1. Case highlights security weakness
2. ICE struggles to prosecute employers
3. 17k Iraqi refugees to enter in 2009
4. Marianas sue Feds over immigration law
5. Judge halts TX city ban on renting
6. Issue may resurface during debates
7. Activists fret domestic violence link
8. Activists work against raids
9. Schools recruiting foreign teachers
10. Enforcement efforts working
11. Children granted asylum

1.
S.A. case shows gap in anti-terror shield
By Guillermo Contreras
The San Antonio Express News (TX), September 12, 2008

A man from India who caused an evacuation at San Antonio's airport two weeks ago because security screeners thought he was carrying a bomb had no connection to terrorism, officials confirmed, but his case highlighted holes in the safety net for catching terrorists.

Besides the suspicious device, authorities found the man, Manoj D. Kargudri, had a box cutter in his suitcase and some powder and was about to board a one-way flight from San Antonio to Washington, D.C. They also learned he had a fraudulent visa.

As it turned out, the “bomb” was a homemade battery for his MP3 player and the powder was a drink mix.

After further investigation, agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, uncovered 10 others who had tried to use similar fraudulent visas to get from India to the U.S., and their scheme showed how exposed the country could be. Two of the 9-11 hijackers entered the country by gaming the system with phony visas.

“Hostile foreign intelligence services, terrorist organizations and organized crime have used these visas as a mechanism to gain entry into the U.S. for their sinister operatives,” said retired agent Bill West, who headed the national security unit in Miami for ICE, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security.

On Thursday, the seventh anniversary of the 9-11 attacks, Kargudri appeared in federal court in San Antonio to face charges of making false statements to get a visa. Kargudri, 36, came to the U.S. in 2005 on an employment visa. He extended his stay in August with a student visa, but didn't show up at the college, court records show. A judge determined agents had probable cause to arrest him, and he was ordered held pending trial.

Kargudri was apparently relocating from Sherman, north of Dallas, to Washington when a screener in San Antonio alerted airport police to a “possible improvised explosive device (I.E.D.)” in one of his bags. The item had an electric razor with wires connected to an MP3 player. Travelers were evacuated from the area until officials confirmed the object was not a bomb. Investigators also seized a suitcase Kargudri transported on another flight.

ICE agents later realized Kargudri was one of two people who entered the U.S. as part of a fraud scheme the State Department had warned officials about in 2005 involving L-1 employment visas. The visas allow foreign specialized employees of a firm with U.S. operations to transfer to America for three years and up to seven.
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http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/28272504.html

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2.
Illegal workers booted, but what of their bosses?
By Linda Chiem
MSNBC, September 14, 2008

Recent immigration raids in Hawaii have all ended the same way, with federal authorities quickly prosecuting and deporting workers who are working illegally.

But it isn’t clear what happens to the companies that hired them.

Even as they highlight their efforts to find illegal workers, federal officials in Hawaii have refused to release any information on fines or penalties paid by Hawaii employers implicated in immigration raids.

U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo declined to answer questions about employer penalties. Representatives of several companies found to have hired illegal workers either declined to talk to PBN or issued statements saying they are committed to following federal employment laws.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the largest division within the federal Department of Homeland Security and which oversees enforcement of immigration laws, has moved aggressively in recent months in Hawaii and on the Mainland, targeting companies that are “job magnets” for illegal workers.

Since last December, 120 illegal workers have been arrested in four Hawaii workplace raids of construction sites, restaurants and even a Waipahu apartment complex where farm workers lived.

I.C.E moves quickly to deport illegal workers and says it has brought down the average time to process deportations to 19 days.

But building cases against the companies that hired the workers can take years. Investigators say they have to prove that employers knew the workers they hired were in the country illegally and that they intentionally lied on the federal I-9 employment verification form.

In cases involving construction work, the developer points to the general contractor who then blames subcontractors, who in turn blame other subs or day-labor agencies that provide some of the workers. Whoever made the hire typically says they were duped by an illegal worker using forged or stolen identification papers.

