Meet that Goal

[Migrant Health Promotion]

MHP Immigration News Service

May 13, 2011

Immigration News Service is a project of Migrant Health Promotion. Its purpose is to educate members of the farmworker health community about trends in immigration policy and empower them to become involved in the immigration policy debate.  This bi-weekly news service features articles from mainstream, national, local, and alternative news sources and presents links and excerpts, without editorializing.

Submit articles to be considered for inclusion in this news service to cdu...@migranthealth.org.  To learn more about Migrant Health Promotion, visit www.migranthealth.org. Click here to make a tax-deductible donation.

Tell your friends to subscribe to Immigration News Service by emailing mhp_immigr...@googlegroups.com.  Do you have feedback on format or content of Immigration News? Contact cdu...@migranthealth.org.

Join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MigrantHealth.

Table of Contents

1. Illinois withdraws from federal immigration program. Antonio Oliv. Chicago Tribune. May 5, 2011.
2. San Francisco County jail won’t hold inmates for ICE. Brent Begin. San Francisco Examiner. May 5, 2011.
3. Arizona governor pens memoir on immigration battle. David Schwartz. Reuters. May 11, 2011.
4. Census: Growing age gap among US regions, sharpening divides over Medicare and immigration. Associated Press. The Washington Post. May 12, 2011.
5. DREAM Act filed again this week in U.S. Senate. Marcos Restrepo. The Florida Independent. May 12, 2011.
   

1. Illinois withdraws from federal immigration program. Antonio Oliv. Chicago Tribune. May 5, 2011.

Excerpt: Gov. Pat Quinn and state lawmakers Wednesday cast Illinois as a sympathetic voice in the nation's volatile immigration debate with two actions that run counter to a wave of pro-enforcement measures approved or under consideration in Arizona and other states.

Quinn's office on Wednesday sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security declaring the state's formal withdrawal from Secure Communities, a federal deportation program that targets hardened criminals but has also been used against illegal immigrants arrested for misdemeanor crimes.

Nearly a third of all illegal immigrants deported out of Illinois under the program have never been convicted of any crime, the letter stated, citing federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement figures. Quinn's office suspended the state's role in the program in November amid concerns about its effectiveness.

"During the suspension, we voiced our concerns to ICE and asked them to prove that Secure Communities can and will be implemented as agreed to," the governor's office said in a statement. "After review, we were not satisfied and determined that ICE's ongoing implementation of Secure Communities is flawed."

The governor's action came as state representatives were preparing to vote on legislation that would make participation in Secure Communities optional for Illinois counties.

In a statement, ICE defended its implementation of the Secure Communities program.

"ICE's goal is to enhance public safety by removing those illegally in our county who are also breaking criminal laws," the agency said. "ICE will work with the State of Illinois to meet that goal."

2. San Francisco County jail won’t hold inmates for ICE. Brent Begin. San Francisco Examiner. May 5, 2011.

Excerpt: San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey will start releasing illegal immigrants arrested for low-level crimes from jail even if federal officials notified through a controversial fingerprint identification program request that they be held for a deportation hearing.

The new policy, set to begin June 1, means illegal immigrants arrested for petty crimes such as disorderly conduct, drunk in public or shoplifting will not be held in jail until U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials come to collect them.

San Francisco would become the first county in California to implement such a policy, he said.

Local jails are not required to hold inmates if ICE has identified them as illegal immigrants, and sheriff’s deputies would not be violating any law, Hennessey said.

The change is meant to uphold San Francisco’s sanctuary ordinance, which prohibits local officials from assisting ICE unless it involves a felony.

“I’m just doing our best to enforce local law. That’s my job,” said Hennessey, who has announced he will retire at the end of the year..

The move is generating sharp criticism from groups opposed to sanctuary cities.

“It’s an astonishing abuse of his office,” said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based legal advocacy group that is currently suing The City over a similar immigration issue.

“I guarantee you that someone who is released by him as a result of his lawlessness will go on to commit a more serious crime,” Fitton said.

Secure Communities has come under increasing fire across the state and country as non-criminals continue to be swept up through the program. Hennessey has attempted to opt out of the program since its inception, but ICE has said only states can opt out of the program.

