The Boon of Immigration: Newcomers to America More Than Pull Their Economic Weight

New York Daily News: As documented by the Fiscal Policy Institute, immigration has, in fact, been a vital force in the American economy. Even in tough times, immigrants boost or replenish the labor pool and inject entrepreneurial energy that opens businesses and creates jobs. Using data from the Census Bureau, the report looks at 25 major cities, from Los Angeles to New York to Miami to Seattle, and proves that immigrants more than pull their weight.

Unemployed U.S.-Born Workers Seek Day-Labor Jobs

USA Today reported that growing ranks of U.S. citizens are heading to street corners and home improvement store parking lots to find day-labor work usually done by illegal immigrants. The trend is most pronounced in regions where hot construction markets have collapsed, says Abel Valenzuela Jr., a professor of urban planning at the University of California-Los Angeles.

Public Favors Both Strict Enforcement and Path to Citizenship: Health bills fail to block illegals from coverage

Washington Times: Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants could receive health care coverage from their employers under the bills winding their way through Congress, despite President Obama's explicit pledge that illegal immigrants would not benefit. A rough estimate by the Center for Immigration Studies suggests that the practical effect of the mandates would be that about 1 million illegal immigrants could obtain health insurance coverage through their employers.

H1-B visas to run out next week

Due to a recent surge in H-1B applications, it appears that Immigration will run out of H-1B visas for fiscal year 2010 by next week.

H-1B Quota To Be Reached in December

As of November 20th, Immigration has received 56,900 H-1B visas, subject to the cap of 65,000 visas, leaving only 8,100 left for the rest of the fiscal year. However, 6,800 of those visas are reserved for Chile and Singapore. Therefore, there are only 1,300 H-1B visas left. Immigration will probably run out of H-1B visas in early December

Immigrants in the U.S Suffering More Than Native-Born Workers from Economic Downturn

The Los Angeles Times reported that Immigrants in the United States surpassed native-born workers in several key ways from the mid-1990s through 2007, recording higher employment and lower jobless rates.But that trend was reversed with the onset of the current recession, according to the latest report from the Migration Policy Institute.

Immigration Officials to Audit 1,000 More Companies

The New York Times reports: Immigration enforcement officials said Thursday that they were expanding a program for auditing companies that might have hired illegal immigrants and had notified 1,000 companies this week that they would have to undergo such a review. John Morton, who heads Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, announced the new initiative, saying it was part of the administration’s plan to deal with companies that hire illegal workers.

Homeland Secretary Pushes Immigration Reform

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State Report Urges Financial Aid, Driver's Licenses for Illegal Immigrants

The Metro West Daily News reported that: Governor Deval Patrick released a state-sponsored report on foreign-born residents Tuesday that calls for allowing illegal immigrants to apply for college financial aid, in-state tuition and, eventually, drivers' licenses. The report, called the New Americans Agenda, was prepared by an executive branch advisory council, an immigrant advocacy group and a state agency, and is meant to better integrate immigrants and refugees into the state's social, economic and civic spheres.

Arizona Prosecutor Files First Employer Sanctions Case

Houston Chronicle: Maricopa County prosecutors on Wednesday filed Arizona's first civil complaint against a business under a 22-month-old state law that prohibits employers from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

Initially Waved Off, Hispanic Advocates Jump into Health Debate – Effort Centers on Ensuring Reform Doesn't Shortchange Immigrants

The Washington Post reported that: After trying to carefully balance their interests in health-care reform and immigration, the nation's Hispanic lawmakers and largest advocacy groups are scrambling to develop a strategy to counter what they see as efforts to shortchange immigrants in health bills on Capitol Hill. Many of them believe that a health-care overhaul is vital to their community, which is disproportionately uninsured and suffers from a host of chronic illnesses. But with the current bills excluding more than a million Hispanics – mostly legal immigrants – the debate runs into the issue of immigrants' rights.

Potential San Francisco Showdown Over Immigration

New York Times: Setting up a potential showdown with the mayor, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors reinstated an ordinance on Tuesday requiring that juvenile offenders who are illegal immigrants be convicted of a crime before they are turned over to the federal immigration authorities. The ordinance had been passed by the board in October but was quickly vetoed by Mayor Gavin Newsom, who said that it very likely conflicted with federal immigration law. On Tuesday, the board overrode that veto on an 8-to-3 vote.

US Officials Begin Push Against Human Trafficking

Associated Press: Fourteen cities are being targeted in a new campaign aimed at alerting people about human trafficking, federal immigration officials have announced. The "Hidden in Plain Sight" initiative, sponsored by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, features billboards highlighting "the horrors and the prevalence of human trafficking," which the agency says is equivalent to "modern-day slavery."

After Immigrant Killed in N.Y., Others Tell of Abuse

Associated Press: There had been other high-profile attacks on a growing Hispanic population on eastern Long Island before Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero was stabbed to death a year ago Sunday on a street corner. But it wasn't until the seven teens accused in the killing told police of the attacks — and Hispanic residents who had been long silent about hate crimes came forward to confirm the stories — that officials began to realize what they were dealing with.

