1. Government issues new E-verify rules
2. Sen. Cornyn wants probe of TX inmates
3. Poll: Americans, Europeans split
4. Texas complying with REAL ID
5. TX legislature expects several bills
6. Chinese immigrant admits selling secrets
7. NY illegal was deportation target

1.
There are more requirements on the way for federal contractors.
By Jason Miller
The Federal News Radio (Washington, DC), November 17, 2008

The Federal Acquisition Regulations Council issued its second major change to how contractors deal with the federal government Friday.

And the council is far from done.

Industry experts say the FAR Council will issue two proposed rules and one advanced notice of proposed rulemaking in the next few weeks that will continue to reshape how federal contractors work with agencies.

The council will issue a proposed rule on organizational conflict of interest and one on personal conflict of interest, as well as an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking about buying counterfeit information technology.

There may be a public comment forum on the counterfeit technology advanced notice of proposed rulemaking the week of Dec. 1.

These three rulemaking actions would follow two from last week.

The council issued the new contractor ethics and conduct final rule Nov. 12, and then another one two days later.

Under the rule issued Nov. 14, contractors must use the Homeland Security Department's E-Verify system to validate the eligibility of many of their employees to work in the United States.

Vendors must submit employee names, dates of birth and social security number to the Social Security Administration. DHS would verify non-citizen employees' eligibility.

The E-Verify final goes into effect Jan. 15.

"We support automating what is largely a paper process," says Trey Hodgkins, the Information Technology Association of America's vice president for federal programs. "It makes sense from a variety of perspectives, including it is a green initiative, it requires less manpower and makes the process more efficient, but it still lacks some things."

Hodgkins says the council working with DHS did a good job in incorporating many of the industry's concerns about the proposed rule.

Janet (sic) [JANICE] Kephart, the director of national and security policy at the Center for Immigration Studies and the former counsel of the 9-11 Commission, says DHS tried to make the process more user friendly.

"E-Verify wants employers use the system in way that is helpful to them and to the federal government," Kephart says. "The program has been running very well for the past year and there has been a huge uptick in employers signing up for it."

Kephart says DHS's latest numbers show more than 86,000 employers are using the E-Verify and the error rate has been trimmed to less than a half of a percent.

Kephart and others say now that the program is mandatory there will be hundreds of thousands of employers.
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http://www.federalnewsradio.com/index.php?sid=1519718&nid=169#

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2.
Cornyn wants investigation into immigrant inmates
Lawmaker's call for action follows Chronicle's series on the release of violent criminals who admitted to jailers they were in the U.S. illegally
By Susan Carroll
The Houston Chronicle, November 17, 2008

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn has called for an investigation into how immigration officials screen inmates in Harris County Jail, after a series of reports this week by the Houston Chronicle.

The Chronicle investigation found federal immigration officials allowed scores of violent criminals, including some ordered deported decades ago, to walk away from jail despite the inmates' admission to jailers that they were in the country illegally.

The Texas Republican said on Monday that the Chronicle's investigation "raised some very serious concerns." He said he requested information from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, and was particularly concerned about the finding that suspected illegal immigrants had posted bail and absconded on criminal charges, including murder, aggravated sexual assault of a child and drug trafficking.

The Chronicle examined arrest and immigration records for 3,500 inmates who told Harris County jailers that they were in the country illegally during a span of eight months starting in June 2007, the earliest immigration records available.

In 177 cases reviewed by the newspaper, inmates who were released from jail after admitting to being in the country illegally later were charged with additional crimes. More than half of those charges were felonies, including aggravated sexual assault of a child and capital murder.

The review also found at least 178 cases involving suspects who absconded, meaning they had their bails revoked for missing court dates or allegedly committing more crimes.

"I don't think there's any more important responsibility than protecting the public safety," Cornyn said. "And this is, I think, a clear and present danger to the public and ought to be their highest priority."
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6117757.html

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3.
Americans, Europeans Share Immigration Worries
By Pamela Constable
The Washington Post, November 18, 2008; A15

Americans and Europeans share deep concerns about immigration, with a large percentage worrying that it can bring crime and displace workers, even though a majority agree that it does not increase the risk of terrorism, according to an opinion survey sponsored by the German Marshall Fund.

People on both sides of the Atlantic express sharply negative views of illegal immigration, and roughly half of respondents said they think immigration in general is "more of a problem" than an opportunity for their societies. The European nations surveyed were the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands.

"Real anxiety about legal immigration exists, but it is dwarfed by concerns about illegal immigration," the fund said in a statement yesterday. At least 80 percent of respondents in all surveyed countries called for stronger border controls, and more than 73 percent in all the countries called for tougher sanctions on those who hire illegal immigrants.

But there was a wide variety of opinion as to whether illegal immigrants who are already in a country should be sent home or offered a path to legalization. Americans slightly favored legalization over deportation, while in Europe an average of 38 percent supported legalization programs. In all countries, only a small percentage supported temporary immigrant work programs.

The report describes Americans' views of immigrants, who make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, as a "paradox." It notes that although more than half of Americans say that immigrants take away jobs from U.S. citizens, 86 percent view them as hardworking and many also believe they create jobs by opening businesses and investing.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/11/18/ST20081118...

