1. Fingerprint system debuts
2. DOL fines tech firm
3. Phoenix activists protest
4. Forum studies immigrants
5. Company takes stand
6. Citizen wrongly detained

1.
Harris jailers can access huge immigration database
By Susan Carroll
The Houston Chronicle, October 27, 2008

The Harris County Sheriff's Office today became the first local law enforcement agency in the nation to test an automated fingerprint check system that gives jailers full access to suspects' immigration history, officials said.

The new program provides a seamless and simultaneous check of immigration and criminal history by linking the FBI's database with the Department of Homeland Security's database, known as IDENT (the Automated Biometric Identification System), officials said Monday.

Gregory Palmore, a spokesman with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Houston, said the Sheriff's Office was selected to lead the pilot program in part because Houston has "one of the largest criminal alien populations in the United States."

In February 2007, Harris County was selected as one of a handful of law enforcement agencies to test a more limited version of the integrated databases. That earlier version of the database contained records from ICE and information on people rejected for visas by the Department of State based on specific criteria.
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6080486.html

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2.
Department of Labor Orders Globaltek to Pay Back Wages for H-1B Violations
The U.S. Department of Labor orders Globaltek to pay back wages to employees after an investigation caught the company scamming the H-1B process. Globaltek hired foreign workers and had their H-1B applications approved at one rate, but paid a much lower rate on arrival, the Department of Labor claims. The Department of Homeland Security suspects fraud is a factor in as many as 20,000 H-1B applications filed annually.
By Kevin Fogarty
Eweek, October 27, 2008

The U.S Department of Labor cracked down on an application development company in New Jersey, ordering it to pay $271,000 in back wages to employees and saying the company had scammed the H-1B visa application process and cheated its employees.

A 10-month investigation by the DOL found Globaltek had hired foreign workers, mostly from South Asia, and obtained H-1B visas based on one wage but paid a much lower wage on arrival, a DOL spokesperson said. Globaltek underpaid workers between $500 and $25,000 between January of 2006 and January 2008, she said.

The H-1B visa process is designed to ensure that foreigners admitted to this country to work high-tech jobs will be paid the same wage rates that are paid to U.S. workers for the same types of work. H-1B applications are filed by employers, who must include descriptions of the work to be done and the wages it will pay.
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http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/Department-of-Labor-Orders-Gl...

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3.
Group protests city's migrant policies
By Casey Newton and Daniel González
The Arizona Republic (Phoenix), October 28, 2008

About a dozen members of an anti-illegal immigrant group protested peacefully Sunday outside Mayor Phil Gordon's Phoenix home after learning a suspected drunk driver who collided with Officer Shane Figueroa's patrol car was in the country illegally.

Figueroa died Saturday after a traffic collision with Salvador Vivas-Diaz, who admitted to police he was undocumented.

The members of United for a Sovereign America, a persistent critic of the city's illegal immigration enforcement policies, branded Phoenix a "sanctuary city" despite steps taken by the city earlier this year to ensure more people stopped by police are questioned about their immigration status.
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http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2008/10/28/20081...

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4.
Forum explores immigrants' contribution to LI economy
By Dave Marcus
Newsday (NY), October 28, 2008

Immigrants and immigration advocates gathered yesterday at Adelphi University to applaud a recent study showing that immigrants add $10.6 billion a year to Long Island's economy.

More than 50 people attended the immigration forum, and the majority agreed that they should call on the new president and Congress to create an immigration policy that brings in workers for farming, technology companies and other businesses when jobs cannot be filled by Americans.

"Immigration is something that should be encouraged, not discouraged," said Mariano Torras, an Adelphi economics professor who did the study, which found that spending by immigrants generates 82,000 jobs on the Island. The energy of immigrants could provide a jolt to America's floundering economy, he suggested.

Torras' study found that Long Island's legal and undocumented immigrants pay about $2,300 more per person in taxes and government fees than they use in schools, hospitals and prisons.

