1. McCain camp airs Spanish ad
2. Court backs RI verification order
3. CA court to hear tuition suit
4. Activists sue TX city
5. Unemployment drives illegals home
6. Gangs linked to execution

1.
McCain Revives Immigration Debate -- in Spanish Only
By Ed O'Keefe
The Washington Post, September 15, 2008

The McCain campaign has started airing a new Spanish-language television commercial in the battleground states of Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico that lays the failure of comprehensive immigration reform at the feet of Barack Obama and his Democratic colleagues -- despite the fact that Obama supported the bipartisan John McCain-Edward Kennedy efforts to enact such reforms and voted for their final proposal last year.

That's got Obama surrogates and leaders of some Hispanic groups raising questions similar to those that have greeted McCain's English language spots, which have had their accuracy challenged by a number of media and independent group observers.

"Obama and his Congressional allies say they are on the side of immigrants," the ad's announcer says in Spanish in the spot, released Friday. "But are they? The press reports that their efforts were 'poison pills' that made immigration reform fail. The result: No guest worker program. No path to citizenship. No secure borders. No reform. Is that being on our side? Obama and his Congressional allies: Ready to block immigration reform, but not ready to lead."

In truth, Obama and many other Democrats publicly supported the efforts to enact immigration reforms started by Sens. McCain and Kennedy (D-Mass.) in 2005. Obama voted for last year's final bipartisan proposals, but faced criticism for sponsoring changes to a temporary worker program that later failed, and Senate colleagues described him as "notably absent" during negotiations.

Today, Obama says he backs an approach that "protects our security, bolsters our economy, and preserves America's tradition as a nation of immigrants who are welcomed as long as they work hard and play by the rules" -- and he recently told a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute gathering, "I think it's time for a president who won't walk away from comprehensive immigration reform when it becomes politically unpopular."

Obama's supporters had harsh words for the McCain spot. "To say that Barack Obama and Senate Democrats blocked the bill that Republicans filibustered is hypocritical and not true. John McCain has lost his credibility when it comes to the immigration issue," Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said in a statement released by the Obama campaign Friday.

"The man who said he would vote against his own immigration bill during the Republican presidential debates, who was unwilling to stand up to his own party when they approved an anti-immigrant platform, cannot attack Democrats on immigration in Spanish, while pandering to the extreme right Tancredo wing of the Republican Party in English."
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http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/15/mccain_revives_imm...

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2.
Judge: R.I. gov can enforce immigration order
By Ray Henry
The Associated Press, September 16, 2008

Providence -- Gov. Don Carcieri can force private employers who do business with Rhode Island's government to electronically check their workers' immigration status, a judge ruled Monday, giving the governor a victory in the state's heated immigration debate.

But in denying a restraining order request, Superior Court Judge Mark Pfeiffer said Carcieri cannot end the contracts of those companies that refuse to use the federal immigration database until the state explains how it will enforce the new rules and allows the public to comment on them.

The state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit this month to stop Carcieri from enforcing his order that requires the private companies to use the database, called E-Verify, to vet new hires.

In his ruling, Pfeiffer rejected ACLU arguments that Carcieri had abused his constitutional authority by signing the order. The judge said he did not believe that private employers would be harmed by letting it stand until the lawsuit is decided, most likely in late November.

"The harm would be minimal as it relates to vendors ... who presently have contracts," Pfeiffer wrote.

Carcieri said he was pleased with the ruling.

"The decision clearly recognizes that my Executive Order was within my authority and allowed by the state's Constitution," the governor said in a written statement.

Although the judge did not grant the restraining order, ACLU Executive Director Steven Brown said the ruling will force Carcieri to follow laws dictating how the executive branch makes administrative rules.

"That, in essence, is what the judge did even though he formally denied the restraining order," Brown said. "What he denied in one hand, he essentially granted with the other."
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http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080916/NEWS/...

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3.
Undocumented students' college aid in jeopardy
By Tanya Schevitz
The San Francisco Chronicle, September 16, 2008

A state appellate court has put a financial cloud over the future of tens of thousands of undocumented California college students, saying a state law that grants them the same heavily subsidized tuition rate that is given to resident students is in conflict with federal law.

In a ruling reached Monday, the state Court of Appeal reversed a lower court's decision that there were no substantial legal issues and sent the case back to the Yolo County Superior Court for trial.

"It has a huge impact," said Kris Kobach, an attorney for the plaintiffs and a law professor at the University Missouri at Kansas City. "This is going to bring a halt to the law that has been giving in-state tuition to illegal immigrants."

He said it is a big win for California taxpayers who have been subsidizing education for undocumented immigrants.

The suit was filed in 2005 by out-of-state students attending California colleges. They challenged the state's practice of allowing illegal immigrants to pay significantly lower tuition than they pay at the University of California, the California State University and the California Community Colleges.

UC charges out-of-state students nearly $18,000 a year more than it charges resident and undocumented students who graduated from California high schools. At CSU, out-of-state students pay about $8,000 more. And at the state's 110 community colleges, they pay an average of about $160 a unit instead of $20 per unit - or $1,920 for a full load instead of $240.

The suit was dismissed by the Yolo County Superior Court in 2006, setting up the appeal.

