1. E-verify avioded in New England
2. McCain aid has Mexican ties
3. Obama tackles border policy
4. Study: CA leads immigrant births
5. San Fran. panel defends policy
6. CT capital mayor signs bill
7. NJ county mulls jail checks
8. NC community colleges okay ban
9. Three PA teens to stand trial

1.
Fed's Immigration Database Slow To Take Hold Locally
829 Bay State companies are using E-Verify program to check new hires
By Eileen Kennedy
The Worcester Business Journal (MA), August 18, 2008

Only 1,744 companies in New England — 829 in Massachusetts — are using the federal government’s free, web-based program to check the immigration status of employees.

Its low use flies in the face of the federal government’s determination to reduce illegal immigrant labor, as mandated by the federal Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.

Kirk Carter, head of the immigration practice at Fletcher, Tilton & Whipple in Worcester.But the program does have some troubling implications, at least according to one local lawyer. Attorney Kirk Carter, who directs the immigration practice at Fletcher, Tilton & Whipple, said immigration practice lawyers and some of the employers they represent are wary of the E-Verify system.

“The problem is that it’s an imperfect system with a lot of glitches. We know that the government is moving quickly toward this system, but people who are authorized to work may be designated as unauthorized through faulty information,” Carter said.

Many of the manufacturing and smaller companies that Carter represents rely on more traditional methods. They have workers fill out the required I-9 or employment eligibility verification forms, which employees sign. They must also provide certain forms of identification, such as U.S. passports, green cards or unexpired foreign passports, which employers compare to images USCIS provides to determine if documents are valid.

Simply put, Carter says E-Verify may be “a system that’s not quite ready for prime time.”

By The Numbers

As of May, there were 69,000 employers across the country using the service. Other New England states have even fewer companies participating: 419 in Connecticut; 138 in New Hampshire; 40 in Vermont; 92 in Maine and 256 in Rhode Island.

In Massachusetts, immigrants make up about 2.3 percent of the state’s population, but less than one percent of the state’s 563,539 businesses use E-Verify.

Stratus Technologies Inc. of Maynard, which makes powerful computer servers that have high availability, is one of the 829 companies in the Bay State using E-Verify. Kevin Donoghue, a company spokesman said it’s “very easy to use,” adding that “there have been no issues” with the program.

The MLS Property Information Network in Shrewsbury has been using it as of this past January.

“It really doesn’t take any training and it usually takes less than three minutes to get verification. You put in the information one way if they’re a citizen with a Social Security number and card, and other way if they have a green card,” said Holly Haines, the network’s director of human resources, who uses it every time she hires someone. None of the workers she has entered have come back as unverified so far.

The low number of Bay State businesses using the service could be due to several factors, including low awareness due to the fact that it’s only been available since 2004. And it is a voluntary program here in Massachusetts.

“It was just a pilot program until a few years ago,” said Shawn Saucier, a spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Immigration Services, the division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Early database accuracy problems have been corrected and anyone “tentatively” flagged as illegal or unauthorized has eight days to clear up any issues.
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http://www.wbjournal.com/news41421.html

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2.
Fort Worth man plays key role in McCain camp
By Anna M. Tinsley
The Fort Worth Star Telegram (TX), August 17, 2008

Fort Worth, TX -- For years, Juan Hernandez was a familiar sight at Joe T. Garcia’s — strolling among diners and singing as a local troubadour.

His work there led to singing at weddings and recording albums in Spanish and English. He earned enough money to pay for graduate school and learned lessons that would help him through the years, said his father, Francisco Hernandez Sr. "His years as a troubadour gave him so much time working with people," he said. "He learned to win the appreciation of people."

That may have helped, as Juan Hernandez — a lightning rod because of his passionate defense of immigrant rights — has had a career that led him from teaching literature in Dallas to being the first U.S.-born person named to a Cabinet position in Mexico, under President Vicente Fox.

He is now the Hispanic outreach director for Republican presidential hopeful John McCain, an unpaid volunteer who has the delicate task of trying to gain Latino support for McCain while fielding criticism for his position on immigration as well as for the years he spent working for Fox.

"People tell him he should be in the Democratic Party," said his brother Francisco Hernandez Jr., a local attorney. "But he says the place you have to change hearts is in the Republican Party.

