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1. BP to clear foliage for security
2. AR panel rejects legislation
3. Local gov'ts cut healthcare
4. Foreigners feeling financial strain
5. Obama's aunt fights deportation

1.
Critics oppose Border Patrol poison plan
The Associated Press, March 24, 2009

Houston -- The U.S. Border Patrol plans to poison plant life along a 1.1-mile stretch of the Rio Grande riverbank to eliminate the dense foliage used by suspected illegal immigrants and criminals to hide.

If successful, the $2.1 million pilot project, which is set to begin this week, could later be duplicated along as many as 130 miles of river in the patrol's Laredo Sector, as well as other parts of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Houston Chronicle reports opponents of the action say it harkens to the Vietnam War-era Agent Orange chemical program and could be harmful over the long-term.

A Border Patrol agent says the project is designed to protect the country and keep agents safe.
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6335743.html

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2.
Immigrant tuition break rejected by Senate panel
The Associated Press, March 23, 2009

Little Rock (AP) -- Despite an endorsement by the head of Arkansas' flagship university, a bill to grant the children of illegal immigrants in-state tuition has been rejected by a Senate committee.

University of Arkansas at Fayetteville Chancellor David Gearhart told the Senate Education Committee on Monday that he supports a bill by Sen. Joyce Elliot, D-Little Rock.

The Senate panel later rejected Elliott's proposal on a voice vote. The bill would grant in-state tuition to any student who attended high school in the state for at least three years and has a high school diploma.
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http://www.wxvt.com/Global/story.asp?S=10057238&nav=menu1344_2

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3.
In hard times, illegal immigrants lose healthcare
In California, some counties consider screening them out from nonemergency services.
By Daniel B. Wood
The Christian Science Monitor, March 24, 2009

Los Angeles -- Jose Cedillo, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, says he has nowhere to turn.

A day laborer since 1986, Mr. Cedillo has received notice from a Los Angeles County hospital that he must start paying out of pocket for the treatment he will need. "I have no choice because I have no insurance and can't work while I'm taking these treatments," he says, sitting in the tiny apartment he shares with his wife, a janitor.

The recession – and a big state deficit ­– is leading some California counties to cut back on nonemergency health services to illegal immigrants. In others, cutbacks in services for the uninsured are hitting illegal immigrants especially hard.

The problem is socking California because it is home to the lion's share of US immigrants, both legal and illegal. The latter are often eligible for healthcare provided to the poor. But health departments across the country are facing budget pressures that are leading to slashed services – and that could reignite the debate over providing medical care to illegal immigrants.

"There simply isn't enough revenue to support the network of services which heretofore has been expected," says Robert Pestronk, executive director of National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO).

In many states, budget cuts mean reduced funding for the uninsured, many of whom are immigrants and low-income families. In Arizona, a $13 million cut from the state budget eliminated funds partly used to reimburse hospitals for caring for the uninsured.

About 64 percent of illegal immigrants nationwide ­– 7.2 million ­– are uninsured, according to the Washington-based, Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).

"The states and local governments tend to bear the brunt of illegal immigration," says Steve Camarota, statistician and demographer for CIS. Now, with revenues falling well short of predictions, services to undocumented immigrants are getting the ax in an effort to preserve other programs, from infrastructure to schools to the environment.

The cutbacks could potentially refire the debate over providing social services such as healthcare for illegal immigrants. In 2007, several state legislatures introduced bills that sought to limit social service benefits including healthcare to illegal immigrants. An LA Times/Bloomberg survey in December 2007 found that one in three Americans wanted to deny social services, including public schooling and emergency-room healthcare, to illegal immigrants.
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http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0324/p01s01-usec.html

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4.
American dreams deferred
Recession batters immigrants at all economic levels
By Maria Sacchetti
The Boston Globe, March 24, 2009

In a Cambridge high-rise, Amar Sharma is about to earn a master's degree from MIT, an achievement he hoped would land him a high-flying post in the United States. But if he doesn't find a job soon, he could end up back in India.

A few miles away, Bedardo Sola is devastated by the loss of his janitorial job at Harvard. The layoff plunges two households into jeopardy: his family here, and the daughter he supports in El Salvador.

Soaring unemployment is hammering families across the United States, and it is having a particular impact on immigrants and their relatives thousands of miles away. In addition to their livelihoods, foreign-born workers could lose their work permits, and their hope for a future in the United States. Even naturalized US citizens are affected because they lose the source of the money transfers they send to relatives back home.