Wayne Wills, special agent in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of Investigations in Honolulu, acknowledged that investigations can take several years. But he said he believes that the fines and penalties are sufficient to discourage employers from hiring illegal workers.

“We haven’t seen all of our cases fully come to fruition and we may not be seeing all of those charges [yet],” he told PBN. “So the deterrent effect is very hard to measure right now.”

In addition to fines levied by I.C.E., the U.S. Attorney’s Office can pursue criminal charges against employers.

But neither Wills nor Kubo would say if any Hawaii companies had been criminally charged. They also declined to provide any Hawaii statistics on work site enforcement fines and penalties.

Advocates for illegal workers, as well as a construction industry trade group, say the authorities have to do more than arrest and deport illegal workers. They say some businesses are repeat offenders that have figured out it’s still cheaper to employ illegal workers, even if they have to pay the occasional fine.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26715480/

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3.
U.S. to Admit 17,000 Iraqi Exiles
5,000 More Refugees to Receive Special Visas Next Fiscal Year
By Walter Pincus
The Washington Post, September 13, 2008; A12

The United States plans to take in a minimum of 17,000 Iraqis over the next 12 months under its refugee program, and an additional 5,000 under a special visa program for Iraqis who formerly worked for the U.S. military and embassy or their contractors, a State Department official said yesterday.

In announcing that the government had reached its goal of 12,000 Iraqi refugees for this fiscal year, Ambassador James B. Foley, the secretary of state's special coordinator for refugees, told reporters that he expected to exceed that total in the coming year.

"I think you'll see the U.S. government admitting over the course of fiscal 2009 tens of thousands of Iraqis," Foley said.

Advocacy groups were not satisfied with the new goal. Noting that the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has reported that 90,000 Iraqi refugees in Syria, Jordan and other neighboring countries are seeking resettlement, said Kristele Younes of Refugees International, "The U.S. certainly met its goal for this year, but next year's target of resettling 17,000 Iraqi refugees falls far short of what is needed."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/12/AR200809...

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4.
Northern Marianas sues Washington to block immigration law
Agence France Presse, September 15, 2008

Saipan -- The Northern Marianas government is suing the United States to prevent Washington taking over the islands’ immigration system, Governor Benigno Fitial said Monday.

A 29-page complaint was filed Friday in the US District Court for the district of Columbia, seeking a permanent injunction stopping the US imposing its federalisation law on the US-administered Pacific island territory.

The Northern Marianas fears the law will impact on its high proportion of imported labour, and claims it also violates its right to self-government.

Fitial said in a statement the issue required a legal ruling rather than a negotiated settlement.

"We need to know whether the US Congress can legislate in an area reserved for local self-government by our Covenant," he said.

"The only way to get an answer to this legal question is to turn to the court. I could not wait any longer."

The population of the Northern Marianas is 60,000, of which 30,000 are US citizens, 6,000 are citizens of freely associated states and the rest documented foreign workers.
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http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/world/09/15/08/northern-marianas-sues-washing...

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5.
Judge halts Farmers Branch's immigrant rental ban; restraining order issued
By Stephanie Sandoval
The Dallas Morning News, September 13, 2008

So far, the third time is not the charm for Farmers Branch.

U.S. District Judge Jane Boyle issued a temporary restraining order today barring the city from implementing its latest ordinance aimed at halting property rentals to illegal immigrants.

Under the new measure, which the city had planned to put into effect Monday, apartment and home renters would have to obtain a city occupancy license by stating that they were U.S. citizens or were in the country legally.

The city would then check the information from non-citizens against a federal database to confirm that they were here legally. If not, their license would be revoked and they would be evicted.

The city had planned to start requiring the licenses Monday even though the checks would have had to wait because it has yet to receive permission to use the federal database.

The judge’s order blocks implementation while the court fight continues.
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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/...

