1. McCain frustrated by questions
2. DHS to advance on 'no match'
3. DHS misses fence deadline
4. Candidates gloss over AZ concerns
5. House race highlights issue
6. Iraqi refugee influx expected
7. MD group builds new center

1.
Palin denies accepting $150K in designer clothes
By Brendan Farrington
The Associated Press, October 24, 2008

Ormond Beach, FL (AP) -- Sarah Palin is blaming gender bias for the controversy over $150,000 worth of designer clothes, hairstyling and accessories the Republican Party provided for her, a newspaper reported Thursday.

"I think Hillary Clinton was held to a different standard in her primary race," Palin said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune posted on the newspaper's Web site Thursday night. "Do you remember the conversations that took place about her, say superficial things that they don't talk about with men, her wardrobe and her hairstyles, all of that? That's a bit of that double standard."

Palin, who is John McCain's vice presidential running mate, said the clothes were not worth $150,000 and were bought for the Republican National Convention.

Most of the clothes have never left the campaign plane, she told the newspaper.

"It's kind of painful to be criticized for something when all the facts are not out there and are not reported," Palin said.

"That whole thing is just, bad!" she said. "Oh, if people only knew how frugal we are."

News of the purchases of designer clothes, largely from upscale Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus, contrasts with the image Palin has crafted as a typical "hockey mom."

McCain was asked several questions on Thursday about the shopping spree — and he answered each one more or less the same way: Palin needed clothes and they'll be donated to charity.
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At one point in the interview, McCain grew frustrated with a Tampa television reporter during her questions on immigration issues. McCain twice said illegal immigrants who have committed crimes would be rounded up. Katie Coronado of WFLA-TV asked if that meant using raids to round up immigrants.

"What did I just say that had any connotation of raids?" McCain said, raising his voice with impatience. "Let me try one more time."

He again explained the idea of forcing illegal immigrants out of the country by issuing ID cards and fining employers who hire illegals. He then softened his tone.

"I apologize," he said to Coronado. "I understand how important an issue it is. I didn't mean to be flip."
. . .
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gN2UuEbyF64GtuHQfJzWDqDg7PqgD940L4780

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2.
Renewed Crackdown On Illegal Immigrants
U.S. Plans to Target 140,000 Employers
By Spencer S. Hsu
The Washington Post, October 24, 2008; A12

The Bush administration in its final weeks will revive a stalled crackdown on U.S. companies that hire illegal immigrants, issuing a new regulation and asking a federal judge to lift a ban on the measure, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced yesterday.

If the court agrees, the government could begin mailing notices to 140,000 employers regarding suspect Social Security numbers used by an estimated 8.7 million workers, pressuring businesses to either resolve discrepancies or fire workers within 90 days.

Critics said the move would probably set off a new round of litigation that could outlast the president's waning term and leave the thorny issue of immigration enforcement to President Bush's successor to manage amid an economic downturn.

Bush unveiled the Social Security "no-match" letter initiative in August 2007 after the Senate failed to pass an immigration overhaul measure. However, the program was stayed by U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer of San Francisco, who wrote last year that the plan could have "staggering" and "severe" effects on workers and businesses.

The plan had been challenged in a lawsuit filed by the AFL-CIO and other unions, the American Civil Liberties Union and a cross-section of industry led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Business groups say the administration failed to consider the cost of the plan to small businesses and to justify subjecting employers to possible criminal liability for the first time. Labor leaders and civil libertarians said the plan would lead to discrimination against many legal workers, including native-born Americans, because of errors in the government's Social Security database and in the program's structure.

Randel K. Johnson, a vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said his group was disappointed the government made virtually no changes in its revised final rule as it prepared to go back before Breyer.

"We are looking at our litigation options," Johnson said.

John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, accused the Bush administration of "leaving a disastrous parting gift to our new leadership."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/23/AR200810...

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3.
U.S. to miss deadline on Mexico border fence
By Andrew Quinn
Reuters, October 23, 2008

Washington, DC (Reuters) -- The United States will miss its deadline to complete a security fence along the Mexican border this year, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on Thursday.

"I don't think we're going to hit the nail on the head and be done by the end of the year," Chertoff told Reuters, adding that about 370 miles of the planned 670-mile (1,070-km) fence had been completed.

Chertoff said he hoped when the Bush administration leaves office in January about 90 to 95 percent of the fence -- a controversial measure that has raised hackles both with Mexico and with U.S. landowners along the proposed route -- would be completed or under construction.

"We've gotten most of the way there. We will be very substantially close," he told Reuters in an interview.

Congress has mandated that the fence, which will eventually stretch from California to Texas to help stem the tide of illegal immigration, be finished this year but law suits have slowed its progress.

"We've had some delay because the court proceedings in Texas have gone more slowly than I thought ... Although every time there's actually been a legal challenge, we've won," Chertoff said.

The nearly 2,000-mile 3,200-km border with Mexico is the main entry route for illegal immigrants into the United States, which is already home to 11 million to 12 million undocumented aliens, or one in every 20 workers in the country.

Better enforcement and mounting U.S. economic troubles have slowed the influx however. Border patrol agents arrested 880,000 people crossing illegally in 2007, down from 1.1 million a year earlier.
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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N23471259.htm

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4.
Immigration still a 'political hot potato' in Arizona
By Dennis Wagner
USA Today, October 24, 2008

Phoenix -- While some of Arizona's key political races this year are dominated by illegal immigration, the issue has virtually disappeared from the presidential campaigns and debates.