"He sees it as his mission. If he had $1 for every person in the McCain camp who . . . agrees with him, he’d be set financially for a year. But some people throw rocks at him."
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http://www.star-telegram.com/national_news/story/839203.html

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3.
Obama talks about immigration, border security
By Diana M. Alba
The Las Cruces Sun News, August 19, 2008

Las Cruces -- Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama said Monday he backs continued funding for the state's military and research installations, including White Sands Missile Range.

Obama, in a phone interview with the Sun-News, also said he believes defense-related research facilities in New Mexico will play a role in the nation achieving energy independence by helping develop alternative energy technology.

The Democratic candidate campaigned in Albuquerque on Monday, speaking to supporters at Rio Grande High School and to a group of about 50 women at a city library.

Obama spoke to the Sun-News about his plan for immigration reform.

That plan includes boosting border security, cracking down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants, improving the immigration system and creating a legal pathway for undocumented immigrants already in the United States to gain citizenship.

Obama said he approves of continuing Operation JumpStart — an initiative that placed members of the National Guard along the border to assist the U.S. Border Patrol — until Border Patrol staffing can be increased.

The two-year Operation JumpStart ended in June, but some, including Gov. Bill Richardson, pushed for it to be continued.

Obama heads to Raleigh, N.C., today, where he will appear at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds.
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http://www.lcsun-news.com/news/ci_10241460

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4.
California leads nation in immigrant births
Doesn't Mean the Mothers Are Poor, Census Study Says
By Mike Swift
The San Jose Mercury News (CA), August 19, 2008

A new and more nuanced national report about fertility shows a significantly higher share of babies are born to immigrants in California than in any other state, even as a lower-than-average share of the state's births are to poor women and women on welfare.

Nationally, the U.S. Census report shows that more American women are skipping motherhood or are waiting longer to have children, a trend already evident in California, where birthrates to women in their 40s have tripled the past two decades.

"Women are delaying their childbearing until they complete their educations," said Jane Lawler Dye, a family demographer with the Bureau and author of the report, which is based on population data collected in 2006.

By drawing from a broader population sample than in the past, the new fertility study looks at the differences in birth rates between Hispanic women of succeeding generations. It also examines the wide variation in fertility among the states.

While women who had given birth in the previous year in California were the most likely to be immigrants, new mothers in Mississippi were most likely to be poor. New mothers in Iowa were the most likely to be working, while those in Texas were the most likely to lack a high school diploma.

"This is the first time we've looked at a lot of these characteristics," Dye said. "We've never shown this much detail."
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http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_10243765

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5.
Panel urges S.F. to help teen immigrant felons
By Jaxon Van Derbeken
The San Francisco Chronicle, August 19, 2008

A San Francisco city commission has taken a defiant stand against Mayor Gavin Newsom's directive on young immigrant felons by urging officials to permit the offenders to remain in the city and help pay for their housing, job placement services and immigration lawyers.

Newsom announced last month - in an attempt to quell a growing controversy involving San Francisco's sanctuary city policy - that the city would no longer shield young illegal immigrant felony offenders from federal authorities for possible deportation.

Three weeks later, the city's little-known, 15-member Immigrant Rights Commission approved a resolution that ran counter to the mayor's directive, urging the city to let young immigrant offenders stay in the city. The commission advises the Board of Supervisors and mayor about issues involving immigrants.

It called on San Francisco to pay nonprofit community groups to screen juvenile offenders to determine whether they should be entitled to city-paid immigration attorneys who would help them seek asylum as victims of abandonment, trafficking or abuse.

It also urged the city to provide adequate resources for placing the youths in "culturally appropriate" community programs approved by the juvenile court system, a policy that federal prosecutors have said was akin to harboring illegal immigrants.

And it advised the city to develop and expand safe housing, jobs and other opportunities for unaccompanied immigrant youth "because these youth are extremely vulnerable to exploitation by adult criminals."

Decision is up to the mayor
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/18/MN0M12C0LH.D...

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6.
Perez Signs Immigration Rule
By Jeffrey B. Cohen
The Hartford Courant, August 19, 2008

Hartford Mayor Eddie A. Perez signed an ordinance Monday that stops police from arresting or detaining anyone solely because of their immigration status.

