Our overloaded immigration courts

It sounds counterintuitive, but since the failure of comprehensive immigration reform in 2007, the prevailing wisdom in Washington has been that the way to earn public support for allowing this country's approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship is for the federal government to vigorously prosecute violations of immigration law. Tough enforcement, in other words, will convince Americans that reform is warranted. 

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-aba22-2010feb22,0,4738167.story

Posted by: Melissa Diaz 

Trends in Health Care Spending for Immigrants in the United States

The suspected burden that undocumented immigrants may 

place on the U.S. health care system has been a flashpoint in health care 

and immigration reform debates. An examination of health care 

spending during 1999–2006 for adult naturalized citizens and immigrant 

noncitizens (which includes some undocumented immigrants) finds that 

the cost of providing health care to immigrants is lower than that of 

providing care to U.S. natives and that immigrants are not contributing 

disproportionately to high health care costs in public programs such as 

Medicaid. However, noncitizen immigrants were found to be more likely 

than U.S. natives to have a health care visit classified as uncompensated 

care. 

http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/reprint/hlthaff.2009.0400v1

Posted by: Melissa Diaz 

E-Verify Misses Half of Illegal Workers, Report Finds

AP

Updated February 25, 2010

Online tool Congress and the Obama administration want employers to use to help curb illegal immigration wrongly clears illegal workers about 54 percent of the time.

WASHINGTON - The system Congress and the Obama administration want employers to use to help curb illegal immigration is failing to catch more than half the number of unauthorized workers it checks, a research company has found.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/25/e-verify-misses-half-illegal-workers-report-finds/

[Posted by: Kimberly Figueroa]

For Republicans, Contest's Hallmark is Illegal Immigration

The imagery of the mailings is designed to pack a wallop: a Mexican flag fluttering above the Stars and Stripes, the Statue of Liberty presiding over a "Welcome Illegal Aliens" doormat, a Social Security card emblazoned with the name "Juan Doe," a U.S. passport proclaiming, "Only one candidate has a plan to STAMP out illegal immigration."

Link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/01/AR2008010102333.html


[Posted by: Verenice Andrade, source: Washington Post]

Journey to the Border

These are 4 short clips (about 2 and a half minute long) that narrate the journey of a Central American immigrant to the United States. The four sections are:
1. The River
2. The Train
3. The clinic
4. The Detention Center

Link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/interactives/journeyborder/index.html


[Posted by: Verenice Andrade, source: The Washington Post]

World's refugee orphans seeking homes in the US

HOLLISTON, Mass. - Hiding from merciless militiamen and trekking through unforgiving mountainous terrain, Madhel Majok escaped the mass slayings and genocide of the Sudan that killed his parents. The 9-year-old orphan fled to neighboring Kenya, where he then survived vigilante shellings on his crowded refugee camp.

Majok remained in limbo for eight years while waiting for any country to grant him refuge.

Full Story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35508416/

[Posted by: Marina Guastucci]

Muslims turning to home schooling in increasing numbers

By Tara Bahrampour

Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 21, 2010

On a chilly afternoon in western Loudoun County, a group of children used tweezers to extract rodent bones from a regurgitated owl pellet. A boy built a Lego launcher. A girl practiced her penmanship. On the wall, placards read, "I fast in Ramadan," "I pay zakat" and "I will go on hajj."

Welcome to Priscilla Martinez's home -- and her children's school, where Martinez is teacher, principal and guidance counselor, and where the credo "Allah created everything" is taught alongside math, grammar and science.

Martinez and her six children, ages 2 to 12, are part of a growing number of Muslims who home-school. In the Washington area, Martinez says, she has seen the number of home-schoolers explode in the past five years.

Although three-quarters of the nation's estimated 2 million home-schoolers identify themselves as Christian, the number of Muslims is expanding "relatively quickly," compared with other groups, said Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/20/AR2010022001235.html

[Posted by: Juliana Steers]

Korean Student Shares a Secret | 한인청년의 비밀 고백

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5G5F5_CrZQ&feature=player_embedded

http://www.joinju.com/

[Posted by Marwin Yeung]

Hispanics Feeling Heat Of Immigration Debate

Survey finds majority feel vulnerable.

By N.C. Aizenman

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 14, 2007

"What we have here is a portrait of a population that is feeling vulnerable in the current political and policy climate," said Paul Taylor, acting director of the Pew Hispanic Center. "And what's interesting is that it's not just true of the foreign born but of the native born, including many people who have been here for generations."

