1. Obama makes voter push
2. Rep. Labrador pitches bill
3. Candidates spar over issue
4. ACLU challenges TN raids
5. Witness may have fled US
1.
Obama woos disheartened Latino voters
By Peter Nicholas
Los Angeles Times, October 18, 2011
Albuquerque - With the election still 13 months away, President Obama is already making an all-out push to rebuild his popularity with Latinos, which has been diminished by the weak economy and a lack of progress toward revamping the nation's immigration system.
Campaign aides are phoning Latino voters in swing states including here in New Mexico to explain the president's record and recruit volunteers. Democrats are airing Spanish-language ads promoting Obama's agenda; one released in Denver last week accused Republicans of wanting to "politically hurt President Obama" rather than create jobs.
In Albuquerque, volunteers in Obama's campaign office have faced some resistance as they place calls to Latino voters.
"The excitement isn't there like it was," said Ana Canales, a volunteer and the county Democratic Party chairwoman. "There are a lot of people who are saying, 'We're not going to vote.' We have a lot of work on our hands … to make sure those Latinos understand that he [Obama] is working for us."
Obama's courtship of the Latino vote sets up a distinct contrast with Republican presidential candidates. Wooing the conservative voters who dominate GOP primaries, Republican candidates have been willing to risk alienating Latino citizens by taking a strict stand against illegal immigrants, most of whom are from Mexico and other parts of Latin America.
In a speech Saturday, Herman Cain suggested he would be willing to use lethal force and an electrified fence that "will kill you" to stop illegal border crossings — although on Sunday, he said the remark was "a joke."
Mitt Romney, in a debate in Orlando, Fla., last month, criticized Texas Gov. Rick Perry for extending in-state tuition benefits to undocumented students, referring to them with the term "illegal alien," which some prominent Latinos criticized. Both the tough tone and the use of the term continued in Tuesday's debate in Las Vegas.
"People aren't illegal, and they're not aliens. Aliens are what my 10-year-old son watches on 'Transformers,' " said New Mexico state Sen. Linda M. Lopez, a Democrat.
With Republicans hewing to the right on immigration, it seems doubtful most Latinos will abandon Obama. But Republicans do not need a majority of the Latino vote. They just need to cut the Democratic margin.
Obama needs both an overwhelming edge among Latino voters and a heavy turnout. If enough disenchanted Latinos stay home on election day, that could destroy Obama's prospects in crucial swing states: Nevada, Florida and Colorado top the list.
Over the last two years, Obama's Latino support has slipped and he is vulnerable on the two issues polls show are most important to Latinos: the economy and immigration.
Latino unemployment stands at 11.3% — more than 2 percentage points above the national average. Of 51 million Latinos in the U.S., nearly a quarter live in poverty, compared with 15% for the nation as a whole.
On immigration, Obama promised in 2008 to push for a comprehensive solution that would offer a path to legal status for the estimated 10 million living here illegally. It never happened. Obama focused instead on healthcare, and the deadline passed. Now, with Republicans controlling the House, a sweeping solution seems years away.
With Congress deadlocked on rewriting the nation's immigration laws, Obama has taken steps on his own to give some illegal immigrants a better shot at avoiding deportation. In August, Janet Napolitano, secretary of Homeland Security, announced that the administration would review about 300,000 pending deportation cases to focus their efforts on felons and "public safety threats."
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-latinos-20111...
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2.
Idaho's Labrador pitches his own immigration solution
By Curtis Tate
McClatchy Newspapers, October 18, 2011
WASHINGTON — With Congress unable to agree on a comprehensive immigration overhaul, and with states taking immigration matters into their own hands, Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho thinks he has an idea that can draw bipartisan support.
Labrador, a Republican, last week introduced a bill that would speed up applications for permanent residency to foreign-born graduate students who are offered jobs by U.S. employers in high-tech fields.
"Many of these students actually leave," he said in an interview. "They go back to their home country or to our competitors."
Not only would his legislation help boost the U.S. economy by keeping highly educated workers in the country, Labrador said, but it also would help encourage more American students to pursue math- and science-based careers.
Labrador said his bill aims to shorten the waiting period for approval of work visas, which can take several years and can discourage talented workers from staying put. While the legislation wouldn't change the process, it would enable students to obtain visas once they've completed their paperwork, which should take no more than two years.
"Once you're completed with paperwork, you should have a visa available," Labrador said.
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http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/18/2460418/idahos-labrador-pitches-hi...
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3.
Sparks Fly Over Immigration at GOP Debate
By Elizabeth Llorente
Fox News Latino, October 19, 2011
Texas Gov. Rick Perry called former Gov. Mitt Romney, his rival for the Republican presidential nomination, a hypocrite on immigration on Tuesday because he had employed undocumented workers.
At the GOP debate in Las Vegas, Perry took the issue of immigration – which has plagued his campaign recently, as rivals portrayed him as weak on the issue – and turned it against Romney.
"The idea that you stand here before us and talk about that you're strong on immigration, is on its face the height of hypocrisy," Perry said to Romney.
