So now severe weather is to be added as a grounds for being declared a refugee? Unbelievable.

A new map (here in pdf) shows progress on the fence along the southern border. You need to blow it up a little to get a better look, but the fence is finished or under construction along almost all the border from the Pacific to El Paso, though in some places it's a vehicle barrier that prevents smuggling vans from crossing but not people from relatively easily hopping over. And I'm not sure if any of the places marked as completed have a "virtual fence" as opposed to an actual one. Read more »

Apologists for mass immigration have been telling us for years that immigrants worked in "segmented labor markets" and "niche occupations" — really just fancy terms for "jobs Americans won't do." Well, so much for that theory; as the Wall Street Journal points out, "U.S. Workers Crowding Out Immigrant Laborers": Read more »

The Ombudsman at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (the portion of the old INS that does green cards and citizenship) has a new report out on improving naturalization ceremonies (in pdf here). A lot of it's administrative stuff, but there are a couple of gems about judges who sometimes administer the oath of citizenship. First this: Read more »

To get a sense of the absurdity of the bottomless industry demands for cheap labor, and the media gullibility about them, reader G.N. suggests googling "workers" and "looming shortage" and look over the 10,600 results. Read more »

Rich Lowry over at National Review Online points to this interesting fact in an NY Times story on a unionizing vote at a hog-processing plant in North Carolina:

The union won by 2,041 votes to 1,879 after two years of turmoil at the plant. As a result of a federal crackdown on illegal immigrants, more than 1,500 Hispanic workers have left the plant. Its work force is now 60 percent black, up from around 20 percent two years ago. Read more »

"Some Mexicans leaving US, planning never to return".

A judge has ruled that visa-overstayers from the 1980s can apply for amnesty under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) — you remember, that one-time amnesty that would never be repeated. The application period extends through January 2010, meaning that 24 years after the passage of IRCA, illegal aliens will still be applying for it. By that standard, in the unlikely event an Obamnesty were to pass next year, people could still be signing up in 2033.

We all got a chuckle from the story that the Secret Service let illegal aliens in to clean Chertoff's house. But the take-home point is this, from today's Washington Times editorial: "if the system can be fooled by a house cleaner, it can be fooled by a terrorist." As the original Washington Post story noted: "The Secret Service uses workers' ID information to conduct security checks, not immigration checks." But it's a PC fantasy to imagine that we can know who someone is without knowing whether or not he's an illegal alien. Read more »

No surprise here:

The state of Texas and local hospital districts spent an estimated $677 million to provide health care to illegal immigrants in a year, a new study says.

The survey, issued by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, said that most of the money — $597 million — was spent by local hospital districts for the immigrants' care during the state's fiscal year that ended on Aug. 31, 2007. Read more »

I missed this Monday: The New York Times ran contradictory editorials, one atop the other. The one on immigration was the usual malarkey, "state of fear," "xenophobes," "immigration zealots," "frighteningly prone to abuse," "sensible reforms that allow immigrants to enter legally," blah, blah, blah. Read more »

Sen. Kennedy is leaving the Judiciary Committee, and thus his chairmanship of the immigration subcommittee. Though this doesn't preclude an amnesty extravaganza, it does make it a lot less likely. His passion for the issue has made Kennedy the single most important force in making immigration policy since the early 1960s (which is why it's so screwed up), and his staff probably knows more about it than almost anyone else on the Hill. Read more »

Tancredo has a good, point-by-point corrective to the Hispanic Panic fostered by the pro-amnesty right, most notably by last week's WSJ editorial on immigration, itself an amplification of spin from America's Voice, an open-borders group staffed by alumni of Sojourners and the Center for Community Change. Read more »

Raids could force meatpackers to raise worker pay
. . .
"I think it is a big problem, a huge issue for companies," said Lance Compa, a Cornell University professor who has studied workplace Immigration issues.

"What (the companies) are doing now is scrambling. A lot of them are turning to employer agencies to fill their workforce. But if they want a stable workforce, they'll almost certainly need to raise wages and benefits."