On Monday, three justices of the Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento said that a 2001 state law, AB540, conflicts with federal law. The state law provides the benefit of in-state tuition to undocumented students while the federal law says an illegal immigrant cannot receive that benefit unless the same benefit is extended to all U.S. citizens without regard to California residency.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/15/BANQ12UI6C.DTL

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4.
Groups sue suburb over illegal immigrant ordinance
By Anabelle Garay
The Associated Press, September 15, 2008

Dallas (AP) -- Latino advocates and a civil liberties group have filed a federal lawsuit against a Dallas suburb whose officials are trying to drive out illegal immigrants.

The groups say the plan by the city of Farmers Branch to ask house and apartment renters to obtain a license is unconstitutional. Rental applicants would be run through a federal database to check their immigration status.
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http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h-xTc98lY6M1x5NFKu7z8ixOo-zQD9379EM80

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5.
No work means a one-way ticket home
By Saundra Amrhein
The Scripps Newspaper Group, September 16, 2008

Plant City, FL -- On a Wednesday afternoon, in the gravel lot of El Expreso bus depot, Benito Ramos waits with his life packed in several plastic tubs.

After eight years in the United States, he is going home to Hidalgo, Mexico, to his mother and a small concrete-block house built with the money earned clearing tables in Tampa restaurants.

"You can't survive like before," said Ramos, 28, standing in front of the clapboard depot building with its low-slung porch filled with passengers and suitcases.

When times were good, Ramos worked 16 hours a day at two restaurants, five days a week. His weekly check was $520. But for months, bosses have slashed his schedule. He was lucky to work six hours a day for two or three days, bringing in just $117 a week.

"It got to the point where you can't pay rent, you can't pay the bills," he said.

Several weeks ago, Ramos bought a bus ticket and joined legions -- perhaps thousands -- of illegal immigrants going back home.

The reason, immigrants and experts say, is the slow economy -- particularly the crash of the construction industry and the slowdown in the retail and low-wage service sectors.

No one is certain about the size of the exodus. One group says the undocumented population has dropped 11 percent in a year. Other experts dispute those findings and say the decline is much smaller.

One thing seems clear: Those leaving tend to be single or unattached men like Ramos. They now face stiff competition from legal and illegal immigrants who had climbed the economic ladder and put down roots during the construction boom. Now they're all scrambling for jobs -- even returning to the fields -- and also facing competition from out-of-work Americans.

Struggling and lonely, the single men say there's no point in staying.

"I miss my family," said Levi Salas Aguilar, 21, preparing to board a bus to Mexico, three years of construction work behind him. "You feel very alone here. It's not the same without your family."

Alma Carvajal, El Expreso terminal's director, noticed a rise in business two years ago. That's when more single men started buying one-way tickets to Mexico. Since then, business has climbed by 50 percent, she said.

"Three years ago, it was only full on weekends," she said of the 48-seat bus that arrives daily. "But today, every day it's full."

Van driver Antonio Trevino brings passengers from Sarasota, Tampa, Clearwater and Bradenton to the bus depot. Since January, most of his passengers have been single immigrant men headed home to stay.

"They made good money in construction, but now they go five or six months without work," Trevino said.

In July, the pro-enforcement Center for Immigration Studies issued a report that said the illegal immigrant population had declined 11 percent, or 1.3-million people, between August 2007 and May. It credits enforcement by immigration officials.

But critics dispute the study's findings, which are based on census data of Hispanics between the ages of 18 and 40 with a high school degree or less and unspecified immigration status.

Experts agree undocumented migration has slowed since 2007. But they attribute it to the economy, not enforcement.
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http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/36313

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6.
'Strong gang component' revealed in Newark schoolyard slayings
By William Kleinknecht
The Star Ledger (Newark, NJ), September 15, 2008

Prosecutors said for the first time today that the slayings of three college students in a Newark schoolyard last year had a "strong gang component" that was downplayed at the time for fear of inflaming the city.

The Essex County Prosecutor's Office has said for months that some of the defendants had links to the MS-13 street gang but that their status may not have played a role in the robbery and murder of the victims.

But prosecutors said today that gang membership was clearly a motive in the killings, although they stopped short of calling it the prime motive and would not say it was a gang initiation.

"Certainly there was a strong gang component underlying each of these crimes," said Thomas McTigue, Essex County assistant prosecutor.

McTigue said none of the defendants was charged under state gang statutes in the 19-count indictment returned today, but he said his office would introduce evidence of gang motivation in the prosecution.

The indictment brought charges of murder, robbery, weapons offenses and other crimes against Rodolfo Godinez, 25; his 17-year-old brother, Alexander Alfaro; Jose Lachira Carranza, 29; Melvin Jovel, 19; Shahid Baskerville, 16; and Gerardo Gomez, 16.

The four students were hanging out behind Mount Vernon School on Aug. 4, 2007, when they were confronted by their attackers with a handgun and a machete. Three of the victims -- Terrance Aeriel, 18, Dashon Harvey, 20, and Iofemi Hightower, 20 -- were killed when they were lined up against the wall and shot in the back of the head. Terrance's sister, Natasha Aeriel, survived after being shot in the face and left for dead.

All of the victims were robbed, and Aeriel and the group's other female, Iofemi Hightower, were sexually molested and cut with machetes and knives, according to a lawsuit recently filed against the city school system and the alleged killers.
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http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/09/an_essex_county_grand_jury.html