1. Fees deter some from naturalizing
2. OECD reports 4m arrived in past year
3. CO Gov. dubs system 'broken'
4. RI to release cons early for expulsion
5. Indiana legislators eyeball policy
6. TX police reps. lobby Congress
7. Most in VA co. happy with enforcement
8. VA co. arrests find few illegals

1.
Higher form fees limit citizenship seekers
By Emily Bazar
USA Today, September 10, 2008

Immigrants are getting priced out of citizenship because they can't afford higher application fees that kicked in last year, according to a report out today.

Citizenship applications plummeted after the fee rose from $400 to $675 on July 30, 2007, says an analysis by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, an immigrant advocacy group.

In the first six months of this year, an average of 46,866 immigrants applied for citizenship each month — a 59% decrease from last year, when an average of 114,469 people applied monthly during the same period.

"The expense has shut the door on many hard-working immigrant families," says report author Flavia Jimenez.

Officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) believe applications are down because so many people rushed to apply before the fees went up. The agency received about 650,000 more applications last year than in 2006, acting deputy director Mike Aytes says.

"We saw a lot of people who chose to file earlier than otherwise," Aytes says. "We do see the numbers starting to come back up."

Still, he acknowledges that this year's numbers are below a typical year.

The agency allows citizenship applicants to apply for waivers if they can't afford the fee and generally approves about two-thirds of the requests, Aytes says. In July, USCIS granted 1,052 fee waivers out of 1,578 requests from citizenship applicants.

Application fees cover most of USCIS' operating and processing costs. The agency increased fees to cover costs and improve services, he says.
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Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which calls for reduced immigration, often finds himself at odds with immigrant advocates. Yet he agrees the fees are "probably too high" and should reflect only processing costs.

"Once you've admitted people to legally reside in the United States, we want them to naturalize," he says. "If they're not, that's a problem."
. . .
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-09-09-citizenship_N.htm

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2.
OECD immigration rises to 4m a year
By Andrew Taylor.
The Financial Times (London), September 10 2008

About 4m people emigrated to live permanently in OECD countries in 2006, a five per cent increase on the previous year, with the US and UK the most popular destinations, the Paris-based organisation reported on Wednesday.

Family reunification accounted for 44 per cent of moves. Moving abroad for work accounted for another 14 per cent, it said.

Asylum seeking, however, has become less significant, with inflows falling to 282,000 in 2006, the lowest level since 1987 – representing only 7 per cent of permanent moves abroad.

The US, with 1.26m emigrants received about one third of all permanent inflows followed by the UK (with 343,200), Canada (251,600) Germany (216,000) and Italy (204,300).

Some of the largest increases in inflows were in the US, Korea and Spain. But as a percentage of total population, Ireland, New Zealand and Switzerland received some of the biggest inflows – representing more than 1 per cent of their populations.

Family reunification was the biggest reason given by emigrants to the US, accounting for 70 per cent of permanent moves. Many European countries, among them Italy, Ireland, Spain and the UK were more popular as destinations for job-seekers, with work reasons accounting for between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of moves to these countries.
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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bd9d7df8-7f16-11dd-a3da-000077b07658.html

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3.
Ritter, police say immigration system is broken
By Jeffrey Wolf, Sara Gandy, Thanh Truong and Chris Vanderveen
The 9 News (Denver), September 10, 2008

Denver -- Gov. Bill Ritter (D-Colorado) and local police said Tuesday that the systems that should have kept the suspect in a deadly hit-and-run off the streets are broken.

Just last week two women and a young boy were killed at an Aurora ice cream shop in a chain-reaction crash. The driver facing charges in the case is an apparent illegal immigrant, according to federal authorities, who had previously been arrested dozens of times.

Francis Hernandez, 23, is expected to be formally charged with three counts of vehicular homicide Thursday.

This case has left many asking why he was still on the streets and what our politicians plan to do to prevent this from happening in the future.

Ritter spoke on radio station KOA Tuesday morning, saying the system that deals with illegal immigrants needs to be fixed.

Hernandez had been in court close to a dozen times before this accident but until this week, his legal status in this country did not come to light.

On KOA's Mike Rosen Show, Ritter said the problem is that the federal agency Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) often does not have enough staffing to act on cases assigned to them by local police.

"You know, you have this many arrests and not (to do) first of all an investigation into his status here is, I think, a difficult question to answer and ... it's something we clearly have to fix," said Ritter on KOA.

Ritter also said there are problems with local jurisdictions accessing arresting information from other jurisdictions. Ritter is not sure why the problem exists, but says he plans to look into it.

Records with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation show Hernandez was arrested multiple times by eight different agencies dating back to 2003.

ICE says they believe Hernandez came into the U.S. illegally from 1991 and he was born in Guatemala.