3. Arizona governor pens memoir on immigration battle. David Schwartz. Reuters. May 11, 2011.

Excerpt: (Reuters) - Arizona's Republican Governor Jan Brewer is penning a tell-all memoir about the controversial state crackdown on illegal immigration she signed into law last year, according to her publisher.

The book, titled "Scorpions For Breakfast: My Fight Against Special Interests, Liberal Media and Cynical Politicos to Secure America's Border," is scheduled to be published in November by Broadside Books, a conservative imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

In it, Brewer, 66, will offer her account of the battle over the get-tough measure she signed in April 2010, which sought to drive nearly half-a-million illegal immigrants out of the state and stem smuggling over the Mexico border..

Earlier this week, Brewer announced she would take the fight to have SB 1070 fully implemented to the U.S. Supreme Court, after a federal judge's stay on key provisions was upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in April.

4. Census: Growing age gap among US regions, sharpening divides over Medicare and immigration. Associated Press. The Washington Post. May 12, 2011.

Excerpt: WASHINGTON — Driven by immigrants and young people moving to the South and West and older Americans who stay put elsewhere, the age gap between regions in the U.S. has grown to its widest level in decades, sharpening the divides on hot-button issues such as immigration and changes to Medicare.

The information from the Census Bureau highlights the impact of recent waves of young Mexican immigrants and their children, who are helping to slow the aging of the population in many parts of the United States. It is reinforced by fresh data released Thursday that show a median-age jump of 2.5 years or more over the last decade for states including New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Ohio and Connecticut where there are fewer immigrants.

“The census numbers show that we are really splitting apart between regions that are gaining younger people and families with children and those that are getting older and where traditional families are becoming scarce,” said William H. Frey, a demographer at Brookings Institution.

He cited several factors leading to the growing divide, including aging of the nation’s 78 million mostly white baby boomers, who are now between the ages of 46 and 65 and past their prime childbearing years. Their demographic impact is being keenly felt in the Northeast and Midwest, especially in the current economic slump, as many young adults and immigrants seek better job opportunities in the Sun Belt..

The western U.S. region — which includes states with sizable Hispanic populations such as California, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado — had the nation’s lowest median age last year at roughly 35.1, compared with 39 in the Northeast and 37.5 in the Midwest, according to census estimates.

That age difference of 3.9 years with the Northeast and 2.4 with the Midwest is nearly double the levels in 1990, when the oldest boomers were beginning to move out of their prime childbearing years..

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and other Republicans have indicated that without an adequate budget agreement on curbing the costs of Medicare and other entitlements, bigger cuts would be required elsewhere. Previous GOP proposals have targeted discretionary domestic spending programs such as education.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama is seeking to make immigration overhaul a wedge issue against Republicans, telling voters along the border in El Paso, Texas, this week to push Congress to pass legislation providing a pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants. His move comes amid rapid Mexican population growth mostly in the South and West that could help tip swing states but has also prompted Republican-controlled legislatures in Arizona and Utah to pass stringent laws seeking to limit illegal immigration.

Mexican immigrants, who are younger and more likely to have children, tend to lean Democratic if they vote.

5. DREAM Act filed again this week in U.S. Senate. Marcos Restrepo. The Florida Independent. May 12, 2011.

Excerpt: Senator Richard Durbin, D-IL re-introduced on Wednesday the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, one day after President Obama’s speech on immigration reform.

The DREAM Act – first proposed in 2001 – would grant people who entered the U.S. illegally before the age of 16 conditional permanent resident status for a period of six years, after which they would be eligible to become legal permanent residents, if they obtain at least an associate-level college degree to be eligible for legal permanent resident status or serve in the two years in the military.

A study by the Migration Policy Institute released last year indicates that the DREAM Act could benefit up to 2.1 million undocumented youth, even though only about 825,000 would gain permanent legal status. In Florida there are about 192,000 potential DREAM Act beneficiaries..

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, FAIR -that opposes the DREAM Act-  has called it, “a sweeping illegal alien amnesty bill.”