1. Fed. government to limit E-Verify
2. Report alleges illegals mistreated
3. U.N. observes drop in remittances
4. Dallas schools provide fake SSNs
5. UT committee hears positions
6. NY community grapples with murder
7. Study: Chinese are diverse

1.
Government to Limit Planned Crackdown on Illegal Immigrants
By Spencer Hsu
The Washington Post, November 14, 2008

The Department of Homeland Security will go forward with a planned crackdown on federal contractors' employment of illegal immigrants effective Jan. 15, after signficantly narrowing the expansion of a federal system to check new hires' work documents, U.S. officials announced Thursday.

The Bush administration has made the work eligibility system, called E-Verify, a main pillar of its fight against illegal immigration, proposing to make its use mandatory for nearly 200,000 government contractors, covering about 4 million U.S. workers. Participation in E-Verify is now generally voluntary, although 13 state legislatures have enacted similar legislation for state contractors.

However, a revised final rule to be published Friday in the Federal Register would limit its application to contracts worth $100,000 or more, instead of $3,000, and require employers to check the eligibility only of workers on those contracts, instead of all their workers. The changes would apply to solicitations or awards made after Jan. 15, and exempt workers who have already received security clearances, contracts for commercial, off-the-shelf items, and contracts lasting less than 120 days.

Randel K. Johnson, vice president and spokesman for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the administration "had been responsive to a substantial amount of business concerns," particularly by limiting the rule to large contractors, to new contracts and to workers on those contracts.

"The chamber met with a variety of companies this morning and are reviewing our litigation options," Johnson said, adding, "but litigation is expensive."

Still, federal contractors said the lame-duck administration was trying to force through the sweeping change before it might be cancelled by its successor.

The proposal "vastly understates the burden imposed on employers, and leaves unanswered a number of fundamental questions," said Eric Bord, an attorney at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius who represents companies facing immigration investigations.

Bush officials in early June proposed to double the number of companies in the program, mandating participation by 169,000 federal contractors and requiring them for the first time to verify the eligibility of existing employees, not just new hires.

Using E-Verify, companies can check federal Social Security and immigration databases to determine whether an employee is authorized to work. Enrollment in the program has grown from 3,000 companies to 92,000 since it was expanded nationwide in 2003, but it covers only 1 percent of an estimated 6 million U.S. employers and about 11 percent of annual hiring.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/13/AR200811...

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2.
Study says immigrant minors mistreated
By Anabelle Garay
The Associated Press, November 13, 2008

Dallas (AP) -- Children caught trying to slip illegally into the U.S. are mistreated while in custody, transported home unsafely and denied access to representation, a study released Thursday contends.

The Austin-based think tank Center for Public Policy Priorities outlined a series of what they said were shortcomings by the federal government in dealing with unaccompanied illegal immigrant children taken into custody. But the Department of Homeland Security disputes the allegations.

The study blames inadequate policies for some of the maltreatment.

"There's no consistent policy. There's nobody who's responsible for these kids, in looking out for their safety," said study author Amy Thompson. "It's being handled in ad hoc fashion."

Policies on how to process, detain and care for unaccompanied children in U.S. custody are based on guidelines stemming from a federal settlement agreement and the Homeland Security Act of 2002, DHS spokeswoman Laura Keehner said in a statement issued Thursday evening.

Children interviewed for the study reported going without water at U.S. Border Patrol stations, being handcuffed, having their requests for medical attention ignored. At least one reported getting struck and knocked down by an agent.

"DHS and its component agencies treat all minors, including unaccompanied alien children (UAC), with dignity, respect and special concern for their particular vulnerabilities," Keehner said in the statement.

According to the study, many children faced complicated immigration proceedings without legal representation. Some 50 to 70 percent of detained unaccompanied minors went before an immigration judge without a lawyer last year. At times, consulates weren't notified about children from their country being removed, a violation of an international treaty, the study said.
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6111490.html

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3.
UN trade chief sees up to 6 pct drop in migrant remittances in 2009, hurting poor countries
By Bradley S. Klapper
The Associated Press, November 14, 2008

Geneva (AP) -- Migrant remittances, a vital source of income for poor countries, could decline by up to 6 percent next year due to worsening economic conditions around the world, the U.N.'s trade chief said Friday.

Supachai Panitchpakdi, head of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, also warned that rich countries' investment in the developing world will dry up as a result of the expected global downturn. He said the decline would be somewhat less than the 40 percent drop predicted by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Development.

On remittances — the cash sent home by migrants living and working abroad — Supachai said the magnitude of the decline is still unclear, but estimated it will range between 1 percent and 6 percent in 2009.
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http://www.latimes.com/business/investing/wire/sns-ap-un-un-migrant-cash...

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4.
Dallas ISD faulted for using fake Social Security numbers
By Tawnell D. Hobbs
The Dallas Morning News, November 14, 2008

Years after being advised by a state agency to stop, the Dallas Independent School District continued to provide foreign citizens with fake Social Security numbers to get them on the payroll quickly.

Some of the numbers were real Social Security numbers already assigned to people elsewhere. And in some cases, the state's educator certification office unknowingly used the bogus numbers to run criminal background checks on the new hires, most of whom were brought in to teach bilingual classes.

The practice was described in an internal report issued in September by the district's investigative office, which looked into the matter after receiving a tip. The report said the Texas Education Agency learned of the fake numbers in 2004 and told DISD then that the practice "was illegal."

It's unclear how long DISD had been issuing the phony numbers, and district officials didn't know Thursday how many had been given out. But the investigative report and interviews with DISD employees indicate the practice went on for several years before it was discontinued this past summer.

