their residency, and it also requires schools to check residency status when kids register. Since key parts of the law were upheld by a federal judge in late September, illegal immigrants have been fleeing the state and schools have reported higher absentee rates.

Kobach acknowledged that such an exodus was an intended outcome of the law he helped write for Alabama. It may decrease population, but it has opened jobs for legal residents.

"You're encouraging people to comply with the law on their own," he said. "Nobody gets arrested. Nobody spends time in detention. We don't expend resources in removal hearings. People decide to comply with the law. I'd say that's a good thing."

His views were fiercely challenged.

Benjamin E. Johnson, executive director of the nonprofit American Immigration Council in Washington, D.C., said those laws undercut increasingly successful community policy efforts, use up time that officers could spend on more important matters, and lead to discrimination.

The laws specifically prohibit racial profiling.
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http://www.kansas.com/2011/10/14/2061622/kobach-immigration-bills-likely...

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2.
Dayton, Ohio approves plan to be an immigrant-friendly city
By Mary Wisniewski
Reuters, October 13, 2011

While Alabama and other states have passed tough new laws targeting illegal immigrants, Dayton, Ohio, has taken another route -- rolling out the welcome mat for legal immigrants as a way to boost the community.

Dayton approved a plan to become an immigrant-friendly city last week by a 4-0 City Commission vote. Human Relations Council Director Tom Wahlrab said the plan aimed to help legal immigrants thrive by helping them navigate the system, not to attract illegal immigrants.

"When folks come, we'd like to welcome them. We'd like to let them know what their resources are to learn English," Wahlrab said. "We want to let them know they have a part in our community."

A Brookings Institution report on immigration trends released on Thursday noted that cities which want to stem population loss, like Detroit or Cleveland, were more likely to welcome immigrants "with open arms." Dayton's population has dropped from about 166,000 in 2000 to 141,500 in 2010.

"We have seen that immigrants who are here already are more likely to start small businesses. They are buying houses, fixing those houses, taking care of their property," said Francisco Pelaez, Hispanic Missionary Pastor for Dayton's College Hill Community Church.

"We want to help this continue. We want to pull down the barriers they are facing because it's not always easy to navigate the system."
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/14/us-immigration-dayton-idUSTRE7...

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3.
St. Louis immigration office is criticized
By Phillip O'Connor
St. Louis Post Dispatch, October 14, 2011

One person was asked if he was "a good Muslim" after he acknowledged having premarital sex with his wife.

Another was told it was "not very Catholic" for his wife to have had her fallopian tubes tied.

A third was told she was a poor mother because her children had severe food allergies.

Again and again, a complaint said, people seeking the services of federal immigration officers in St. Louis say they've confronted adversarial and unprofessional behavior.

More than 170 local lawyers who represent them are now demanding action.

"This is not a case of a few rogue officers. This is systemic management failure, and corrective action is needed," Kenneth K. Schmitt, chairman of the Missouri/Kansas Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, wrote in a recent letter that was hand delivered to the director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The federal agency oversees lawful immigration and has 18,000 government employees and contractors working in 250 offices around the world, according to its website. That includes 17 employees and six contractors in the St. Louis field office in the Robert A. Young federal building downtown.

In his letter, Schmitt cited a 10-year period in which the local immigration office has become "isolated and hostile towards the public and those who appear before them."

He said the office has gained a reputation outside St. Louis for its lack of communication with lawyers, adversarial stance, intolerably long and unexplained delays in deciding applications, and being out of line with national immigration policy.

The local office "operates in a culture of conflict and outright hostility that discourages any degree of professionalism or cooperation between the bar and the field office," the letter said.

Immigrants who seek the help from the office are not those who are charged with a crime or facing deportation. Instead, they are seeking a legal benefit to which they believe they are entitled such as citizenship, family reunification or asylum.

Chester Moyer, who heads the St. Louis office, met briefly with a reporter Tuesday in an agency conference room to discuss the allegations.

