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1. Bush warns against appearing 'anti-immigrant'
2. Feds place emphasis on prosecutions
3. Obama talking with Mex. Pres.
4. Economy may delay Obama response
5. TX legislators consider policies

1.
Bush Tells His Party To Be 'Open-Minded'
President Pushes Immigration Reform
By Perry Bacon Jr.
The Washington Post, January 12, 2009; A04

President Bush called for a "compassionate" Republican Party and warned against the GOP becoming "anti-immigrant" in one of his last interviews as president, defending his vision of the party, which has become unpopular among some Republicans.

"It's very important for our party not to narrow its focus, not to become so inward-looking that we drive people away from a philosophy that is compassionate and decent," the president said in an interview on "Fox News Sunday" that was aired yesterday. "We shouldn't have litmus tests as to whether or not you can be a Republican. And we should be open-minded about big issues like immigration reform, because if we're viewed as anti-somebody -- in other words, if the party is viewed as anti-immigrant -- then another fellow may say, 'Well, if they're against the immigrant, they may be against me.' "

Bush, when asked about how the GOP could avoid the kind of losses it suffered in the 2008 election -- it lost the presidency and several seats in the House and Senate -- said, "I think that we shouldn't change our philosophy." But he added: "We may want to change our message. . . . We need a new group of leaders."

He declined to name any of the leaders except his brother Jeb, who has decided against running for a Senate seat in Florida in 2010 despite encouragement from the president.

Some of the Bush administration's efforts, such as expanding the federal government's role in education through the No Child Left Behind Act and proposing an easier path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, have come under fire from some Republicans. But, in the interview, Bush used the phrase that marked his 2000 campaign, saying, "We've got to be compassionate conservatives."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/11/AR200901...

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2.
Push on Immigration Crimes Is Said to Shift Focus
By Solomon Moore
The New York Times, January 12, 2009

Laredo, TX -- Inside a courthouse just north of the Rio Grande, federal judges mete out prison sentences to throngs of 40 to 60 illegal immigrants at a time. The accused, mostly from Central America, Brazil and Mexico, wear rough travel clothes that speak of arduous journeys: flannel shirts, sweat suits, jeans and running shoes or work boots.

The prosecutors make quick work of the immigrants. Under a Justice Department program that relies on plea deals, most are charged with misdemeanors like improper entry.

Federal prosecutions of immigration crimes nearly doubled in the last fiscal year, reaching more than 70,000 immigration cases in the 2008 fiscal year, according to federal data compiled by a Syracuse University research group. The emphasis, many federal judges and prosecutors say, has siphoned resources from other crimes, eroded morale among federal lawyers and overloaded the federal court system. Many of those other crimes, including gun trafficking, organized crime and the increasingly violent drug trade, are now routinely referred to state and county officials, who say they often lack the finances or authority to prosecute them effectively.

Bush administration officials say the government’s focus on immigration crimes is an outgrowth of its counterterrorism strategy and vigorous pursuit of immigrants with criminal records.

Immigration prosecutions have steeply risen over the last five years, while white-collar prosecutions have fallen by 18 percent, weapons prosecutions have dropped by 19 percent, organized crime prosecutions are down by 20 percent and public corruption prosecutions have dropped by 14 percent, according to the Syracuse group’s statistics. Drug prosecutions — the enforcement priority of the Reagan, first Bush and Clinton administrations — have declined by 20 percent since 2003.

“I have seen a national abdication by the Justice Department,” said Attorney General Terry Goddard of Arizona.

United States attorneys on the Southwest border, who handle the bulk of immigration prosecutions, usually decline to prosecute drug suspects with 500 pounds of marijuana or less — about $500,000 to $800,000 worth. As a result of Washington’s decision to forgo many of those cases, Mr. Goddard said, local agencies are handling many of them and becoming overwhelmed.