Though the federal government has substantially increased enforcement actions such as workplace raids over the past five years, the numbers arrested through such actions remain infinitesimal compared to the almost 8 million undocumented immigrants in the workforce.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/13/AR2007121301733.html

[Posted by Yoori Chung]

Rising health care costs put focus on illegal immigrants

BENSON, N.C. — Juan Perez had stomach pains for a month before deciding to visit a health clinic here that is open Thursday nights so migrant farmworkers don't miss a day working in the fields.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-01-21-immigrant-healthcare_N.htm

Posted by: Christian lopez

The effect of illegal aliens on American health care

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWTK3SPH8cs

L.A. Emergency Rooms Full of Illegal Immigrants

Overburdened by the uninsured and overwhelmed by illegal immigration (search), public health care in Los Angeles is on life support.

Sixty percent of the county's uninsured patients are not U.S. citizens. More than half are here illegally. About 2 million undocumented aliens in Los Angeles County alone are crowding emergency rooms because they can't afford to see a doctor.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,150750,00.html

Posted by: Christian Lopez

Obama: Legalize illegals to get them health care

President Obama said this week that his health care plan won't cover illegal immigrants, but argued that's all the more reason to legalize them and ensure they eventually do get coverage.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,150750,00.html

Posted by: Christian Lopez

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Startup Founders

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Startup Founders
By Farhad Manjoo

Andy Grove, Intel's former chairman and CEO, was born in Hungary in 1936 and immigrated to the United States in his 20s. Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo, was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and moved to San Jose, Calif., with his family as a child. Sergey Brin, who co-founded Google, came to the United States from his native Russia when he was 6. They aren't special cases: About one-quarter of American tech companies are founded in part or entirely by foreigners. The proportion in Silicon Valley is even higher—a recent survey (PDF) by Vivek Wadhwa, an engineering professor at Duke University, showed that more than 52 percent of Valley startups were founded or co-founded by people born outside of the United States. According to Wadhwa's research, immigrant-founded firms produced $52 billion in sales and employed 450,000 workers in 2005.

http://www.slate.com/id/2228258/pagenum/all/#p2



[Posted by Melissa Cuen]

Just the Facts

The debate surrounding Utah's immigration law (SB 81) is driven in part by a more fundamental question: are undocumented immigrants criminals? Some quickly respond to this question with another one:"what part of illegal do you not understand?" For those that view murder and rape in a different league than illegal border crossings and document fraud, however, such simple and often emotion-driven reactions fail to satisfy.

Utahns do not consider themselves criminals when they regularly break traffic laws or trespassing laws, and rightfully so. These actions do not prey upon society in ways that merit the term "criminal," even though they are often not victimless offenses.


www.sutherlandinstitute.org/uploads/immigrationJustTheFacts.pdf

[Posted by: Melissa Diaz]

Getting Tough on Exploitation

Getting Tough on Exploitation
By Amy Traub

Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that the Obama administration would seek legal status for 12 million undocumented immigrants in early 2010. Hard-right tea party organizers reportedly switched gears immediately to denounce the move. Congressman Lamar Smith found it "ironic" that Napolitano framed the push for comprehensive immigration reform as a way to improve the economy. But Napolitano is absolutely right: reforming the nation's immigration laws to bring millions of people already participating in our economy out of the shadows would boost tax revenue, lift the economy and protect working Americans from the unfair labor market competition they now face. The biggest problem is that Congress may be dangerously slow to act: even the much-needed extension of unemployment benefits took the Senate months to approve.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091130/traub


[Posted by Melissa Cuen]

The Power of the Latino Vote in the 2010 Elections.

February 8, 2010

Experts Highlight How Latino Voters Will Influence 2010 Elections
40 Competitive Races in 12 States Could Hinge on Latino Voter Turnout

Washington, DC – The Latino vote has grown exponentially since 2000, changing the political landscape in more than a dozen states across the country, and is poised to be pivotal yet again in the 2010 cycle. According to experts on the politics of the Latino vote, who gathered on a telephonic press conference today, candidates and parties need to do more than say a few words in Spanish—they need to understand and embrace the policies that motivate and influence Latino voters. How both parties handle such issues as comprehensive immigration reform will have a real impact on Latino political behavior, including turnout and party preference, in the congressional mid-terms and beyond.

Eliseo Medina, International Executive Vice President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Janet Murguia, President and CEO of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), and Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice, analyzed the findings of a new report from America’s Voice that reviews the impact Latino voters will have on scores of battleground congressional races this cycle.

"The record influence of the Latino vote in 2008 was not a fluke; not an accident; not a random one-time occurrence," said SEIU International Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina. "It was the result of a growing shift in awareness among Latino voters in every corner of the U.S. about the real power of politics to change lives. As a result of this growing awareness, today we stand witness to the growing might of a diverse, highly-motivated electorate that will change American politics into the future."