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6.
Immigration issue expected to resurface when debates start
By Todd J. Gillman
The Dallas Morning News, September 14, 2008

Washington, DC -- Immigration reform was once Sen. John McCain's signature issue – and a key ingredient in his maverick image. Democrats have largely avoided the subject, but there are signs they'll be using the issue this fall to challenge the Republican presidential nominee's maverick claim.

"Everybody's so scared to touch the subject, because in certain areas it's detrimental to somebody's political future," said Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-San Antonio. "It's an issue that legitimately should be addressed."

Hispanics are the fastest-growing segment of the electorate, and analysts predict turnout as high as 9 million, up from the 2004 record of 7.6 million. Their clout will be most felt in battlegrounds like Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Florida.

Last week, Democratic pollster Sergio Bendixen released data showing that in all those states but Florida, Sen. Barack Obama holds a strong lead among Hispanic voters, and immigration is a key reason.

Mr. Bendixen predicted that "when the debates start, there will be a lot of discussion." The first debate is less than two weeks away, on Sept. 26 at the University of Mississippi.

Much of the public supports comprehensive reform – beefed-up border security, combined with a new guest worker program and some form of legal status for most of the 12 million illegal immigrants already in this country. But opponents feel very strongly, and Mr. Obama would prefer not to stir them up.

Mr. McCain was once the Senate's top champion of comprehensive reform, despite fierce resistance within his own party. But the push for a deal fell apart last year, and to survive the GOP primaries, he adopted the hard-liners' view that border security and enforcement must come first. He even declared that he would now vote against his own bill.

Some immigrant advocates remain convinced that he's on their side, that his goals remain even if the tactics changed. But others say he is no longer a credible ally. They note that, with Mr. McCain's consent, the Republican Party platform adopted this month shuns comprehensive reform.
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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/national/stori...

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7.
Troubling link in domestic violence cases
Immigrants more likely to be victims, data show
By Maria Sacchetti
The Boston Globe, September 12, 2008

Immigrants account for a disturbingly high share of domestic violence deaths in Massachusetts, advocates say, raising fears that the nation's heated immigration debate is deterring abuse victims from seeking help.

In Framingham last week, an undocumented immigrant whose husband had beaten her for two days called a hot line in tears, saying she was too afraid to call police. In Boston's Chinatown, women fear becoming burdens to relatives back home if they leave their husbands.

In some cases, the fallout affects families far from Massachusetts. In hurricane-ravaged Haiti, relatives of Norma Dorce Gilles are struggling to survive without her frequent care packages of spaghetti, peanut butter, and $400 in cash. Gilles, a Malden beautician, was smothered and dumped in the trunk of her car in February, allegedly by her former boyfriend, Lesly Cheremond, an illegal immigrant who had been ordered deported and is now awaiting trial in the killing. He has pleaded not guilty.

"We need to shore up services or this will continue," said Mary Lauby, executive director of Jane Doe Inc., a statewide coalition of sexual assault and domestic violence programs. "What we are afraid of is the deeper isolation felt by immigrant victims. That is the danger point."

Immigrants make up an estimated 14 percent of the state's population, but accounted for 26 percent of the 180 domestic violence deaths in Massachusetts from 1997 to 2006, according to the most recent figures from the state Department of Public Health. Nearly all of the 47 victims were women and children.

Illegal immigrants are perhaps the most vulnerable, advocates say, because they fear deportation. Batterers often threaten to report their victims to immigration officials if they go to police. Some batterers who are US citizens or legal residents even refuse to help their spouses apply for legal residency, effectively holding them hostage, advocates say.

"There's so much anti-immigrant sentiment and so much vitriol coming out of communities, it's really driving a lot of immigrant victims back underground," said Mary Gianakis, executive director of Voices Against Violence, a Framingham nonprofit that runs a shelter and other services. "It's really very frightening for people if they think that by reaching out they're somehow going to be outed as undocumented."

Federal immigration authorities said they do not generally deport victims of domestic violence who are here illegally. They urge victims to report the crimes, a step that opens new avenues to apply for legal residency, such as a special visa for crime victims. Greater Boston Legal Services, which has the main state contract for helping domestic violence victims, is helping more than 200 people apply for permanent legal residency.
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http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/09/12/troub...

