1. Feds review SC immigration law
2. Border agents hampered by law
3. Study: increase in Long Island
4. Confusion over AL law
5. Salt Lake City holds summit
1.
Feds study state immigration law
By David Dykes
Greenville News (SC), October 27, 2011
President Barack Obama’s administration is reviewing South Carolina’s immigration law, but it was unclear Wednesday if federal officials will mount a legal challenge similar to those undertaken in other states.
U.S. Justice Department attorneys met Wednesday with Attorney General Alan Wilson in Columbia. Wilson told GreenvilleOnline.com it appears they are considering an effort to block South Carolina’s immigration measure.
“That was understood without it being said,” Wilson said. “They wouldn’t have come down here if they weren’t thinking about it. They indicated they had concerns with it (state law) and because of those concerns, we believe that they will probably act accordingly.
“They asked for the meeting, and we were obliging,” Wilson said.
Bill Nettles, U.S. attorney for the District of South Carolina, said in a statement the meeting was part of the Justice Department’s “ongoing review of immigration-related laws that were passed in several states.”
The state’s immigration law, which takes effect Jan. 1, requires police to check suspects’ immigration status and mandates that all businesses check their hires through a federal online system.
Earlier this month, the American Civil Liberties Union and a coalition of civil rights groups filed a lawsuit charging South Carolina’s immigration law is unconstitutional, invites racial profiling and interferes with federal law.
State officials have defended the law, saying they are confident of its constitutionality. It requires a law enforcement reason to ask for identification, such as a traffic stop or the interviewing of a witness to a crime. Supporters expect the court to uphold the law.
Wilson said the meeting included Tony West, assistant attorney general for the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Division.
As the largest litigating division in the Justice Department, the division represents the United States in legal challenges to congressional statutes, administration policies and federal agency actions.
Nettles, who attended the meeting, said it included Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.
A spokeswoman said Nettles wouldn’t comment further.
After Wednesday’s meeting, Wilson said his office “is preparing to defend this immigration law, but we always are willing to meet with those people who may have a different perspective on the law or a concern.”
He wouldn’t discuss the legal arguments waged by either side.
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http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20111026/NEWS/310260042/Feds-study-state-immigration-law?odyssey=mod|mostcom
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2.
Lawmakers say environmental laws should be waived for Border Patrol operations
The Associated Press, October 27, 2011
WASHINGTON — Federal agents trying to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border say they’re hampered by laws that keep them from driving vehicles on huge swaths of land because it falls under U.S. environmental protection, leaving it to wildlife — and illegal immigrants and smugglers who can walk through the territory undisturbed.
A growing number of lawmakers are saying such restrictions have turned wilderness areas into highways for criminals. In recent weeks, three congressional panels, including two in the GOP-controlled House and one in the Democratic-controlled Senate, have moved to give the Border Patrol unfettered access to all federally managed lands within 100 miles of the border with Mexico.
Two of the panels expanded the legislation’s reach to include the border with Canada.
The votes signal a brewing battle in Congress that will determine whether border agents can disregard environmental protections as they do their job.
Dozens of environmental laws were waived for the building of the border fence, and activists say this is just another conservative attempt to find an excuse to do away with environmental protections.
But agents who have worked along the border say the laws crimp their power to secure the border.
Zach Taylor, a retired Border Patrol agent who lives about nine miles from the Arizona-Mexico border, said smugglers soon learn the areas that agents are least likely to frequent.
“The (smuggling) route stays on public lands from the border to Maricopa County,” Taylor said, referring to the state’s most populous county. “The smugglers have free rein. It has become a lawless area.”
Environmental groups said lawmakers lining up to support the legislation have routinely opposed the Endangered Species Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and dozens of other laws, and they accused the lawmakers of using illegal immigration as the latest excuse to gut protections.
“For every problem that’s out there in society, there’s some extremists in Congress who say the solution is, ‘Well, let’s roll back the environmental laws, let’s open up the public lands,’” said Paul Spitler, spokesman for the Wilderness Society. “It doesn’t comport to reality, but it fits their mindset that it’s simply the environmental regulations that are holding back America.”
Nearly 40 percent of the land on the U.S.-Mexico border and about a quarter of the land on the U.S.-Canadian border is public land, including Big Bend National Park in Texas and Glacier National Park in Montana. Driving is prohibited on those parts of the land that are designated wilderness areas.
Wildlife officials say vehicle use can be particularly hazardous in the desert. Water gathers in the tire tracks instead of in natural pools and evaporates more quickly, leading to less vegetation and less available food. Some areas, such as Big Bend and the desert farther west, are deadly to traverse in certain months and immigrants and smugglers avoid them.
The wilderness areas also have other restrictions on development. Border patrol agents, for example, must get permission from other federal agencies before maintaining roads and installing surveillance equipment. Federal auditors found it can take months to get that permission.
“What the Border Patrol says they really need down there is not necessarily more manpower or money,” said Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, whose bill easing the restrictions passed the House Natural Resources Committee along party lines. “They need more east-west access on those public lands.”
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal-government/lawmakers-say-...
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3.
Long Island Sees Upswing in Immigrants
By Joseph De Avila
The Wall Street Journal, October 27, 2011
Long Island's immigrant population has more than doubled in the past three decades, with nearly one in five Long Islanders now born abroad, according to a new report released on Thursday.
