1. Both candidates promise reform
2. Hispanics may swing NM polls
3. VA candidates talk immigration
4. Las Vegas PD to cooperate
5. Somali influx stirs tension
6. Afghani students in Canada

1.
Immigrants hear mixed messages
By Stephen Dinan
The Washington Times, October 16, 2008

Immigration ties politicians in knots.

Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama agree on the end goal - granting citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants - yet disagree about how to get there.

The public is even more conflicted, telling pollsters that they don't want to reward those who entered the U.S. illegally and don't want an increase in immigration, but do want a solution to the problem and are open to giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.

"Both presidential candidates are going to want to do it, and both are going to be challenged to get enough Republican support. But McCain's got an added challenge - he's going to be challenged to get enough Democratic support," said Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, which pushes for a broad agreement that backers call comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship.

An effort to solve all of the immigration problems at once collapsed in the Senate last year, defeated by a majority filibuster. Mr. Sharry and others who follow the issue say the next president will have to work to form a coalition that can do better.

Both top candidates are promising to try.

"I would make my first priority comprehensive immigration reform. We will pick up where we left off," Mr. McCain, a senator from Arizona with a long history of working on the issue, told Univision's Al Punto program this weekend.

Immigration is an emotional issue that goes to competing beliefs that the United States is a nation of immigrants, but also a nation of laws. Although it is a cliche, that view is still seen as a fundamental tenet.

Beneath the cover of that ambiguity, illegal immigration has exploded. The issue is another part of unfinished business that President Bush will leave to his successor.

The estimated population of illegal immigrants has grown from 8.4 million in 2000 to nearly 12 million this year, though new reports by both the Center for Immigration Studies and the Pew Hispanic Center indicate that the number has declined in the past year.

Pew did not elaborate as to why, but the Center for Immigration Studies said the timing of the drop suggests stepped-up enforcement at both the federal and local levels has helped. That boosts the argument of those who say illegal immigration can be controlled by attrition - tougher enforcement coupled with a no-amnesty policy.

Enforcement increased after Mr. Bush, Mr. McCain and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, failed the past two years to pass a bill combining border security, citizenship rights for illegal immigrants and a guest-worker program for future foreign workers.

Congress called for border fencing, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff began a series of high-profile workplace raids, and some states and localities took the lead in requiring employers to check employees' eligibility to work. Some localities also signed agreements with immigration authorities to allow their own police to enforce immigration laws.

The issue gained traction in the presidential primaries. Mr. McCain, considered the most liberal of Republican candidates on the issue, said immigration nearly cost him the nomination. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign suffered after she changed her position on whether illegal immigrants should be allowed to obtain driver's licenses in New York.

But, in the general election, the issue has all but disappeared.
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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/16/immigrants-hear-mixed-me...

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2.
Undecided Latino voters may be key in New Mexico
Their votes could determine whether the state goes to McCain or Obama. Many are torn between Catholic values and economic worries.
By Seema Mehta
Los Angeles Times, October 16, 2008

Bernalillo, NM -- Rick Sepulveda can't make up his mind between Barack Obama and John McCain. The 49-year-old beer salesman thinks the Democrat would do a better job with the economy, but he can't stomach Obama's support for abortion, an affront to his faith.

"I'm pro-life. That's a big issue for me," Sepulveda said recently, after taking an order at the T&T Supermart here, 18 miles north of Albuquerque. But, he added, "McCain is another Bush."

Undecided Latino voters, particularly socially conservative ones like Sepulveda, could play the pivotal role in deciding who wins the five electoral votes in the Land of Enchantment, a state known for razor-thin margins in presidential races. Former Vice President Al Gore won by 365 votes in 2000; President Bush by 5,988 in 2004.

In New Mexico, Obama led McCain in recent polls and has a substantial lead among Latinos. But nearly 1 in 5 Latino voters, who make up almost a third of the state's electorate, remain undecided, double the rate for white voters.

Many of these voters are torn: drawn to Republicans by their Roman Catholic faith, but to Democrats by their concerns about the economy.

"A lot of Hispanics in New Mexico are Catholic and . . . wrestle with the values and platform and campaign positions of candidates on both sides," said J.D. Bullington, a longtime Republican lobbyist who registered as a Democrat this year. "That's the reason why there's a large number of undecideds in the Hispanic community. I think they take their time and listen carefully and balance it all out, all the way up to the election."

This year, with the economy overshadowing nearly every other issue, it's unclear how much weight voters will give values issues, such as abortion and gay marriage. But the state, while tilting toward Obama, is still in play, and both campaigns are targeting it.

In the week that ended Oct. 4, McCain spent $144,000 on advertising in New Mexico, and Obama spent $185,000. That's a tiny fraction of what they are spending in other battleground states, but airtime is cheaper in Albuquerque, and both have a steady presence on television. Both are airing Spanish-language ads that blame the other for the failure to reform immigration laws.

The Democratic nominee has 40 field offices around the state, from six in Albuquerque to a single storefront in the tiny southern village of Hatch.

"We thought it was important for us to get beyond the I-25 backbone -- Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Los Cruces -- into areas where we didn't do as well as we should have in 2004," said Obama state director Adrian Saenz, who added that the campaign has mobilized thousands of volunteers. "We're not taking anything for granted."

In New Mexico, as in other swing states, the Illinois senator hopes to expand the electorate. In the last month, the campaign has registered more than 35,000 new voters. Now, with voters already casting ballots, staff and volunteers are turning their attention to get-out-the-vote efforts for those newly registered voters and others, with neighborhood canvassing, phone banking and early-voting rallies.

McCain, who has visited New Mexico four times, has a slimmer ground operation, with 10 field offices, plus a presence in the state's 33 county GOP offices.

