In the Wake

[Migrant Health Promotion]

MHP Immigration News Service

June 1, 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. Juan Osuna Named Head of US Immigration Courts. Latin American Herald Tribune. May 16, 2011.
2. U.S. to investigate Secure Communities deportation program. Lee Romney. Los Angeles Times. May 18, 2011.
3. Immigration crackdown worries Vidalia onion county. Associated Press. May 20, 2011.
4. Tuition break for illegal immigrants is tested. David G. Savage. The Tribune Newspapers. STLToday.com. May 22, 2011.
5. Immigration proposal that died in Texas could get second life. Corrie MacLaggan. Reuters. May 31, 2011.
6. U.S. House bill would increase immigration-enforcement spending. Marcos Restrepo. The Florida Independent. May 31, 2011.

1. Juan Osuna Named Head of US Immigration Courts. Latin American Herald Tribune. May 16, 2011.

Excerpt: WASHINGTON – US Attorney General Eric Holder appointmented Juan Osuna as the permanent Director for the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) at the Department of Justice, the top official in charge of the nation's immigration-court system.

“Having served with the department for over a decade, Juan has developed an extensive knowledge of immigration litigation and issues, and demonstrated himself to be a diligent and thoughtful advocate and manager,” said Attorney General Holder. “I am confident he will lead this office with the highest standards of professionalism, integrity and dedication.”

EOIR was created on Jan. 9, 1983, through an internal department reorganization which combined the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) with the Immigration Judge function previously performed by the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) (now part of the Department of Homeland Security)..

Unlike criminal and civil courts, the judges that decide immigration issues – detention and punishment of illegal immigrants, petitions for asylum, among others – are under the DOJ's jurisdiction.

These courts are some of the most overstretched in the country, particularly in recent years as the number of immigration cases has skyrocketed. The high volume of cases forces judges to decide important cases quickly, and the average petitioner still waits over a year for his case to be heard, according to a recent nonpartisan study.

“I am honored by the Attorney General’s appointment and look forward to continuing to serve the department and the American people on these important issues,” Osuna said.

2. U.S. to investigate Secure Communities deportation program. Lee Romney. Los Angeles Times. May 18, 2011.

Excerpt: Reporting from San Francisco—

The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General plans an investigation of an immigration enforcement program that purports to target "serious convicted felons" for deportation but has ensnared many illegal immigrants who were arrested but not subsequently convicted of crimes or who committed minor offenses, a letter obtained Wednesday shows.

The letter from acting Inspector General Charles K. Edwards to Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), who requested an investigation late last month, said the watchdog agency had already scheduled a review of the program, known as Secure Communities. Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency launched the program in 2008 with plans for mandatory nationwide participation by 2013.

The review, Edwards wrote, aims to "determine the extent to which ICE uses the program to identify and remove dangerous criminal aliens from the United States."

It will also examine cost, "the accuracy of ICE's data collection," whether the program is being applied equitably across communities, and the way ICE officials portrayed the program to states and counties, which were initially told they could opt out but were later informed that participation has always been mandatory.

Proponents, including Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, say the program is successfully targeting serious threats to public safety. According to ICE, about 28,000, or 35%, of the people deported so far had been convicted of felonies including murder and rape. An unknown number who appear in ICE data on the program as "noncriminals" or as having committed only misdemeanors had prior violent felonies here or in their home countries, or were previously deported and returned illegally, they note.

But opponents contend that by also sweeping up minor offenders or those never convicted of crimes, the program is dissuading illegal immigrants from cooperating with law enforcement.

ICE data show that about half those flagged for deportation since the program began were not convicted after their arrest or were convicted of misdemeanors. Immigrant rights groups also say the program has encouraged racial profiling, an allegation that recently prompted Homeland Security officials to hire an outside statistician to analyze the arrest data.

3. Immigration crackdown worries Vidalia onion county. Associated Press. May 20, 2011.

Excerpt: LYONS, Ga. (AP) — Signs point to an exodus in Vidalia onion country. Fliers on a Mexican storefront advertise free transportation for workers willing to pick jalapenos and banana peppers in Florida and blueberries in the Carolinas. Buying an outbound bus ticket now requires reservations.

