1. Nevada court to remain open
2. McCain's stance hurts Latino support
3. Issue discussed in Spanish ads
4. Policies attract Indian-Americans
5. OH candidates press enforcement
6. Group withdraws support for candidate
7. Alien residents volunteering
8. IA plant executive arrested

1.
Reno immigration court will remain open afterall
The Associated Press, October 30, 2008

Reno, NV (AP) -- Responding to an outcry from immigration lawyers in northern Nevada, the agency in charge of operating the country's immigration courts reversed its decision Thursday to close the one in Reno.

Instead, the Reno court will remain open while officials try to set a system to conduct video teleconferences from the immigration court in Las Vegas as a way to cut costs.

"We are working with the Department of Homeland Security to implement video teleconferencing for cases located in Reno, a hearing location within a DHS facility," said Elaine Komis, spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Immigration Review, said, adding that teleconferences are "a cost-effective and efficient alternative to conducting hearings in person."

"In the interim, EOIR will continue the current practice of detailing immigration judges and staff to Reno to hear cases in person," she told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

The change, made by top officials at the agency, was based on a review of the situation in Nevada, she said.
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http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_10857518

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2.
Immigration Rhetoric Cost McCain Among Key Bush Supporters
Polls show Hispanic Christians abandon GOP over tone set during the republican primaries, unifying Hispanic vote for Sen. Barack Obama.
By Paul Aranda Jr
The EGP News, October 30, 2008

As the Hispanic population continues to increase, the Hispanic Christian community has become a significant player in political campaigns, at least that is what Senator Barack Obama had in mind.

Dispelling notions that the senator from Chicago would have trouble pulling in the Hispanic vote, which strongly supported Senator Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primary, the Obama campaign launched an aggressive operation to court the Hispanic Christian vote in an effort to capitalize on the success that President Bush received during his 2000 and 2004 elections.

The Obama campaign is counting on the Hispanic Christian vote to change sides this election and it most likely will because of one issue: immigration.

“Obama is reaching out to Evangelicals like no other Democratic nominee in history,” Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Leadership Conference (NHCLC) said.

Rodriguez, who supported Bush in 2004, said Hispanic Christians like John McCain, but their anger over the rhetoric concerning immigration issues by Republicans will cause a dramatic shift in the Hispanic vote.

According to a recent Gallup poll, (www.gallup.com) during the week of Oct. 13-19, Obama leads McCain among Hispanic voters 61 percent to 29 percent. .

An alliance of Christian groups led by the NHCLC released a survey in the beginning of the month, that shows Obama has regained the Hispanic Christian vote that was so critical to Bush’s 2004 reelection. The groups survey has Obama leading McCain by a margin of 50.4 percent to 33.6 percent with 10 percent still undecided.

Unlike African Americans, who as a group have supported the Democratic party in significant numbers for a long time, Hispanics have shown to be much more diverse in their political affiliation. In a joint study released by the Hispanic Pew Center and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Hispanics are more likely than any other ethnic group to base their political support on their religious affiliation. The 2007 study concluded that Hispanics are in the beginning stages of transforming American religion through, among other things, an increase in “charismatic” or “spirit-filled” religious practices.

This term is used to define religious practices that are associated with Pentecostal-influenced beliefs and widely found among evangelicals. The study found that this shift in religious identification would have a political impact as Hispanics find that the pulpit is an acceptable place to discuss politics and social issues.

In an NHCLC statement issued following the survey, Rodriguez said that Hispanic Christians see immigration as a “profoundly religious issue.”

“These findings indicate that both political parties still have work to do when it comes to secure and maintain their Latino support,” Gaston Espinoza, associate professor of religious studies at Claremont McKenna College said in the same release. “The Latino protestant community is a volatile voting constituency that is sensitive to direct political canvassing and bread and butter issues like immigration.”
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http://egpnews.com/?p=3079

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3.
The parallel presidential campaign in Spanish
Highly coveted voting bloc has an information filter different from others’ INSIDE Parents of Sarah Palin work their folksy charm on Souther
By Timothy Pratt
Las Vegas Sun, October 31, 2008

Jorge Ramos, news anchor for Univision, the nation’s top Spanish-language television network, asked Republican presidential candidate John McCain the same question twice — but the Arizona senator answered each time that he didn’t understand.

Ramos referred to building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, an idea McCain backed in a 2006 congressional vote.