The report is also being faulted by a Washington, D.C., think tank that is critical of illegal immigration. Steven Camarota, research director of the Center for Immigration Studies, said in a telephone interview that the study - and similar ones in Arizona, Texas and other states - failed to look at the cost of an influx of immigrants on a wide variety of social services.

Noting that some estimates say undocumented immigrants make up about 10 percent of Long Island's population, Camarota said, "You can't say that 10 percent of the population has zero costs for roads, for bridges, for police and fire services, for libraries, for parks and recreational facilities."Torras said his research followed the standard for studies of immigrants' economic impacts, but noted, "It's a fair criticism and there could be a slight underestimate of costs, but there's no way we can account for every cost."
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http://www.newsday.com/news/local/nassau/ny-liimmi285901666oct28,0,11636...

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5.
American Apparel takes stand on immigration
By Alexandria Sage
Reuters, October 27, 2008

Los Angeles (Reuters) -- Atop its pink factory in downtown Los Angeles, a sprawling banner declares American Apparel a "Compania Rebelde" (rebel company) and all over town, benches and billboards sponsored by the company shout "Legalize LA."

While immigration is almost a non-issue in the U.S. presidential campaign, American Apparel, the biggest garment manufacturer in the country, is doing its best to keep the debate alive, saying legalizing foreign workers is good for business.

Amid the whirr of sewing machines and clatter of cloth-laden carts, workers sport T-shirts that display their job functions in both Spanish and English, and telephone calls to family in Mexico are free.

Its campaign to legalize immigrants fits with a progressive image -- the 230,000 garments it churns out a day are all made by some 4,500 workers at its Los Angeles factory, and the company advertises its products as "sweatshop free."

"This is a company with equal opportunities for everyone and that fights for people's rights," said Eric Martinez, a stock room worker.

The debate over how a country built on immigration should manage its new immigrant workforce exploded into mass demonstrations in several major cities in 2006.

After policy overhaul efforts failed in Congress the following year, both presidential candidates have said they support humane reform, but have kept quiet on the subject in the months leading to the election on November 4.

Democrat Barack Obama wants a halt to raids that separate families and supports citizenship for immigrants who pay a fine, learn English, and wait their turn in line.

Republican John McCain, who once supported a temporary guest worker program for illegal immigrants, now emphasizes border security.

The dramatic tailspin of financial markets and the slowing U.S. economy has pushed the immigration issue even further into the background, a situation that American Apparel is trying to challenge.

"It is essential that we do not idly stand by in this next election," read a memo the company recently sent to its workers in a voter registration drive, urging them to remind both candidates to honor their promises for reform.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE49R01020081028

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6.
Immigration officials held U.S. citizen for two weeks
An ACLU attorney showed authorities his birth certificate and other documents to obtain his release.
By Anna Gorman
Los Angeles Times, October 28, 2008

Federal authorities have released a Los Angeles man from immigration detention after acknowledging that he is a U.S. citizen.

Guillermo Olivares Romero, 25, was held at an Otay Mesa detention center from Sept. 25 until Oct. 9, when an American Civil Liberties Union attorney presented his birth certificate, school and vaccination records to immigration authorities. He was released that day.

Olivares, who has criminal convictions for robbery and forgery, had been deported twice and denied entry into the United States multiple times. Olivares said he and his mother, a legal permanent resident, showed authorities his birth certificate many times.

"They didn't believe me," Olivares, from Los Angeles, said Friday. "There was nothing I could do."

But Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice said Friday that Olivares said he was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. Olivares' statewide criminal rap sheet also shows that he was born in Mexico, Kice said.

"ICE would never knowingly remove or voluntarily return an individual who is a U.S. citizen," she said.

This is not the first time a U.S. citizen has been deported. Pedro Guzman of Lancaster spent 89 days in Mexico after being deported by immigration agents. ICE agents said Guzman too had falsely contended that he was Mexican.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-deport28-2008o...