1. Ireland offered 20,000 visas
2. Tenth of Hispanics questioned
3. GA co. officials find TB link
4. IL co. sheriff blames Chicago

1.
US to issue 20,000 one-year work visas
By Mark Hennessy
The Irish Times (Dublin), September 19, 2008

Twenty thousand one-year working visas to the United States are to be made available under a deal to be agreed in a final round of talks in Washington today, it emerged last night.

Under the new agreement, the J visas will be available not just to students as the existing three-month J1 visas, but to anyone with a secondary-school education, or a trade.

The package has been worked on for several months by the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Irish Embassy in Washington, led by Ambassador Michael Collins, and the US state department.

Speaking in New York in July, Taoiseach Brian Cowen made it clear that action on visas and immigration to the United States would be a priority during his time in office.

The visa deal to be agreed today with the state department will come into force in the New Year, sources said last night. So far, it is not yet clear what the top qualifying age for applications will be.

Relations between the Irish-American community and the Government, which were near- poisonous in the final months before Bertie Ahern departed from office, have improved significantly in recent times.

Mr Ahern had argued that the demand by Irish-American groups for an amnesty for Irish illegals was unrealistic, while they, in turn, said Ireland was failing to put any pressure on the US authorities.
. . .
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2008/0919/1221773888183.html

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2.
Report: 1 in 10 Hispanics asked about immigration status
By Dianne Solis
The Dallas Morning News, September 19, 2008

Nearly one in 10 Hispanics in the U.S. reported that in the last year police or other authorities have stopped them and asked them about their immigration status, the Pew Hispanic Center said in a report released Thursday.

The finding comes amid the biggest crackdown in decades against illegal immigration – one especially evident in Texas, the No. 2 destination for such migrants. Municipal police in several suburbs of Dallas, including Irving and Carrollton, have stepped up cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Nationally, deportations or removals of Mexicans, Salvadorans and Guatemalans from the interior of the United States have doubled since 2005, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Renato de los Santos, a Latino leader in Dallas, called the survey's finding alarming and suggested that racial, ethnic or language profiling should be stopped unless it involves a terrorism suspect.
. . .
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-pe...

EDITOR'S NOTE - The Pew Hispanic Center's "2008 National Latino Survey" is available online at: http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=93

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3.
Health Officials Link Gwinnett TB Rise to Immigration
By Odette Yousef
The WABE News (Atlanta), September 19, 2008

As reported cases of tuberculosis decrease in most of the state, Gwinnett County has shown a persistent increase. The county appears on track to have the second-greatest number of cases in the state this year, and health officials point to its rapidly-growing immigrant

Fulton County has the most TB cases in Georgia, but like the most of rest of the state, the number is declining. Gwinnett is moving in the opposite direction.
. . .
http://publicbroadcasting.net/wabe/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_...

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4.
Sheriff blames Chicago for immigrant crime
The Associated Press, September 19, 2008

WAUKEGAN, Ill. - Lake County's sheriff is blaming the city of Chicago's failure to control illegal immigrants for rising crime.

Sheriff Mark Curran said Thursday the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois have shown little interest in cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Curran said he was doing his part to stop "the terror inflicted by many of these illegal aliens." However, he said he and his office does not tolerate any discrimination based on race or ethnicity or condone racial profiling.
. . .
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-immigration-crime,0,3598968...