Republican Sen. John McCain, who championed a comprehensive immigration overhaul bill three years ago, has barely addressed the topic even though it remains a hot-button controversy in his home state. Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, who also supports an overhaul, has been nearly as mum.

During three presidential debates, the word "immigration" was uttered only once, according to a check of transcripts posted online by the Commission on Presidential Debates. In that one instance, McCain accused Obama of misrepresenting McCain's position on the topic. There was no further discussion.

Brooks Jackson, director at Annenberg Political Fact Check, chuckles when asked about the lack of discourse about national illegal immigration. "It has not been an issue aimed at the larger electorate," he says. Both candidates, he says, have run Spanish-language ads targeting Hispanic voters on the topic.

'Why is it off the radar?'

By contrast, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio seeks re-election in the Phoenix metro area based largely on his effort to round up and deport illegal immigrants — an enforcement program condemned by Hispanic leaders and Mayor Phil Gordon as "racial profiling."

Arpaio is the top law officer in a county that, at 9,200 square miles, is bigger than New Jersey, and has a larger population —3.8 million — than half of the states.

The sheriff mocks both presidential candidates for dodging the issue: "Where did it go? Why is it off the radar?" he says. "I'm not an expert on politics, but I think it has to do with (getting) the Hispanic vote."

When asked for comment on the sheriff's programs, Obama's Arizona campaign spokesman David Cieslak, provided a campaign statement that said local immigration enforcement "can lead to unintentional discrimination against Latinos," and illegal alien roundups are "divisive."

McCain's campaign did not respond to questions about the sheriff's programs. Bruce Merrill, a pollster at Arizona State University, says the caution is understandable: Immigration is the hottest issue in Arizona next to America's economic meltdown, and about seven in 10 registered voters strongly support Arpaio.
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-10-23-50stateari...

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5.
Immigration, energy policy hot topics in District 1 debate
By Matthew Benson
The Arizona Republic (Phoenix), October 24, 2008

Ann Kirkpatrick and Sydney Hay clashed on illegal immigration and energy policy Thursday during a televised debate, the last scheduled for the 1st Congressional District candidates before the Nov. 4 general election.

Kirkpatrick called for "national, comprehensive reform" of United States immigration policy during the debate at the studion of Channel 8 (KAET) on the Tempe campus of Arizona State University.

The Flagstaff Democrat advocated increased investment in the U.S. Border Patrol, along with the installation in certain areas of a ground-based radar system known as a "smart fence."

Kirkpatrick's plan includes a temporary-worker program and path to citizenship that would allow those already living in the country illegally to "earn legal status" by learning English, maintaining employment and paying a fine.

Hay calls fence priority

Her Republican rival, Hay, said the construction of a border fence "where the terrain will allow such a thing" would be her priority.

Resolution to questions of a temporary-worker program and the handling of undocumented immigrants already among us would come later, she said, explaining, "Once we have a secure border, than we can decide how big our front door needs to be."

Thursday's debate came with the campaign for the 1st Congressional District seat in its final sprint, and included Libertarian Thane Eichenauer and Independent Brent Maupin.

GOP Congressman Rick Renzi isn't seeking re-election, leaving the seat open. The 1st Congressional District is the size of Illinois, and stretches across northern Arizona and south of Phoenix into parts of Pinal county.
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http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2008/10/24/20081...

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6.
Surge in Iraqi immigration expected
Non-profits worry they lack the resources to provide sufficient help for the newcomers
By Antonio Olivo
The Chicago Tribune, October 24, 2008

The Chicago area is poised to become a top destination for Iraqi war refugees, according to Illinois officials who worry about finding housing and jobs for the newcomers in a struggling economy.

In the first years of the war, fewer than 200 Iraqi refugees came to Illinois, but more than 1,000 have landed in the state in the last year, and nearly 1,400 more are expected in the next 12 months.

Efforts by U.S. officials to admit Iraqis by the thousands could lead to 20 years of Immigration on par with the area's roughly 30,000 Vietnam War refugees, said Ed Silverman, who directs the Illinois Bureau of Refugee and Immigrant Services.

Part of the flow to Chicago will be spillover from Iraqis directed away from Michigan, which had been the top destination until that state's unemployment rate of 8.7 percent persuaded U.S. State Department officials to send refugees elsewhere. California and Texas also have received large numbers of Iraqis.

Illinois social service organizations are worried about handling the upsurge.

"Needless to say, in the current economy, it's going to be an enormous challenge," Silverman said.

Adding to the anxiety is the fact that many arriving Iraqis come expecting more assistance, either because they helped in the U.S.-led war effort or because they harbor resentment over the war's impact, said Melineh Kano, program director of the Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Ministries in Uptown.

That occasionally has led to shouting inside cash-strapped non-profits.

"When we tell them we have to find private resources to be able to give them any type of support, that really, really upsets them," Kano said. "They're like: 'Well, we put our life on the line and we are expecting something in return.' "
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-iraqi-refugees-24-oct24,0,7...

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7.
Immigrant Group to Open Langley Park Center
The Associated Press, October 23, 2008

Maryland's largest immigrant advocacy group said it will break ground on a new multicultural center and headquarters building.

CASA de Maryland will start construction Monday on the 84-year-old McCormick-Goodhart Mansion in Langley Park. The facility will provide services to the nearby community, house CASA's statewide departments and serve as an incubator for small nonprofits that advocate for immigrants.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/23/AR200810...