1. State-Local pairing needed
2. Study confirms influx slowing
3. 1,200 to naturalize
4. Family to sue after death

1.
Spread of gangs tied to border-control
By Jerry Seper
The Washington Times, October 3, 2008
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/03/spread-of-gangs-tied-to-bord...

A "dangerous side effect" of America's failure to control the Southwest border and the nation's tolerance for high levels of illegal immigration has resulted in the spread of violent transnational gangs across the United States, including Maryland, Virginia and Washington, a report says.

A report written for the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) says the gangs represent a "significant menace to the public," with about 80 percent of the members involved in serious crimes in addition to immigration violations and another 40 percent having committed violent crimes.

"The recent emergence and spread of several Hispanic street gangs, most notably MS-13 and 18th Street, has attracted the attention of law enforcement agencies and political leaders nationwide," said Jessica M. Vaughan, an author of the report, which was made public Tuesday. "Many gangs are made up of small-time troublemakers, but others have a reputation for grisly violence.

"They are responsible for virtually the entire spectrum of criminal activity, from nuisance crimes like graffiti to murder. Some are becoming increasingly well-organized and operating as sophisticated crime syndicates across national borders," she said.

Transnational gangs generally are defined as those that are criminally active and operate in more than one country, whose activities are sometimes controlled or planned by others in another country, whose members are mobile and adaptable in new areas, and whose members tend to be involved in cross-border or international crimes.

The report says nearly half, or 3,080, of the illegal immigrants arrested over the 2 1/2-year period studied as a part of the CIS review were affiliated with MS-13 and Surenos-13, two of the most notorious gangs with largely Hispanic immigrant memberships.

It also notes that nearly 60 percent of alien gangsters arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the investigative arm of the Homeland Security Department, were Mexican citizens, 17 percent were from El Salvador and 5 percent were from Honduras.

"Immigrant gang members rarely make a living as gangsters," Ms. Vaughan said. "They typically work by day in construction, auto repair, farming, landscaping and other low-skill occupations where employers are less vigilant checking status, often using false documents."

The report notes that since 2005, ICE has arrested more than 8,000 gang members from more than 700 different gangs as part of a special initiative called "Operation Community Shield."

The arrests produced "incalculable public safety benefits for American communities, despite being criticized periodically by immigrant and civil liberties advocates that are "consistently opposed to all immigration law enforcement, the report says.

"Local governments and law enforcement agencies that shun involvement in immigration law enforcement are missing an opportunity to protect their communities from criminal immigrant gang activity," said Ms. Vaughan. "Policymakers should take further steps to institutionalize partnerships between state and local law enforcement agencies and ICE in order to address gang and other crime problems with a connection to immigration."

The report says that because a large share of the gangsters in the most notorious gangs such as MS-13, Surenos-13 and 18th Street are illegal immigrants, their illegal status means they are "especially vulnerable to law enforcement, and local authorities should take advantage of the immigration tools available in order to disrupt criminal gang activity, remove gang members from American communities, and deter their return.

"Once explained, these measures find much support, especially in immigrant communities where gang crime is rampant," she said.

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2.
Pace of illegal immigration slows, study finds
By Eunice Moscoso
The Austin American Statesman, October 3, 2008

Washington, DC -- Illegal immigration into the United States has declined in the past few years, according to a study released Thursday.

The number of illegal immigrants arriving in the country has dropped from about 800,000 a year earlier this decade, to about 500,000 a year from 2005 to 2008, said the report by the Pew Hispanic Center, a non-partisan research group in Washington.

The findings reverse a decadelong trend in which more illegal immigrants than legal immigrants arrived in the United States.

"These numbers tell us that the growth has slowed substantially," said Jeffrey Passel a demographer with the Pew Hispanic Center and co-author of the study. "This is a population that had been growing rapidly for at least 15 years and the growth has essentially come to a halt in 2008."

The total number of illegal immigrants appears to have decreased from 12.4 million in 2007 to 11.9 million in 2008, the study said.

However, the finding is inconclusive because of the margin of error in the estimates, the study said.

The study did not include any explanations for the decline in the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States, but experts pointed to the struggling economy as a major factor.

The study also found:

Illegal immigrants comprise about 4 percent of the U.S. population and about 30 percent of the nation's foreign-born population. More than 39 million people born in other countries live in the United States.

The vast majority of illegal immigrants — four out of five — come from Latin American countries.

The number of illegal immigrants from Mexico appears to have leveled off since last year at about 7 million.

Clarissa Martinez, director of Immigration and National Campaigns at the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights organization, said that the decreased flow of undocumented immigrants is because of the economy.

The sectors where undocumented immigrants are concentrated — such as construction and service industries — were among the first to feel the economic downturn, she said.

But Steve Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates lower levels of immigration, said that stepped-up enforcement efforts, including a string of large workplace raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also had a major impact.
. . .
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/nation/10/03/1003ille...

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3.
About 1,200 to take Ike-delayed citizenship oaths
The Associated Press, October 2, 2008

Houston (AP) -- About 1,200 immigrants in the Houston area whose naturalization ceremonies were delayed by Hurricane Ike will take their citizenship oaths Saturday, just in time to register to vote in the November elections, officials said Thursday.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials originally said hurricane damage to their office would make it impossible to issue citizenship oaths until Oct. 29, well after the Monday deadline for voter registration. But they were able Thursday to enter the damaged portion of their building and get the paperwork needed to contact the scheduled applicants, spokeswoman Maria Elena Garcia-Upson said.

The ceremony, originally scheduled for Sept. 24, will be Saturday morning at Rice Stadium.

The change came as pressure built from immigration advocates, attorneys, U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Hughes and U.S. Rep. Gene Greene, all of whom pushed for an emergency ceremony.
. . .
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6037462.html

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4.
Court: Immigrant's family can sue over health care
The Associated Press, October 2, 2008

San Francisco -- An appeals court has upheld a decision allowing the family of a man who died of cancer while being detained by immigration officials to sue the government for allegedly denying him medical care.

Francisco Castaneda's relatives allege that government officials for 11 months refused to authorize a meaningful exam of a painful lesion that turned out to be penile cancer. The Salvadoran immigrant, who had faced deportment following a drug conviction, had his penis amputated before dying in February 2007 at age 36.
. . .
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10620294