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4.
Many states - but not Texas - resist federal ID law
By Juan Castillo
The Austin American Statesman, November 18, 2008

In requiring foreign nationals to prove they are lawfully in the country in order to get a driver's license or ID card, Texas says it is closer to complying with the federal Real ID Act, a 2005 law intended to prevent terrorism and reduce identity fraud.

Among other things, the Real ID Act requires that states ensure that they are issuing driver's licenses only to people who are in the country legally. Federal agencies will not accept licenses for "official" purposes — such as entering a federal building or boarding an airplane — from residents of states not in compliance.

But states do not have to implement the law, and many are pushing back. Twenty-one states have passed legislation or resolutions rejecting or denouncing Real ID, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

All states, including Texas, have sought and received extensions from the federal Homeland Security Department delaying compliance with the Real ID Act until Dec. 31, 2009.

Texas needs approval from the Legislature for Real ID to be implemented, said a governor's office spokeswoman.

The federal law stems from a recommendation by the Sept. 11 commission, which learned that the terrorist hijackers had used driver's licenses and identification cards to travel extensively. After the attacks, many states moved on their own to restrict immigrants' access to driver's licenses and ID cards.
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http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/11/18/1118reali...

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5.
Texas Legislature to see several bills addressing illegal immigration
By Karen Brooks
The Dallas Morning News, November 17, 2008

Austin -- Advocates for a crackdown on illegal immigrants, apparently undaunted by their failures in the last Legislature, have filed a slew of bills for the upcoming session that are even stronger in tone and approach.

The proposals go well beyond the usual proposals to require ID to vote or requiring citizenship to get a driver's license.

One would require public schools to check the citizenship of their students. Another would require illegal immigrants to live in self-described "sanctuary cities."

Author Leo Berman, R-Tyler, said he filed it mainly to make a point to cities that describe themselves as "sanctuaries," or havens for illegal immigrants.

"The federal government is requiring us to give free education and health care to illegals," Mr. Berman said. "It's the largest unfunded mandate in the history of our nation."

Two years ago, Republican House leaders decided that the issue was too sticky for the state to deal with and killed most of the bills. One measure, a voter ID bill, died in the Senate and is likely to die there again. Many proposals were deemed unconstitutional by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican.

One bill filed for the 2009 session allows police to check people's immigration status under "reasonable suspicion" that they might be illegal immigrants. Another refuses birth certificates to children born in the U.S. to parents who are here illegally.

On the flip side, a bill by Rep. Roberto Alonzo, D-Dallas, prohibits cities from restricting landlords on who can rent homes from them – a direct criticism of Farmers Branch's efforts to keep illegal immigrants from renting homes there.

Some lawmakers say bills attempting to solve illegal immigration at the state level – no matter how popular – miss the point.

"The reality is that these problems can only be solved in Washington, D.C.," said Rep. Rafael Anchía, D-Dallas.
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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/mexico/stories/11...

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6.
Physicist admits sending US space know-how to China
Agence France Presse, November 17, 2008

A Chinese-born physicist Monday pleaded guilty before a US court to illegally exporting American military space know-how to China, US officials said.

Naturalized US citizen Shu Quan-Sheng, admitted handing over to Beijing information on the design and development of a fueling system for space launch vehicles between 2003 and 2007, the Justice Department said.

Shu, 68, pleaded guilty to violating the Arms Export Control Act by helping Chinese officials based at the space facility on southern Hainan island to develop manned space flight and future missions to the Moon.

He also acknowledged he had sent them in December 2003 a specific military document detailing the design of liquid hydrogen tanks crucial to launching vehicles into space, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Shu, who is the head of a high-tech company, AMAC International, based in Newport News, Virginia, with offices in Beijing, admitted a third charge of bribing Chinese officials to the tune of some 189,300 dollars.

The bribes helped him to secure for an unidentified French company a four-million dollar contract for the development of a liquid hydrogen tank system, awarded to the French firm in January 2007.

Beijing is developing a liquid-propelled heavy payload launch facility at Hainan which will eventually send spacecraft into orbit carrying the material needed to build space stations and stallites.

Shu bribed three Chinese officials from Beijing's 101st Research Institute, which works at Hainan, along with other bodies including the People's Liberation Army armaments department, the Justice Department said.

China sent its first man into space in 2003, followed by a two-man mission in 2005.
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http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081117204437.ego54ljo&show_artic...

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7.
'DUI Killer' Was Fed Target
By Ikimulisa Livingston, Irene Plagianos and Jeane MacIntosh
The New York Post (NYC), November 18, 2008

The feds wanted him out of the country from the minute he got here.

But thanks to a 20-year tangle of red tape that stretched from New York to Washington, DC, to Afghanistan, they couldn't get illegal immigrant and trouble-prone Daryush Omar deported.

Omar, 24, was charged late Sunday with two counts of vehicular manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, drunken driving and speeding after he allegedly tore through a red light and plowed his speeding luxury Range Rover SUV into a livery cab in Queens.
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http://www.nypost.com/seven/11182008/news/regionalnews/dui_killer_was_fe...