Posted By: Ayanna Spikes

Come together, right now, over immigration reform

The message out of Massachusetts might not have been one of voter anger, but a push for solutions in Washington.
By Tamar Jacoby

Like a door slamming shut, the conventional wisdom is hardening. The chances that Congress will take up comprehensive immigration reform this year are increasingly seen as poor to nil.

What killed the prospect, many think, was the Massachusetts special election to replace the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Democrats and Republicans both heard the message: Voters are angry at Washington, and incumbents are at risk for their political lives.

And many lawmakers drew what seemed like the obvious conclusion: Don't touch anything controversial between now and election day in November. Stick to the blandest diet possible, nothing but political comfort food.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-jacoby10-2010feb10,0,5686652.story

Posted by (Julio Navarro)

Study Says Foreigners In U.S. Adapt Quickly

Immigrants of the past quarter-century have been assimilating in the United States at a notably faster rate than did previous generations, according to a study released today.

Modern-day immigrants arrive with substantially lower levels of English ability and earning power than those who entered during the last great immigration wave at the turn of the 20th century. The gap between today's foreign-born and native populations remains far wider than it was in the early 1900s and is particularly large in the case of Mexican immigrants, the report said.

The study, sponsored by the Manhattan Institute, a New York think tank, used census and other data to devise an assimilation index to measure the degree of similarity between the United States' foreign-born and native-born populations. These included civic factors, such as rates of U.S. citizenship and service in the military; economic factors, such as earnings and rates of homeownership; and cultural factors, such as English ability and degree of intermarriage with U.S. citizens. The higher the number on a 100-point index, the more an immigrant resembled a U.S. citizen.

Full text here.


[posted by Maria Rohani]

White Oak Middle School drama program helps African immigrants find their voice

As a group of young African immigrants struggles to adapt to life in the United States, an after-school drama program at White Oak Middle School in Silver Spring strives to make their lives easier by first making them a little harder.

Project X is a program that uses drama, dance, poetry and other creative outlets to help students discuss the tough and sometimes painful problems they face as preteen immigrants with significant language barriers, instructors said. A final unveiling of their creation will be performed for friends, family and donors at the end of the year at Imagination Stage, a nonprofit children's theater in Bethesda.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/03/AR2010020301935.html

Posted by (Julio Navarro)

Food for Thought: Where Would We Be Without Taco Bell?

By Gustavo Arellano

January 24, 2010

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For many foodies and their lefty amigos, Taco Bell belongs in the pantheon of all-time anti-Mexican conspiracies -- a notch below Lou Dobbs but more onerous than the swine flu.

These custodians of cuisine and culture rail against the fast-food behemoth, bemoan how it mongrelizes one of the world's great food traditions with its chalupas and enchiritos, its Volcano Menu and cheese roll-ups. The chain's ubiquity makes it just another foot soldier in corporate America's drive toward nationwide blandness, they'll argue. And how insulting was that darn Chihuahua campaign from a couple of years ago? "Yo quiero Taco Bell?" Muy racist!

Full disclosure: I'm one of those whiners. Ever tried one of their burritos? Blech. But with the recent death of Taco Bell's founder, Glen Bell, it's time to praise the multibillion-dollar powerhouse. It deserves a spot in Mexican American lore, in the gallery honoring those brave pioneers who helped us join the melting pot -- below Cesar Chavez but higher than George Lopez.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-arellano24-2010jan24,0,3854136.story

posted by Chanvathei Lonh

The Impact of Anti-Immigrant Policy on Publicly Subsidized Reproductive Health Care

Throughout its history, the United States has gone through cycles of anti-immigrant fervor. Such times are marked by claims that immigrants—because of excessive numbers, lack of skills and resources, or cultural isolation and differences—are a danger to the country and a drain on its resources. One parti-cularly persistent complaint is that immigrants, regardless of their legal status, take advantage of the nation’s safety-net system of government assistance.

The mid-1990s was a crest of one such cycle. During that time, California voters approved Proposition 187, which prohibited illegal immigrants from receiving virtually all public benefits, including public health coverage and primary and secondary education. For its part, Congress attributed almost half of the expected savings from its so-called welfare reform legislation in 1996 to those to be achieved by establishing years-long waiting periods for legal noncitizens to join such government programs as welfare, food stamps and Medicaid—or excluding them entirely unless and until they gain citizenship.

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/gpr/10/1/gpr100107.html

Posted by: [Sean Ahmed]