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1. Gov't 'plugs' CA canyon
2. TX legislators mull legislation
3. CA SC to consider tuition
4. NJ panel considers privileges
5. Advocates hopeful in '09

1.
U.S. smooths away an illegal border crossing wrinkle
By Richard Marosi
Los Angeles Times, January 4, 2009

San Diego -- Smuggler's Gulch lived up to its infamous name.

For a century, the narrow canyon leading into California from Mexico provided cover for cattle thieves and opium dealers, bandits and booze runners. More recently, it has hidden thousands of illegal immigrants on their journey north, sealing its place in border lore.

Now, it's a fading memory.

The canyon has been all but wiped off the landscape, its steep walls carved into gentle slopes, its depths filled with 35,000 truckloads of dirt as the federal government nears completion of an extensive border reinforcement project at the southwesternmost point of the United States.

In 2005, the Bush administration waived state and federal environmental laws to overcome stiff opposition to the massive earth-moving effort, which entails cutting the tops off nearby hills and pushing about 1.7 million cubic yards of dirt into the gulch and neighboring Goat Canyon.

Environmentalists and conservation groups fear that the project, scheduled to be completed in May, will harm the Tijuana River estuary, threaten endangered species and destroy culturally sensitive Native American sites. With construction well underway, it's clear that few of the 500 miles of new border fencing projects are transforming the environment as radically as the three miles from the Smuggler's Gulch area to the coast.

Once a breach in the coastal hills, the gulch is now more like a dam than a passage. Anyone attempting to cross confronts a 150-foot-high berm that will soon be topped with stadium lighting, video surveillance cameras and 15-foot-high fencing. Eventually, an all-weather road will run atop the filled-in canyons and smoothed-out hills and mesas all the way to the ocean.

For those who see the canyon border as blight, the gulch is a victim of its notorious past and deserves to be buried forever. "Good riddance," said Donald McDermott, a former U.S. Border Patrol assistant chief who once patrolled the area. "Anything that makes it easier to control the border is a good thing."

The canyon figured in some of California's earliest history. Charles W. Hughes, a local historian, said many of California's earliest settlers came through the pass. "It's very discouraging. We talk about trying to preserve our history . . . and yet they can come in and do this," he said.

Father Junipero Serra, on his first journey to what was then called Nueva California, probably passed through the area in 1769, according to historians who have studied the missionary's journals.

"Serra described going over the hills in Tijuana and saying he could see the sails of the ships in San Diego Harbor. The only place you could possibly do that . . . comes out at Goat Canyon or that immediate area," said Harry Crosby, a historian who wrote a book on Baja California's history.

Smuggler's Gulch started earning its nickname in the 1880s after the U.S. government established customs duties at the port of entry at San Ysidro a few miles east. Ranchers took to the hills, leading their herds of cattle, horses and sheep through the canyon.

Later, to avoid paying duties, people smuggled cigars and even Mexican-produced lace undergarments through the gulch.

In the 1980s, the canyon became a symbol of illegal immigration run amok as tens of thousands of immigrants funneled through the pass into California. It became a dangerous no-man's land, filled with bandits who raped and robbed immigrants and charged tolls for safe passage. The occasional sniper targeted Border Patrol agents. For many years, agents were not allowed to venture alone into the gulch, where their radios didn't work.

Rampant crime in the area prompted the formation of a daring San Diego police unit that was featured in the Joseph Wambaugh book "Lines and Shadows." They dressed as bedraggled illegal immigrants and pounced on bandits who tried to assault them.

Border Patrol Agent Jim Swanson, who was not part of the team but patrolled the area, remembers hiding in a bush and jumping on suspected robbers, one of whom turned out to be a Tijuana police lieutenant. "That whole area was very chaotic," he said.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-gulch4-2009jan04,0,...

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2.
Immigration gets a place on lawmakers' agenda
By James Pinkerton
The Houston Chronicle, January 4, 2008

The number of immigration-related laws proposed and passed by state legislatures in recent years:

With more than a dozen bills on the issue already filed, immigration promises to be a hot topic during this year's state legislative session. And Houston lawmakers are sure to be key players on both sides.

The battle is part of a growing effort by state legislatures across the nation to tackle contentious issues related to immigration.

"It's definitely going to be an issue," said state Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston.

But Gallegos said the proposed legislation, filed mostly by Republican lawmakers, will be scrutinized — and perhaps scrubbed — by Hispanic legislators to ensure that bills are not aimed only at Latino immigrants. The legislative session begins Jan. 13 in Austin.

"We are going to have to see what kind of wording is in these bills — that it's fair for everybody and not just targeting one ethnicity — which is what it looks like they're trying to do," Gallegos said.

Last year, 13 states passed laws related to employment of immigrants, and 16 states passed legislation relating to driver's license regulations governing illegal immigrants, according to a report by the National Conference of State Legislatures. In all, 1,305 bills related to immigration were proposed last year, and 205 were enacted.

"The economy is the No. 1 issue affecting states, but immigration remains a hot-button topic debated in many legislatures across the country," said William T. Pound, the organization's executive director.

"Coincidentally, several states commissioned studies to investigate the economic and fiscal impacts of immigration, including state remedies to recover money owed to the state by the federal government," he said.

Louise Whiteford, president of Texans for Immigration Reform, based in Houston, said tough economic times are forcing state leaders to examine closely the costs of services provided to Texas' illegal population.

"The problem has become more intense with the cost of illegal immigration to the state being so high," Whiteford said. "With the economy tanking, people are going to object more to picking up the costs."

