1. Cases reach record high in SoCal.
2. Funding for medical care expires
3. Illegals driven to self deportation
4. RI gov's "gaffe" commended
5. Petition to recall AZ city mayor fails
6. AZ sheriff accused of racial profiling
7. Council can be difficult to obtain

1.
Immigrant prosecutions reach a high
By Rachel Uranga
The Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA), September 1, 2008

Fueled by a broad crackdown by immigration officials, federal prosecutions of illegal immigrants with felony records in Southern California are on pace this year to hit a high not seen in nearly a decade.

So far this fiscal year, there have been 657 federal prosecutions - up more than 20 percent from the previous year, according to figures from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.

And with three months still left to count - and about 50 cases filed per month - this year's total should surpass the 792 cases filed in 2003-2004 and mark a nearly 400 percent increase over the 135 cases filed in 2000-2001.

The prosecutions come as the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the Los Angeles Police Department have stepped up efforts to focus on criminal illegal immigrants, and federal agents also are cracking down on those who ignore deportation orders or commit crimes.

"These defendants pose a demonstrated threat here in the United States," said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the local U.S. Attorney's Office, which oversees a seven-county region in Southern California.

"They have no place on our streets and even when deported to their home countries, they have shown a willingness to return to the United States."

This year, local federal prosecutors have filed cases against more immigrants with criminal records for entering the country illegally than any other crime. The cases often result in sentences of two to three

Earlier this year, the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office loaned several lawyers to the U.S. Attorney's Office to target immigrant gang members and aid prosecutions.

The rise in prosecutions is part of an increase in immigration enforcement. Local police have become a key filter for beefed up federal immigration efforts in Southern California.

Already, deputies are identifying nearly 100 illegal immigrants a week convicted of crimes from trespassing to armed robbery. Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the jail also are marking others for deportation.

Meanwhile, ICE plans to expand teams in Southern California to carry out door-to-door sweeps of immigrants who have ignored deportation orders or have criminal records. Dubbed "Fugitive Operations," the national effort has lowered the number of immigrants who received deportation orders but remain here.

Though records show deportation rates in the region are on par with the previous year, immigration officials say the shutdown of the ICE detention and removal processing center on Terminal Island in October could have lowered that figure.
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http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_10359315

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2.
Hospitals lose immigrant care money
By Bud Foster
The KOLD News (Tucson, AZ), August 29, 2008

"I am very disappointed," says US Senator Jon Kyl.

Kyl is upset because money he wriggled out of the federal government four years ago to pay hospitals for illegal immigrant care has dried up.

"I'm not at all happy. There's nothing I can do," he says.

Kyl was able to get Congress to appropriate a billion dollars over four years to pay hospitals all along the US Mexican border from California to Texas. It was part of the Medicare reform bill. It's called 1011 money.

"My hope was we could just keep extending it until we got some comprehensive immigration reform. That was my original intent," he says.

But as of October 1, 2008, the money goes away because it was not extended.

UMC, which has the only level one trauma center in Southern Arizona, was getting about $2 million a year. It helps reimburse the hospital for the $6 million it spends annually for emergency care for immigrants.

UMC officials were in Washington, DC last month lobbying for the bill.

"Obviously, it's very beneficial," says Marj Sisson. admissions director for the hospital.

There have been several multi-injury accidents this year involving immigrants, many of whom have been air lifted to UMC.

UMC us mandated by the federal government to give emergency care and says it will continue to do so even without the reimbursements.
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http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=8918537

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3.
287(g) causing illegal immigrants to leave county
Keren Rivas
The Times News (Burlington, MA), August 30, 2008

Though recent estimates suggest that the Hispanic population in the United States continues to rise, new immigration enforcement measures have many in Alamance County looking for a new home.

According to U.S. Census estimates released earlier this month, there were 15,823 Hispanics living in the county in 2007, 612 more than in 2006. Statewide, the Hispanic population went from 593,896 in 2006 to 638,444 in 2007.

However, in Alamance County, and one and a half years since the 287(g) program gave local deputies the authority to enforce immigration laws, many Hispanics who don't have the proper documentation to be in the country legally are leaving.

Laura Leach, owner of Leach Realtor, a Burlington company that deals largely with Hispanic clients, said that in the past couple of months she's had one or two coming to her office every week wanting to put their homes for sale.

"They are panicking," she said.