For days after the Sept. 18 interview, McCain’s wavering response echoed in Spanish-language newspapers across the nation, cited as an example of why the candidate couldn’t be trusted on immigration, a touchstone for Hispanics.

But the interviewer’s questions, along with others on English-only laws and relations with Cuba, also demonstrated an undeniable truth.

During these long months of presidential campaigning, the millions of Hispanic voters who read, watch and listen to media in Spanish have been gathering impressions that often differ in content and tone from those being communicated to the rest of the country in English.

Ads and coverage have focused on family, jobs, health care, education, relations with Latin America and, of course, immigration.

Another difference: There are no nationally syndicated conservative radio talk shows, and no local ones either. The Spanish spots on the dial include no Rush Limbaugh.

These differences are interesting to note in Nevada because the Democratic Party scheduled its state’s first early caucus here for January in part to reach Hispanic voters. And the role of Spanish-language media for those voters is unquestionable: Seventy-nine percent of Clark County’s Hispanic voters watch Spanish-language TV, according to a survey by Democracia USA, a Florida research and advocacy group.

Experts say advisers from the campaigns and anchors such as Ramos aren’t just translating from English. They’re tailoring what they say to their audiences.
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http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/oct/31/parallel-presidential-campai...

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4.
N-deal a reason to switch to Republican camp for Indians
By Ishani Duttagupta
The Economic Times (India), October 16, 2008

Deven Verma and his son Vishal Verma - both partners at Silicon Valley based venture capital firm Edgewood Ventures - have recently turned Republican supporters. “The Indo-American nuclear deal has highlighted the fact that a Republican government is good for India.

Even for Indian Americans the McCain campaign is putting much more on the table in terms of a pro-business attitude and tax breaks. Besides, the Republicans have a far more liberal attitude towards the outsourcing debate than the Democrats,” says Deven Verma who was till recently a Democratic fund raiser and supporter.

“The Democrats have a good PR with India and I was a part of President Clinton’s business delegation to India,” adds Mr Verma who was a part of the Indian American Leadership Council of the Democratic National Committee during the last US elections. And now he’s the chair of Indo-Americans for McCain, and says he backs the Republican nominee because he offered a better platform for New Delhi and Indian Americans on issues like tax and energy policies besides consistent support for the Indian nuclear deal.
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http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Features/The_Global_Indian_Takeover/...

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5.
Election 2008: House contenders support immigration crackdown
By Gail Burkhardt
The Post (Athens, OH), October 30, 2008

Candidates running for the U.S. House of Representatives for the 18th district have differing plans to improve the district and the country.
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Both candidates said that they want to crack down on illegal immigration. They also both agreed that identification programs for employers should be developed to keep track of illegal immigrants.

Space wants to give employers the ability to do better background checks on employees to avoid the hiring of illegal immigrants.

Dailey said he would create an ID card system for migrant workers so they would return home after their seasonal work ends.
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http://www.thepost.ohiou.edu/Articles/News/2008/10/30/26164/

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6.
Anti-illegal immigration group withdraws backing
The Associated Press, October 31, 2008

Oceanside, CA (AP) -- The San Diego Minutemen anti-illegal immigration group withdrew an endorsement on its Web site of a mayoral candidate after learning that the candidate didn't want the organization's support.

Rocky Chavez, who previously belonged to a Latino leadership and networking organization that has been a leading critic of the San Diego Minutemen, told the North County Times that he had not asked for the group's endorsement.

Chavez said in a story posted Thursday on the Times' Web site that he does not support the group or its tactics, which have included patrolling the U.S.-Mexican border in search of illegal crossers.

San Diego Minutemen founder Jeff Schwilk said the endorsement had been based on recommendations from politically active illegal immigration foes in Oceanside.
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http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10864109

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7.
Unable to vote but eager to be part of political process, noncitizen immigrants volunteer
By Juliana Barbassa
The Associated Press, October 30, 2008

San Francisco (AP) -- From Florida to California, they're working hard on the upcoming election — knocking on doors in ethnic neighborhoods, manning the phones in myriad languages and distributing political flyers. But come Tuesday, they won't vote. They can't: They're not citizens.

The excitement that has made American voter registration numbers soar has trickled deep into the country's immigrant population. But almost two-thirds of the 37.5 million foreign-born people in the United States have not taken the oath of allegiance, and are shut out from casting a ballot.

