Jewish immigration up 17pc in 2009: Israel

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Jewish immigration to Israel increased in 2009 by 17 per cent compared to the previous year, the first rise in a decade, the government said on Sunday.
According to figures presented by the Jewish Agency, the government body in charge of immigration, 16,244 people immigrated to Israel in 2009, whereas 13,869 had moved to the Jewish state the previous year. “We’ve recorded this year, for the first time in ten years, an increase in the number of immigrants,” the agency’s Chairman Nathan Sharansky told reporters.
Nearly half of the immigrants arrived from former Soviet states, with the rest came mostly from North and South America and Europe. Jewish Agency figures also showed that 331 Jews arrived in 2009 from Muslim states, including Turkey, Morocco and Yemen.
More than three million Jews have immigrated to Israel since its creation in 1948 - including one million from former Soviet states since 1990 - under the Law of Return, which offers citizenship and benefits to Jews from anywhere in the world.


Source:nation.com.pk/

French Mosque’s Symbolism Varies With Beholder

MARSEILLE, France — The minaret of the new Grand Mosque of Marseille, whose cornerstone will be laid here in April, will be silent — no muezzin, live or recorded, will disturb the neighborhood with the call to prayer. Instead, the minaret will flash a beam of light for a couple of minutes, five times a day.


Bureau Architecture Méditerranée
One rendering of the Grand Mosque of Marseille had a taller minaret than the one now planned.
Normally, the light would be green, for the color of Islam. But Marseille is a port, and green is reserved for signals to ships at sea. Red? No, the firefighters have reserved red.

Instead, said Noureddine Cheikh, the head of the Marseille Mosque Association, the light will almost surely be purple — a rather nightclubby look for such an elegant building.

So is this assimilation? Mr. Cheikh laughs. “I suppose it is,” he said. “It’s a good symbol of assimilation.”


But as Western Europe is plunged into a new bout of anxiety over the impact of post-colonial Muslim immigration — reeling in varying ways from the implications of a recent Swiss vote to ban minarets altogether — some scholars see a destructive dynamic, with assimilation feeding a reaction that, in turn, spawns resentment, particularly among young Muslims.

Vincent Geisser, a scholar of Islam and immigration at the French National Center for Scientific Research, believes that the more Europe’s Muslims establish themselves as a permanent part of the national scene, the more they frighten some who believe that their national identity could be altered forever.

“Today in Europe the fear of Islam crystallizes all other fears,” Mr. Geisser said. “In Switzerland, it’s minarets. In France, it’s the veil, the burqa and the beard.”

The large new mosque, which its builders call “the symbol of Marseillais Islam,” is a source of pride here in France’s second-largest city, which is at least 25 percent Muslim. But it is also cause for alarm, Mr. Geisser said, embodying the paradox that visible signs of integration set off xenophobic anxiety. “All these symbols reveal a deeper, more lasting presence of Islam,” he said. “It’s the passage of something temporary to something that is implanted and takes root.”

The change has been significant over the last five years, Mr. Geisser said. “Now we’re at a crossroads,” he said, of a complicated European anxiety that stems from economic crisis; the fear of globalization; the perceived increase in immigration as European birthrates fall; and the subsuming of national states into an enlarged Europe.

“There is an angst over identity in Europe,” he said. “There’s a feeling that Europe is becoming smaller and less important. Europe is like an old lady, who whenever she hears a noise thinks it’s a burglary.” This generalized anxiety and fear is translated into a specific one, he argues: Islam, “a box in which everyone expresses their fears.”

The European Union is believed to have more than 15 million Muslims and perhaps as many as 20 million. France has five million to six million Muslims, the most in Western Europe.

In general, relations between Muslims and other Europeans have been good. But the terrorism associated with attacks in France in 1995 and 2001 in the United States has resonated through the years, reinforced by the Madrid train bombings in 2004; the killing that year of the Dutch film director Theo van Gogh, a critic of conservative Muslims; the London bombings of 2005; and the controversy over Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad published the same year.

In 2004, France banned the head scarf (and other signs of religious affiliation) in public schools. It is now debating a ban on the burqa, by which the government seems to mean any full facial covering, including the niqab, which shows the eyes. That controversial measure is caught up in a government-sponsored debate over national identity, led by the ministry that also handles immigration.

Both measures have been widely criticized as political maneuvers by President Nicolas Sarkozy, capitalizing on social fears to unite the center-right and co-opt the far-right National Front before regional elections in March. He has tried to play down the religious element in the debate, but he has also urged Muslims to show “humble discretion” and avoid “ostentation and provocation”; a junior minister, Nadine Morano, said young Muslims should dress better, find jobs and stop using slang and wearing baseball caps backward.

The far-right and anti-immigrant parties did comparatively well in last June’s European elections, which had a low turnout. For the first time, Britain’s far-right party won two seats, and the Dutch Freedom Party secured 17 percent of the vote.

This year, the Danes and the Swiss have brought a new focus to mosques and minarets. Plans for Copenhagen’s first two large mosques have met with strong opposition from the right. The Swiss vote brought widespread condemnation of fear-mongering and racism, including from Switzerland’s own government.

Youcef Mammeri, a writer on Islam in France and member of the Joint Council of Muslims of Marseille, says that the debates over minarets, burqas and national identity have angered many French-born Muslims and brought them together in a defensive circle.

Source:nytimes.com/

Immigration Reform Advocates Make Push as Health Care Debate Winds Down

Though Congress still has to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of legislation to revamp the nation’s health care system, the next issue in line is already stepping forward in Washington and at the grassroots.

The week before Christmas, a coalition of lawmakers unveiled a new reform bill that seeks to legalize undocumented immigrants by requiring them to register with the federal government, pay a $500 fine for each adult, learn English, pass background checks and meet other requirements before becoming eligible for a six-year visa that can eventually lead to a green card.

Though there is some skepticism over whether Congress will be willing to take up immigration reform early next year so soon after a tough health care debate, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), who has become a leader of a multiethnic coalition of immigration reform backers, said the plan right now is to get ready “so when they are done with their work, we can quickly act."

"[T]he patience, and the tolerance, and the dignity of our immigrant community has brought us to this moment - to this bill, to this final push for comprehensive reform," commented Gutierrez at a press conference introducing the bill.

"This bill is the right way to allow these people to reach their dreams," he added. "We’ve waited too long."

President Obama has said he expects to take up the immigration issue after the health care debate is over and Congress finishes work on energy reforms and regulating financial markets – potentially driving the debate close to midterm elections in November.

During the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in June, Obama committed to providing a way for millions of undocumented immigrants to become U.S. citizens while also strengthening border security.

He specifically noted that the "fair, practical and promising way forward" on the immigration issue is to require illegal immigrants to pay a penalty, pay taxes, learn English and "go to the back of the line behind those who played by the rules."

"The American people believe in immigration," he said. "But they also believe that we can't tolerate a situation where people come to the United States in violation of the law nor can we tolerate employers who exploit undocumented workers in order to drive down wages."

Though Obama’s vow was welcomed by members of the Hispanic Christian community, Obama has yet to lay out a timeline for overhauling immigration.