"Obama wants to waste his time opening offices here and there," said Ivette Barajas, spokeswoman for McCain's New Mexico effort. "Our ground operations are very effective and very strong. We saw that in 2004 with the Bush campaign, and we're going to see that here."

The senator from neighboring Arizona is also replicating a 2004 tactic of connecting like-minded volunteers with voters, such as veterans, mothers and social conservatives.

"You see people just like you who live in the same city, have similarities with you," Barajas said. "You're more likely to connect with those people."
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http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-newmexico16-2008...

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3.
Senate Candidates on Illegal Immigration
The WVIR News (Charlottesville, VA), October 15, 2008
http://www.nbc29.com/Global/story.asp?S=9182241&nav=menu496_2_3

Illegal immigration has grabbed headlines in the U.S. senate race. Republican Jim Gilmore and Democrat Mark Warner are being asked what should be done to control it.

Both of Virginia's U.S. Senate candidates say illegal immigration is a problem. "After all of these years of neglect, we have an illegal immigration problem. That's a very serious issue," said U.S. Senate candidate Jim Gilmore (R).

Both have similar ideas for a solution. Number one: Seal off the borders.

"We've got to make sure that we enforce our borders, we cannot continue to allow the number of undocumented people to kind of pass through without any kind of border control," said U.S. Senate candidate Mark Warner (D).

Number two: Crack down on employers who hire without proper documentation.

According to Gilmore (R), "We have to make it very, very clear to our employers across the United States that there will be penalties if they continue to hire illegal aliens, without verifying that they are citizens of the United States with proper permits."

The candidates say these measures are not meant to discriminate. They're just meant to enforce the law of the land.

"I'm a former lawyer, prosecutor and attorney general. I'm steeped in the law. And I think the answer is that the law must be adhered and obeyed to especially in immigration situations," said Gilmore (R).

Warner (D) stated, "Those folks who are here, in an undocumented way you know they need to go to the back of the line. They need to learn English, they need to pay taxes. And clearly if they are here and violating some other law, they need to be deported."

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4.
Police to share immigration status with feds
New program a partnership between local police and federal immigration officers
By Amanda Finnegan
The Las Vegas Sun, October 15, 2008

Illegal immigrants who get into trouble with the law in Las Vegas will be referred to federal immigration enforcement officers — even if they aren't found guilty of any criminal offense — thanks to a new program being instituted by the city's police department.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department announced Wednesday a partnership between Immigration and Customs Enforcement that will implement a jail-based program focusing on identifying criminals who are illegally in the United States.

The effort is part of Section 287 (g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which authorizes the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to enter into agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies, permitting designated officers to perform immigration law enforcement functions.

Individuals arrested into the Clark County Detention Center who report a foreign birth, a standard question when entering the system, will be referred to one of 10 specially trained correction officers. Officers will have access to the Federal Immigration Database, a system previously only authorized to ICE.

If correction officers find a question of illegal status, the case will be referred to ICE. Individuals will serve their local or state sentence before the case is seen before an immigration judge.

Depending of the level of the crime, the individual may be held in custody by ICE or released on a bond before the hearing.

“This program will assist Immigration in identifying persons with documentation concerns in our detention center so those cases can be handle according to procedures set up by ICE,” Sheriff Douglas Gillespie said. “We do not want to give criminals the opportunity to return to a life of local crime.”
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http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/oct/15/police-share-arrest-informat...

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5.
A Somali Influx Unsettles Latino Meatpackers
By Kirk Semple
The New York Times, October 16, 2008

Grand Island, NE -- Like many workers at the meatpacking plant here, Raul A. Garcia, a Mexican-American, has watched with some discomfort as hundreds of Somali immigrants have moved to town in the past couple of years, many of them to fill jobs once held by Latino workers taken away in immigration raids.

Mr. Garcia has been particularly troubled by the Somalis’ demand that they be allowed special breaks for prayers that are obligatory for devout Muslims. The breaks, he said, would inconvenience everyone else.

“The Latino is very humble,” said Mr. Garcia, 73, who has worked at the plant, owned by JBS U.S.A. Inc., since 1994. “But they are arrogant,” he said of the Somali workers. “They act like the United States owes them.”

Mr. Garcia was among more than 1,000 Latino and other workers who protested a decision last month by the plant’s management to cut their work day — and their pay — by 15 minutes to give scores of Somali workers time for evening prayers.

After several days of strikes and disruptions, the plant’s management abandoned the plan.

But the dispute peeled back a layer of civility in this southern Nebraska city of 47,000, revealing slow-burning racial and ethnic tensions that have been an unexpected aftermath of the enforcement raids at workplaces by federal immigration authorities.

Grand Island is among a half dozen or so cities where discord has arisen with the arrival of Somali workers, many of whom were recruited by employers from elsewhere in the United States after immigration raids sharply reduced their Latino work forces.

The Somalis are by and large in this country legally as political refugees and therefore are not singled out by immigration authorities.

In some of these places, including Grand Island, this newest wave of immigrant workers has had the effect of unifying the other ethnic populations against the Somalis and has also diverted some of the longstanding hostility toward Latino immigrants among some native-born residents.

“Every wave of immigrants has had to struggle to get assimilated,” said Margaret Hornady, the mayor of Grand Island and a longtime resident of Nebraska. “Right now, it’s so volatile.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/us/16immig.html?bl&ex=1224302400&en=2d...

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6.
Five Afghans quit studies in U.S., flee to Canada
By Josh Wingrove
The Globe and Mail (Canada), October 16, 2008

Five Afghan students studying in Washington have fled to Canada, U.S. customs officials said yesterday.
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081016.SCHOLARS16/TPS...