DISD human resources chief Kim Olson, who came to the district in 2007, said that she learned about the false numbers this past summer around the time the district's investigative unit was looking into them and that she put a stop to the practice.

"There's no way we should be doing that kind of stuff," Ms. Olson said. "Even if your intention is good to help employees get paid, you can't use inappropriate procedures to do that."
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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/111408...

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5.
Lawmakers talk immigration
Utah legislators travel state to collect input on Senate bill concerning undocumented workers
Committee collecting input on a bill that would require verifying a worker's eligibility
By Mark Havnes
The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City), November 14, 2008

St. George, UT -- State lawmakers heard various views on illegal immigration and some crowd members even appeared to support violent action against undocumented immigrants.

After hearing Arizona state Sen.-elect Russell Pearce blame much of society's crime problems on undocumented immigrants, Utah Rep. Neil Hansen, D-Ogden, said they aren't solely responsible for criminal activity. Pearce responded that if they are here illegally, then that's a crime.

Hansen asked facetiously if the government should just shoot immigrants at the border. And that comment was met by a burst of applause by a section of the audience at Dixie State College.

The meeting of the Legislature's Interim Committee on Immigration was as informative as it was inflammatory.

The committee, which comprises 11 members of Utah's House and Senate, has been traveling the state to collect input on a Senate bill concerning undocumented workers that takes effect in July 2009. Under provisions of SB81, employers with government contracts must verify employment eligibility using a Social Security number run through a new federal program called E-Verify.
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http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_10982562

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6.
A Killing in a Town Where Latinos Sense Hate
By Kirk Semple
The New York Times, November 14, 2008

Patchogue, NY -- It was an occasional diversion among a certain crowd at Patchogue-Medford High School, students said: Drink a few beers, then go looking for people to mug, whether for money or just for kicks.

Friends of Jeffrey Conroy, a star athlete at the school, say he was known to do it, too. And last Saturday night, after drinking in a park in the Long Island hamlet of Medford, Mr. Conroy, 17, and six other teenagers declared that they were going to attack “a Mexican” and headed to the more ethnically diverse village of Patchogue to hunt, according to friends and the authorities.

They found their target in Marcelo Lucero, a serious-minded, 37-year-old immigrant from a poor village in Ecuador who had lived in the United States for 16 years, mostly in Patchogue, and worked in a dry cleaning store, sending savings home to support his mother, a cancer survivor.

After the boys surrounded, taunted and punched Mr. Lucero, the authorities say, Mr. Conroy plunged a knife into his victim’s chest, fatally wounding him.

The attack has horrified and puzzled many in this comfortable Suffolk County village of 11,700. Prosecutors have labeled it a hate crime and County Executive Steve Levy called the defendants, who have pleaded not guilty, “white supremacists.” And some immigrant advocates on Long Island have described the attack as a reflection of widespread anti-Latino sentiment and racial intolerance in Suffolk County.

Interviews with business owners, students, government officials and immigrants in the area suggest that illegal immigration has been a wellspring for anger and tension in the neighborhood, with day laborers drawing the greatest fire. Indeed, a number of people — adults and students alike — drew sharp distinctions between assimilated immigrants, who they said should be welcomed as friends and neighbors, and newly arrived illegal immigrants, who they said do not belong.

“No disrespect here, but I’m a firm believer that if you want to come to this country, you should have a job waiting for you,” said the co-owner of the Medford Shooting Range, who gave only his first name, Charlie, and is known by the nickname Charlie Range.

He said he was offended by the behavior of some day laborers — throwing trash in the street, urinating in the bushes, hooting at passing women — and complained that illegal immigrants were crowding rental apartments and swelling the ranks of criminal gangs.

“How do you stop the illegal alien influx?” he wondered aloud. “How do you stop the rain?”

Thousands of immigrants from Latin America have flowed into Long Island in the past two decades, attracted by employment opportunities, particularly in the construction industry, which until recently was booming. Patchogue’s Latino population has risen sharply during this time, village officials say, with Ecuadoreans now being the single largest Latino group.

According to the 2000 census, Latinos were 24 percent of Patchogue’s population, up from 14 percent in 1990, and government officials say the percentage has continued to grow. In just the past five years, the Latino student population of the Patchogue-Medford School District has risen to 24 percent from about 4 percent, said Michael H. Mostow, the district’s superintendent.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/nyregion/14immigrant.html?ref=nyregion

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7.
A complex portrait of Chinese Americans emerges in study
The report finds large numbers of college graduates and high school dropouts, professionals and blue-collar workers.
By Teresa Watanabe
Los Angeles Times, November 14, 2008

Chinese Americans are a complex and highly diverse ethnic group, filling both ends of the sociological spectrum as rich and poor, college graduates and high school dropouts, high-tech managers and sweatshop workers, according to a new national study.

The University of Maryland study found that California was home to 36.9% of the nation's 3.5 million Chinese Americans, the largest concentration. Ethnic Chinese made up nearly one-fourth of all Asian Americans and represented the nation's fastest-growing major immigrant group, increasing by 30% from 2000 to 2006.

The comprehensive study, based on 2006 U.S. census data, interviews and other sources, challenged common portraits of Chinese Americans as affluent and well-educated model minorities. More than half of Chinese American adults have college degrees, twice the proportion of the general population. But one-fifth did not complete high school, one of the highest rates among Asian American groups. Immigrants from Taiwan and Hong Kong are better educated than those from mainland China.

More than half the population works in managerial and professional occupations, but a substantial number have blue-collar jobs. The top three occupations for Chinese American men, for instance, are cooks, computer software developers, and managers and administrators.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-chinese14-2008nov14...

EDITOR'S NOTE: The UMD report is available online at: http://www.aast.umd.edu/ocaportrait.html