Furthermore, with the U.S. economy still weak and recovery still slow, some say it might be premature to bring up immigration reform.

Supporters of the new bill, however, argue otherwise.

"For those who say that given the state of our economy, given the unemployment rate, this is not the time, I would say to you there is no wrong or right time. There is a moral obligation," commented Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, according to The Associated Press.

The newly unveiled legislation, sponsored so far by more than 80 House Democrats, is the culmination of months of discussions with community organizations, unions and other groups around the country in hopes of gaining enough momentum to get reforms passed.

A more moderate immigration bill, meanwhile, is expected to be introduced in the Senate next month, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) saying he hopes to launch a debate there during the first half of next year.

Source:christianpost.com/

House bill would cut local immigration enforcement program

A bill introduced in the House would eliminate an immigration enforcement program used by Prince William and Loudoun counties,but experts say enforcement partnerships between federal and local governments likely will survive.

The program, known as 287(g), deputizes local law enforcement officials to enforce some federal immigration laws. Critics have argued that it lacks direction and can lead to racial profiling.

In Virginia, Prince William and Loudoun counties, Manassas City, Manassas Park City and Herndon have partnered with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, in the program.

The program's value is probably more symbolic at this point with the expansion of another program, known as Secure Communities, said Michael Fix, senior vice president and director of research at the Migration Policy Institute. MPI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that studies the migration of people worldwide.

Through Secure Communities, local agencies can access biometric records from the Department of Homeland Security to check inmates' immigration status. Prince William and Fairfax counties have joined the program.

Experts say the comprehensive immigration reform bill introduced by Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., has a long way to go. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., also is crafting a bill, and House leadership has said the Senate must proceed first, according to Doris Meissner, director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at MPI.

Meissner said the program likely would survive because the Senate bill would have to attract Republicans to pass.

"My guess is that keeping 287(g) would be one of the things that would be part of a Republican agenda, knowing how the 287(g) story has unfolded since 1996," she said.

Alan Kraut, a professor of immigration history at American University, agreed.

"I think there has to be some cooperation at different levels," he said.

Should it survive, the program could expand throughout Virginia. Rebublican Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell has said he would like to see Virginia State Police trained for the program.

Source:washingtonexaminer.com/

Up to 50 Tamil migrants in BC soon to be released: immigration lawyer

VANCOUVER, B.C. — About 50 Tamil migrants taken into custody off B.C.'s West Coast will soon be released and allowed to settle with their families already living across the country, says an immigration lawyer representing several of the men.

Immigration officials will be working through the holidays to process many of the men held in detention for two months after arriving on the Ocean Lady freighter in October, said Narindar Kang.

"The writing is on the wall and we're just waiting to schedule a date. It is, in essence, an agreement between both counsel," he said Friday.

The ship was intercepted in Canadian waters on Oct. 17 after crossing the Pacific from Sri Lanka. The group claims they were fleeing persecution after the country's bloody 26-year civil war.

Twenty-three men had been ordered released by the Immigration and Refugee Board as of Thursday and more than two dozen more would likely be freed within the first week or two of January, Kang said.

"Not only have there been formal orders, either by joint submission or by application of the detainees, but the other counsel have been receiving letters saying 'We are amenable to have your client released before we go to court,"' Kang said.

"I don't anticipate that there's going to be any issues with these individuals."

The remaining men in detention are being held on the basis of information that hasn't been revealed to them or their lawyers, Kang said. He and his colleagues will bring in special advocates to aid the detainees on these cases.

While the government has, in many cases, worked with the lawyers to devise mutually agreeable terms of release, it has also raised security questions about some of the men.

There are concerns the migrants may include those who may have links to the Tamil Tigers, the military arm of the Tamil separatist movement that's been at war with the Sri Lankan government for decades.

"We're hoping the nature of that evidence can be examined in a fairly quick fashion," he said.

Of the larger group to be released sooner than later, Kang says most have family members already living in Canada.

"Siblings, parents, cousins, in many cases immediate family members, and if not that than certainly extended family are here," he said.

"There's a strong foundation for their refugee claims. That's I think why - given the timing now and given the fact that at the public expense they've been detained for over two months - it wasn't making sense to the decision makers that they be detained further."

Officials with the Immigration and Refugee Board couldn't be reached for comment.

The migrants will be released on restrictions, including bonds in the range of $2,000 to $10,000, and requirements to report weekly and not associate with terrorist groups.

The majority plan to move to Toronto, while others will go to Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver.

"Many of these young men are highly educated professionals," Kang said.

"Once time passes and people come to know (this, they will realize) they never posed a threat and those individuals certainly should have been released a long time ago."

Source:AFP

Silver Lake man released from immigration detention

Matthew Williams / The Herald (click to enlarge)
Raymond Eman leads a Bible study for several children before worship services Saturday at the Washington Indonesian Seventh-day Adventist Church in Lynnwood. Eman was recently in federal custody and faces deportation to his native home of Indonesia, where he fears he would face religious persecution for his Christian beliefs









Raymond Eman is many things: taxpayer, husband, father, church elder, nurse's aide, organizer of badminton tournaments and, until Tuesday, inmate at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma.

Eman, 48, is one of at least four Indonesian natives from Everett fighting U.S. government efforts to deport them. There are dozens more from the Puget Sound area.

Many are members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and, according to legal papers, they fear religious persecution in Indonesia because of their Christian beliefs.

Eman came to the United States on a tourist visa in 1985 and stayed after he was to return. He and his wife settled in the Northwest and have two children who were born in the United States. The family lives near Silver Lake.

“They have a credible fear of persecution,” said Albert Lum, a Pasadena, Calif., attorney who has represented Eman and dozens of other Indonesian immigrants in Western Washington. He withdrew from Eman's case after Eman's release this week.

Indonesia is a country of more than 200 million people with religious tensions that, at times, have erupted into violence during the past decade.

In 2005, three teenage Christian girls were beheaded and a fourth was seriously wounded on their way to school. The murders occurred in Central Sulawesi, a province of a bloody religious war in 2001-02 where about 1,000 Muslims and Christians were killed. Elsewhere, churches have been burned to the ground.

Herry Korompis, an Indonesian immigrant and U.S. citizen living in Seattle, said there can be calm periods of religious tolerance, but there always is fear of upheaval among Christians. Families with American-born children forced to return could feel particularly vulnerable, said Korompis, who attends church with Eman.

Eighty-eight percent of Indonesians are Muslim. About 6 percent are Protestant and 3 percent Catholic. The rest are a mix of other religions and faiths.

Eman's relatives in Indonesia were fearful of harm during the 1998 riots in the country's capital of Jakarta and have been threatened by Muslim extremists, Lum said.

It could be a tough sell for Eman and others to remain in the United States. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California rejected Eman's argument of religious persecution in a November 2008 ruling. It upheld a ruling by the Board of Immigration Appeals in Virginia saying Eman did not establish a clear probability that he would be persecuted if he returned to Indonesia.

“The record does not compel the conclusion that the religious strife in Indonesia amounts to a pattern or practice of persecution against Christian Indonesians,” the judges ruled.

