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1. CIS report: Wages rise following raids
2. GOP Rep. lashes out at House Speaker
3. E-verify funding secure through Sept.
4. CA jail to expand detention space
5. NC comm. college board study

1.
Report says raids at Swift plants help increase wages
By Darwin Danielson
The Radio Iowa News, March 20, 2009
http://www.radioiowa.com/gestalt/go.cfm?objectid=20C59EE8-5056-B82A-3753...

A report by the Center for Immigration Studies shows wages increased, as did the number of legal workers, at six Swift meatpacking plants following immigration raids in 2006. One of the raids happened at the Swift plant in Marshalltown.

Report author Jerry Kammer says Swift had to increase the wages and pay bonuses to new workers to get back to full production after the raids. Kammer says it was a supply and demand issue as they needed to find workers quickly and had to make the job more attractive.

He says all the plants returned to full production within five months -- an indication that the plants could operate at full capacity without the presence of illegal workers.

Kammer says the report goes against the myth that illegal immigrants are needed as Americans don't want to do these types of jobs. "I think that's one of the major points here, that Americans will do these jobs if the jobs are made decent. If they pay decent and the working conditions are improved, more Americans will do these jobs," Kammer says.

Kammer says Swift has taken the strategy of spending money on replacing workers instead of increasing the wages of the workers they have.

Kammer Iowans well now that these jobs used to pay a middle class wage and there was a blue collar middle class that the country is rapidly losing. He says the average wage in today's dollars was $21.75 in inflation adjusted dollars, while in 2007 the average wage was $12.03, so there has been a huge drop in the standard of living.

Kammer says the turnover at Swift plants continues to be 40 to 70-percent. He says that's a very high turnover that means a lot of "turmoil and churn" in the communities, making it very difficult for the schools, churches, hospitals and neighborhoods to incorporate the people into the community.

"You often hear the phrase in these meatpacking plant towns, 'the plants don't kill animals, they kill people' because they make life so difficult, the working is so grueling, the conditions are so difficult," Kammer says. Kammer says another myth the report addresses is that upping the money paid to workers in meatpacking plants would dramatically increase the cost of the product.

Kammer says a California researcher found this not to be true in studying myth that lettuce would cost $5 a head if workers were paid more.

Kammer says the researcher found six percent of the cost for lettuce goes to the workers, while his report found in the meat industry, it was seven to nine percent, depending on whether it was beef or pork. So he says the wages could be increased "significantly" without a correspondingly large rise in the cost to the consumer.

Kammer says his view of the report goes back to what former congresswoman Barbara Jordon said about immigration. Kammer says Jordan believe an immigration policy that is coherent and healthy for the country needs clear rules, and those that don't meet the rules will have to stay out of the country. And those who break the rules should be sent out of the country.

Kammer says it's difficult to have such a policy and enforce it, because "every immigrant is a human being, and every immigrant has a story." Kammer was a Pulitzer prize winning reporter before joining the Center for Immigration Studies. You can view his entire report on-line here.

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Report: Changes followed Swift raids
Crackdown brought rise in wages, fewer illegal workers
By Chris Casey
The Greeley Tribune (CO), March 20, 2009
http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20090320/NEWS/903209991/1002/NONE&...

United States-The Immigration raid on Swifts in 2006.
Farming UK, March 20, 2009
http://www.farminguk.com/news/United-States-The-Immigration-raid-on-Swif...

Swift raids mark record in immigration enforcement
The KHAS News (Lincoln), March 20, 2009
http://new.khastv.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=16597&storytopic=4

Study: Wages rose after immigration raids
United Press International, March 19, 2009
http://www.timesoftheinternet.com/57048.html

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2.
Rohrabacher: Dems not 'watching out for American people'
Condemns Pelosi's admonition that immigration raids 'un-American'
The World New Daily, March 20, 2009

U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., says the Democratic Party is watching out for illegal aliens, not American citizens, after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, condemned immigration raids as "un-American."

The comments from Pelosi criticizing actions by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which is following laws established by Congress, came in front of an audience at St. Anthony's Church in San Francisco last Saturday.

