Check another one off Secretary Chertoff’s Bucket List. Soon in the new year, DHS is to begin screening several new categories of aliens, getting another border security enhancement in place before the regime change. Beginning January 17, 2009, all those arriving on immigrant visas, new refugees and asylees, some green card holders, and a few other categories will be enrolled in US-VISIT at the Port of Entry. Read more...

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1. 2008 deportations rose 46 percent
2. UT legislature targets immigration
3. FL lawmaker wants expedited deportation
4. AZ co. sheriff to defy Obama's scrutiny
5. TX co. to decide fate of detention operator
6. TX city accused of cover-up Read more...

1. Report: Court delayed naturalizations
2. CA population growth driven by immigrants
3. NY Gov. to meet family of slain Ecuadorian
4. MN Catholic bishops decry immigration raids
5. ACLU probing MD's enforcement policies
6. Illegal charged with PA murders 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...

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In 1993, Tina Turner lamented about love in What’s Love Got to Do with It?

Fifteen years later, in 2008, Maryland is publicly lamenting about the effect of permitting illegal immigrants to get driver licenses. A bit tongue in cheek—please—Maryland’s lyric might go something like this: Oh what’s illegal immigration got to do, got to do with driver licenses? Read more...

1. Border fence hit 500 mile mark
2. ICE Air used to deport illegals
3. Catholics name 'immigration day'
4. Four sentenced in OH DL fraud ring
5. Man to be deported for third time 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.

1. Aide was involved with Citizenship USA
2. Illegal aliens returning home
3. Work force sees a decline in workforce
4. New South FL USCIS facilities
5. Depositions ordered in Danbury suit
6. Plant unionizes after worksite enforcement
7. IL city to review employer policy 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.

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1. Lawsuit win adds to '86 amnesty
2. Economy, enforcement effects flow
3. Obama faces tough policy decision
4. Riot in private prison controlled
5. AZ officials meet to discuss policy
6. ID lawmakers plan employer bill
7. CO judge halts case based on taxes
8. NJ police hurdle language, status Read more...

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.

1. Rule lowering H-2B standards to be released
2. Feds expand collection of DNA evidence
3. Lawsuit on benefits lacked standing
4. TX reports $677m in health care costs
5. AZ mayor gives advice to Obama team
6. NE hearing to look into new report
7. CO judge stalls case involving taxes
8. ACLU investigates various MD laws
9. ACLU challenges OR co. law Read more...

1. DHS head's house cleaned by illegals
2. Kennedy gives up subcommittee gavel
3. Illegal alien population decreasing
4. NE lawmakers to discuss possible laws
5. NC businesses educated on new law
6. ACLU looks into MD immigration laws
7. Resident wants UT city law 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...

1. Recession may tie up amnesty plans
2. Illegal aliens returning home
3. Citizenship wait cut to 10 months
4. U.S. Rep. decries Haitian deportations
5. TX Rep. wants end to DL policy
6. UT city looks into immigration mandate
7. NE co. opens up jail for detainees
8. PA co. may open jail for detainees
9. ACLU sues Feds over detainees
10. Probe wanted in FL immigration raid
11. Angel Island unveiled 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...

1. Obama advisor promises 'down payments'
2. Obama appoints Hispanic advisers
3. Haitian deportations resume
4. Easier qualification for T-visas
5. Detainees removed from RI facility
6. Midwife, passport issue hard to sort
7. Less legal aid for poor available Read more...

Since an August 2007 order from New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram, which requires NJ local law enforcement agencies to check the immigration status of everyone arrested and report illegal aliens to ICE, the number of criminal aliens in the state who have been identified for removal has dramatically increased. Read more...

1. DHS pick seen as a moderate
2. Rep. Tancredo retires from office
3. DHS employee arrested for hiring
4. RI slow to deport criminals
5. UT bill enlists local law enforcement
6. TN sued over policies 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...

1. CIS report exposes marriage fraud
2. Bush admin. achieves BP goals
3. Napolitano pick spurs speculation
4. IL Rep. vows amnesty push
5. TX Rep. calls for improved processing
6. Detroit-area deportations improve Read more...

1. DHS head touts border enforcement
2. Feds press judge to okay no-match
3. VA co. enforcement driving illegals out
4. UT chamber of commerce outlines plan
5. DC area illegals buck trend Read more...