1. CIS exec. speaks to group
2. McCain may to lose Hispanic vote
3. Study suggests non-citizens register
4. Hispanics hesitant to report violations
5. UT refugees struggle to adapt

1.
Limits urged on new arrivals
Author cites societal changes
By Maria Sacchetti
The Boston Globe, October 10, 2008
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/10/10/limit...

Watertown -- Mark Krikorian is everywhere, it seems, making the case against immigration.

He has been on C-SPAN, testified before Congress, and this week he held court before a group of fellow Armenians in Watertown, many of them immigrants themselves.

He was not what they expected. He exudes a rumpled charm, with thick eyeglasses and a mop of thinning gray hair. But Krikorian's authoritative voice is so reasoned, and his demeanor so amiable, that it makes immigrant advocates leery.

Legal immigrants. Illegal immigrants. Krikorian wants fewer of both.

From the podium Wednesday night at the Armenian Library and Museum of America, Krikorian eyed the two dozen in the room. Some smiled, including his mother. Others sat stone-faced, arms folded. He quickly deadpanned that for a week his new book was number six on the Washington Post best-seller list.

"For one week," he said with a smile. "I knew it would never happen again so I framed it. "

They laughed.

For the next hour, he held their attention. Krikorian is executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that issues reports outlining the costs of immigration to the United States. This year, he is on a book tour to promote "The New Case Against Immigration." The cover features an image of the Statue of Liberty with her hand held up as if to say: Stop.

Krikorian's premise: America has changed over the last century from an agriculture-based society that welcomed millions of low-skilled immigrants to a high-tech, service-based economy that demands higher skills. Uneducated workers, he says, tap into healthcare and other government-funded services and compete with American high school dropouts for jobs.

His proposal: Sharply reduce immigration from the 1.5 million immigrants who enter each year - which includes roughly 500,000 illegal immigrants. He would reduce the 12 million illegal immigrants in the country now by several million people. And he would allow 350,000 to 400,000 legal immigrants in a year, reducing the number of relatives that US citizens can bring in and admitting a limited number of high-skilled workers and refugees.

"In the conditions of the modern society, a person with low levels of skill and education, no matter how many jobs he has, no matter how hard he works, he cannot support a family . . . without support from taxpayers," Krikorian told the group. "It just can't happen."

Krikorian's critics say his approach runs counter to the United States' history as a nation of immigrants and would force families to live apart from their relatives. The United States still needs immigrants for low-wage jobs, they say, and it is impractical to suggest sending illegal immigrants home.

"He's the moderate face of a very hard-line movement," said Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that favors an immigration overhaul. "He talks in soothing and academic tones about an agenda that I find extreme."

But B. Lindsay Lowell, director of policy studies at Georgetown University's Institute for the Study of International Migration, said Krikorian and the center are making an honest attempt to make their case.

"I think that they are intelligent brokers for a point of view I don't quite share," he said in an e-mail. "At least, they are honest about putting out a number that they think is preferable while their opposition mostly mouths vague platitudes about not 'restricting' immigration as if ever-growing numbers or open borders is a viable option."

Krikorian takes pains in his book to avoid blaming immigrants. He is the grandson of Armenian immigrants and speaks the language fluently. Now 47, he was born in Connecticut to parents from Medford and Watertown. He grew up mainly in the Midwest but lived in Massachusetts as a teenager and graduated from Winchester High School. He was educated at Georgetown University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

He fell into the immigration debate because of his opposition to bilingual education and eventually found work at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, among other jobs. He went to work for the Center for Immigration Studies in 1995.

After his talk, many in the crowd praised Krikorian.

"I would like to limit (immigration) if they aren't educated, if they are going to be a burden on government handouts," said Bette Ohanian of Watertown, the daughter of Armenian immigrants.

Barbara Merguerian, a freelance writer, questioned why the number of illegal immigrants had been allowed to swell.

"We're a country of law and order," she said.

"I just can't believe that the US government is unable to stop this mass of immigrants to this country."

If Krikorian's plan had been in place a century ago, some of the people in the room might not have been allowed into the United States.

"I disagreed with him completely," said Bethel Bilezikian Charkoudian, whose parents survived the Armenian genocide. "We're living in a world without borders."

EDITOR'S NOTE: Krikorian's book, "The New Case Against Immmigration Both Legal and Illegal" is available for purchase online at: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1595230351/centerforimmigra

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2.
Hispanics turn cold shoulder to McCain
By Ben Smith
The Politico (Washington, DC), October 9, 2008

Despite championing immigration reform in 2007, John McCain is poised to lose the Hispanic vote by a landslide margin that is well below President George W. Bush's 2004 performance.

Polls show Obama winning the broadest support from Latino voters of any Democrat in a decade, while McCain is struggling to reach 30 percent, closer to Senator Bob Dole's dismal 1996 result than to Bush's historic 40% four years ago.

McCain seems to have wound up with the worst of both worlds: He appears to be getting no credit from Latino voters for his past support for immigration reform, while carrying the baggage of other Republicans' hostility to illegal immigration.