"Somebody's out there skewering us for some reason," he said.

Moyer then excused himself to telephone agency officials for permission to speak. On his return, he declined further comment, citing instructions from an agency spokesman.

Later Tuesday, the spokesman, Tim Counts, of the agency's Minneapolis-St. Paul office, emailed a statement.

"We are aware of the letter and are reviewing the issues raised in it," Counts wrote.

Along with his letter, Schmitt submitted about 80 examples of what lawyers considered inappropriate or unacceptable behavior by the St. Louis staff.
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http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_e9e5dcae-51...

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4.
Immigration conference coming to Tucson
By Brenna Goth
Arizona Daily Star, October 14, 2011

Rep. Raúl Grijalva and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu are two of the political, business and community leaders scheduled to speak at an immigration conference scheduled for Saturday in Tucson.

Tucson is the fourth city to host the Arizona Immigration Solutions Conference. The daylong conferences bring together local and national leaders to seek solutions to problems associated with immigration.

The conference is sponsored by The Real Arizona Coalition, One Arizona/Interfaith Leaders Coalition and Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform. Topics include the impact of policies such as SB 1070 on Arizona's economy and how other states are addressing immigration.

"This isn't a conference where you can say, 'Are you for or against SB 1070?' " said Todd Landfried, conference coordinator and spokesman for Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform. "That's not the question. The question is whether things are doing what they are intended to do or if there are unintended consequences. Is the cure worse that the disease? What are other ways of doing this?"

Among the speakers are immigration experts from the Public Policy Institute of California, UCLA and ASU and law enforcement leaders such as Babeu. Representatives from the Arizona Chamber of Commerce as well as several faith-based groups will also present at the conference.

Similar conferences have been held in Tempe, Flagstaff and Mesa this year. Organizers plan on releasing a report summarizing the results of these conferences to help advance Arizona's immigration discussion, Landfried said.

The event is open to the public and attendees are encouraged to contribute and ask questions.
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http://azstarnet.com/news/local/border/article_74a307f1-5eb0-554f-9f9b-5...

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5.
Former ICE worker pleads guilty in travel kickbacks scheme
The Washington Post, October 13, 2011

A former intelligence analyst with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement pleaded guilty Thursday in federal district court in El Paso to stealing at least $70,000 from the government as part of a travel receipt scheme and using a diplomatic passport for personal trips to the Middle East.

Ahmed Adil Abdallat, 64, admitted to two counts of misuse of a diplomatic passport and one count of conversion of public money as part of a plea agreement, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman. Six other counts related to passport misuse were dismissed. Abdallat was arrested in February.

Abdallat admitted that he submitted 13 travel vouchers between February 2009 and September 2010 and received $116,392.34 in reimbursements for lodging, car rentals and other expenses that included fraudulent receipts.

FBI Special Agent Shannon E. Enochs testified at a March bond hearing that, for example, Abdallat would stay with a friend for a month but submitted fake statements that he lodged at a hotel. He submitted one claim for more than $6,000.

Though an exact amount has yet to be calculated, Abdallat agreed that the government’s loss was between $70,000 and $120,000.

He also used his diplomatic passport for personal travel to and from Jordan on two occasions between 2007 and late 2010. Abdallat, a naturalized U.S. citizen, is a native of Jordan and served in the Air Force there, reaching the rank of colonel. As an ICE analyst, he was formerly stationed in the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.

Abdallat’s plea is the latest development in a federal probe of a travel voucher kickback scheme that involves at least two other ICE employees, including the agency’s former acting intelligence chief, James M. Woosley.

“ICE takes these matters very seriously, and we fully cooperated with the investigation that led to Mr. Abdallat’s conviction,” ICE spokesman Brian P. Hale said. He declined to comment on Woosley or any other employee. Abdallat was fired in June.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/former-ice-worker-pleads...