Eman, his family and his friends believe he came within hours of being deported last week. Instead, and unexpectedly, he and two other Indonesians living in Everett were released.

“He was released pending further review of his case,” said Lorie Dankers, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Tacoma. Dankers said she couldn't provide additional comment.

Supporters of the Indonesian immigrants speculate that the release could be related to an arrangement reached between a church and immigration officials in New Jersey.

The New York Times reported Dec. 12 of an unusual compact between a pastor and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Newark, N.J. Under the agreement, four Indonesians were released from a New Jersey detention facility and 41 others living as fugitives from deportation turned themselves in under church auspices.

“Instead of being jailed — as hundreds of thousands of immigrants without criminal records have been in recent years — they have been released on orders of supervision, eligible for work permits while their lawyers consider how their cases might be reopened,” The Times reported.

That's exactly what happened in Eman's case. Eman was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Nov. 3 on an expired visa. He spent more than 45 days in the Tacoma detention facility, meeting with his family and church members but separated by a window.

Eman arrived in the United States on a tourist visa in June 1985 and was never granted permanent residency.

He and his wife began seeking legal residency after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. Each time — before an immigration judge in Seattle, the Bureau of Immigration Appeals in Virginia, and the 9th Circuit — his case was rejected.

Members of the Washington Indonesian Seventh-day Adventist Church in Lynnwood continue to rally and pray for Eman and his family. His children, ages 11 and 8 and both U.S. citizens since they were born in this country, attend a Seventh-day Adventist school in Everett.

While at the detention center in Tacoma, Eman received a steady stream of visitors from his church. John Freedman, a pastor and president of the 21,000-member Seventh-day Adventist Western Washington Conference, wrote a letter to an immigration judge urging “leniency and mercy.”

Eman's release made for a special Christmas.

Instead of being placed on a one-way flight to Djakarta, he celebrated the holiday with his wife and children in their Silver Lake apartment and attended church services Saturday.

“That,” he said, “was my son's only Christmas wish. He wanted his Daddy home for Christmas.”

“You can't imagine how it felt,” Eman said. “I was saying, ‘Thank you, Lord, I don't know how it happened. I praise you and I can be with my kids. I don't need anything. I can be with my family now.'”

His release is a reprieve but not a guarantee he will be able to stay.

Eman will continue to live with the knowledge he can be deported at any time along with the nagging fear of prolonged separation from his family.

“I never thought I'm going to bring my kids to Indonesia,” he said. “I don't want to put my kids in danger. For my kids, it is very unsafe.”

Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.

Source:heraldnet.com/

Urge lawmakers to fix immigration laws

As the director of a nonprofit Immigrant Legal Services program, I confront the irrationalities of our nation's immigration legal system on a daily basis. Our current system consists of antiquated laws that are only selectively enforced because it is missing the legal mechanisms for the entry of the immigrant workers upon which our economy relies.

The losers in the current system are not just undocumented immigrants - who have usually violated the law in economic desperation - but also the rule of law itself, which gets flouted every day by both employers and employees.

We need sensible reform to concurrently do three basic things: 1) Make it much more difficult to work illegally, by creating fraud-proof employment authorization documents; 2) Make it much easier for workers and their families to enter the U.S. legally, by providing visas for both low- and high-skilled laborers to match the needs of the economy; and 3) Require those currently present unlawfully to register with the government, pay a fine, undergo a criminal-background check, and get on a long-term path toward citizenship and integration.

The Comprehensive Immigration Reform ASAP bill (H.R. 4321) introduced recently is a good start. Our legislators - especially suburban representatives like Peter Roskam, Judy Biggert, Mark Kirk, and Melissa Bean who have opposed similar legislation in the past need to get on board.

Some will call this amnesty, but that's absurd: amnesty would imply forgetting the offense of an unlawful entry or overstay. This bill punishes that offense with a fine, which is an appropriate penalty-more realistic, affordable, and humane than deporting millions of people.

For our representatives to do nothing, while the rule of law is mocked day in and day out, amounts to what John McCain has called a de facto amnesty-one that they're voting for by their inaction.

Catherine Norquist

Director, Immigrant Legal Service Program

World Relief DuPage

Wheaton

Source:dailyherald.com/

Swedes positive about immigration: poll

A majority of the Swedish population is positive about immigration, according to a new Sifo opinion poll. Members of the Left Party were the most positive, while Sweden Democrats were the most negative.


More Swedes favour euro over krona: poll (15 Dec 09)
Opposition poll lead 'very worrying': Reinfeldt (14 Dec 09)
Sweden Democrats score five percent in major poll (10 Dec 09)
Fifty-six percent responded in the affirmative to the question of whether or not immigration has been for the most part positive for Sweden. Around 30 percent answered that immigration was negative and 14 percent were doubtful or didn't know.

With 76 percent its members responding that immigration had been good for the country, the Left Party (Vänsterpartiet) was by far the most positive towards immigration.

The Sweden Democrat Party (Sverigedemokraterna) was the most pessimistic, with 93 percent answering that immigration had been negative for Sweden.

There was little variation between the other parties and small differences between the left and right.

The study, involving 1,000 randomly selected respondents, was commissioned by Riksdag & Departement magazine.

Source:thelocal.se/

Gays and Lesbians in the Cold on Immigration Reform Bill

"The lawmaker said Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), who has led the House effort on comprehensive immigration reform, initially 'didn’t want to deal with it. At all.' Then he tried to work out a 'stupid' compromise whereby the same-sex partner provisions would be in the bill but they wouldn’t take effect for five or six years, said this Member. ..Gutierrez denied that he wanted to keep gay and lesbian language out of his bill. 'That’s just not true,' he said, pointing to his long-standing record of supporting the gay community. The real issue, he said, is that same-sex partner matters have not come up in past immigration reform debates and people are still figuring out how to bring the two camps together. 'There has never been a serious, in-depth discussion between the gay and lesbian community and the immigrant community. It’s never existed,' Gutierrez said. 'It’s a new conversation, but not one that I’m fearful of. I welcome it. But you can’t expect after nearly two decades of struggle for a new component' to be quickly embraced."

An amendment with a same-sex provision has been proposed by Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) who noted that a repeal of DOMA would alleviate the issue.

And:

Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) said she was 'very frustrated' because she 'wanted to see a bill that was comprehensive. But we deal with political reality here.' Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who earlier this year pronounced a DOMA repeal 'dead' this Congress, predicted it will be 'a very, very hard sell' to attach the same-sex provision to the immigration reform bill.

Gutierrez released a statement to the Windy City Times: "The process I am committed to being a part of in Congress will, I hope, address the unacceptable situation that lesbian and gay bi-national couples live under every day. … Everyone's goal should be a comprehensive immigration reform bill that includes a commitment to all families and honors our history as a nation of immigrants. That is my goal, and it is inclusive of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, too."

The paper adds: "Gutierrez also noted his support for the Uniting American Families Act, which would let U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to sponsor their gay and lesbian partners for immigration to the United States. That measure received a local boost in support last week as the Chicago City Council passed a resolution, introduced by Aldermen Tom Tunney and Daniel Solis, urging its passage in the House of Representatives."