And he's been unable or unwilling to attack Obama—who was once thought to have taken a lethally liberal stance by supporting granting drivers licenses to illegal immigrants—from the right.

As October puts four states with large Hispanic populations - Florida, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico - at the center of the presidential contest, what appeared at first to be a possible strength for McCain has emerged as a profound weakness.

"I feel bad for McCain," said Sam Rodriguez, the president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and a prominent supporter of George W. Bush in 2004, who is neutral this year. "We find ourselves between the proverbial rock and the hard place. We really like John McCain. We really don't like the Republican Party."

Democrats relish McCain's quandary.

"It's hurt him in every way," said Simon Rosenberg, the president of the New Democrat Network, which has focused on bringing Hispanics back to the Democratic Party. "I don't think it's assured the right he's really with them. And for those who are immigration reform advocates, he's become a betrayer, having been a leader."

Since America's economic crisis deepened this fall, immigration has almost entirely vanished from the national conversation. Three debates have passed without a single mention of the issue. And the undertow has pushed Hispanic and anti-immigrant voters alike toward the Democratic Party.

But under the radar, McCain and Obama are slugging it out in a bitter exchange of attack ads on Spanish-language radio and television.
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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14444.html

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3.
New study claims non-citizens are participating in U.S. elections
By Gregg MacDonald
The Loudoun Times (VA), October 9, 2008

A study released Oct. 7 by a former executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies claims that American elections are potentially being affected by voters who are not American citizens.

The study, "How Many Non-Citizen Voters; The Impact of Non-Citizen Voting on American Elections," was conducted by David Simcox. It claims that there may be as many as 2.3 million "ineligible aliens" on U.S. voting rolls who are voting for candidates and issues sympathetic to their situations.

The study asserts that the non-citizen voters exist in many states because verification of voter registration applicants is nonexistent.

In a number of states, including Virginia, applicants are asked to check a box on a voter registration application form asking if the applicant is a U.S. citizen, but the information is not verified.

"Unless we have received something to contradict the statement, the statement is taken as given," said Fairfax County Deputy Registrar Gary Scott.

According to Scott, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles will contact the State Board of Elections if someone willingly discloses that they are not a U.S. citizen while applying for a driver's license, but otherwise there is no routine communication between the two departments on the issue.

"The DMV doesn't tell us anything," concurred Dianna Price, secretary for the Loudoun County Electoral Board.

"People assume that all this information is shared and that all these agencies talk to each other, but they don't," she said.
. . .
http://www.loudountimes.com/news/2008/oct/09/new-study-claims-non-citize...

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4.
Chattanooga: Hispanics often hesitate to report job dangers
By Perla Trevizo
The Chattanooga Times Free Press, October 10, 2008

About a month ago, Ismael Ávila was hit by a car.

At work for a local paving company, he was pushing a large blower along a newly paved driveway when he suddenly found himself flying over the machine.

“The next thing I remember was waking up at the hospital,” Mr. Ávila said in Spanish.

After receiving emergency care, the 53-year-old Honduras native returned to work the next day.

“My bosses basically said, ‘No work, no pay,’ and I need the money,” he said in broken English.

Within a week his knee had swollen to double its normal size. He had torn the cartilage in his knee and strained shoulder muscles.

But he kept going to work.

Like many immigrants, Mr. Ávila put aside his pain so he wouldn’t lose his job. Some immigrants, especially those here illegally, work through injuries because they’re afraid that, if they complain or don’t show up for work, their bosses may fire them or turn them over to authorities to be deported.

“I think the majority of Hispanic workers, first of all, don’t have knowledge about security norms at work,” said Anibal Franco, one of three Spanish Occupational Safety and Health Administration instructors in Tennessee and the only one in Chattanooga.
. . .
http://timesfreepress.com/news/2008/oct/10/chattanooga-hispanics-often-h...

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5.
Difficult adjustment: Refugees in Utah face tough-love approach as programs struggle to help the diverse newcomers
By Kristen Moulton
The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City), October 9, 2008

Tan Ly was just 19 in May 1979, when, late one night, he squeezed onto a 28-foot boat with 453 other people fleeing Vietnam.

For five days, he sat shoulder to shoulder with other refugees as the boat rolled over the South China Sea toward Malaysia. There was no food, no bathroom. Thai pirates stopped the boat twice, stripping Ly and other passengers of everything but their underwear.

Ly and his father, Hoang Tuoi Ly, lived for months in a jungle island refugee camp in Malaysia before heading for the U.S. When they finally arrived on a winter morning at Salt Lake City International Airport, Ly wore camp-issued flip-flops, a woman's blouse and slacks.

"We would do anything

Per capita refugees in the United States. (PDF)

for freedom," says Ly, now a chief engineer at Hill Air Force Base who, by all measures, has achieved the American dream.

His experience, though, is not shared by many of today's refugees. More and more, they fail to attain even a shadow of the American dream. Ill-equipped for the United States' tough-love approach that expects quick assimilation, many live in poverty. Hope for a better life soon turns to despair.

"Most of the refugees from Burma are saying, ... 'We want to go back,' " says Zaw Htike of the Utah Department of Workforce Services, who works with fellow Burmese.
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http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_10678040