She said that about 80 percent of people who are leaving for fear of being deported end up losing their homes. She said they do not make the necessary arrangements beforehand because they don't want to put their families or friends in jeopardy by making them responsible for the payments. Leach said this has forced banking institutions to change their guidelines to make it harder for illegal aliens to get a mortgage loan.

While home sales across the board have been slow due to the economy downturn, Leach said sales have dramatically dropped in the Hispanic community. In the past, she said, she'd close on seven deals a month. Now, she sells one house every three months.

Typically, Hispanic buyers make up 20 percent of all home sales.

Evaristo Lacerda, owner of Lacerda Realty Inc. in Burlington, has also seen a drastic decline in home sales among Hispanics. A year ago, he said, he used to sell six to eight houses a month. Since then, his sales have gone down to four, two and more recently to one a month. So far this month, he hasn't sold anything.

Lacerda said that in the 10 years he has been working in real estate with the Latino community in Alamance County, he has never seen such a drop. He too attributed this change to the 287(g) program.
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http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/county_17183___article.html/home_people...

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4.
Carcieri finds immigration an issue that people are talking about
By Cynthia Needham
The Providence Journal, September 1, 2008

Providence -- As on most mornings last October, the radio chatter that day centered on the Red Sox’ ever-changing fortunes in the playoffs. That is, until Governor Carcieri made one of his frequent appearances on a talk-radio program.

His on-air banter with WHJJ host Helen Glover started with the budget deficit, but soon wound its way to the volatile topic of immigration when a caller asked Carcieri why the court system must pay English-language interpreters.

The governor praised the caller, saying he also wondered “why in God’s name” the state provides interpreters “for people who want benefits from us.”

“My grandparents emigrated from Italy,” he said. “My mother didn’t speak English. She learned it.”

It was, some said, a flashpoint in Rhode Island’s increasingly testy debate over illegal immigration.

Civil rights and community advocates demanded an apology. Carcieri stood his ground, saying the comments were misinterpreted. And then something happened that caught many people by surprise. The governor’s position caught fire.

In the months that followed, Carcieri was praised by hundreds of readers on the Journal’s Web site, projo.com, despite his poor approval rating in a February poll. He even won support from Democratic legislators eager to crack down on illegal immigration.

“There’s no question those comments served to galvanize his base of support. It just was so in your face,” says Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The debate over illegal immigration vaulted to the top of the state’s political conversation, soaring over such issues as the lagging economy. It intensified in March when Carcieri issued a controversial executive order directing the state police and correctional officers to seek federal training that would enable them to enforce some immigration laws and requiring companies doing business with the state to verify the immigration status of new hires.

Ultimately, the candidate who came into office as the jobs governor — a businessman who pledged to fix the state’s anemic economy — and ran his second-term campaign on the promise of better schools may be remembered most for his tough stance on immigration.

Carcieri has declined the Journal’s requests to explain his position.

His team disputes any change in focus. Immigration, they say, was always a key priority. But before 2007, Carcieri’s name appeared in The Journal just a handful of times in connection with immigration issues. In 2008 alone, that number jumped to almost 100.

Critics say Carcieri is diverting attention from what Rhode Islanders really care about: the state’s worst budget crunch in two decades and the second-highest unemployment rate nationwide. A Brown University poll released last week indicated that just over 5 percent of Rhode Islanders list immigration as a top political priority. More than 75 percent of respondents said the state is headed in the wrong direction. The economy topped their list of concerns.

“I think it was more of a confluence of events that brought him to immigration,” said Maureen Moakley, a political science professor at the University of Rhode Island. “He had not been very successful in terms of pushing for jobs and economic development early in his administration, so by his second term he moved on to be the education governor. While those efforts were well intended, those are long-term endeavors you aren’t going to see a lot of results from. Then he started to talk about immigration on talk radio and it really resonated across the political spectrum.”

Jessica M. Vaughn, senior policy analyst at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies, a group that advocates stricter limits on immigration, says the governor’s progression is hardly unexpected.

“The immigration issue is directly related to the job market and the fiscal cost of government and education, so it’s very understandable that when a policymaker starts to get into [trying to solve] issues of runaway expenses, they are going to find that immigration policy has played a role in making those problems worse,” Vaughn said.