Source:towleroad.com/

New law introduced calling for immigration reform

On Tuesday, December 15, Congressman Luis V. Gutierrez introduced a proposed law, called the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 (CIR ASAP). While CIR ASAP has many provisions dealing with immigration reform, here are some of the more hopeful and beneficial features of this proposed law:

• Reduces backlogs or waiting times for visas by adding visas (or “recapturing” unused visas from past years.)

• Spouses and children of Lawful Permanent Residents (LPR) will be treated the same as US citizens, meaning F-2A spouses and children would be immediately eligible for visas, vs. a 5 or more year wait.

• Special treatment or expedited processing of green cards for children of Filipino WWII veterans

• Skilled workers could file for adjustment of status, even if the priority date on their employment based petition is not yet current.

• No requirement that a stepchild be under 18 at time of their parent’s marriage, in order to be petitioned by a U.S. citizen stepparent.

• TNT parents of US citizen children can be protected from removal\deportation if the immigration judge believes that removal would not be in child’s best interest. Thus, having a US citizen child could protect a parent from deportation.

• New “PUM visa” (Prevent Unauthorized Migration) for people outside the US. Under PUM, 100,000 visas would be available through a lottery system, leading to green cards in 3 years for people outside the US who are non-college graduates.

• Earned legalization for people inside the US.

— Must be in US on December 15, 2009. So make sure you can document or save proof that you were in the US on that date.

— Grants conditional non-immigrant status for 6 years for illegal aliens.

— They can legally work, and travel outside the US during the 6 years, without triggering the 3\10 year bar.

— They are protected from removal\deportation while in conditional status.

— Must make contributions to US through work, education, military service, community service, etc.

— Can apply for a green card after that 6 year period.

I want to emphasize that this is only a PROPOSAL, and is not yet a law. There could be changes, additions, and deletions of some provisions. But you can help make it a law. You should write to your Senator and Congressman, voicing your support, and urging them to support immigration reform. Remember, Congress listens to voters, and if only people who want strict laws write to Congress, then only they will be heard. So raise your voice for compassionate immigration reform, and let your elected officials know that you support this law.

Source:philstar.com/

Pastor accused of US immigration offenses

A Pastor from Southern California has been accused of US immigration crimes after helping foreigners gain US student visas fraudulently.

The US immigration authorities charged Samuel Chai Cho Oh on Tuesday. He is accused of charging prospective students large sums of money for fake diplomas that he gave out at ‘graduation ceremonies’ at a Christian university he owns. The ‘graduates’ had never attended the university.

Over 100 students from countries including Japan, South Korea and Thailand were offered places at California Union University in Fullerton. The fake establishment acted as a cover and allowed them to remain living in the US on student visas.

Oh is denying the charges and his lawyer says, "he's a good man and doesn't know anything about any of this."

US Immigration authorities think that Oh made as much as $50,000 a month through his fake documents scam. He would charge up to $10,000 to file documents for the students, which appeared to offer them a place at his university, allowing them to apply for a US visa to enable them to study in the US.

The authorities also discovered that 75 of the 300 students registered at his university did not regularly attend classes.

Source:globalvisas.com/

Saginaw exhibit captures the young faces of immigration

Jeffrey LaMonde | The Saginaw News
Pauline Lawrence of Bridgeport looks at photographs at the “Becoming American: Teenagers & Immigration” exhibit at the Castle Museum, 500 Federal Ave. in Saginaw.
When Barbara Beirne combed schools, churches, mosques and refugee service organizations around the country for teens who had immigrated to America in recent years, “I always wanted to be introduced to them by someone they trusted,” said the New Jersey-based photographer. “It didn’t seem fair to them, it wouldn’t be very thoughtful, if I approached them without the assurance of somebody who knew me and said it was OK.

“But one of the biggest surprises I had was that, instead of being hesitant and shy, the young people were so glad someone wanted to tell their stories. They wanted others to know why they were here and what they had been through. They didn’t just show up.”

For nearly 10 years, Beirne took their pictures, gathered their stories and shared them with her children and grandchildren as she developed her work into an exhibit, “Becoming American: Teenagers & Immigration.” And the Smithsonian Traveling Photography Exhibition is now at the Castle Museum of Saginaw County History’s Centennial Hall, where the 59 black-and-white photos and stories will remain until Feb. 4.

“Compelling” is the word Ken Santa uses to describe Beirne’s work.

“It’s told from an artist’s perspective, the photographs along with the teens’ stories, told in their own words in a paragraph or two,” said the museum’s executive director. “It’s so simple, but so compelling. They’re excited to be here. They’re overwhelmingly positive. And when you see how, even today, with everything going on, everyone still wants to come here, it makes you appreciate what we often take for granted.

“I can’t envision living anywhere else.”

The participating teens, ranging in age from 13 through 18, came here from all over the world — India, Africa, Cambodia, Mexico, to name a few — and they’re in varying stages of transition, Santa said.

A 17-year-old boy from Colombia say, “I can be myself here.” A 15-year-old tells how his family had to flee the Congo and live in a refugee camp in Zambia before coming here, “and now I can go to school,” he said. “This country is good.”

An Egyptian teen tells how, when she came here, “no one understood me, but now they respect me and want to be my friend.” And an 18-year-old from China says “We bring our own culture with us and share it on this bittersweet journey.”

“Immigration is just a word, and not always a positive one in these times,” Santa said. “But putting a human face on it brings that word to life. I can’t imagine what it would be like to leave a familiar land; they’ve done it. When you see pictures of them in a football uniform or gathered around their school lockers or even sitting on a sofa, dressed in their native garb, you realize they’re kids just like kids everywhere, and not so different from our ancestors who did the same thing years ago.”

Determined to preserve their unique personalities, Beirne encouraged the teens to write something about themselves, giving them a list of possible topics. She didn’t force them into writing something that was embarrassing or that would make their families uncomfortable.

Then she edited everything down to a few paragraphs, “though I would have loved to put in the whole thing,” she said. “It was all very interesting; I became very emotionally involved in who they were.”

They’re very optimistic, said Beirne, whose work capturing the faces of Belfast, Ireland, to India to Appalachia has been displayed around the world. Even those who went through troubled times in their homeland hope for the best in this country. Determined to succeed, they’re shocked at the opportunities here. And while she hasn’t been able to stay in contact with all of them, through family moves and going off to college, those she has reached are living up to their expectations.

“I try to call them on New Year’s Day, when I know they’re likely to come home and be with their families,” she said. “They’re really doing very, very well. I recently learned the girl from China graduated from medical school.

“Many have also maintained their culture, an important part of their identity, of who they are.”

Added Santa, “This is something that will appeal to everyone. It should be required viewing for our young people; we take a lot of things for granted.”


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Source:mlive.com/

Filipinos should make their voice heard for 'compassionate' immigration reform

Filipinos have tremendous power when they unite and vote. Jasmine Trias reached the semi-finals of American Idol because Filipinos banded together and voted for her. Again, Charice was the 2009 winner for Oprah’s Most Memorable Music Performance, because Filipinos voted. While these matters related to entertainment, it still shows that when Filipinos raised their voice, they were heard.