"You stood here in front of the American people and did not tell the truth that you had illegals working on your property,” Perry said. “The idea that you can sit here and talk about any of us having an immigration issue is beyond me.”
Scoring the Vegas-Style Brawl at GOP Debate
Romney, who had faced the issue – raised in a Boston Globe article years ago -- when he previously ran for president , said he fired the undocumented worker from doing his lawn as soon as he learned that he was in the country unlawfully.
Perry shot back that he continued to employ undocumented workers for a year after the first incident came to light. Romney, growing increasingly angry, said that he did not know the lawn care company had continued to use undocumented workers, in contrast, he said, to its promise to him that it would only have people legally eligible to work. Romney said that he stopped using the company after learning it continued to send undocumented immigrants to work on his lawn.
Romney fired back at Perry by saying that when he was governor of Massachusetts, he did not provide a magnet for undocumented immigrants, unlike Perry, he said.
He told Perry that he provided a magnet for undocumented immigrants to settle in Texas by supporting a law that allows people who are in the country unlawfully to attend public colleges at in-state tuition rates.
"You said I don't want to build a fence," Romney said. "You talk about magnets -- you put in place a magnet."
Perry has said that the in-state tuition law was right for Texas, but that he does not necessarily think that it should be a national law. In the past, he has said it would be wrong to punish the children of undocumented immigrants by making it difficult for them to pursue a higher education, and having them in classrooms would be preferable than having them in the streets.
But at the Nevada debate, he did not defend the in-state tuition law with sympathetic comments about the undocumented. Instead, he said he was indeed tough on immigration because he opposes any policy which would be a form of amnesty and supports building a “strategic fence,” not one along the entire U.S.-Mexican border because, he said, it would be too expensive and take too long to construct.
Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann said that she would build a double fence and, in a reference to Perry and in-state tuition, would not allow any breaks for the undocumented.
Bachmann also said she would deal with “anchor babies,” a controversial term used to refer to children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants. Bachmann suggested she would not allow automatic birthright citizenship.
She vowed, too, to make English the “official language” of the United States.
But the most problematic candidate as far as immigration, Bachmann said, was President Obama, whose “uncle and his aunt who have been allowed to stay in this country despite the fact that they’re illegal.”
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http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/10/19/sparks-fly-over-imm...
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4.
ACLU, TN agencies to discuss immigration raids
By Brandon Gee
The Tennessean, October 19, 2011
The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee and Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition has announced a news conference Wednesday "to discuss actions the two organizations are taking in response to the Clairmont Apartment immigration raids of one year ago."
On Sept. 30, Nashville immigration lawyer Elliott Ozment filed a lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and the owners and managers of the apartment complex on behalf of four Nashville residents who say federal agents illegally entered their apartment while looking for a fugitive at the complex.
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http://www.tennessean.com/article/20111019/NEWS03/111019009/ACLU-TN-agen...
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5.
Illegal immigrant witness in DUI case may have fled United States
MyFoxBoston.com, October 19, 2011
MILFORD - We're finally hearing from immigration officials about the disappearance of a key witness in the Matthew Denice case. Police say he vanished after he cut off his GPS bracelet and ICE never told them about it. His disappearance has prompted a local congressman to call for a federal investigation.
U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement has released a statement saying it was in fact notified once Luis Acosta cut his GPS. It says procedures were properly followed by ICE's enforcement and removal operations.
What is clear is that Acosta is gone, and nobody seems to know where he is. Acosta is an illegal immigrant from Ecuador and also a key witness to the death of Denice, of Milford. In August, Acosta was in the front seat of the truck that struck and killed Denice. That driver, Nicolas Guaman, is also here illegally and is being held.
On Oct. 1, Acosta cut off his GPS bracelet. Two days later, Milford police served him with a summons to appear before the grand jury. They had no idea he wasn't wearing a GPS. Five days later, Acosta vanished, police found out only when he failed to show up to the grand jury hearing. Watch the video to hear what they told us.
This is a case that has prompted one local congressman to call for a federal investigation. And what's still unclear is how it is that somebody lost track of Acosta. ICE has released a statement telling FOX 25 it was in fact notified once the GPS was cut and that procedures were properly followed by ICE's enforcement and removal operations.
Acosta is an illegal immigrant and a witness to the death of Denice. Acosta was in the front seat of the car that struck and killed Denice back in August. The driver, Nicolas Guaman, is also an illegal immigrant. He is being held. Right, now nobody knows where Acosta is because on October 1 he cut off his GPS bracelet.
Police later tracked Acosta's cell phone to the airport terminal at JFK, where flights to Ecuador depart. Local police and a local congressman are upset because they weren't told until Acosta failed to show up to testify at the grand jury hearing on Oct. 6.
"What I don't understand is how a bracelet could've been cut on the first of October, and the servicing company not alerted the chief in Milford and apparently ICE as well," said Congressman Neal.
"Should we have been called? I think we should have been called," said Chief Thomas O'Laughlin, of the Milford Police Department.
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http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/local/illegal-immigrant-witness-in-d...