But as unemployment rises, so does friction over immigration, with lawmakers and others calling for increased restrictions on foreign workers to preserve Americans' jobs, while advocates warn that immigrants will be crucial to any economic recovery. In Massachusetts, immigrants comprise 17 percent of the workforce, nearly double the share in 1980.

There is no single measure to determine how immigrants are faring in the recession. Most immigrants are in a vulnerable demographic, concentrated at the high and low ends of the economy, in the battered construction and hospitality industries, as well as in finance and high tech. Those most at risk are often poor, less educated, and not fluent in English.

Analysts say several signs point to a dramatic nationwide slowdown: Illegal immigration has not increased significantly since 2006; money transfers to Latin America dropped late last year for the first time in nearly a decade; and unemployment for Latino immigrants soared from 5 percent to 8 percent last year, according to the Migration Policy Institute, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Pew Hispanic Center, all based in Washington.

"[Immigrants are] faring the same, and probably, in many cases, worse than the rest of us, especially if they're working in the underground economy," said George Noel, director of the Massachusetts Department of Labor, who is conducting an inquiry into the state's low-wage workforce.

Affecting the high end of the economic spectrum, Congress just banned companies that receive federal bailout money from replacing laid-off American workers with skilled foreign workers, called H-1B's for the name of their visa program. The program issues up to 85,000 visas a year starting April 1 but came under fire recently when some companies cutting jobs applied for foreign workers.

Some voices are clamoring for more federal restrictions on immigration to preserve jobs at the low end of the economy. According to a study late last year, immigrants without a high-school diploma had lower unemployment rates than native-born Americans, particularly blacks and Latinos. Eleven percent of such immigrants were unemployed compared with 25 percent of blacks and 16 percent of US-born Latinos.

"We should not entertain any increases in immigration," said Steven Camarota, director of research for the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, which conducted the study. "It doesn't make sense to keep adding to the population that's getting clobbered."

Still, analysts say that so far, the public debate appears focused on corporate scandals and the use of federal bailout money, and not on immigrants.

"The big target is what has been happening on Wall Street and the banking sector," said Demetrios G. Papademetriou, president of the Migration Policy Institute. "So far it's the greed."

Across Massachusetts, unions, immigration lawyers, and advocates are mobilizing to protect workers' rights, holding rallies, and even referring workers to counseling for depression and stress. Some workers, such as H-1B's, face having to leave the country if they lose their jobs. Others have permission to stay, but they might still be under intense pressure to send money home. Illegal immigrants - about one in five immigrants in Massachusetts - are facing criticism for taking jobs.
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http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/03/24/ameri...

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5.
Back in Boston, Obama's aunt fighting deportation
President Obama's aunt was living on Flaherty Way in South Boston when her case drew scrutiny in the fall. President Obama's aunt was living on Flaherty Way in South Boston when her case drew scrutiny in the fall. (Evan Richman/ Globe Staff/ 2008)
By Maria Sacchetti
The Boston Globe, March 24, 2009

President Barack Obama's aunt, a Kenyan immigrant who ignited controversy last year for living in the United States illegally, has returned to her quiet apartment in a Boston public housing project to prepare for an April 1 deportation hearing that will be closed to the public.

Zeituni Onyango, a tall, frail-looking woman in her late 50s who walks with a cane, had fled Boston to stay with relatives in Cleveland last fall after media attention erupted over her case. She was spotted at Obama's inaugural festivities in January and, according to neighbors, returned to Boston a few weeks ago for her third attempt to fight removal from the United States. She had been living in the country illegally since she was ordered deported in 2004.

Now the woman Obama called "Auntie Zeituni" and described as a kindly woman who kissed him on both cheeks and guided him during his trip to Kenya 20 years ago, is in a national spotlight, where her case is seen as a test of the Obama admin istration's commitment to enforcing immigration laws. Critics, outraged that she is living in taxpayer-funded public housing while thousands of citizens and legal immigrants are on waiting lists, are scrutinizing the case for political favoritism. Others caution that she may have legitimate grounds to stay in the United States.

"The case is unusual in American history because it's a relative of the president involved in immigration matters," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies. "It really does present the White House with an opportunity or a minefield. If they follow through on a decision that she should go home, that would actually raise the president's credibility enormously on immigration enforcement."

Obama has said that he has not had any involvement in the case and that it should run its ordinary course, White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said.

Onyango's fate will play out behind closed doors before Judge Leonard Shapiro in Boston. Onyango's lawyer, Margaret Wong of Ohio, successfully argued to reopen her case in December and have the proceedings closed to the public, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees immigration courts.

Onyango declined two requests for interviews in recent days, and told a reporter to stop wasting her time.
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http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/03/24/back_...