Illegal immigrants and their families who harvest southeast Georgia's trademarked sweet onions are considering leaving rather than risk deportation in the wake of a law signed by Gov. Nathan Deal targeting illegal workers.

While most states rejected immigration crackdowns this year, conservative Georgia and Utah are the only states where comprehensive bills have passed. With the ink barely dry on Georgia's law, among the toughest in the country, the divisions between suburban voters and those in the countryside are once again laid bare when it comes to immigration, even among people who line up on many other issues.

The new law penalizes people who harbor or transport illegal immigrants in some situations and allows law enforcement officers to check the immigration status of suspects who can't show an approved form of identification. Using false documents to get a job will be a felony once the law goes into effect in July.

Private employers with more than 10 workers must eventually use a federal database called E-Verify to check the immigration status of new hires. That doesn't sit well with farmers or many of their illegal laborers.

Drive three hours from Atlanta into vegetable country — also a right-leaning region — and many oppose the law out of fear it will drive out the workers, legal and illegal, who stoop to pull up the Vidalia onions and other produce that make Georgia farming famous..

Alfredo Perez said he arrived illegally from Mexico three years ago. He travels between Florida, Michigan and Georgia picking crops.

"I think this law is difficult because they don't want to let us work here. We're not delinquents," he said. "We usually come here during onion season, but because of the law, we're going to have to think about whether or not we'll come back."

Authorities face a decision on how strictly to enforce parts of the law.

Toombs County Sheriff Alvie Lee Kight Jr. knows the dilemma well. He's responsible for patrolling the area. His family also grows Vidalia onions. Prominent famers want him to show leniency. An elected official, he may well face pressure from voters to target illegal immigrants.

He's sympathetic to many sides of the debate. Kight said his family farm has at times been unable to get visas for temporary field workers, forcing it to hire local labor. That comes with the risk of employing illegal immigrants. As long as workers present what appear to be legitimate documents, employers cannot delve deeper into their immigration status..

Onion farmers fear losing their workers, legal or not.

Delbert Bland owns Bland Farms, one of the biggest sweet onion growers in the country. He and his father started with five acres in 1983. The international operation is now approaching $100 million in sales.

Rather than rely on local hires, Bland's farm has enrolled in a federal guest worker program and brings in as many as 350 workers from Mexico for the spring onion harvest. The company must pay for their travel, housing and utilities, and pay above-market wages. Bland considers it worth the cost when compared to the losses he could suffer if there's a labor shortage during the harvest from April to June.

If local police step up enforcement, Bland predicted it could have a chilling effect on all immigrant workers.

He recently called the local sheriff's office to complain about a motorcyclist who had repeatedly sped past his plant. When deputies arrived to stake out the speeder, it triggered a panic among the workers, one of whom came to talk to him.

"He comes in here and he's as white as a ghost. And he says, 'Mr. Delbert, there's somebody out there, the police is out there. What are we going to do?' And the guy's legal," Bland said.

4. Tuition break for illegal immigrants is tested. David G. Savage. The Tribune Newspapers. STLToday.com. May 22, 2011.

Excerpt: WASHINGTON • California's policy of granting lower, in-state tuition to illegal immigrants who graduate from its high schools is facing a challenge in the Supreme Court from those who say it violates federal immigration law.

At issue is a little-known provision in a 1996 law that bars states from giving "any postsecondary benefit" to an "alien who is not lawfully present in the United States ... on the basis of residence within a state."

Last year, in the first ruling of its kind, the state supreme court upheld California's policy and said it did not conflict with federal law.

The U.S. Supreme Court justices may announce as soon as Monday whether they will hear the challenge or dismiss it.

The justices may turn it away because there is no dispute amongst the lower courts.

It is also possible the high court could ask the administration of President Barack Obama for its view before deciding.

If the high court were to hear the case and overrule California, the decision would affect 11 other states that have opted to give in-state tuition to students who are illegal immigrants.

The federal law forbids giving "preferential treatment" to illegal aliens "on the basis of residence" within their state.

The California law, by contrast, says students may qualify for in-state tuition based on "high school attendance in California for three or more years and graduation from a California high school."

The state's lawyers argue that since the benefit turns on high school attendance, not "residence," it does not violate federal law. Kobach called that a 'semantic game."