Last month, a state survey estimated Texas and local hospital districts spent an estimated $677 million to provide health care to illegal immigrants in the fiscal year that ended August 2007.

Texas' last legislative session in 2007 was expected to be roiled by immigration-related debates. But after an attorney general ruling noted the supremacy of the federal government's role in immigration enforcement, a number of bills addressing immigration were assigned to a single legislative committee and not brought up for discussion.

Historically, anti-immigrant measures have gained little traction in Texas, a state where cultural and commercial ties with Mexico and Latin America are close and long-standing.
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/6194178.html

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3.
California Supreme Court to take on state law granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrants
The justices have accepted the case that began with a lawsuit filed by out-of-state students and their parents, who argue that such a benefit violates federal law.
By Anna Gorman
The Los Angeles Times, January 5, 2009

California's highest court is poised to be the next battleground in the debate over benefits for illegal immigrants as the justices have agreed to hear arguments on the constitutionality of a state law allowing undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.

The decision could affect hundreds of illegal immigrant students who attend community colleges, Cal State and UC campuses and who say they would not be able to afford a higher education if required to pay out-of-state tuition, which can cost more than triple the amount that residents pay.

But the outcome could have a broader effect -- at least nine other states, including Oklahoma, New York and Texas, have similar laws providing the reduced fees to illegal immigrants. Although a court decision would not be legally binding in other states, politicians around the country are looking at California as a litmus test for future legal challenges.

The state Supreme Court accepted the case late last month and will probably hear arguments later this year.

In a letter urging the high court to take up the case, Utah's Atty. Gen. Mark Shurtleff wrote, "The implications of this decision extend far beyond California, and far beyond a state's ability to set educational policy, into the heart of the national debate about illegal immigration."

Martinez vs. Regents of the University of California began with a lawsuit filed in Yolo County in 2005 by out-of-state students and their parents. The lawsuit alleges that education officials are violating federal law by granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrants while not offering the same lower fees to students from outside California.

"U.S. citizens should have at least the same rights as undocumented immigrants," said one of the plaintiffs, Aaron Dallek, an Illinois native who graduated from UC Berkeley in 2006.

Another plaintiff, 2006 UC Davis graduate Onson Luong, said he didn't think it was fair that he, as a native of Nevada, had to pay higher tuition than illegal immigrants. Luong, who majored in biotechnology, worked two jobs during college and owes $15,000 in student loans.

"If they are allowing illegals to pay in-state tuition when they aren't even citizens, what kind of message is that sending?" Luong asked.

For the 2008-09 school year, out-of-state undergraduates pay about $28,600 to attend a UC school, compared with about $8,000 for students who qualify for in-state tuition. Out-of-state undergraduate students at Cal State campuses pay on average $10,000 more than in-state students. At community colleges, California residents pay $26 per unit, while out-of-state students pay between $140 and $170.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-immigtuition5-2009jan05,0,324820...

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4.
Immigrant driving privileges mulled
The Associated Press, January 5, 2009
http://www.app.com/article/20090105/NEWS03/901050309/1007

Trenton (AP) -- A panel advising Gov. Jon S. Corzine is considering recommending "driver privilege cards" and in-state college tuition rates for undocumented immigrants.

Two Hispanic leaders have told the Record of Bergen County that Public Advocate Ron Chen said the measures would be included in a panel's report to Corzine. But Chen's spokeswoman said that it hasn't been decided what would be included in the report.

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5.
High hopes for immigration reform in the year ahead?
By Liz Mineo
The Daily News Transcript (Norwood, MA), January 3, 2008

Immigrants and their advocates look forward to 2009 as a year that will bring change to the country's immigration mess, yet they don't have high hopes.

Although they expect the Obama administration will support a reform granting legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants, they recognize the economic crisis has pushed immigration to the back burner.

In Waltham, Latino civic leader Paula Mendoza would like to see Obama, son of a Kenyan, help immigrants, but she is not so certain.

"There is a lot of hope," she said. "But Obama didn't promise a lot and he has a lot to take care of now."

Advocates acknowledge the Obama administration will have their hands full trying to get the financial house in order before attempting to launch any immigration overhaul. It makes sense, they said, but it also makes sense to address the issue that has become the elephant in the room.

"It's a key issue but no one really wanted to touch it during the campaign," said Pastor Peter Lopez, who runs a bilingual English-Spanish congregation in Milford. "But it has to get done. It'd help the economy and strengthen our security."

There are 12 million illegal immigrants in the country, and if they are allowed to become legal residents, they could become full contributors to society, said Lopez.

Fausto da Rocha, executive director of the Brazilian Immigrant Center in Allston, agreed.

"Those 12 million people are not only illegal immigrants," he said. "They are workers and contributors to the economy. And if Obama doesn't include an immigration reform as part of his economic plan, it'd be bad for the economy."

Rocha and other advocates said many immigrants are postponing their plans to return home in hopes that Obama will announce a legalization program sometime in 2009. But most likely, it won't happen that soon.

"It's not going to happen overnight," said Laura Medrano, Framingham Latino civic leader. "The economy has to be taken care of first, and that may take a while. Then, they have to come up with comprehensive reform, build bi-partisan support and sell it to the public."

Most polls say Americans are against a legalization process because, they say, it rewards bad behavior and may encourage more illegal immigrants.
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http://www.dailynewstranscript.com/homepage/x1794959751/High-hopes-for-i...