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8.
On the lookout for immigration raids
Activist networks have sprung up to prepare illegal immigrants for possible federal activity in their communities.
By Nicole Gaouette
Los Angeles Times, September 14, 2008

Washington, DC -- Reeling from work-site raids that have jailed thousands of illegal workers, immigration organizations are quietly assembling informal networks to gather advance information about federal enforcement operations and to help locals and laborers prepare.

Students, union officials, waiters and others are volunteering to call in tips about Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents checking into hotels or renting facilities, about the sudden appearance of out-of-town cars and about a surge in action at the local courthouse.

"Is ICE going to tell us when they're coming? What they're doing? No," said Socorro Leos, a community organizer for Mississippi Immigrants' Rights Alliance. "You have to be working with the grass roots, on the ground, training them to be alert, to be very, very conscious, to open their eyes and senses."

The spontaneous development of these intelligence networks stems from the scale of recent ICE raids: hundreds of agents and vehicles plus a major infrastructure.

"These are huge paramilitary operations," said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. "They use helicopters, jeeps, mobile homes for processing people. They have to have jail space lined up. It's very hard to do that in secrecy."

Still, ICE raids rely on the element of surprise.

Immigrants' advocates say they do not use warnings to block raids or urge workers to flee; rather, they say, they try to soften the blow. They liken the effect of a raid to a natural disaster.

"We cannot tell people, 'Don't go to work,' " Leos said, adding that the networks cannot know for sure when or where ICE agents will appear.

Organizations hold "know your rights" sessions and encourage workers to set up phone trees for rapid information sharing. Activists arrange legal help for those who are detained and make sure court-appointed lawyers have access to experts who can explain the complexities of immigration law. Groups ensure that food pantries are stocked, that caregivers are ready for any children left unattended, and that funds are collected for families that lose breadwinners.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immig14-2008sep14,0...

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9.
States hire foreign teachers to ease shortages
By Garry Mitchell
The Associated Press, September 14, 2008

Bay Minette, AL (AP) -- The school system in coastal Baldwin County _ 60 miles by 25 miles of Alabama farmland framed on two sides by waterfront towns _ was short on teachers, especially in courses such as math and science.

So short, in fact, that district officials went around the world last year, with expenses paid by a teacher recruiting firm, and brought back Michel Olalo of Manila and 11 other Filipinos to teach along the shores of the Gulf Coast and Mobile Bay and in the communities in between.

That raised some eyebrows in Baldwin County, where nine out of 10 people are white, just one in 50 is foreign-born and, as the county's teacher recruiter Tom Sisk noted recently, "Many of our children will never travel outside the United States."

Yet school administrators throughout the U.S. are plucking from an abundance of skilled international teachers, a burgeoning import that critics call shortsighted but educators here and abroad say meets the needs of students and qualified candidates.

"All my friends were applying," said Olalo, hired through San Mateo, Calif.-based Avenida International Consultants to teach physics. "I thought, why don't I try it? Luckily, when I was lined up for an interview, it was people from Baldwin County."

The U.S. Department of Education doesn't monitor how many foreigners are working in American classrooms, spokeswoman Elissa Leonard said, but a federal survey released in May confirmed the dearth of math and science teachers, chiefly due to retirement by baby boomers.

As far back as five years ago, the National Education Association estimated that up to 10,000 foreigners already were teaching U.S. students in primary and secondary schools, mainly to fill vacancies in math, science, foreign languages and special education.

The largest single sponsor of foreign teachers, according to the NEA, is Chapel Hill, N.C.-based Visiting International Faculty, which claims it has 1,500 teachers from more than 55 countries in districts in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and California. The firm has placed teachers mostly in the South as it branches out from its Chapel Hill base, spokeswoman Leslie Maxwell said.

Critics view the international teacher market as a quick fix that can frustrate students and foreign hires alike.

