1. Federal inaction spurs state laws
2. USBP seeks to boost recruitment
3. Push made for TN immigration judge
4. McCain's agenda at odds with party
5. Money to improve border areas unspent
6. AZ sheriff accused of profiling
7. La Raza seeks control over debate
8. Major franchise admits to hiring
9. Plant raid detainees remain in limbo
10. MD illegals charged with rape

1.
Federal immigration failures fuel state action
By Deepti Hajela
The Associated Press, July 17, 2008
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hRZ1E71NbNh0y2o5WR0BjJQuNrjQD91VGR380

New York (AP) -- When Suffolk County passed a law requiring licensed contractors to prove their workers are in the U.S. legally, the county at the far end of Long Island suddenly had something in common with such states as Oklahoma and Arizona.

What they share is a determination to respond to the federal government's failure to enact immigration reform.

Advocates on both sides of the immigration issue acknowledge a sharp spike in measures proposed by states, counties and cities to deal with illegal immigration.

"There is very much a battle going on at the local level," said Karen Narasaki, executive director of the Asian American Justice Center.

In 2005, approximately 300 immigration bills were introduced in state legislatures, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Last year, the number of such bills soared to 1,562. During the first three months of this year, lawmakers proposed 1,106 laws pertaining to immigrants.

The proposed immigration laws cover topics ranging from education and employment to driver's licenses and human trafficking. Many proposals extend local law enforcement's responsibilities to include enforcing federal immigration laws.

Only a small portion of the proposed legislation has been adopted, but the number of new state laws on immigration is increasing. About 240 laws related to immigration were enacted by states last year, compared to 84 in 2006, according to the NCSL.

Laws enacted by states and municipalities to deal with growing populations of illegal immigrants often face court challenges.

Some examples:

* A preliminary injunction was issued recently against part of an Oklahoma law that subjects employers to penalties for failing to comply with a federal employee verification system. The law, which took effect in November, also makes it a state felony to knowingly transport or harbor illegal immigrants.

* A judge struck down a Hazelton, Pa., law that fines landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and denies business permits to companies that employ them. The ruling is being appealed.

* A judge ruled that Suffolk County violated its rules in May when it adopted a law requiring all licensed contractors to prove their workers are legally in the country. An earlier law requiring such proof applied only to contractors doing business with the county government. The county is fighting the ruling.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for more immigration control, said the local focus on issues like verifying legal status for work eligibility shows the increasing sophistication of state and local governments.

"The fact is, even in the '90s there was an appreciation that turning off the jobs magnet by government was a way to go," he said. "What we're now seeing is that strategy spreading across the country."

He also sees the state activity as a way to spark action at the federal level.

"The hope is the federal government will leapfrog over these state measures and eventually mandate verification for all hires," he said.

Immigrant advocates say they too would prefer that the federal government address immigration reform.

"It's impossible for us to keep track of every local ordinance that pops up," said Chung-Wha Hong, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition. "Advocates just feel overwhelmed, we just can't be fighting thousands of little battles.

"We would rather have a national debate on the national solution for this national problem that we have."

********
********

2.
Border Patrol recruiting in new ways
Booth, car featured at NASCAR races
By Antonio Olivo
The Chicago Tribune, July 17, 2008

The engines were screaming adrenaline at last weekend's NASCAR race in Joliet, but a more unusual attraction was beckoning just outside the track.

There, tucked between the Jack Daniel's whiskey tent and a booth for Red Man smokeless tobacco on the Chicagoland Speedway grounds, the U.S. Border Patrol was taking the names of hundreds of revved-up job applicants.

The agency's presence—complete with a white-and-green Border Patrol-sponsored stock car that competed in the race (it finished 28th)—was part of an all-out effort mandated by Congress two years ago to nearly double the ranks to 20,000 officers by the end of 2009.

About 3,400 agents shy of that goal, the agency has been recruiting at unconventional venues such as NASCAR races and professional bull-riding contests, in addition to traditional job fairs across the country. In hopes of diversifying its ranks, agency officials also have been targeting African-Americans in the Southeast.

In Chicago and other blue-collar cities, the hiring effort has coincided with a struggling economy that has seen thousands of layoffs.
. . .
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-border-jobs15jul17,...