Right now, there is something much more critical for Filipinos, where their vote and voice can make a difference. That is with Immigration Reform. Recently, a bill (proposed law) was introduced in Congress, called the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity (CIR ASAP) Act of 2009, providing for visa reforms, and legalization for undocumented aliens (Titles III and IV of the bill). You need to let your Senators and Congressmen know that you support “Compassionate” Immigration Reform, which will end the long separation of families, enable your kababayans who are in the US to legally find a path to legalization, and end the long waiting times that families must endure to be reunited, due to long visa backlogs, etc.

For so many years, those people who wanted strict immigration laws (that emphasized enforcement), were the only ones who were speaking out and being heard. That’s why nothing was really being done in terms of proposals for amnesty, legalizing TNTs, etc. — because only advocates or supporters of harsh, strict immigration laws were contacting their Senators and congressional representatives.

I know how important immigration is to Filipinos. Almost everyone has a family member who may be in the US illegally, wants to emigrate to the US from the Philippines, or simply wants to share in the American dream. Now that there is finally an immigration bill that addresses these vital issues, you need to speak up, and find time to let your Congressmen and Senator hear your voice. Find out who your Senators and Congressmen are and write, call, or email them. For example, to locate your Senators and Congressman, you can go to www.USA.gov and at the top, click “Contact elected officials”. For your US Senators, fill in your state, and the names and addresses of your two US Senators for your state will appear.

For US Representatives (Congressmen), click US Representatives, and type your zip code at the top of that page, and it will tell you the name and address of the Congressman for your district.

You need to let them know your position, by mail, phone, email, etc. Your letter can let them know that you support legalization of TNTs etc:

“Dear Senator (or Congressman):

I support Comprehensive Immigration Reform that includes a compassionate approach to addressing our immigration issues. I support the provisions of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for American Security and Prosperity (CIR ASAP Act of 2009), that address visa reforms and earned legalization for undocumented aliens. These people have worked hard, sacrificed much, and deserve to share in the American dream. Accordingly, I urge you to support those provisions of this bill.”

Believe me, if enough Filipinos speak up about favoring comprehensive (or Compassionate) immigration reform, your voice will be heard, just like it was heard with Jasmine Trias and Charice. Let’s show Congress the power of the Filipino voice. Contact your elected representatives now.

* * *

Source:philstar.com/

H-1B visas see slow demand but finally reach limit

After a slow start because of the recession, applications for the high-tech industry's favorite work visa, the H-1B, reached the annual cap of 65,000 this month, federal immigration authorities said this week.

The announcement by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services might appear to be one more sign of an economy on the mend, but compared with previous years, applications for the normally popular — and controversial — work visa have moved at a snail's pace.

It took nine months to exhaust the supply of visas this year, and a mere day to do so last year. There was only light demand for the visa in April, when the government started taking applications for this fiscal year's quota, but employers

finally used them all up in a sign that perhaps high-tech hiring was rebounding.

"The economy is starting to pick up a little," observed Deborah Notkin, an immigration attorney and business visa expert for the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

The visas are issued to employers to hire foreign workers in occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in fields such as science, engineering and computer programming. They are good for three years and renewable for another three. The visas are especially popular with Silicon Valley high-tech companies such as Cisco Systems, Oracle and Google, which use them to attract talent from around the globe.

But they are also controversial, touching on sensitive issues


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of immigration, U.S. competitiveness and whether American workers are forced out of jobs in favor of those from foreign countries.

U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., have investigated abuses of the visa in recent years, but proponents of the visa say the caps are unnecessary and harm U.S. competitiveness.

"It's such an artificial cap," Notkin said. "Even in a recession, it doesn't help our economy to be globally competitive."

Notkin said she was concerned that "the media and a couple senators are overplaying" problems with the H-1B program "and are going to kill it. The challenge is how to keep it and get rid of abusers, which are a minority."

Roy Beck, president of Numbers USA, a group that favors immigration restrictions, said the visa is too often used to bring in average rather than top talent. "We don't advocate reducing the 65,000 cap," he said. "We just advocate increasing the criteria so H-1Bs are only used to hire really top quality programmers."

There are an additional 20,000 visas set aside for foreign citizens who have graduated from U.S. universities with advanced degrees. These applicants are rolled over to the regular visa program after reaching their quota. The total this year was not available.

The number of H-1B visas issued far exceeds the 65,000 cap because universities and their affiliates, nonprofits and government research organizations are exempt from the limit. Combined, more than 276,000 H-1B visas were issued in fiscal year 2008, according to USCIS's most current data. For fiscal year 2009, Wipro, an information technology service company based in Bangalore, India, was the top user, with 1,964 visas, followed by Microsoft, with 1,318 visas. Intel was No. 3, with 723. Among the many other tech industry or valley users are Cisco, Oracle, Google, Yahoo, Apple and Stanford University.

With the year's quota exhausted, employers must wait until next April to file new applications. Next year's visa holders won't start work until Oct. 1, the beginning of the federal fiscal year.

Carl Guardino, president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, said the slow pace of applications this year showed "how weak the American economy has been this past year.

"But in a valley in which 53 percent of our engineers are foreign born, and more than half of the founders or CEOs of technology companies being foreign born, it underscores the need for talent from around the globe to compete globally."

Source:

Immigration bill dismantles enforcement, increases pressure on American workers

Dan Stein [President, Federation for American Immigration Reform]: "Reading through H.R. 4321, Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity (CIR ASAP), what is immediately evident is that the bill will deliver neither reform, nor security, nor prosperity for Americans.

The legislation introduced December 15 by Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) would dismantle whatever vestige of meaningful immigration enforcement that the Obama administration has been unable to eviscerate by executive fiat. While calling for enforcement against employers who hire illegal aliens, CIR ASAP would eliminate the only existing – and highly effective – employment eligibility verification system, known as E-Verify. E-Verify would be replaced by some yet to be developed system that could take decades to implement. Also eliminated by CIR ASAP would be the ability of state and local law enforcement to assist in immigration enforcement, except in extenuating circumstances.

With some 25 million Americans unemployed or underemployed, CIR ASAP would also make millions of illegal aliens immediately eligible to compete for every available job in the United States. Introduced one week after the Washington Post presented alarming evidence that the children of recent immigrants not only aren't prospering, but are falling farther behind other Americans, CIR ASAP would add countless millions more people who are likely to be mired in poverty.

In addition to amnesty for many millions of illegal aliens, H.R. 4321 would vastly increase both family-based and employment-based immigration in the future. These increases are designed to meet the demands of immigrant advocates and business interests, irrespective of the impact these policies might have on American workers, taxpayers, or any other consideration important to the American people.

Americans have grown distrustful of their government because much of what goes on in Washington often seems to put the interests of the American people as an afterthought. In CIR ASAP, the interests of the American people are given no thought at all."

