1. Education Sec. praises breaks
2. DOJ wants injunction on SC law
3. GOP candidates seek endorsement
4. GA Gov. calls for changes
5. Group pushes for visas

1.
Duncan praises push to help immigrant students
By Kimberly Hefling
The Associated Press, November 7, 2011

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Monday he's encouraged that some states are allowing the children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at public colleges.

As an example, Duncan pointed to Rhode Island, where this fall the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education unanimously approved in-state tuition for illegal immigrants starting in fall 2012.

Another dozen states have similar laws or policies, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In contrast, four states have laws specifically prohibiting illegal immigrant students from receiving in-state tuition, and two states bar those who are illegally in the country from attending public secondary schools altogether, the National Conference of State Legislatures said.

Duncan said some of the children of illegal immigrants came to the United States when they were infants. He said the United States is their home, where they've worked hard in school and taken on leadership roles. For too long, he said, the U.S. policy toward them has been backward.

"They are either going to be taxpayers and productive citizens and entrepreneurs and innovators or they are going to be on the sidelines and a drag on the economy," Duncan said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The topic has been an issue in the GOP presidential primary race, with Texas Gov. Rick Perry taking criticism from rival contenders for supporting a law that allows illegal immigrants to get in-state tuition at Texas universities if they meet other residency requirements

Under the Rhode Island policy, in-state rates will be available only to illegal immigrants' children who have attended a high school in the state for at least three years and graduated or received a GED. Students will lose their resident tuition unless they commit to seek legal status as soon as they are eligible.
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hIR1qspBwu436KN_RvDOVy...

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2.
U.S. Asks Judge to Issue Order on South Carolina Immigration Law
By Andrew Harris and Laurence Viele Davidson
Bloomberg, November 8, 2011

The U.S. Justice Department sought an injunction from a federal judge as part of its lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the South Carolina’s new immigration law, according to court records.

Set to take effect Jan. 1, the law signed by Governor Nikki Haley in June criminalizes immigrants’ failure to carry certificates of registration and requires police officers who suspect someone is in the U.S. unlawfully to verify their legal status.

The federal government sued the state Oct. 31, saying the measure will impose “significant and counterproductive burdens” on the U.S., which claims to have legal preeminence in setting immigration policy.

While the Justice Department-filed motion is recorded in the court’s electronic docket, copies of the underlying papers weren’t immediately available.
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http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-08/u-s-asks-judge-to-issue-orde...

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3.
Candidates court controversial Arizona sheriff
By Jeri Clausing
The Associated Press, November 8, 2011

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio makes inmates wear pink underwear, live in tents during Arizona's sweltering summers and eat green bologna. The Justice Department is investigating him for potential civil rights violations in his sweeping immigration patrols, his office has been accused of trumping up charges against political rivals and he has tasked his cold case squad with investigating ongoing claims that President Barack Obama's birth certificate was faked.

While any sheriff with such a resume might seem like one most politicians would actively avoid, some of the top Republican presidential candidates are lining up to meet with the man described as the toughest, the craziest or most bigoted sheriff in America.

Arpaio, 79, loves the spotlight. And as the anti-immigration rhetoric in the Republican primary has heated up, he has been soaking up the glory, inviting media from around the world into his large office that is overflowing with pictures and trophies to himself and his tough policies.

"Did you see this," he asked on several occasions during a recent visit to his office, flashing a photo of himself standing with GOP hopeful Herman Cain.

"He's a good guy. Kind of like me. Tells it like it is."

"When is your story going to run?" was another oft-repeated question from the man who then insisted he doesn't have an ego. "I'm a private person. .... These people ... these television stations from all over the world ... they come to me. They want to talk to me."

Besides Cain, Arpaio met last month with Republican candidate Michele Bachmann. And he says he has recently had telephone conversations with Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. In the 2008 Republican presidential primary he endorsed Romney over Phoenix's own Sen. John McCain. But that doesn't mean he will automatically back him this time around.

"He forgot to invite me to his fundraiser," the sheriff noted with a twinge of resentment.

So are all four seeking his endorsement?

"Well, I'm pretty sure Perry and Romney and Michele, yeah," Arpaio said. "Herman, not right out. I didn't get much time to talk to him. He was late."

Perry spokesman Mark Miner confirmed the Arpaio-Perry meeting. Perry has taken heat from his GOP rivals for what they consider his soft stance on immigration, including allowing in-state university tuition rates and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrant high school students. An Arpaio spokesman, Jeff Sprong, said the Texas governor contacted Arpaio a second time last week.

Romney and Bachmann campaign spokesman did not respond to telephone calls and emails asking for interviews on why the candidates were courting Arpaio. Cain spokesman J.D. Gordon, however, characterized the visits and phone calls as fact-finding missions.