Non-citizen immigrants, legal or not, are putting their time and their effort where their vote would be.

"There are a lot of people who want to be voters one day, but it can take a lot of time," said Kishan Putta, national director of Indians for McCain. "They do want to get involved. They're calling, wanting to participate."

There have been no efforts to monitor how many volunteers in union halls, ethnic organizations, campaign offices are not citizens. But leaders of immigration advocacy organizations say this population is stepping up.

"There are millions out there who have not yet become citizens, who need somewhere to plug in, to become part of the process that gets those who can out to vote," said Efrain Escobedo, director of voter engagement for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, which has used non-citizens to turn out new voters in states where Hispanics could have a big say in the presidential contest.

There are approximately 12.1 million legal permanent residents and 11.8 illegal immigrants in the country. The concerns that are driving some of them to do election work are largely the same ones energizing Americans — the sagging economy, fear of unemployment, worries about health care and the quality of schools.

"These are things that keep you up at night," said Hernan Cortez, 30, a Salvadoran who has been knocking on doors to get out the vote in Aurora, Colo.

Cortez has two children, a wife who works nights at a hospital, and mortgage payments that ballooned from $1000 a month to $1,300 in January. He is not a citizen — the nearly $1,400 in fees that he would have to pay for himself and his wife put naturalization beyond his means.

"I wish I could go out to vote," he said. "Instead I talk to people about how this election is going to affect our community."

Since much of their energy is focused on other recent immigrants — a fast-growing population that has added hundreds of thousands of new voters in swing states — non-citizens are in a position to make a difference, experts say.

When McCain supporter Ai Thien Le, 57, takes her seat at a Virginia phonebank to encourage other Vietnamese immigrants to cast a ballot, she knows every call can help tip the numbers in this battleground state. "It's the only way our voices can be heard and our issues addressed," said Le, who has been living in the United States since 2004 — not long enough to qualify for citizenship.

Foreign nationals who are not legal permanent residents are forbidden from making contributions, but there are no laws against non-citizens volunteering in political campaigns, said Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles. And the campaigns welcome the help.

"We don't ask if volunteers are citizens or not," said Hessy Fernandez, a spokeswoman for the McCain campaign. "Our door is open to everyone who wants to be part of the work."

The non-citizens' desires to influence the outcome of the election draws little opposition from advocates of immigration control, as long as they do not vote.

"It is teaching them about democracy without giving them rights that should be exclusive to citizens," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors tighter immigration control.

But some say that immigrants who entered the country illegally should be kept out of the political process. "They start out with a lack of legitimacy," said Stanley Renshon, a fellow at the center and a political scientist at the City University of New York's Graduate Center.
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/sns-bc-ca--elections-nonciti...

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8.
Immigration Arrests Ex-Head of Meatpacking Plant
By Miriam Jordan
The Wall Street Journal, October 31, 2008

Federal agents Thursday arrested a former senior executive of a large kosher meatpacking plant on charges that he employed illegal immigrants for commercial gain and helped them secure fake documents, a sign of stepped up enforcement against employers who use illegal labor.

Agents for Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Sholom Rubashkin, who headed the Agriprocessors Inc. plant in Postville, Iowa, on various criminal immigration and fraudulent-identity charges outlined in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids.

The charges include encouraging an illegal immigrant to reside in the U.S., aiding and abetting the possession and use of fraudulent identification and aiding and abetting the use of another individual's documents, which constitutes "aggravated identity theft," according to the court.

Attempts to reach Mr. Rubashkin for comment weren't successful.

The plant was the site of an enforcement action earlier this year in which ICE arrested nearly 400 illegal immigrants for various offenses related to their undocumented work status. The raid marked one of the largest work-site operation by the Bush administration, which has increased action against companies believed to employ illegal immigrants. Most of the detained workers were sentenced to five months in prison for engaging in identity theft but pleaded guilty to lesser charges and were recently deported after serving their sentences.

The court complaint against Sholom Rubashkin -- whose father, Abraham Aaron Rubashkin, is the founder of Agriprocessors -- is based on information from unnamed sources who worked at the plant. It cites an instance in which he allegedly inspected fake IDs and said they "looked good" to him. One source said Mr. Rubashkin gave him $4,500 to buy identification for workers.
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122540155357885623.html?mod=googlenews_wsj