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1. DHS expanding biometric data
2. Illegals crowded out of market
3. Poll shows support for SCHIP
4. MA funding for Census count
5. CNMI asks for hiring preference
6. NY co. to face Fed. probe

1.
DHS to collect biometric data from green card holders
By Gautham Nagesh
Nextgov.com, December 22, 2008

The Homeland Security Department has announced plans to expand its biometric data collection program to include foreign permanent residents and refugees. Almost all noncitizens will be required to provide digital fingerprints and a photograph upon entry into the United States as of Jan. 18.

A notice in Friday's Federal Register, said expansion of the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology Program (US VISIT) will include "nearly all aliens," except Canadian citizens on brief visits. Those categories include permanent residents with green cards, individuals seeking to enter on immigrant visas, and potential refugees.

The US VISIT program was developed after the Sept.11, 2001, terrorist attacks to collect fingerprints from foreign visitors and run them against the FBI's terrorist watch list and other criminal databases. Another phase of the project, to develop an exit system to track foreign nationals leaving the country, has run into repeated setbacks.

The decision to track permanent residents has drawn criticism from privacy advocates, especially since DHS has acknowledged that green card holders do not necessarily pose a greater threat than "nonimmigrants."

"It's very disappointing. These are individuals who don't deserve the indignity of being subjected to biometric capture," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty program for the American Civil Liberties Union.

DHS officials said their primary reason for collecting data from permanent residents is to identify noncitizens with fraudulent documents. But Steinhardt called it a "pretext" to gathering more personal information.
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http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=41678&dcn=todaysnews

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2.
Economy stirring illegal immigration tempest?
Rising unemployment leaves both citizens, aliens battling for jobs
By Drew Zahn
The World Net Daily News, December 22, 2008

News reports around the country tell of illegal aliens struggling to find work in a slumping economy and some workers thinking about returning home; but at least one analyst is warning that "hostility" between unemployed citizens and out-of-work immigrants is more likely to strike first.

Jim Gilchrist is founder of the Minuteman Project, an organization that advocates for enforcement of U.S. immigration law. Gilchrist told WND that illegal immigrants may be out of work, but that doesn't mean they're re-crossing the border.

"It's not the reverse exodus, the repatriation back to their homelands, that the media or government bureaucrats might want you to think it is," Gilchrist warned. "There are still 3 to 4 million illegal aliens entering this country every year and not going home."

And as the reports roll in of increasing unemployment rates among all groups – American citizens and illegal aliens alike – the question of who should or shouldn't be competing for scarce jobs is bound to arise.

"There's going to be some very strong hostility," Gilchrist told WND. "I'm not saying they're going to be beating each other to death on the streets, but you're going to see a lot of mutual acrimony between those two factions."

The Wall Street Journal reported last week on the story of a Hollywood job center that is seeing an increase of all sorts of people seeking jobs.

"Everybody is coming to look for work," Rene Jemio, outreach coordinator for the hiring hall, told the Journal. "It's not just your average immigrant anymore; it's African-Americans and whites, too."

"For the first time in a decade," reports the Journal, "unskilled immigrants are competing with Americans for work."

A recent report released by the Pew Hispanic Center, based on data from the Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics, shows further numerical evidence that Hispanics – including both citizens and aliens – have been hit particularly hard by the downturned economy.

"The unemployment rate for Hispanics increased from 5.7 percent to 7.9 percent," states the report. "The 2.2 percentage point rise was greater than the 1.2 percentage point rise for non-Hispanics, whose unemployment rate went from 4.6 percent to 5.8 percent."

"You've had hundreds of thousands of jobs lost in the construction industry," said Jose Calderon, a professor of sociology and Chicano Studies at Pitzer College in Claremont, to The San Bernardino Sun. "Immigrants are particularly hard hit because you have so many immigrants working in that industry."

In the wake of heavy job losses not only in construction, but also in hospitality, retail and other industries that tend to depend on immigrant labor, several newspapers have written stories of nationals from south of the border considering a return home.
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http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=84341

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3.
New Poll Shows Support for Covering Legal Immigrant Children in SCHIP
By Adjoa Adofo
The Congressional Quarterly (Washington, DC), December 22, 2008

Supporters of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) say a new poll shows widespread support for SCHIP renewal and for covering legal immigrant children.

The poll, commissioned by the child advocacy group First Focus, found public support for a renewal of SCHIP — which expires March, 31 2009 — at 82 percent. The poll also found 67 percent favored eliminating the five-year waiting period for legal immigrant children, while 19 percent were opposed. SCHIP is not available to legal immigrants during their first five years in the country, except for those residing in states that use state funds to cover legal immigrants who qualify.

