1. Congress mulls visas for models
2. Obama appears to turn Latino voters
3. McCain woos Hispanic leaders
4. Enforcement discouraging re-entry
5. Remittances from U.S. decrease
6. West coast mayors condemn raids

1.
More visas for fashion models
By Eunice Moscoso
The Austin American Statesman, June 19, 2008

Tall, thin and beautiful foreigners could get their own visa category under legislation moving on Capitol Hill.

The measure, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner, would allow up to 1,000 fashion models each year to work in the United States temporarily.

Weiner contends that the models are vital to the fashion industry, particularly in his home state of New York and that the current system forces models to compete for visas with high tech workers and others.

“A simple way to create and protect jobs in New York City is to fix the glitch in the law that has lumped high tech workers with fashion models,” said Weiner, who is considered a possible future contender for mayor of the Big Apple.

The measure was recently approved by the House Judiciary Committee by a vote of 20-3.

Currently, fashion models have to compete with engineers and other high tech workers for H-1B visas which are given to well educated foreign citizens.
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http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/immigrati...

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2.
Obama's Latino Edge
By Ed Morales
The Progressive Media Project, June 19, 2008

Suddenly it seems that Sen. Barack Obama's Latino problem has become a Latino edge. A recent Gallup poll shows the Illinois senator winning 62 percent of registered Latino voters nationwide, with Republican nominee Sen. John McCain lagging behind at 29 percent.

While Sen. Hillary Clinton was still in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, she regularly drew the lion's share of Latino voters from Obama, sometimes garnering 65 percent to 70 percent of the vote, culminating in a decisive victory in the Puerto Rico primary two weeks ago. Her commanding edge with Latinos, often a wider margin than she got with either white or women voters, stemmed from a variety of reasons.

First, Obama didn't do enough outreach to Latino voters, something acknowledged by his ally, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., a native of Puerto Rico.

Second, Clinton had long-existing ties with local political machines, which delivered huge blocs of voters and high-profile endorsements.

Finally, tensions between Latinos and blacks, the result of economic competition for jobs and political influence, may have been a factor in the low Latino turnout for Obama.
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http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/2008/6/19/obamas_latino_edge.htm

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3.
McCain meets with Hispanic leaders
By Michael Tarm
The Associated Press, June 19, 2008

Chicago (AP) -- Republican presidential John McCain assured Hispanic leaders he would push through Congress legislation to overhaul federal immigration laws if elected, several people who attended a private meeting with the candidate said Thursday.

Democrats questioned why the Arizona senator held the meeting late Wednesday night in Chicago. But supporters who were in the room denied that McCain held the closed-door session out of fear of offending conservatives, many of whom want him to take a harder line on immigration.

Both McCain and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama support giving legal status to millions of illegal immigrants, but neither has made the issue a centerpiece of the campaign. At one time, McCain's campaign suffered because of his stance on the issue.

"This was not a secret meeting," said Rafael Rivadeneira, a vice chairman of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly of Illinois, who was among more than 150 Chicago-area Hispanic leaders who attended. "There was nothing he said that they wouldn't want people to hear."

Other attendees said they were not so sure.

"He's one John McCain in front of white Republicans. And he's a different John McCain in front of Hispanics," complained Rosanna Pulido, a Hispanic and conservative Republican who attended the meeting.
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http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gHGkJbzOIZuuWMIZ5vXfszMc7CRAD91DH0980

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4.
Why former Mexican migrants are staying home
By Sara Miller Llana
The Christian Science Monitor, June 20, 2008

El Gusano, Mexico -- Jose Balderama spent half a decade in the United States working roofing jobs in Texas. The money he sent home each month went to his wife and four children - a source of income the family expected to count on for many years to come.

But after serving six months at the Eden Detention Center in Texas for getting caught without the proper paperwork, he says he is never going back. "This was six months, next time it could be six years," he says on a recent day in this tiny town tucked in the foothills of the Sierra de Guanajuato mountains.

Towns like El Gusano have emptied out over the past decade as Mexicans have headed north for jobs. But tighter restrictions on immigration and a weakening US economy are sending some of these same men and women back home - some willingly, others not.

There are no figures to track the exact numbers of Mexicans returning, but statistics on apprehensions, unemployment, and anecdotal evidence in Mexico and the US paint a picture of change. Immigration prosecutions are at a historic high. State authorities are enforcing their own immigration rules. Even for those Mexicans in the US with proper documentation, jobs are scarce. The most immediate effect has been a drop in remittances. But many migrants are now wondering whether working in El Norte is worth it anymore.

"It's kind of a perfect combination of factors for undocumented immigrants right now to say, 'It's getting too costly. It's a good time to go home,' " says David Shirk, the director of the Transborder Institute at the University of San Diego.
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http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0620/p05s01-woam.html

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5.
Mexicans in the U.S. sending fewer dollars home
By Sara Miller Llana
The Christian Science Monitor, June 19, 2008

Emiliano Zapata, Mexico -- When the finishing touches were put on this coral-pink Roman Catholic church last year, residents beamed. Our Lady of Guadalupe was the first church built here - and it was only made possible by the toil of sons, husbands, and brothers in the US.

But today, many suspect this will be the last new edifice of any kind in some time. The flow of cash sent from the US, which over the years has helped pave the main road, build a basketball court, and construct or renovate almost every home in this 500-person village in Michoacan, has suddenly become a trickle.

Since 2000, remittances nationally have quadrupled, hitting a record $24 billion last year. Money from Mexicans abroad is now second only to oil as a source of foreign revenue. But the tide is turning - and is felt most acutely in rural Mexico. Remittances dropped 2.37 percent in the first four months of this year, compared with the same period in 2007, according to Mexico's central bank.

Analysts blame a downturn in the US economy, especially in the construction industry, which employs more than 20 percent of Mexican migrants, and the tightening of US immigration rules - including jail time in border states and greater state and local enforcement.
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http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0620/p01s01-woam.html

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6.
Three mayors fight immigration raids;
They maintain searches could hurt economies
By Emily Bazar
USA Today, June 20, 2008

Three West Coast mayors are asking the leaders of other cities to take a stand against workplace immigration raids that they say hurt local economies and may force companies to relocate.

At the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors this week in Miami, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels will ask their colleagues to challenge how the government raids businesses in search of illegal workers.

They want Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to focus on businesses that exploit workers, such as those that violate wage and safety laws, not "responsible employers" that contribute to economies, their resolution says.

"We've never taken the position that you shouldn't enforce the law," Villaraigosa says. "What we've said is, in a time of limited resources, we should prioritize our enforcement. At a time when we don't have the resources to go after criminals, we're going after legitimate businesses and workers instead. That doesn't make sense."

The resolution will be discussed by a committee Saturday and, if approved, will go to all the mayors for a vote Monday.
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-06-19-Mayors-raids_N.htm