1. ICE scraps self deport policy
2. Report links immigration, emissions
3. AZ mayor blasts Congress
4. FL illegal to attend college

1.
Immigration agency scraps self-deport program
By Amy Taxin
The Associated Press, August 22, 2008

Santa Ana, CA (AP) -- The federal government will scrap a program for illegal immigrants to turn themselves in for deportation after only eight people volunteered during a nearly three-week trial, an official said Thursday.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offered the pilot program in five cities, giving illegal immigrants facing court orders to leave the country 90 days to plan their departure and coordinate travel with relatives instead of facing the prospect of being arrested, detained and deported.

ICE will end its "Scheduled Departure" program when the trial period concludes Friday, Jim Hayes, acting director of ICE's detention and removal operations, told The Associated Press.

"The bottom line is it is not effective," Hayes said. "Quite frankly, I think this proves the only method that works is enforcement."

The initiative drew skepticism, even ridicule, from many immigration activists who have criticized ICE's increasing raids on homes and businesses.

Hayes said lack of support from those activists shows they are unwilling to accept any enforcement.

"They want amnesty, they want open borders, and they want a more vulnerable America," he said.
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http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i5prhLjHvlhYqvnvbzyaGXUtL1WAD92N2BJO0

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2.
Immigration issue heating up the planet?
By Alysia Patterson
The Medill Report (Northwestern University), August 22, 2008
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/washington/news.aspx?id=97865

Washington, DC -- Are immigrants to the United States partly to blame for the earth's rising temperature? A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies seems to say so. The report says that, on average, immigrants to U.S. increase their carbon emissions four-fold when the move to America. CIS attributes this change to the American way of life -- big cars, big houses and lots of carbon. But critics say pointing the finger at immigrants is no way to solve the global warming problem.

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3.
Mayor Gordon rips Congress on immigration policy
Mayor urges action on immigration reform
By Jerry Kammer
The Arizona Republic (Phoenix), August 22, 2008

Washington, DC -- Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon mounted a national platform here Thursday to demand that Congress break its stalemate on immigration reform and relieve local jurisdictions of burdens he says they face because of incoherent federal policies.

In the keynote address at a conference of the Police Foundation, a private organization that seeks to improve policing techniques across the country, Gordon said he wants to help mobilize a national effort that would "knock Congress upside down on its partisan head and tell them to fix the damn problem."

"I am calling upon this Congress and the next one, this president and the next one, to make the dual issues of border security and immigration reform their first order of business," Gordon said.

The theme of the conference, which continues today, is, "The Role of Local Police: Striking a balance between immigration enforcement and civil liberties."

Foundation President Hubert Williams, former police director in Newark, N.J., highlighted the complexity of that balancing effort as he introduced Gordon.

"Law-enforcement officers at the local level have been subjected to a whirlwind of conflicting political pressures which are growing in intensity because of the lack of a comprehensive national immigration policy," Williams said.

Gordon blasted Congress, accusing lawmakers of not comprehending the intensity of the problems festering around the country.

"We can't allow this unconscionable neglect to continue on, to allow racism and hate to continue to grow," he said.

Gordon declared his support for comprehensive reforms that would strengthen border controls while providing illegal immigrants with a path to legalization and establishing a guest-worker program.
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http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2008/08/22/20080...

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4.
Once facing deportation, student heads to college
By Kathleen McGrory and Andres Viglucci
The Miami Herald (FL), August 22, 2008

Just a year ago, Killian High star grad Juan Gomez barely avoided a forcible return to his native Colombia, a country he scarcely knows, when classmates, civic leaders and members of Congress rallied to help him stave off deportation.

Now he's off -- not to South America, but north to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., alma mater of Bill Clinton, where he has been admitted as an international student on scholarship.

Shortly after stepping off an early flight from Miami on Thursday, Gomez, 19, found himself engaged in an all-American activity -- shopping at a Target to outfit the dorm room he will share with a student from California.

''It's been really exciting,'' Gomez said before leaving Miami.

For Gomez, the one off-note was the absence of his parents, who were deported to Colombia in October.

''They were a little sad that they won't be able to go up with me,'' Gomez said.

Julio and Liliana Gomez brought Juan and his older brother, Alex, to the United States in 1990 with tourist visas in a fruitless bid for political asylum, but the family stayed in the country for more than a decade despite a deportation order.

When immigration authorities detained the family last year, Juan and Alex became causes celebres, symbolizing the plight of tens of thousands of young immigrants who are in legal jeopardy because they were brought to the country as children by their parents without authorization.

A widely publicized grass-roots campaign led by the teens' friends led to two principal efforts, including a bid to pass the so-called DREAM Act, which would allow young immigrants in their situation to stay by going to college or serving in the military. That effort stalled amid last year's acrimonious debates over immigration.

Then came private bills filed by U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Sen. Christopher Dodd that, if passed, would allow the brothers to stay permanently. Immigration officials granted the young men a stay of deportation until Congress takes up the bills sometime early next year. U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen also has backed efforts to let the brothers stay.

Opponents of the DREAM Act have said Congress should not reward immigrants who flout the law regardless of their youth or talents.

''We can't solve the problem by encouraging more people to come here,'' said Mike Cutler, a former immigration agent and fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, a group that advocates cuts in legal and illegal immigration.

``Do I feel bad for this kid? Yes. But it comes back to parental responsibility. Bringing a child unlawfully into this country with all of that uncertainty jeopardizes the well-being of that child.''
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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/top-stories/story/652781.html