********
********

3.
Officials Push For Nashville Immigration Judge
The Chattanoogan (TN), July 16, 2008

Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker along with Reps. Jim Cooper and Marsha Blackburn today joined Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall in urging federal officials from the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security to install an immigration judge in Nashville to speed up the process and reduce the cost of removing illegal immigrants, such as the approximately 700 processed since April 2007 who were arrested for at least one serious crime such as homicide, robbery, aggravated assault or burglary.

“Sheriff Hall and the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office have done a better job than any other county east of Phoenix, Arizona with this new program to remove criminal illegal immigrants, processing more than 3,500 since April 2007,” said Alexander during a meeting in his Washington office. “Sheriff Hall has told us that Davidson County needs an immigration judge to make the process of deporting illegal immigrants quicker and cheaper, and I will continue to press his case in Washington.”
. . .
http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_131567.asp

********
********

4.
McCain Walks Tightrope On Immigration
By Carrie Kahn
The NPR News, July 16, 2008

Arizona Sen. John McCain has long been the Republican presidential contender with the best prospect of winning Latino voters, because he has long argued for a path to citizenship in the overhaul of U.S. immigration laws.

But with conservatives angry over what they call "amnesty" for illegal immigration, McCain lately has been walking a tough tightrope — emphasizing border security and enforcement, while also courting Latino supporters.

McCain's new priorities require a delicate balancing act in every immigration speech he makes. This was on display this week when he addressed the National Council of La Raza in San Diego and emphasized his independence from his own party.

"I never ask for any special privileges from anyone just for having done the right thing," he said. "But I do ask for your trust that when I say I remain committed to fair, practical and comprehensive immigration reform, I mean it."

Cecilia Munoz, the vice president of La Raza, appreciated the plea for trust. Still, she said McCain's emphasis on border security turned her off.
. . .
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92601727

********
********

5.
Millions of dollars to improve immigrant neighborhoods along the Mexican border go unspent
By Chritopher Sherman
The Associated Press, July 16, 2008

Santa Rosa, TX (AP) -- During a recent afternoon storm, brothers Angel and Salvador Badillo sat under a tin roof with a couple of friends, sipping beers as the open drainage ditch in front of their clapboard house filled like a moat.

Soon, neighbors' septic tanks could begin to overflow, creating a smelly and potentially disease-ridden mess.

The homes in Grande Acres — a colonia, or slapped-together neighborhood, on low-lying land 12 miles north of the Rio Grande — were supposed to get sewer service years ago through a nearly $4 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. But the city of Santa Rosa, of which Grande Acres is a part, failed to take advantage of the money, and the 2002 grant expired.

In fact, at least $78 million of the $300 million appropriated by Congress during the 1990s to improve Texas' colonias has gone unspent, according to a recent EPA audit. And with construction costs and other expenses soaring, numerous colonias have had to scale back or give up on some projects.

The EPA says some small-town governments lack the professional staff needed to pull off some of these complex projects, while other ventures have been torpedoed by local infighting and bungling. The audit also accused the EPA of lax oversight that allowed projects to drift.

More than 400,000 people in Texas live in colonias, often-ramshackle communities on unincorporated land close to the border. The colonias consist of shacks, trailers and some well-kept frame houses. Many lack safe drinking water, sewer systems or electricity. During the 1990s, as cities looking for tax revenue began to annex colonias, and their residents gained citizenship and voting power, state and federal politicians began dispensing millions to lift colonia residents out of their squalor.
. . .
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-colonias-gran...

********
********

6.
Ariz. Sheriff Accused Of Racial Profiling
By Spencer S. Hsu
The Washington Post, July 17, 2008; A02

A coalition of Hispanic and labor groups in Phoenix accused Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio of racial profiling yesterday, alleging in a federal lawsuit that one of the nation's largest sheriff's departments is violating the civil rights of nonwhite U.S. citizens in seeking to arrest illegal immigrants.

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which filed the suit, also said the U.S. Justice Department and federal immigration agencies have failed to stop civil rights abuses in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, the state capital.

"As charges of discrimination have mounted, Sheriff Arpaio has only dug in his heels, and the federal government has thus far done nothing to rein him in," said Robin Goldfaden, a lawyer with the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project. "Unfortunately, court intervention is necessary for the Constitution to be upheld."

Capt. Paul Chagolla, a spokesman for the sheriff's department, said a move by the groups to seek class-action status of a case filed in December was "old news." He said the 4,000-employee department would not try a case in the media and would not alter its operations.