About a third of all immigrants on Long Island are now Hispanic, making it the biggest group of foreign-born Long Islanders, according to a report by the left-leaning Fiscal Policy Institute based on U.S. Census Bureau data. But an influx of Asians has also helped change the demographics of Nassau and Suffolk counties, two of the nation's wealthiest suburbs.
The report highlights how immigration trends in the New York City suburbs have been shifting for decades. Generations ago, immigrants came to areas such as Manhattan's Lower East Side to begin new lives before leaving for Long Island.
"Nowadays they are moving directly to the suburbs," said Lawrence Levy, executive dean at Hofstra University's National Center for Suburban Studies.
Today, Pakistanis are flocking to the town of Brookhaven; Koreans are coming to Oyster Bay and Glen Cove; and Ecuadorians are settling in Hempstead.
Hispanics from Central America have emerged as the biggest groups of new immigrants on Long Island. El Salvadorans were the largest immigrant group, increasing their ranks by 27% to nearly 56,000 between 2000 and 2009.
El Salvador's civil war in the 1980s and early 1990s, followed by social upheaval there, fueled the wave of emigration, said Patrick Young, an attorney with the Central American Refugee Center.
Now "there is almost no village on Long Island that doesn't have a small population of Salvadorans," Mr. Young said.
The Village of Hempstead remains an epicenter for many Central Americans. In the downtown area, the streetscape is lined with Salvadoran restaurants and bakeries, travel agencies specializing in flights to Central America and check-cashing vendors where immigrants can send remittances to their families back home.
Delmis Avella, who owns a clothing store downtown, came to Hempstead in 1993 from El Salvador. Her mother and sister arrived in Long Island with political asylum during the early 1980s. "I wanted to change my life," said Ms. Avella, 36 years old.
Ms. Avella says she has no intention of ever returning to El Salvador due to its gang problems. "It's too dangerous," said Ms. Avella, a mother of three.
Leslie Esperanza Rivera, 32, moved to Hempstead from Honduras a year ago to join her husband. She works in a clothing store in downtown Hempstead and sends money home to put her three children, who are still in Honduras, through school. Her husband works in a nearby pizzeria.
"It's better to come here and save money," said Ms. Rivera, who plans to stay in the U.S. for about another two years before returning to Honduras. "That's where my family is."
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020355410457700026398873832...
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4.
From cops to courts, confusion over Alabama law
By Jay Reeves
The Associated Press, October 26, 2011
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Alabama's tough new immigration law was complicated even before the courts got involved.
Parts of the law are now in effect, while other parts have been blocked by federal judges. That means suspected illegal immigrants are already being caught up in the law, even if there is still confusion and inconsistent enforcement from town to town.
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i-iYnEVEqlCzGggm4rN7Co...
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5.
Salt Lake summit: Harsh rhetoric may derail GOP in 2012.
By David Montero
The Salt Lake Tribune, October 26, 2011
Republicans at an immigration summit Wednesday in Salt Lake City said that a continuation of harsh rhetoric on the polarizing issue — notably among GOP presidential hopefuls — will cost the party the White House in 2012 — and possibly beyond.
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff took it even a step further.
"The party has lost those [Latino] voters," Shurtleff said. "They aren’t in danger — we’ve lost them."
The comments came on the heels of remarks made by Paul Bridges, the mayor of Uvalda, Ga. A conservative Republican who is an outspoken critic of his state’s enforcement-only immigration law currently being challenged in court, he called it "absolutely anti-Christ-like in attitude."
Bridges said the tone and ideas being brought forth on the issue — longer fences, more troops on the border — has troubled him. He also said that, if he were Latino, he couldn’t back the Republican Party with its current tone.
"From my standpoint, I don’t think I could support any party that has spoken so harshly against my relatives and the ones I love."
Bridges was a key figure in Shurtleff’s first-ever Mountain West Summit at the Marriott City Center Hotel. The summit featured faith leaders, politicians, immigrants’ rights advocates and law enforcement leaders discussing the issue on a series of panels and was attended by about 200 people.
Shurtleff said he wanted to host the summit with groups from around the country to highlight approaches to addressing immigration reform beyond tough, Arizona-style enforcement-only laws. He also said it was a way to frame the upcoming anniversary of The Utah Compact, a document signed by Shurtleff, leaders in the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce and faith-based groups in the state, including Bishop John Wester of the Catholic Church. The Salt Lake City-based Mormon church did not sign, but endorsed, the Utah Compact.
That document, Shurtleff said, is being looked at as a model for other states and he hoped it would change the dialogue on the issue in states like Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.
"Don’t go backwards on this issue," he said. "Continue to be an example and invite neighboring states to pass laws similar to ours."
The law he was talking about is HB116, Utah’s attempt at trying to normalize the status for the states’ existing undocumented population. Signed in March by Gov. Gary Herbert, the law would allow undocumented immigrants working in the state to be granted guest worker status after getting a background check and paying a fine. However, Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Provo, is looking at making changes to that law, which is scheduled to take effect in 2013.
Opponents of HB116, however, argue it’s unconstitutional and Arturo Morales-Llan has been a leader in attempting to repeal it.
He said the conference was a one-sided affair that was simply trying to cater to the Latino vote at the expense of the party base.
"Shurtleff’s conference is conveniently timed to advance [President Barack] Obama’s amnesty agenda and the HB116 guest worker law," Morales-LLan said. "It legalizes tens of thousands of illegal immigrants in the State of Utah and advances amnesty efforts nationwide."
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http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/52790322-90/immigration-state-enfo...