Hernandez is accused of running a red light in his SUV and hitting a pickup, which was sent hurtling into an Aurora ice cream store. Two women in the pickup, Patricia Guntharp and Debra Serecky, were killed instantly and a boy in the store, Marten Kudlis, died later of his injuries.
. . .
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=99377&provider=top

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4.
RI, federal agency in deal on immigrant prisoners
By Ray Henry
The Associated Press, September 10, 2008

Providence (AP) -- Rhode Island's prison system has entered into an agreement with U.S. immigration authorities that allows for the early release of illegal immigrants imprisoned for nonviolent offenses if they agree to be deported, Gov. Don Carcieri said Tuesday.

Under the deal between the state Department of Corrections and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, nonviolent inmates in the state prison could be released early if they have been ordered to leave the U.S. and agree not to return. Ex-prisoners caught re-entering the U.S. could be forced to serve the remainder of their state prison sentences and face new federal charges carrying additional 20-year sentences.

"Rhode Island cannot afford to repeatedly bear the financial burden of providing housing and rehabilitative treatment to inmates who committed crimes while here illegally," Carcieri said in a written statement.

The deal is part of a federal program called Rapid Removal of Eligible Parolees Accepted for Transfer, or Rapid REPAT. U.S. immigration authorities signed the first Rapid REPAT deal with Puerto Rico in July. It is modeled off similar deportation systems in Arizona and New York.

The Rhode Island deal was signed on Aug. 20. Carcieri spokeswoman Amy Kempe said the governor waited nearly three weeks to announce the policy change so officials could finalize a news release.

Immigration authorities already detain and deport illegal immigrants as they are released from the state prison system. The new effort would accelerate the process by finding inmates who agree not to fight deportation in exchange for their freedom, said Bruce Chadbourne, an ICE field office director for detention and removal operations in Boston.

An estimated 60 of the 522 inmates that Rhode Island turned over to U.S. immigration officials last year would have been eligible for the new program, Chadbourne said.
. . .
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j0jdko0JnbCUoS9EvRd8J9J-0YbQD933ELB80

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5.
Indiana legislators tackle illegal immigration again
But some experts argue the authority lies with the federal government
By Dan McFeely
The Indianapolis Star, September 10, 2008

The number of Hispanics living illegally in Indiana has reached at least 100,000, but efforts by the state to stem the flow of illegal immigrants could run into trouble if they're seen as usurping federal law, legislators were told Tuesday.

The Washington, D.C.-based Pew Hispanic Center earlier this decade had estimated that 50,000 to 85,000 illegal immigrants were living in Indiana. But the state's hunger to fill low-wage construction and service industry jobs has boosted that number.

"Indiana is an emerging Hispanic state," said Rakesh Kochhar, associate director of research for Pew, noting that Indiana has seen a 667 percent surge in Hispanic residents -- legal and illegal -- since 1990.

Illegal immigration is expected to return as a hot topic at the Statehouse next year. State Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, has vowed to reintroduce legislation that would crack down on employers who knowingly hire illegal workers.

The Democrat-controlled House and Republican-ruled Senate passed different versions of Delph's bill last session but could not reach a compromise.

The Interim Study Committee on Immigration Issues, comprising House and Senate members from both parties, is taking a deeper look at the issue to see whether it can reach consensus before the start of the 2009 session in January.

That panel, convening for the first of several meetings, heard more than five hours of testimony Tuesday on the legal ramifications of a state law and on the latest population statistics.

Kochhar's estimates, based in part on census and other government figures, were called into question by G. Herb Hernandez, a member of the state Commission on Hispanic/Latino affairs, who questioned how Indiana could see such rapid growth.

"Counting illegal residents is very difficult," he said. "I am really concerned about those numbers."

The Census Bureau estimates Indiana, with a total population of about 6.3 million, had 315,000 legal and illegal Hispanics as of 2007. The largest percentages statewide live in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, South Bend and the Northwest Indiana region. Pew also reported that, for the first time, four Indiana counties are made up of 10 percent or more Hispanic residents: Cass, Clinton, Elkhart and Lake counties.

How to deal with those here illegally has been hotly debated between forces who see the illegal population as a drain on taxpayer dollars -- for education, social welfare and law enforcement expenses -- and those such as Indiana's manufacturers and businesses, which see them as a much-needed source of labor.

Gov. Mitch Daniels, at an Indianapolis Star editorial board meeting Tuesday, said the state should move forward "cautiously."
. . .
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080910/NEWS0501/809...

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6.
Police lobby Congress for tougher immigration enforcement
By Jeff McShan
Texas Cable News, September 10, 2008

Houston -- It was an early Sunday morning in June when Houston Police Officer Gary Gryder was struck and killed by a driver. Hunt Troung drove through a construction barricade.

Gryder's fellow officer Joe Pyland was severely injured in the collision.

It was the second time in two years that an HPD officer died while in duty. In 2006, Officer Rodney Johnson was gunned down after making a routine traffic stop and arrest.

In both cases, the suspects accused of killing the officers are illegal immigrants.