Source:jurist.law.pitt.edu/

Global biz leaders for easy immigration norms

Global business leaders are hoping for relaxed immigration regulations to help bring in more skilled foreign workers, who want to capitalise on the opportunities provided by a rebounding economy, says a survey.

According to a survey conducted by Economist Intelligence Unit on behalf of Western Union, Asia Pacific and global business leaders believe that international workers continue to be good for business and the economy, despite reports of growing protectionist and nationalistic sentiment prompted by the global recession.

"Business executives are looking for fewer barriers to migration. Yet, despite challenges in hiring foreign workers, a limited number of businesses have publicly advocated for their government to relax immigration laws," the survey said.

Nearly six out of 10 corporate executives in India [ Images ] said international workers have a positive impact on the economy, while 58 per cent of them agree that international workers give their company a competitive advantage.

The online survey was conducted on 501 executives in September 2009 across sectors, including financial services, manufacturing, information technology and professional services.

Three out of four business leaders based out of Asia Pacific and about 76 per cent worldwide say that international workers have a positive impact on the economy.

Besides, 70 per cent business leaders in Asia Pacific and 71 per cent of them globally say that foreign workers provide their businesses with competitive advantages.

"While economic insecurity is putting politicians under pressure to protect jobs for locals, it is clear that business leaders still see an open economy with economic migration as essential to drive recovery," Western Union managing director (South and South East Asia) Anil Kapur said.

The report found that in Asia Pacific, only 22 per cent respondents have asked, or planned to ask, their government for more open immigration employment laws, while worldwide, only 15 per cent of executives say they have asked for such laws.

"While businesses clearly see the benefits of an open labor market, very few are actually involved in advocating publicly for it," Kapur said.

According to a report by United Nations Development Programme, the international mobile workforce represents more than 200 million people. The research findings indicate that when economic recovery gains momentum, businesses will seek more international employees.

The survey said 79 per cent business leaders in Asia Pacific and 81 per cent globally believe that international workers enhance the skills and talent of their workforce.

Besides, more than one third of the respondents said they hire international workers because it makes economic sense.

© Copyright 2009 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.

Source:business.rediff.com/

Texas Watch: Congressional Hispanic Caucus' effort to advance immigration reform faces roadblocks

WASHINGTON – Immigrant advocates were pleased last week when the Congressional Hispanic Caucus unveiled an ambitious reform plan that would, among other things, create a pathway to citizenship for 12 million undocumented immigrants.

It was an effort to get the issue off the back burner, a warning that impatience with the president is brewing, and a gambit to define the liberal wish list. On those fronts, the bill proposed by Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., and others, was a success.

But it has no hope of going anywhere.

House Democratic leaders aren't interested in taking up the divisive issue in an election year – not without cover from the Senate and White House.

Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quietly assured freshman Democrats and other vulnerable lawmakers that she won't allow a floor debate on immigration unless the Senate acts first. Backbenchers are frustrated at being forced to cast politically delicate votes on issues like cap-and-trade, only to see the bills stall in the Senate.

"That's where the immigration reform debate broke down last time, and that's where it should begin," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland who, as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is acutely aware of the need to minimize losses in next November's midterm elections. "If they have the ability to deal with what we've already given them, and immigration reform, we stand ready to work with them."

For Hispanic leaders in the House, the urgency to act trumps political considerations – though their ability to force the issue may be limited.

"We have a plan that has the potential of truly helping to better this country and its people," said Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, dean of the Texas delegation and a key sponsor of the bill.

The 644-page Gutierrez bill would let undocumented immigrants gain legal status if they register, pay a $500 fine (far less than prior bills required), learn English and pass a criminal background check.

There would be more border security and a worker verification program, too, though – unlike proposals of yesteryear – immigrants wouldn't have to return to their home countries to become eligible for U.S. citizenship.

There is no guest worker program, either – an omission that amounts to a deal killer for business interests and many Republicans.

Rep. Lamar Smith of San Antonio, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, derided it as an "amnesty bill" and predicted it would go nowhere even if House leaders were more eager to tackle the issue.

That leaves matters in the hands of the Senate, which has struggled for years to forge consensus on immigration. The last big push failed in 2007.

The White House has been mum about the Gutierrez bill. Obama promised to make immigration reform a top priority his first year, but he hasn't. Now, he's apparently awaiting a more enforcement-oriented bill under development by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who has delayed release of that proposal for months, pending the health care debate.

Last month, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano predicted at the liberal Center for American Progress that Congress would begin looking at immigration in early 2010. It wasn't the most forceful call to arms, though it was a signal that the White House plans to engage, eventually.

On Wednesday, at the same think tank, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke continued the drumbeat, though they emphasized that the White House will take its cue from the Senate rather than try to lead.

"Much will be driven... by what occurs in the Senate," Solis said. "Also as we move along, we'll want to hear from all stakeholders," such as unions and businesses.

That's code for something other than "priority rush."

"The health care debate is first and foremost," Solis said. After that, "we can begin the conversations about comprehensive immigration reform."

Todd J. Gillman is Washington Bureau chief of The Dallas Morning News.

Source:dallasnews.com/

Top news stories of the decade

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. - Ten years ago, Bill Clinton was president, words like iPod and Twitter were yet to enter our vocabulary, and everyone was worried about Y2K.


A lot has changed in the past decade. As the new year and the new decade approach, the staff at the News & Messenger is compiling a list of the top stories of the past 10 years.


Vote below for your top five stories of the past decade online at insidenova.com. We'll compile the top stories from your votes.


» 9/11 —The terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pa. on Sept. 11, 2001, affected people across the nation. For Prince William County residents, many of whom work at or near the Pentagon or know someone who does, the day was marked with fear. Nineteen residents of the Prince William County area were killed at the Pentagon and three people with ties to the county died at the World Trade Center that day. The Liberty Memorial was built at the McCoart Administration complex to remember those Prince William County residents and all who lost their lives that day.


» Hurricane Isabel —In September 2003, Hurricane Isabel tore through North Carolina and Virginia, causing severe damage to many houses and neighborhoods in the Prince William County area. The storm felled trees and cut power throughout much of the area. Hurricane Isabel caused more than $5 million in damages to 57 houses and other structures in the county, the Federal Emergency Management Agency reported after the storm.


» Housing Market— Early in the 2000s, the area experienced a housing boom. Housing assessments and prices skyrocketed and affordable housing was in short supply. In more recent years, the real estate bubble burst and the county has seen a rise in foreclosures and a dip in housing prices.


» Illegal immigration resolution —In 2007, after a highly attended meeting that stretched into the early morning hours, the Board of County Supervisors passed a resolution meant to crack down on illegal immigration. The resolution instructed police to ask about immigration status, if they had probable cause to do so. The resolution sparked massive opposition in the community.


» Sniper attacks —In October 2003, the "Beltway Sniper" terrorized the Washington area. John Alan Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo were later convicted of the attacks that left 10 people dead. Muhammad was convicted of capital murder in Prince William Circuit Court for killing Dean Harold Meyers at a Sunoco gas station outside of Manassas. He was executed this year.


» Virginia Tech shootings—In April 2007, 33 people were killed in a shooting at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. One of the victims, Daniel Perez Cueva, was a Woodbridge resident and C.D. Hylton High School graduate.