If foreign teachers "are recruited into schools and communities lacking the kinds of support that all new teachers need, they may not stay," said David Haselkorn, policy research director at the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation in Princeton, N.J., which recruits recent college graduates with education degrees and professionals from certain fields to teach in low-income communities.

Janet Lipscomb, president of the Parent Teacher Organization at Foley High in Baldwin County, said the students liked the Filipino teachers but some experienced a "communication gap," particularly when students used slang.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/14/AR200809...

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10.
Are state's immigrants leaving?
By Devona Walker
The Oklahoman (Oklahoma City), September 14, 2008

Sergio Gil came home from Iraq in February.

The cold Oklahoma air was a jolt to the 26-year-old artilleryman's system, but it paled in comparison to the shocking scene he found on the city's southeast side — a virtual vacuum. Everybody was gone, it seemed.

"I was hearing stuff like 20,000 Mexicans had left,” said Gil, who is Hispanic. "That's a lot of Mexicans in a very short period of time.”

That part of the city is where his parents have had a restaurant for more than 16 years. It's where many of the city's Hispanics live. And "immigration enforcement panic” had a stranglehold on the community.

"Just from working in the community for so long, I could feel it. There was no one around,” Gil said. "It's not so much that a lot of people left, but they definitely laid low.”

Oklahoma had recently passed House Bill 1804, an immigration enforcement bill. Sales were down at his parents' restaurant, Tacos San Pedro. Immigration was at the top of the news. People were frightened and angry.

What happened in Oklahoma after HB 1804 mirrored other states, according to a report from the Center for Immigration Studies, a national anti-illegal immigration think tank. Increased enforcement may have caused panic in communities where illegal immigrants live, the center said. But it also yielded significant results.

Hispanic population drops

The number of illegal immigrants in the United States decreased by 11 percent, from 12.5 million in May 2007 to 11.2 million in August of this year, the study said.

Sustained enforcement could reduce the illegal immigrant population by one-half over the next five years, it said. Center officials estimated the number of undocumented immigrants who have left the country on their own, due to increased enforcement, is about seven times the number who have been deported in the last year.

In Oklahoma, according to Center calculations, the decrease in the illegal immigrant population is about 10,500. There are an estimated 247,000 Hispanics in the Sooner State, or 6.9 percent of the state's population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

"This is the biggest sustained drop in population that we've had in the last eight years,” said Steven Camarota, senior policy researcher for the center. "There's good evidence that stepped-up enforcement has reduced the size of the illegal population.”
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http://www.newsok.com/article/3297495

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11.
Judge grants asylum to 3 children on sex abuse claim
By Dave Marcus
Newsday (NY), September 13, 2008

A federal immigration judge has granted asylum to three Brentwood children who said they had been abused in their home country of Honduras. The unusual decision, announced by the family Friday and immediately condemned by anti-immigration groups, could set a precedent for other immigrants who claim abuse, legal scholars said.

"We are happier than words can express," said the children's father, Margarito Mejia, a contractor. "What a great country this is."

[CORRECTION: The federal Department of Homeland Security has declared it will crack down on immigrants who enter the country illegally. The wrong federal agency was cited as taking that stance in a story yesterday about a federal immigration judge’s granting asylum to three Brentwood children who said they had been abused in their home country of Honduras. Pg. A27 NS; A23 C 9/14/08] Mejia's lawyer, David Sperling of Central Islip, said officials are showing a humanitarian attitude toward children who have suffered abroad even as the Justice Department has declared it will crack down on immigrants who enter the country illegally.

The Department of Homeland Security, which opposed asylum, has 30 days to decide whether to appeal the ruling. Sperling called the judge's decision "bulletproof" and said he doesn't expect an appeal.

Groups that call for tougher enforcement of immigration laws condemned the ruling.

"It's unfortunately part of a trend where asylum is expanding to areas it was never meant for," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank.

Legal experts said they know of no previous cases in which a federal judge granted asylum to those claiming sexual abuse.
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http://www.newsday.com/news/local/suffolk/ny-liabus135841188sep13,0,7332...