The state says more than 41,000 students — less than 1 percent of total enrollment in its colleges and universities — qualify for lower tuition thanks to the special exemption.

5. Immigration proposal that died in Texas could get second life. Corrie MacLaggan. Reuters. May 31, 2011.

Excerpt: (Reuters) - When the regular session of the Texas Legislature ended on Monday, most key immigration legislation was left dead, including a proposal championed by Republican Governor Rick Perry that sought to crack down on cities that provide sanctuary to illegal immigrants.

The failure of the Republican-backed legislation came despite a large GOP majority in both the House and Senate. Texas is one of more than a dozen states where Republicans have sought to tighten immigration laws a year after Arizona passed a high-profile crackdown on illegal immigration.

"If Texas had followed the Arizona path of prejudice, xenophobia and intolerance toward immigrants, the U.S. values of liberty and justice for all would have been eroded in this great state for generations," said a statement from the Reform Immigration for Texas Alliance, which opposed the measure.

But now that Perry has called lawmakers back for a special session of the Legislature to address an unresolved budget matter, proponents of the sanctuary city bill have renewed hope that the legislation could have another chance. It's up to Perry which issues to add to the agenda for the special session, which began on Tuesday..

Perry has said the Arizona law wasn't right for Texas, and the governor has to walk a careful line between showing his conservative base he is tough on immigration while avoiding alienating the state's rapidly growing Hispanic population.

In the 2010 Texas gubernatorial race, 61 percent of Latino voters chose Bill White, the Democrat, over Perry, according to the Pew Hispanic Center..

"We don't need this kind of bill in Texas," Maria Lopez of the Cesar Chavez Legacy Foundation, which organized the rally, told Reuters. "For one thing, we always as human beings, we always stereotype."

Republican State Representative Leo Berman had proposed several unsuccessful measures to crack down on illegal immigration, including one that would have ended birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants and another that would have required employers to check the immigration status of employees through the federal E-verify program.

"I'm very disappointed and I know exactly why it happened," Berman told Reuters.

"From the highest levels in the state of Texas down, there is no will, except for very few, to deal with the tough question of illegal aliens in Texas."

6. U.S. House bill would increase immigration-enforcement spending. Marcos Restrepo. The Florida Independent. May 31, 2011.

Excerpt: The U.S. House of Representatives could vote this week on a 2012 Homeland Security Appropriations bill passed last Thursday by the Appropriations Committee that includes expanded spending on immigration enforcement.

The Appropriations Committee members include Florida Republicans Ander Crenshaw, C.W. Bill Young and Mario Diaz-Balart.

According to the National Immigration Forum:

    This is the first full-year [Department of Homeland Security] spending bill authored by the new Republican leadership in the House. Overall, the bill continues the Republican’s recent tendency to throw money at enforcing our broken immigration laws, increasing budgets for programs that do nothing to address the policy flaws that underlie our broken system. While there has been a lot of talk this year of the need to cut government spending, the reality in this bill is that the House is ready to spend even more money on programs that have proven controversial while doing nothing to reduce the nation’s undocumented immigrant population and our economy’s dependence on workers who now cannot work legally.

Homeland Security is the agency in charge of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (aka ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

According to the National Immigration Forum, through this House Appropriations Act (.pdf), the Customs and Border Protection will receive $8.77 billion—$44 million more than President Obama asked for in his budget, and more than half a billion dollars more than allocated for 2011. The increase would bring the Border Patrol up to 21,370 agents.

The National Immigration Forum reports that “ICE was allocated $5.5 billion, $25.6 million more than the President requested and $84.8 million more than in 2011.”

The Forum adds that”Secure Communities got $194 million, $10 million more than the President requested.”..

The Florida Independent reported last week that plans for a new immigration detention facility in South Florida have attracted Corrections Corporation of America and The GEO Group, two of the largest players in the private prison industry, both of which are partnering with different local governments to offer competing proposals.

In President Obama’s 2012 Department of Homeland Security budget proposal, Customs and Border Protection would receive 21 percent of the proposed 2012 Homeland Security budget (a 3 percent increase), ICE 10 percent (a 1 percent increase) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services 5 percent (a 5 percent drop).