In the days and weeks following the shooting, the effect of the tragedy was felt throughout the area as many in the community worked to honor the memory of Perez Cueva and all those killed at Virginia Tech. The shootings also prompted changes in security and emergency procedures at schools and college campuses throughout the area and across the country.


» Population growth— The past decade has seen Prince William County's population skyrocket from 280,813 people in 2000 to and estimated 394,370 people this year, according to demographic information reported by the U.S. Census and county officials. The race and ethnicity of the county's population has also changed, as the number of Hispanic residents in the county has grown. In 2000, 9.7 percent of the county's population was Hispanic. This year, an estimated 19.1 percent of the population is Hispanic.


» New school leadership— In 2005, Prince William County School superintendent Edward L. Kelly retired after 18 years in his position, and Steven L. Walts was hired to replace him. Kelly was the longest-serving superintendent in the Washington area and one of the longest-serving in the state when he retired. Kelly died in January 2006.


» Election of Barack Obama—In 2008, Prince William County drew national attention when candidates from both presidential campaigns came to the area.


Now-President Barack Obama drew tens of thousands to the Prince William County Fairgrounds the night before the presidential election. In that election, Democrats were victorious in Prince William County and Virginia. But in the 2009 elections, Republicans staged strong victories in the state again.


Obama's inauguration in January 2009 also affected area residents, as people from throughout the country flocked to the area to witness it.


» Kyle Wilson—In 2007 Kyle Wilson became the first Prince William County firefighter in the department's 41-year history to die in the line of duty.


Wilson died fighting a three-alarm fire on Marsh Overlook Drive in Woodbridge on April 16, 2007. After his death, a fire department report recommended several changes to safety procedures.

Source:insidenova.com/

Proposed immigration system "illegal" under EU rules

Home Office select committee deems government's electronic borders scheme illegal under EU rules protecting freedom of movement
A £1.2 billion system designed to monitor immigration by recording data collected on individuals passing UK borders may contravene EU law, according to the Home Affairs select committee.
In a report publish last week, the committee pointed to EU law that bans member states from asking passengers travelling to or from other EU nations to produce more information than a valid passport, other than in exceptional circumstances.
The system, which is under development by the UK Border Authority (UKBA), may also potentially breach the data protection laws of other nations, such as those in Germany, the report found.
To make matters worse, a breakdown in communication caused IT contractor Trusted Borders to develop technology that was neither compliant with airline industry standards nor compatible with the systems used by the airliners themselves.
Chairman of the select committee Keith Vaz MP said: "This programme is supposed to cover tens of millions of passengers' intra-EU account for a very significant chunk of travel in and out of the UK. Until this legality is resolved UKBA must just halt any further work to 'go live' on intra-EU routes. We cannot have another massive IT project which flounders or is even abandoned at huge cost to the taxpayer, it is simply unacceptable."
The Home Office has offered to reduce the amount of information required by the immigration systems, though some critics have suggested this will render the scheme pointless.

Source:information-age.com/

Joe Arpaio, Illegal Immigration Hard-liner, Heckled by Students

Student protesters at Arizona State University silenced an Arizona sheriff known for his controversial tactics on illegal immigration today, bringing a premature end to a First Amendment forum by singing "Bohemian Rhapsody."

During the forum, which was hosted by the university's journalism school, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was asked whether his office engages in racial profiling, according to the Associated Press.

Arpaio said his agency is an "equal opportunity law enforcement agency" that will arrest anyone who violates the law.

Later, when trying to answer a question about his policies on illegal immigration, a group of hecklers stood up and began singing the song.

Their song clearly annoyed Arpaio, who called the spectacle "ridiculous."

"This isn't the way journalists should operate," he said to the host. "Are they all students up there? Why were they allowed here if they're not students?" He later walked off the set.

Arpaio, who calls himself "America's toughest sheriff," is controversial in part for encouraging his deputies to act as enforcers of immigration law -- a role that is typically left to the feds.

Under the Obama administration, the federal government has stripped Arpaio of much of his authority, admonishing him for unfairly targeting Hispanics and removing the authority of his officers to make immigration arrests in the field. Arpaio nonetheless continues to pursue illegal immigrants.

Source: hispanicbusiness.com/

Middle class insulated from immigration, says Denham

The middle classes are "insulated" from the effects of immigration and find it hard to understand fears about housing and jobs, John Denham has said.

In a speech the communities secretary said while "the affluent" could see opportunities in immigration poorer communities saw it as a threat.

It is the second speech Mr Denham has made on the theme in two days.

The Tories say Labour has only changed its tone on immigration because it is losing votes to the BNP.

In his speech to the Policy Network think tank, Mr Denham said poorer people in areas with high immigration felt, wrongly, that immigrants were able to "play the system" of state benefits.

People who were better off tended to look more favourably on mass immigration, he said.

"Crudely expressed, the higher you are in the pecking order, the more likely you are to benefit from immigration," he said.

"Those of us who feel culturally enriched by the benefits of migration and who are insulated from the competition for jobs, housing and public services that is potentially posed by migrants, often find these views difficult to appreciate.

"The affluent often are able to see opportunities within change and uncertainty, whereas those who are less insulated from potential drawbacks may see the same change as a risk or a threat."

Elitism condemned

It echoes a speech last month by Prime Minister Gordon Brown who said: "If the main effect of immigration on your life is to make it easier to find a plumber, or when you see doctors and nurses from overseas in your local hospital, you are likely to think more about the benefits of migration than the possible costs."

But he added: "I have never agreed with the lazy elitism that dismisses immigration as an issue, or portrays anyone who has concerns about immigration as a racist."

On Monday, Mr Denham said in a speech to the TUC that local councils and government agencies had been "blind" to the needs of white working-class people.

He said officials in charge of tackling inequality should no longer just focus on ethnic groups and should consider more the needs of disadvantaged white people.

Last month the Conservatives criticised Mr Brown saying he had tried to cover up "a deliberate policy of increasing immigration" and had had "no idea about how to deal with the whole question of immigration".

The Lib Dems blamed the government's "catastrophic mismanagement of the system" saying it had "undermined this country's liberal attitude towards immigration".

Source: bbc.co.uk/

In Houston, toys for needy kids may come with immigration checks

Some Houston charities are checking the immigration status of children and their parents before giving them Christmas toys, the Houston Chronicle reports.

The paper found that several organizations — including the Salvation Army — are asking for birth certificates, photo ID, school enrollment or Social Security cards for children, or proof that parents are citizens, legal immigrants or working to become legal residents. Many also require proof of income.

"It's not our desire to turn anyone down," said Lorugene Young, whose Outreach Program Inc. distributes toys collected by firefighters. "Those kids are not responsible if they are here illegally. It is the parents' responsibility."

Some immigration activists say such scrutiny runs counter to the Christmas spirit.

"It is very disturbing to think a holiday like Christmas would be tainted with things like this," said Cesar Espinoza, executive director of America for All, a Houston-based advocacy group. "Usually, people target the adults because the adults made the decision to migrate, where the children are just brought through no fault of their own."