The ordinance, passed last week by the city council, also prohibits other city employees from asking anyone seeking services about their immigration status.

Perez was previously lukewarm to the idea, maintaining that an order issued by Hartford Police Chief Daryl K. Roberts in March was adequate. It said that city police would not make immigration arrests unless there was also a criminal investigation.

In a letter to the city council, Perez also expressed concern about "codifying standards for internal police matters in the city code."

But whatever concerns he had were not enough to keep him from signing the ordinance. Once he had, Perez stressed that it would not affect how the city deals with potential criminals.

"Our obligation to comply with federal law has not changed," Perez said in a press release Monday. "The ordinance requires that the police notify federal authorities if an arrestee turns out to be undocumented. It also requires that city employees deny any federally funded services to illegal immigrants if required to do so under federal law."
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http://www.courant.com/community/news/hfd/hc-cthfdimmigration0819.artaug...

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7.
A move in Monmouth Co. to check inmate immigration status
Newsday (NY), August 18, 2008

Trenton, NJ -- Sheriff's officers at the Monmouth County Jail will reportedly start conducting immigration status checks as part of routine booking procedures.

Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno says she wants to deputize certain sheriff's officers to act as federal immigration agents.

The jail can only do so with approval from federal immigration authorities under the 287(g) program. Such a program has never been approved in New Jersey. The mayor of Morristown wanted to apply for the program but failed to gain enough support from local officials.
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http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--countyjail-im...

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8.
Community Colleges in North Carolina Close Doors to Illegal Immigrants
By Katherine Mangan
The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 18, 2008

North Carolina's State Board of Community Colleges voted on Friday to bar illegal immigrants from enrolling in the state's 58 community colleges while it commissions a study on the politically charged issue. The decision surprised and angered some Hispanic-rights advocates and disregarded the board president's recommendation that a more lenient policy be restored.

The vote ratified a motion by Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, a former schoolteacher and current Democratic candidate for governor, who sits on the community-colleges board. She drew sharp fire from critics of the decision.

"I was shocked that a person who is running for office stating that she will be the education governor would propose denying education to these kids," said Tony Asion, executive director of El Pueblo Inc., a public-policy group, based in Raleigh, N.C., that advocates for Latinos. "And I was shocked that they are going forward with this policy even though there is no federal or state law prohibiting the colleges from admitting these students."

North Carolina is one of only a few states that deny illegal immigrants access to community colleges.

In recent years, the state's community-college leaders have been yanked back and forth by government officials who told them they could, or could not, accept illegal immigrants. In May the state attorney general's office advised the community-college system to stop admitting undocumented students who were otherwise qualified. He said the open-door policy that the college system's lawyers had recommended last year could violate federal law.

The following day, Gov. Michael F. Easley, a Democrat, stepped in and urged the colleges to hold off on changing their policies until the federal government offered some guidance. Nonetheless, the community-colleges system sent out an advisory in late May telling the college presidents to heed the attorney general's advice and ban illegal immigrants. Some did, while others decided to wait for the federal government to weigh in.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security concluded that federal law does not prevent public colleges from accepting undocumented students and punted the issue back to the state.

As a result of the conflicting messages, some of the state's community colleges have banned illegal immigrants, while others have not. When those students are accepted, they still must pay high out-of-state tuition rates, a cost that has severely restricted the number of such students attending the colleges.

The community-colleges board also voted on Friday to authorize a study of how other states handle the issue of undocumented students and to use that information to develop its own policy.
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http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=tNyxymF8zPNmXmzknDBppBwWwyNDWpyf

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9.
3 Pa. teens ordered to trial in immigrant's death
By Michael Rubinkam
The Associated Press, August 18, 2008

Pottsville, PA (AP) -- A judge has ordered three teenagers to stand trial on charges related to the beating death of a Mexican immigrant in a small eastern Pennsylvania town.

A judge in Pottsville said Monday that prosecutors have enough evidence to try 17-year-old Colin Walsh and 16-year-old Brandon Piekarsky on counts of third-degree murder and ethnic intimidation.
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http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5huiVTwLLrGgRl9AkZSSKKv3sE1fAD92KT5EG0