1. Fed. Reserve official pushes policy
2. McCain stance may win Hispanics
3. San Fran. universal ID program on hold
4. AZ city task force presents recomendations
5. Raids apprehend illegals in CA

1.
Fed official: U.S. must focus on education, immigration
The Houston Business Journal, September 4, 2008

While the country braces for the remainder of a busy hurricane season that ends in two months, the economy will continue to be battered by “tempestuous” market forces beyond 2008, a top Federal Reserve official said Thursday.
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He cautioned that the country must increase education standards in order to keep up this important export trend based on “brain prowess.”

Fisher also said the country needs to adopt a “sensible” approach to immigration. To illustrate his point, Fisher noted that 55 percent of engineering master’s degrees awarded by Texas universities go to foreign citizens, while 75 percent of engineering doctorate degrees go to foreigners.

“These same skilled immigrants must wait up to 10 years for a green card ... While the U.S. is turning away the best and brightest other governments are thinking proactively to take more of them in. Australia recently announced it will increase its pool of skilled foreign workers by 30 percent,” he said.

“We need an immigration policy that encourages the cream of the crop of foreigners to stay here and help us build our economy,” he concluded.
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http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2008/09/01/daily34.html

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2.
GOP Hispanics Aims to Secure Votes for McCain
By Bart Jansen
The Congressional Quarterly (Washington, DC), September 5, 2008

Hispanic Republicans are adding a little salsa to the political recipe that makes the Rocky Mountain West a battleground this fall.

To whip up enthusiasm for the ticket, an advocacy group called the Republican National Hispanic Assembly organized a series of events in and around the Republican convention in St. Paul this week supporting presidential nominee John McCain . Events in the twin city of Minneapolis were bracketed by a dance party Sunday within the red walls of the Cuban restaurant Babalu and a gathering Thursday at the Marquette Hotel.

“Sen. McCain has been a friend to the Hispanic community not just in an election, but for years,” said Marco Diaz, vice chairman of the assembly and a member of the Utah delegation. “They really sense they can make a difference this year.”

The West could be pivotal in the presidential contest between McCain and Democrat Barack Obama . The combined 19 electoral votes in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada rival Ohio’s closely contested 20 votes that were decisive in President Bush’s 2004 victory. Meanwhile, the Hispanic population of those states has grown explosively, to 20 percent in Colorado by 2004, 21 percent in Nevada and 42 percent in New Mexico, according to a June report from the American Enterprise Institute by John Fortier.

Exit polling in 2004 suggested that Bush, who speaks Spanish and had been governor of Texas, won 44 percent of the Hispanic vote, though some analysts and Hispanic activists dispute that the actual vote split was that high. While the sour economy and the Iraq war discourage thoughts of reaching a similar peak this fall, Republican Hispanics contend that one-third of their community is within reach.

“We are the ultimate swing vote,” said Raul “Danny” Vargas, the group’s chairman who runs a public relations firm in Herndon, Va.

While immigration policy festers as national dispute, activists are stressing the importance of national security, lower taxes, school choice and family values such as opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.
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http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000002944392

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3.
Mayor puts S.F.'s ID card program on hold
By Wyatt Buchanan
The San Francisco Chronicle, September 4, 2008

Mayor Gavin Newsom has delayed a program to offer identification cards to all city residents regardless of their immigration status as city officials review the sanctuary policy for illegal immigrants.

"We've delayed it till we garner enough facts about our current sanctuary city and move forward with changing the policy," Newsom said Wednesday.

The mayor last month ordered City Administrator Ed Lee to suspend the ID card program in a letter released by the mayor's office Wednesday. That letter called for putting the program on hold "until a thorough review has been completed to ensure that every aspect of the program complies with all applicable state and federal laws."

The review of the city's sanctuary policies comes in response to a series of Chronicle articles explaining how the city regularly shielded young illegal immigrants from federal deportation after they were found guilty of felony crimes. That practice has since been stopped.

The city clerk was to begin issuing the ID cards sometime in late October or early November, but Newsom said it will not go forward "until all of these things are resolved." In addition to the sanctuary policies, Newsom cited the need to make the cards counterfeit-proof.

The delay also comes as City Attorney Dennis Herrera late last week filed the city's response to a lawsuit challenging the program's legality under state and federal law. A San Francisco Superior Court judge will hear arguments in that lawsuit later this month.

As currently planned, the card will be available to anyone who can prove he or she has lived in the city at least 15 days, along with proof of identity. It will be accepted as identification by city departments, including the police, and by any agency that receives city funding.

Officials envision the card eventually also being used at city facilities like the golf courses and library.

Some banks and other financial institutions also are considering allowing the card to be used as sufficient identification to open an account. While the program was designed to help illegal immigrants, backers of the cards also said they would help elderly residents without driver's licenses and transgender residents seeking accurate identification.

Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who sponsored the legislation that passed 10-1, said he has a meeting scheduled with Newsom this afternoon and he disputed that the program had been suspended.

"I'm confident the program is going to move forward and we can meet any legal challenge," said Ammiano, who said he expects the city to begin issuing cards in November.

The lawsuit, filed by the Immigration Reform Law Institute of Washington, D.C., states that city officials approved the program in November without accounting for the environmental impacts of what the institute predicts to be a large influx of illegal immigrants.

The lawsuit also argues that the cost of the program would be an illegal expenditure of city funds, and that San Francisco cannot declare a person to be a resident who is not in the country legally.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/03/BASI12NG90.DTL

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4.
Immigration task force presents ideas to council
By Paula Rhoden
The Daily Courier (Prescott, AZ), September 4, 2008

Prescott, AZ -- On Aug. 2, Prescott Mayor Jack Wilson gave the city council recommendations from his Advisory Committee on Immigration Issues.

The mayor formed the task force in November 2007 to study the issue of illegal immigrants and how they affect Prescott. Meeting regularly, the task force discussed such topics as employee shortages because of stricter enforcement; a lack of trust between the immigrant community and local law enforcement; and difficulty in getting out an understandable message.

The task force finished its discussion June 23, with little change in the views of most of its members. The task force consisted of members with widely different views, including a member of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and a representative of Prescott College's Aztlan Center.

The members found some common ground in the three recommendations presented to the city council Tuesday afternoon.

The committee recommended the council send a letter to the area's state legislative representatives and Arizona's U.S. Congressional delegation urging "comprehensive immigration reform."

The task force suggested the letter include:

* Creation of a guest-worker program. The committee said most illegal immigrants come to work, and a guest worker program would allow them a chance to do that without breaking the law.

* Secure the border, preventing illegal residents and workers.

* Put pressure on the federal government to reimburse local officials for the costs of illegal immigrants and recognize the federal obligation to do so.

* Inform the public about the full economic impact of immigration labor.

* Urge the federal government to develop reformed visa and citizenship application processes.
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http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&subsectionID=1&articleID=58888

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5.
More immigration arrests made by ICE
By John C. Osborn
The Eureka Reporter (CA), September 4, 2008

Federal immigration agents arrested a total of 23 people illegally working in the United States in several raids throughout the day on Wednesday.
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http://eurekareporter.com/article/080904-more-immigration-arrests-made-b...