"All the candidates are trying to get up to speed on the border," he said. "... All the campaigns are reaching out to a wide variety of experts on a number of issues. Naturally, the border issue is one that will be central to the 2012 election, and therefore the candidates in general are trying to get as many opinions as they have."
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jd9URAphJ0Yb-4o95foa57...

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4.
Bentley open to immigration law changes
By Brian Lyman
The Montgomery Advertiser, November 8, 2011

Gov. Robert Bentley called for simplifying some elements of the state's strict new immigration law during a speech in Birmingham on Monday.

Bentley, speaking to the Birmingham Business Alliance, did not have specifics on what would be changed, but The Associated Press reported him saying the central parts of the bill would not be affected, a statement echoed by Rebekah Mason, a spokeswoman for Bentley, later in the afternoon.

"The essence of the bill will not change," Mason said. "If you are going to live and work in Alabama, and if you are going to hire workers, they must be legal. (Bentley) feels like the bill was complicated from the beginning."

Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, one of the sponsors of the immigration law, said Monday night that he had spoken with Bentley and said the governor was looking at "housekeeping" changes.

Beason said those changes would clear up ID issues, such as making it clear that people with military identification and out-of-state licenses can do business in the state.

"(Bentley's) been very clear that the meat of the law will remain intact," he said. "It's simple housekeeping things for clarity."

Other legislative leaders reacted cautiously.

House Majority Leader Micky Hammon, R-Decatur, the law's other sponsor, said Monday he considered Bentley "an ardent opponent of illegal immigration in Alabama."

"I have no plans, at this point, to revisit the immigration statute but remain open to implementing suggestions that would make its enforcement even tougher and stronger," Hammon said in a statement.

Derek Trotter, a spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, said Monday evening both House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, and Marsh would be willing to look at changes in any law if "unintended consequences" developed from the statute.

"As far as I know, there are no unintended consequences that have been brought to the table at this point," he said.

Jay Reed, director of the Alabama chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors, said he was "excited" by Bentley's remarks, and hoped the state would revisit sections of the law dealing with businesses hiring undocumented immigrants.

"Right now, the language is not clear and employers want clear language (in order) to comply," he said.

The law as signed by Bentley required immigrants to carry documentation with them at all times and made it a state crime to be in the state unlawfully. The measure also allowed law enforcement to detain those they had "reasonable suspicion" of being in the country unlawfully; required schools to collect information on the immigration status of students; and made it a crime for undocumented immigrants to work in the state.

The law also makes contracts with unlawfully present aliens null and void and forbids local agencies from doing business with them.
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http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20111108/NEWS02/111080302/Bentley-open-immigration-law-changes?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Frontpage|p

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5.
Group pushes reforms to attract skilled foreigners
By Chas Sisk
The Tennessean, November 8, 2011

With efforts to reform immigration in broad strokes blocked in Congress, a group led by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is trying to convince Nashville leaders to back new visa rules and other smaller reforms meant to help business.

The Partnership for a New American Economy, a group of mayors and business leaders who favor immigration reform, is asking business to lean on Congress and other elected officials to support reforms that would make it easier for companies to hire foreign workers and for international students to remain after they graduate from American universities.

Such reforms will help the country attract and retain highly skilled workers who will stimulate the economy and create more jobs than the few that they take, supporters of the effort said Monday.

“We have huge shortages,” Jeremy Robbins, a policy adviser to Bloomberg, told a meeting of Tennessean reporters and editors. “There are companies that are just dying to get the scientists they need, the engineers that they need, to grow, and they can’t get those people. … If they can’t get the core engineer, they’re not going to create all the other jobs that they have throughout their company.”

The effort has already won over Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, who is a member of the year-old group. The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce also backs the campaign, hosting a panel discussion Monday to discuss changes to immigration laws that they believe would be advantageous to business.

The group hopes businesspeople and other leaders in places such as Nashville can convince Congress to pass immigration reforms without being waylaid by emotional issues such as border control, status checks and amnesty for undocumented workers. Those issues have made a broader reform effort in Congress politically impossible in recent years.

“There will be a moment in time when they’ll need business cover to make that tough vote on some sort of a package,” said Bert Kaufman, vice president of Business Forward, a Washington, D.C., group helping coordinate the campaign. “So much of this effort is to lay the groundwork for that time.”

Special visas favored

The group is backing ideas such as creating special visas for entrepreneurs who pledge to start businesses in the United States. Entrepreneur visas will help draw talented business people away from countries such as Canada, China and India.

The group also wants to make it easier for foreign students to remain in the country after they finish their educations.

“It used to be we could have terrible immigration laws because where else were you going to go?” Robbins said. “You want to come here. But you talk to Indian and Chinese students, … they’re now going back.”

The group is working with the administration of President Barack Obama to try to ease some of the procedures for getting visas. Alejandro Mayorkas, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, appeared alongside Robbins at the Nashville Chamber’s panel Monday.
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http://www.tennessean.com/article/20111108/NEWS0201/311080023/Group-push...