Peter Carr, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said that felony prosecutions of immigration crimes had increased 40 percent from 2000 through 2007 but that most other prosecutions had remained steady. But Justice Department statistics Mr. Carr provided to The New York Times did not include tens of thousands of misdemeanor charges and prosecutions conducted before magistrate judges. Data from the Syracuse group, known as the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC, included those cases, which are driving the sharp growth in immigration cases.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/us/12prosecute.html

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3.
Drugs, trade, immigration are concerns as Obama, Mexico's Calderon meet Monday in Washington
The Associated Press, January 12, 2009

Washington, DC (AP) -- Days before taking office, President-elect Barack Obama is meeting Mexican President Felipe Calderon, a pre-inauguration tradition that comes as Mexico's drug violence escalates and spills into the United States.

Obama transition officials say that Monday's session, to be held at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, is intended to underscore the importance of the relationship between Mexico and the U.S.

Mexico's drug war has increasingly defined that relationship. U.S-Mexico ties remain strong, but immigration and trade concerns loom along with security matters.

Drug-related homicides doubled in Mexico last year, led by rising murder rates in cities across the border from the U.S. The Justice Department last month called Mexican cartels the biggest organized crime threat to the United States.

Calderon, whom U.S. officials have praised for deploying troops to fight cartels and capturing top drug kingpins, already won a multimillion-dollar anti-drug aid package from Washington last year. Obama supports that plan, known as the Merida Initiative, and promises to take up another cause that Calderon champions: a stop to smuggling guns from the U.S. to Mexico.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-obama-calde...

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4.
Economy May Delay Work on Obama’s Campaign Pledges
By Peter Baker
The New York Times, January 10, 2009

Washington, DC -- Confronted by the worst financial crisis in generations, President-elect Barack Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress are preparing to delay some of the promises he made on the campaign trail to avoid political distractions and focus on reversing the economic slide.

The latest on the presidential transition and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion.

Although Mr. Obama has not publicly identified which priorities will have to wait, advisers and allies have signaled that they may put off renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, overhauling immigration laws, restricting carbon emissions, raising taxes on the wealthy and allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military.
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Mr. Obama has likewise pledged to follow through with a new immigration policy, but several allies on Capitol Hill said it was not at all certain that could happen this year. Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza, said Mr. Emanuel told her the issue needed to be addressed without making commitments on a timeframe.

“President-elect Obama has made clear a campaign commitment to address this issue in his first year, and we know he takes that very seriously,” Ms. Murguia said on a conference call organized by the National Immigration Forum, a group that advocates policies more welcoming toward immigrants. “And we plan to hold him accountable.”

Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, another advocacy group, said advocates hoped a window of opportunity would open between this September and March 2010.

On issues like immigration and climate change, Mr. Obama may focus on narrow moves first. He wants money in the economic package to double alternative fuels in the next three years, but his promise to enact a market-based limit on carbon called cap-and-trade does not appear on a fast track. “I’m not sure this year because I don’t know if we’ll be ready,” the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California, told reporters last week.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/us/politics/11obama.html?hp

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5.
Getting down to business: Texas Legislature will have its hands full when it convenes Tuesday
The Associated Press, January 12, 2009

Immigration

Debate has ebbed, but will it pick up?

Talk about illegal immigration has ebbed in the last year, but some Texas lawmakers aim to revive discussions by proposing more than a dozen bills that, among other things, would punish employers for hiring illegal workers and challenge the U.S. citizenship of illegal immigrants' U.S.-born children.

Other bills filed for the 2009 Legislature would require public schools to maintain records on students' immigration status, impose a fee on money wired to Latin America, require identification from voters at the polls, prohibit parole for illegal immigrants and create a state criminal trespassing charge for illegal immigrants enforced by local police.

Several of the proposals are similar to ones that were introduced in the last session but failed to make it out of committee because they were considered unconstitutional.

"In some ways, they follow an old pattern. A lot of bills will be introduced," said Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute at the New York University School of Law. "And they will be introduced again for the same political motivation by the same cast of characters. The issue is, 'Is it more likely that they'll get passed this time?' "

The Associated Press

FACT: Texas led all states in 2007 with more than 100 immigration- related bills; only 11 were signed into law, according to research by the Migration Policy Institute and New York University School of Law.
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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/...