"We do not racially profile," Chagolla said. "The sheriff will continue to do his job, and his deputy sheriffs will continue to do their jobs enforcing the law in the state of Arizona."
. . .
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/16/AR200807...

********
********

7.
Hispanic leaders eager to 'referee debate'
Group calls for tolerance
By Stephen Dinan
The Washington Times, July 16, 2008

San Diego -- The president of the nation's largest Hispanic rights organization says the group will serve as referee for the immigration debate and back it up with what members expect will be record Hispanic voter turnout in November.

"It is time to take back the debate," Janet Murguia, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza, said in closing NCLR's annual convention - an event that saw both presidential candidates come to appeal for Hispanic voter support and try to explain their immigration positions.

"Not everyone rejoices in our success. The vitriol and hate that surrounded the immigration debate this year was a stark reminder that our road is long and filled with obstacles," she said, adding that "hate speech is being parroted on the nightly news and by a number of politicians in both political parties."

In the run-up to the convention, Ms. Murguia announced letters had been sent to both presidential campaigns asking the candidates to denounce those in their own party who she said have injected "hate" into the issue by campaigning against illegal immigrants.

The letter already paid off when Republican presumptive presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, in his speech Monday, took up her challenge and condemned "those who used the debate on immigration last year, not to respectfully debate the issue, as most did, but to denigrate the contributions of Hispanics to our great country."
. . .
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jul/16/hispanic-leaders-eager-t...

********
********

8.
U.S. Fines McDonald's Franchisee In Immigration Case
By Miriam Jordan
The Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2008

In a coup for the government's crackdown on employers of illegal immigrants, a large McDonald's franchisee pleaded guilty in federal court to supplying illegal workers with false identification and agreed to pay a $1 million fine.

The case, which follows a work-site raid last year that swept up 58 immigrant workers at 11 McDonald's outlets in Reno, Nev., is the first conviction involving a franchisee of a major restaurant chain.

A plea agreement entered in a U.S. District Court in Las Vegas details how management for Reno-based Mack Associates, knowingly employed illegal immigrants, including two restaurant managers, by furnishing them with names and Social Security numbers that belonged to U.S. citizens or legal residents. The court sentenced Mack Associates to one year of probation and ordered the corporation to immediately pay $300,000 of the total fine. The company's owner, local entrepreneur Luther Mack, wasn't charged in the case.

However, the company's current director of operations, Joe Gillespie, and a former vice president of Mack Associates, Jimmy Moore, pleaded guilty to the felony of inducing an illegal immigrant to reside in the U.S. The two men will be sentenced at a later date. Each could face a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

In a statement, an attorney for Mack Associates said the franchisee "has accepted responsibility and cooperated fully with the U.S. Department of Justice in their investigation of the matter."

The attorney, Robert Goldman, said Mack Associates had taken the necessary steps to ensure that the violations won't occur again.
. . .
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121624158925459605.html

********
********

9.
Illegal immigrants in limbo after Postville raid
The Associated Press, July 17, 2008

Postville, IA (AP) -- Dozens of illegal immigrants are in limbo after their arrest last May at a meatpacking plant in Postville.

The 45 people were detained in the May 12 Immigration raid at Agriprocessors, Inc., then released because they needed to care for their children. The 42 women and three men must wear tracking devices on their ankles.

"(Either) they send us back or they let us go," said Irma Hern Dandes, one of those who must wear a tracking device. "But now we're just waiting."

Most haven't been told when they'll be charged or deported, but they are not allowed to leave Iowa. Because they can't get jobs, they're dependent on handouts for food and rent money.

About 300 other workers at the plant are serving jail sentences before being deported.
. . .
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-ia-agriprocessorsrai,0,3851984...

********
********

10.
Recent Immigrant Accused In Lexington Park Rape Case
By Matt Zapotosky
The Washington Post, July 17, 2008; Page SM03

A man accused of raping a Lexington Park woman over the weekend was ordered held without bond Tuesday in the St. Mary's County jail.

Alvaro Dominguez, 24, whose name is also spelled "Alverio" and "Alvario" in court records, was charged with second-degree rape and second-degree assault. He has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Aug. 13.

According to police, Dominguez, an illegal immigrant, approached the house of the 23-year-old woman when he saw people socializing outside. After the woman went to bed early Sunday, Dominguez went into her room and attacked her, police said.
. . .
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/16/AR200807...