So, on Tuesday, Johnson's widow, Pyland and Houston's police union president Gary Blankenship flew to Washington. On Thursday – which incidentally will be Sept. 11 – they will testify before a U.S. House judiciary committee on the subject of illegal immigrants.

“And we need some federal funding. We are 1,500 police officers short in Houston,” said Blankenship. “We are certainly in a position where we need to prioritize, but we need to address this problem and we need help from the federal government.”

Critics have long called Houston a sanctuary city, one that does not aggressively enforce immigration laws.
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http://www.txcn.com/sharedcontent/dws/txcn/houston/stories/khou080909_tj...

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7.
Most satisfied with county’s immigration policy
By Elisa Glushefski
The Manassas Journal Ledger (VA), September 9, 2008

A majority of residents is satisfied with the Prince William County Police Department's execution of the illegal immigration policy, however sentiment for the police department declined among Hispanics and blacks, according to the 2008 Citizen Satisfaction Survey.

The findings from the questions added to this year's survey—done to get public opinion about implementation of the policy—were presented Tuesday in conjunction with a status report by police Chief Charlie T. Deane at the Prince William Board of County Supervisors meeting.

Some of the results of the survey have caused worry that more crimes are now going unreported, he said during his presentation to the board.

Several questions were added to this year's survey, one was aimed at determining how satisfied residents are with the implementation of the policy.

The survey showed that 36 percent were very satisfied; 24.2 were somewhat satisfied; 6.1 percent were somewhat dissatisfied; 8.6 percent were very dissatisfied; 7.7 percent opposed the policy and declined to rate the police implementation; 17.2 percent had no opinion; and less than 1 percent refused to respond.

The reasons behind those answers included comments on the problems caused by illegal immigration, positive and negative remarks on the county's policy, and negative and positive comments about police enforcement or action, according to the survey that was conducted by the Center for Survey Research at the University of Virginia.

"The results are of interest because most turned out not to be about police at all," said Thomas M. Guterbock, director of the Center for Survey Research, which has conducted the annual survey since its inception in 1993.

Satisfaction with police attitudes and behaviors toward citizens dropped this year to 79.3 percent from 87.9 percent in 2007—"lowest level of satisfaction since the question was introduced in 1995," Guterbock said.

The decrease, he said, can most notably be linked to the decline in satisfaction among Hispanic respondents—53.5 percent of whom reported they are satisfied.

Whites were most satisfied with 86.8 percent, blacks were second with 73.1 percent, Asians were third with 66.5 percent, and those who fell into the category of other rated at 48.3 percent.

They were also asked about overall satisfaction with police, which was also down, and "satisfaction that the department treats everyone fairly."

Of the 1,666 who were randomly surveyed, 1,591 spoke English and 75 spoke Spanish, Guterbock said.

For the first time, households using cellular phones were also surveyed, he said. They were asked if they lived in the county and if they answered "no" were not surveyed.
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http://www.insidenova.com/isn/news/local/article/most_satisfied_with_cou...

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8.
Few Arrestees Are Found To Be Illegal Immigrants
Police Chief Issues Post-Crackdown Report
By Kristen Mack
The Washington Post, September 10, 2008; Page B06

Fewer than 2 percent of people charged with crimes in Prince William County since the well-publicized crackdown on illegal immigration began in March have turned out to be undocumented, Police Chief Charlie T. Deane told county supervisors yesterday.

Deane provided a status report on the first six months of the county's illegal immigration enforcement program, which generated nationwide attention. He told the supervisors that police questioned 626 illegal immigrants in all. Of those questioned, 341 were arrested, 196 were released with no charges and 89 were charged and released on summonses. Ten others were determined to be in the country legally.

"I'd expect those numbers to go up as officers get more comfortable with the policy," Deane said.

Separately, the supervisors released a citizen survey on the policy. About 60 percent of residents are satisfied with how police are carrying out the illegal immigration policy, according to the county's annual citizen satisfaction survey. Fourteen percent of those surveyed are dissatisfied; 7 percent oppose the policy, and 17 percent provided no opinion.

Satisfaction with the overall performance of the department decreased since last year, from 92 percent to 89 percent.

"It is disappointing," Deane said. "But I'm confident police and county staff can make the best of the mandate we have in the best interest of the community."

Opinions about the police have become polarized along ethnic lines, with Hispanic residents much less satisfied than others, said Thomas M. Guterbock, the survey director.

For example, 97 percent of Hispanics were satisfied with police in 2005. This year, Hispanic satisfaction with police has decreased to 73 percent.

"This is fairly disturbing," Guterbock said, noting that the department has had high ratings in the past regardless of race and ethnicity. Guterbock said the ratings appear to have decreased because of the immigration enforcement.

Deane's presentation to supervisors was the first comprehensive review of the illegal immigration enforcement, which has undergone three changes in the past six months.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/09/09/ST20080909...