Pelosi asked the audience, "Who in this country would not want to change a policy of kicking in doors in the middle of the night and sending a parent away from their families?"

Rohrabacher was asked what message should be taken from Pelosi's comments and what it means to America and his district.
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http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=92336

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3.
E-Verify program will survive at least through September
By Raju Chebium
The Gannett News Service, March 19, 2009

The fate of a national employee verification program aimed at combating illegal immigration is safe for now, but it's unclear whether Congress will renew it beyond this fall.

As long as the program, called E-Verify, is on the books, a New Jersey assemblyman wants all businesses in the state to use it to check the legal status of prospective employees. But immigrant-rights advocates are prepared to fight any attempt to expand the use of E-Verify in New Jersey, arguing that the Internet-based system is riddled with errors.

The latest congressional action on E-Verify came this month, when the Senate rejected an effort by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., to extend the program for six years. Sessions had tried to attach the extension to the $410 billion spending bill that President Barack Obama has signed into law.

New Jersey Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez joined fellow Democrats in rejecting the measure. Congress did extend E-Verify in its current form until Sept. 30. Employers are encouraged - but not required - to use it.

Assemblyman Richard Merkt, R-Morris, introduced legislation in January requiring all New Jersey employers to use E-Verify to check whether new hires may work legally in the U.S. The checks would have to be done within 90 days of the hiring date, and employers could be fined up to $30,000 for each illegal immigrant they hire.

Nearly 500,000 illegal immigrants are thought to be living in the Garden State, and many are working for unscrupulous employers at a time of rising unemployment, according to the legislation.
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http://www.wbir.com/news/national/story.aspx?storyid=81753&catid=16

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4.
Santa Ana jail will house more immigrant detainees
Santa Ana Police Department is using federal payment to avoid making more budget cuts.
By Denisse Salazar
The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, CA), March 19, 2009

Santa Ana -- The Santa Ana City Jail, which receives the most federal revenue of any city jail in the Greater Los Angeles area for housing immigration detainees – is planning to boost its revenue by housing additional detainees and negotiating a rate increase.

Unfilled job vacancies, budget cuts and the lack of new revenue have motivated the Santa Ana Police Department to increase its revenue through immigration detention. The department plans to add 32 additional beds to bring its population capacity to 512 beds by May, said Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters.

The department is negotiating an increase in the daily rate it receives per detainee from $82 to $87, which if approved, would go into effect in October, Walters said.

The move – which is expected to bring in $1 million in annual revenue – reflects the need many local law enforcement agencies are facing to find new sources of revenue.

"If we didn't bring in the additional $1 million in revenue, we would have to take an additional $1 million cut," Walters said.

The department expects a 10 percent budget cut and has had a hiring freeze since October that has prevented it from hiring 40 new officers and filling 23 civilian positions.

"There is no one in the academy," Walters said. "We are trying to get by with what we have right now."

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency contracts with local jails to house immigration detainees and that need is growing.

"We have increased needs for detention space because we are targeting criminal aliens who are being released by local agencies … and are now facing deportation from the United States," said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "That has increased the demand for beds locally and nationally."

To benefit from the demand of more local detention space, the Police Department is converting two multipurpose rooms into dormitory rooms, which will each hold 16 immigration detainees, said Christina Holland, the jail correctional manager.
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http://www.ocregister.com/articles/immigration-jail-detainees-2340794-de...

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5.
Community College Board gets initial look at immigration study
By Mark Binker
The News Record (Greensboro, NC), March 19, 2009

Undocumented immigrants who attend North Carolina's community colleges pay more to attend in out-of-state student fees than they cost to educate, a consultant told the North Carolina Community College Board.

On average, the operation cost to educate a full-time student in the community college system is $5,375, compared with $7,024 in tuition a student paying the out-of-state student rate would pay.

Of the 58 colleges in the system, only Pamlico Community College lost money on educating illegal students.

The state's community college system is attempting to establish guidelines for admitting students without proper documents following a confusing exchange of memos and policies last year.
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http://www.news-record.com/content/2009/03/19/article/community_college_...