The cost here of illegal immigrants remains largely a mystery, even as the state grapples with a $425-million budget deficit. Carcieri has said the price tag for social services, health care and education hovers in the millions, but he has acknowledged that it is difficult to pinpoint that number.
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http://www.projo.com/news/content/IMMIGRATION_POLITICS_09-01-08_86BCCQS_...

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5.
Petition drive to recall Gordon fails
By Casey Newton
The Arizona Republic (Phoenix), August 29, 2008

The recall effort against Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon is dead - for now, anyway.

In a surprise ending to a four-month saga, the anti-illegal immigration group American Citizens United failed to turn in any signatures before Thursday's 5 p.m. deadline.

Organizer Phillip Quihuis said the group failed to meet its goal of collecting 40,000 signatures. At least 23,751 valid signatures were needed to force a recall election, but campaigns typically gather many more to provide a cushion in case a significant portion are ruled invalid.

Letting the Thursday deadline pass would allow the group to launch another recall effort later, Quihuis said.
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http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2008/08/29/20080...

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6.
Racial profiling in Cave Creek?
Mayor: Wife a victim of racial prejudice
By Beth Duckett
The Arizona Republic (Phoenix), August 29, 2008

Amelia Blanco remembers when she first saw the truck.

It started following her from Loop 101 and Cave Creek Road, shadowing her up to Carefree Highway, and up to her driveway off New River Road, where she lives with husband, Cave Creek Mayor Vincent Francia.

Blanco, an American citizen of Mexican descent, may have been a victim of racial profiling last Friday, according to Francia, whose town is known for its tough stance on illegal immigration.

Blanco said that 10 minutes after the driver fled her Cave Creek driveway, Maricopa County sheriff's deputies showed up. An unidentified caller had phoned Phoenix's non-emergency phone line complaining that Blanco's license plate was painted and illegible, they said.

Cave Creek Marshal Adam Stein said it is likely the driver saw the license plate and profiled Blanco based on the color of her skin.

"(The caller) said he was witnessing a car that wasn't supposed to be on the road (and) had illegal plates," Stein said.

The Sheriff's Office, which provides law-enforcement services to Cave Creek, emphasized that deputies simply responded to the caller's report of a suspicious vehicle.

"There was no racial profiling involved," sheriff's spokesman Douglas Matteson said.

In the fight against illegal immigration, the question still remains of "how far is too far?"

While the U.S. grapples with immigration issues, real-life circumstances play out in Cave Creek.
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http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2008/08/29/20080...

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7.
Lawyers difficult to obtain in immigration cases
Free representation is not assigned in such proceedings, leaving 58% of respondents nationwide without attorneys.
By Anna Gorman
Los Angeles Times, September 2, 2008

Upon hearing his name, Alberto Pancho walked alone to the front of the courtroom in downtown Los Angeles.

"Do you have a lawyer?" the immigration judge asked during a recent hearing.

Pancho, a native of Equatorial Guinea whose student visa had expired, explained that the attorney to whom he had paid $5,000 didn't show up at the last hearing and he couldn't find another one.

"You told me if I didn't have a lawyer I'd have to represent myself," he said. "But I don't think I'm capable of doing that."

Immigration judges in Los Angeles heard 27,200 cases in the last fiscal year, and stepped-up enforcement is expected to result in more this year.

Some involve foreigners fighting for asylum; others involve people with possible criminal records who are trying to avoid deportation.

Unlike defendants in criminal courts, individuals in immigration court do not have the right to free representation. Though there are no local statistics on the number of people who appeared in immigration court without lawyers, 58% of respondents nationwide were unrepresented, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the courts.

"Immigration laws are extremely complex," said Immigration Judge Dana Leigh Marks, president of the National Assn. of Immigration Judges. "It's a tremendous aid to us when someone is competently represented."

But finding an inexpensive or free attorney can be extremely difficult, advocates and lawyers said. And the stakes are high: Foreigners can face deportation, family separation and even political persecution.

"Someone who is not an immigration attorney cannot possibly understand the complexities to do what they need to do to have a fighting chance," said Judy London, who directs the immigrant rights project of Public Counsel, a Los Angeles pro bono law firm.

The federal government, private firms and nonprofit organizations are launching new efforts to increase pro bono representation. But advocates said the only solution would be a public defender program.

"Nonprofits just don't have the resources to represent everybody," said Donald Kerwin, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-immiglawyer2-2008sep02,0,6582464...