“The findings announced today confirmed what we knew over a year ago,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., said in a statement. “Americans support providing children with health care coverage and they understand the importance of removing the five-year waiting period.”

In 2007, House Democrats dropped provisions that included eliminating the five-year waiting period from a compromise bill to renew and expand SCHIP after House Republicans charged the provisions would provide insurance coverage to illegal immigrants.

Dennis Smith, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Center for Medicaid and State Operations, said the five-year waiting period was established to stop “outrageous and egregious manipulations of public benefits.”

“It was Congress with the support of President Clinton that enacted the five-year ban,” Smith said. “All this will do will invite, once again, those kind of abuses that outraged the American public.”
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http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docid=hbnews-000003000239

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4.
Cash, power at stake in 2010 census
By Dan McDonald
The MetroWest Daily News (Framingham, MA), December 22, 2008

What amounts to a nationwide once-a-decade head count has some in Massachusetts nervous.

Potentially at stake in the 2010 U.S. Census: A Congressional seat and federal funding. Specifically, more than $300 billion in federal dollars is distributed based on the census.

While the results are still more than a year away and the U.S. Census Bureau won't start canvassing homes until next spring, this decade's population trends already have some local officials eyeing the count with trepidation.

From 2000 to 2006, the state's population grew 1.4 percent, relatively stagnant when compared with the 6.4 percent growth of the nation as a whole, according to the Census Bureau's Web site.

In 2003 and 2004, Massachusetts was the only state to lose population.

Jessica Schafer, press secretary for U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, D-7th, when asked if there was potential for the state to lose a Congressional seat, said Friday, "Certainly I've heard some very serious discussion about that."

The way the districts are split up right now, each constituency has at least 630,000 people.

That formula, however, may change depending on 2010 numbers, said Cesar Monzon, a Framingham resident and partnership director for the Census Bureau's Boston office.

Such evidence is enough for the accurate census count to land on the MetroWest Growth Management Committee's list of legislative priorities.

In an attempt to ensure the most accurate count possible, that group is advocating for $3 million in state funding to be used to identify "hard to count communities" that have high numbers of students, renters, and immigrants.

Georgia, California, and New York have undertaken efforts to help census counts, according to a statement from the growth management committee.
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http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/state/x793911944/Cash-power-at-stake-i...

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5.
Prioritize the hiring of local Immigration agents-House
By Ferdie de la Torre
The Saipan Tribune, December 23, 2008

The House on Friday unanimously passed a joint resolution that asks the U.S. Department Homeland Security to ensure that local Immigration employees and U.S. citizens in the Commonwealth be given priority when hiring in the CNMI.

The lawmakers made minor amendments to the wordings before voting for the passage of the resolution, which was introduced by Rep. Diego Benavente and co-signed by seven other representatives.

Rep. David M. Apatang said there is nothing wrong with the resolution as the House is only asking for consideration in the federal government's hiring decisions.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection has already posted job announcements for Customs and Border Protection Officer Field Operations, listing the CNMI as a duty location.

The requirements and procedures in place for hiring under this job announcement, the resolution says, appear to be inconsistent with the mandate of Public Law 110-229 (federalization law) as they do not give any priority consideration to local Immigration employees.
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http://www.saipantribune.com/newsstory.aspx?cat=1&newsID=86352

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6.
Fed to review allegations Suffolk is lax on hate crimes
By Bart Jones
Newsday (NY), December 22, 2008

Claiming that Suffolk police and politicians systematically violate the civil rights of Latinos, a Latino rights group has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate county law enforcement and government.

Two high-level officials from the Justice Department's civil rights division flew from Washington to New York last week to meet with leaders of the group LatinoJustice.

Justice Department officials said they are reviewing the allegations, which include a laundry list of cases that culminated with the Nov. 8 killing of Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorean immigrant in Patchogue. Jamie Hais, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said officials have not decided whether to open a formal inquiry.

Suffolk police said Monday they welcomed any investigation and that the hate crime situation in Suffolk is no different than in other parts of the region.

"As evidenced by the attack on an Ecuadorean immigrant in Brooklyn recently, hate crimes occur everywhere," said police spokesman Tim Motz. "Our hate crime statistics are essentially the same as those of our neighboring counties and New York City."

But in its nine-page memo to the Justice Department, Manhattan-based LatinoJustice accused Suffolk police of "failing to adequately investigate crimes against Latinos by whites."

It said "an epidemic of hate crimes against Latinos had erupted in Suffolk County," even though local police say only one hate crime occurred against Latinos in 2007.
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http://www.newsday.com/news/local/ny-lifeds1223,0,6087749.story