So 533,000 jobs were eliminated by employers last month. Guess how many new workers the federal immigration program adds to the labor market over the same period? As many as 140,000. Per month. Now I'm not one of those who thinks you can game the business cycle by admitting more immigrants during an uptick and shedding them during a slowdown — if government were capable of that sort of thing, the Soviet Union wouldn't have collapsed. Read more »

Incoming Homeland Security Czarina (and thus immigration chief) Janet Napolitano is no immigration hawk, and the next few years may well undo a good part of what's been accomplished over the past few, but still, she can't be all bad — the Village Voice hates her.

In what is described as Obama's "first major Hispanic appointment," Cecilia Munoz, one of the top people at La Raza, has been named director of intergovernmental affairs. Since her job is to oversee relations with state and local governments, there's obviously not going to be much encouragement from the White House for state and local cooperation in immigration enforcement.

A little-noticed item last week on funding for the 2010 census gives clues about what's likely to happen next year regarding immigration enforcement: Read more »

From a piece (not online) by Frontera NorteSur:

Meanwhile, many Mexican migrants are hedging their bets in the Promised Land. Taurino Castrejon Salgado, a Guerrero leader of the Union of Campesinos and Mexican Emigrants (UCEM), said the election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States has strengthened the decision of many migrants to remain north of the border. Read more »

"Twin Cities man committed suicide bombing in Somalia". Read more »

From a Q&A with Sen. Harry Reid:

Q: With more Democrats in the Senate and the House and a Democrat in the White House, how do you see congressional efforts playing out on such issues as health care and immigration? Read more »

I can see why Obama would ask Arizona Gov. Janet Naplitano to head Homeland Security — she's about as close as any Democratic governor can get to appearing hawkish on illegal immigration. Read more »

Mexico is offering compensation for guest workers to the U.S. who'd had part of their wages withheld (money the Mexican government and banks just kept — i.e., stole). This happened 60 years ago. And many of the workers seeking the money now live in the United States — guests who never left! Does anyone seriously think a new "temporary" worker program could turn out any differently?

Crime reporter killed in Mexican border city

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — A crime reporter in the violent Mexican border city of Juarez was killed Thursday, adding to dozens of journalist deaths in a country where newspapers are so fearful, many refuse to cover drug violence.

Armando Rodriguez had covered crime for 10 years in Ciudad Juarez, working for El Diario newspaper. He was shot several times as he sat warming up his car outside his home. Read more »

From a WaPo item on next week's meeting between Obama and McCain:

In an interview Friday, [Sen. Lindsey] Graham said that Obama requested the meeting during a 20-minute phone call that the South Carolina senator described as a "pleasant" discussion about how they could work together effectively. Read more »

From the Boston Globe: Read more »

Now that we know who’s going to be in the White House and Congress next year, what are the prospects for immigration?

Despite big Democratic gains in Congress, the results aren’t as bad for the cause of immigration enforcement as a simple partisan approach to the issue might suggest. After all, one of the ways Democrats have been picking up formerly Republican seats over the past few elections has been to nominate immigration hawks like Heath Shuler of North Carolina and Brad Ellsworth of Indiana. Read more »

P.J. O'Rourke's take on last week's defeat touches on, among many other things, immigration: Read more »

I get bored with this biennial ritual, but the raza-hustlers and the open-borders crowd are back touting the awesome power of the Hispanic vote. AP's contribution yesterday: "In key states, Latino vote fueled Obama's victory." A bunch of these interchangeable groups is having a press conference today in D.C., announcing that "Our voice was heard at the polls, and we will continue to make sure our voices are heard."

Well, no. Read more »

A new Zogby poll shows only about a third of Obama's voters supported him because of his backing for an amnesty, while two-thirds either voted for him despite his support for amnesty (15%) or it wasn't a factor at all in their decision (51%). Interestingly, among McCain voters, 59% did it despite his amnesty stance, 28% didn't care, and only 11% supported him because of his backing of amnesty. Read more »