Poll Shows Gloomy View In California

The Politico reported that the Los Angeles Times/University of Southern California poll interviewed 1,500 registered voters from October 27 to November 3. It was conducted by Democratic pollster Greenberg Quinlan Rosner and the GOP polling firm Public Opinion Strategies. And 54 percent of voters preferred Congress to change immigration laws to allow illegal immigrants to become citizens if they have clean records, pay a fine and meet other requirements. Thirty-nine percent favored an immigration overhaul that would emphasize stronger border controls and deporting people who are here illegally.

ICE Arrests Migrants with Permits to Be in the Country Legally

Los Angeles Times: Two women who had applied and been approved under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) that gives them permits to be in the country legally report being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, arrests that landed them in jail, in one case for an entire month. Elvira Ayon, 26, who also was approved under VAWA, was arrested in Delano, California, and later taken to an immigration detention center in Arizona where she spent a month before a lawyer gained her released. Jorge Mario Cabrera, spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) says such cases are common and calls them proof of the “racial profiling” practiced by ICE.

Health Care Debate Focuses on Legal Immigrants

The New York Times reports that the debate over health care for illegal immigrants continues to percolate in Congress despite the Obama administration’s efforts to put it to rest, with lawmakers in both houses also wrangling over how much coverage to provide for immigrants who have settled in the country legally. Latino leaders, worried that Congress might quietly cut back benefits for legal immigrants, have started an 11th-hour campaign to eliminate waiting periods for them in the proposed legislation and to cancel the existing five-year wait for Medicare and Medicaid programs. “You can either keep those immigrants healthy now, or exclude them and wait until they get really sick, then pay for it down the line,” said Prof. Steven P. Wallace, associate director of the U.C.L.A. research center. “If you don’t pay now, you’re going to pay for them later.”

A Welcome Sign

Houston Chronicle: The United States has long been a resolute, generous leader in the international struggle to eliminate AIDS, but for the past 22 years it has also been one of a handful of countries to refuse entry to HIV-positive visitors, both tourists and those seeking to become legal residents. But last week, as he prepared to sign a bill reauthorizing funds for HIV/AIDS programs, President Barack Obama announced an end to the ban, calling it a policy “rooted in fear rather than fact.”

Democrats Confront Coalition Strains

The Wall Street Journal reports that elections this week left Democrats scrambling to renew the coalition that elected President Barack Obama after independent voters, whose power to determine U.S. elections is rising with their numbers, broke heavily toward Republicans. One indicator of how Mr. Obama will respond to the election might be reflected in his decisions over the overhaul of U.S. immigration laws. The president's approval rating remains sky-high with Latino voters, one official said, but they didn't come out to vote Tuesday. To turn them out, Democrats may have to press ahead with a broad overhaul of immigration laws next year, including the creation of a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

Denver Immigrant Asylum Center Latest to Close

Associated Press: A Denver center that offered counseling and legal help to immigrants who sought asylum after they were tortured in their home countries has closed after losing its federal grant. The Rocky Mountain Survivors Center closed last month.

"Toughest Sheriff" Stumps in OC Sheriff's Race

The San Jose Mercury News reported that about 50 immigrant rights activists have shown up at an Orange County campaign fundraiser to protest an appearance by the self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America."

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio spoke Thursday at the fundraiser for former sheriff's Lt. Bill Hunt, who is challenging Sheriff Sandra Hutchens in June.

Supreme Court Query Puts Janet Napolitano on the Spot

Politico: A simple query from the Supreme Court is forcing the Obama administration to wrestle with the limits of states’ authority to enforce immigration laws — and also is throwing an uncomfortable spotlight on Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. On Monday, the justices asked the Justice Department to provide its views on Arizona’s attempt to force employers to verify the immigration status of potential employees. The law being challenged in the cases was signed by Napolitano in 2007, when she was governor of Arizona. Napolitano, who was a defendant in the litigation, has stated that she believes the law is constitutional.

Two Hot Buttons: Senate and House bills limit coverage for illegal immigrants and abortion; but critics aren't satisfied.

Los Angeles Times: Sponsors of the healthcare reform bills in Congress have tried hard to steer the legislation around the hot-button issues of abortion and illegal immigration, but to no avail; controversies about both continue to threaten the measures. Supporters say the bills respect the government's long-standing approach to abortion and undocumented immigrants; opponents, however, argue that the bills would flout current policy by allowing tax dollars to finance abortion on demand and nonemergency medical care for people who are here illegally.

Senate Blocks Census Citizenship Question

The Associated Press reported that Senate Democrats Thursday blocked a GOP attempt to require next year's census forms to ask people whether they are U.S. citizens. The proposal by Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter was aimed at excluding non-citizens from the population totals that are used to figure the number of congressional representatives for each state. Critics said Vitter's plan would discourage immigrants from responding to the census and would be hugely expensive. They also said that it's long been settled law that the apportionment of congressional seats is determined by the number of people living in each state, regardless of whether they are citizens.

In Round One of the Census Battle, Vitter and Bennett Lose

Newsweek: The 2010 census has sparked a battle over whether undocumented immigrants should be part of the count and thus included in state tallies used to reapportion Congressional seats, as has been the case in past cycles. The opening round of that fight was a proposed amendment sponsored by Republican Senators David Vitter and Robert Bennett that would have added a question to the census survey asking whether the respondent is a citizen or not. The aim was to later strip out non-citizens when it came time for reapportionment. Well, the senators lost that round.