The Salvation Army said it provides gifts for all children in the family if one sibling is a citizen, regardless of their parents' immigration status. Catholic Charities and the Hispanic Firefighters Caucus don't ask about immigration status.

Good idea — or Grinch idea?

Source: usatoday.com/

Foreign credential recognition accelerated by Canadian immigration

Foreign-trained workers looking for the recognition of their skills to allow them to work in Canada will get notification of recognition within one year under new plans.

The new Pan-Canadian Framework for the Assessment and Recognition of Foreign Qualifications will strive to let applicants know if their qualification is recognised within a shorter period of time. This will allow immigrants holding certain skills to be licensed or registered in Canada.

The Framework is part of the plan introduced by Canadian immigration minister Jason Kenney to attract highly skilled people from around the world to live in Canada.

The new Framework has also been endorsed by Diane Finley, who is the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development. She is also the Co-Chair of the Forum of Labour Market Ministers. Finley stated, “attracting and retaining the best international talent to address existing and future labour market challenges is critical to Canada’s long-term economic success.”

The plan also forms part of the Canadian government’s intentions outlined in the 2008 Speech from the Throne, which stated that the country was committed to working with Canadian immigration and “...with the provinces to make the recognition of foreign credentials a priority, attract top international students to Canada and increase the uptake of immigrant settlement programs.”

Source: globalvisas.com/

Rise in fake marriages causes concern in Immigration dept.

OTTAWA – A rising trend in fake marriages by would-be immigrants, perhaps criminally organized, is raising alarms within the federal Immigration department.

"It's a trend that we're starting to see and the department is concerned that there is organized fraud around that movement," Claudette Deschênes, Assistant Deputy Minister of Immigration, told a House of Commons committee this morning.

Deschênes was replying to New Democrat MP Olivia Chow (Trinity-Spadina), who was inquiring about the nearly 50 per cent refusal rate for spousal applications from places such as China, western Africa and Hong Kong. The sharp spike in refusals sparked a story in The Star earlier this year.

Chow asked whether the refusals were linked to organized, illegal attempts to get people into Canada. "We're looking at that. It's a new trend, but we are concerned that it's an organized movement," Deschênes said.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said it's on the government's radar too.

"Globally we do have a problem of marriages of convenience, commercialized, fake marriages to get into Canada," Kenney said.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is leaving today for China and it's not known whether any of his discussions on his travels will deal with the fake marriage problem.

Source: thestar.com/

To Curb Climate Change, We Must Curb Immigration

wish President Obama the power of Jupiter and the wisdom of Minerva as he travels to Copenhagen for the U.N. Summit on Climate Change. He will be leading the first serious U.S. participation in productive global climate change talks in more than a decade. But do I believe he will accomplish anything meaningful at those talks, meaningful enough, that is, to begin to roll back climate change? No, sorrowfully, I do not believe he can.

Why? We Americans have been redeemed from the horrific nadir of anti-environmentalism by electing a pro-environment president. But our populace will not unite behind meaningful environmental regulation or comprehensive reform that's powerful enough to recapture the evanescent monster of heat-trapping greenhouse gas and slay it.

Rolling back climate change requires a two-pronged approach. Only one of those "prongs" is even on the table in Copenhagen -- reduction of greenhouse gases. To get there, we must curb many of our beloved activities that create them, including our affinity for big cars and trucks, our passion for fossil fuels, our dependence on smokestack industries and our love of sprawl development.

Americans haven't the spine for such concessions. Once we do, only then can we begin to approach the second prong. The second prong requires admitting that population growth here at home is a major factor driving climate change. We must begin to curb our ballooning population before we can draw up a plan to combat climate change. There is no political will for such an admission, much less action on that front.

President Obama is proposing a roughly 17 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in Copenhagen. According to a Chicago Tribune story, this is "in line with a climate bill that passed the House in June and is pending in the Senate, but well below what many scientists, along with political leaders in Europe and developing countries, say is needed from the United States to avert the most catastrophic effects of climate change worldwide."

At the outset, Mr. Obama is heading to Europe with a plan most experts find woefully feckless. Mr. Obama sees "splitting the difference" as the righteous path to progress. Despite the president's never-ending succession of compromises, he has yet to woo his own Senate into an alliance on greenhouse gases, much less his own party, which controls the U.S. Senate:

"The measure has deeply divided Democrats. With states in the Midwest, South and Rocky Mountain West dependent on fossil fuels for energy, many senators are worried about the legislation's impact on industry and consumers."

While Republicans and conservative Democrats fiddle over industry's rights and consumers' needs, the planet is burning. And the heat will go up and up and up while present-day Neros (country leaders) keep on fiddling.

So my pessimism about the president's mission is born of a realistic assessment that not only are we far from agreement on limiting greenhouse gas emissions, but we are even further from admitting their primary source: There are too many people living in developed nations, driving industrial production, the need for fossil fuels and therefore creating greenhouse gases.

There was a time when discussion of population stabilization was not verboten in the popular culture in conjunction with environmental progress. Organizers of the first Earth Day in 1970 called population growth a central issue in the fight to save the planet. A groundswell of support for environmental causes helped spur Congress and the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations to enact a host of sweeping environmental laws.

On Jan. 1, 1970, the president signed into law the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), often referred to as the nation's "environmental Magna Carta." The act included a "Declaration of National Environmental Policy" that began: "The Congress, recognizing the profound impact of man's activity on the interrelations of all components of the environment, particularly the profound influences of population growth . . ."

Can you imagine Congress passing and the president signing such a law today? Of course not! This would, and eventually did, cause the churches and the pro-immigration lobby to spiral skyward in a frenzy of fury and angst. And yet, environmentalists were much closer to conquering the greenhouse gas problem then, with many fewer people and much less development, than we are today as the president heads to Copenhagen.

How and why we drifted away from population stabilization as an environmental mantra is fodder for another column, or a book. But let me give you the headline version, which is to say, A) Immigration (the primary driver of U.S. population growth) interests formed a powerful lobby that painted immigration as a human right, rather than as an environmental wrong, and B) Churches, industry and developers realized that without a ballooning population, churches would lose followers, and industry and developers would lose customers. So they marketed the benefits of an unending population boom. And their campaign worked.

Let me state, as I always do when I write on the touchy issue of immigration, that I am the proud daughter of a Cuban citizen who entered this country penniless. It is mass immigration I oppose, not individual immigrants, most of whom are honest, hard-working people. That said, if we want to stop global warming while the earth is still salvageable, we must start by curbing immigration.

So as President Obama heads to Copenhagen with or without the power of Jupiter and the wisdom of Minerva, he must maneuver past fertility goddess Diana. And unfortunately, Diana appears ready to overwhelm Jupiter and Minerva.

Source:politicsdaily.com/

Reevaluating Immigration Reform: What’s it Worth?

The immigration debate these days looks more like a balance sheet than a political conversation. Reflecting the economic anxieties besieging politicians and voters, two competing views of immigrants emerge: as a vital contributor to the economy or a burden on public resources—as an indispensable cheap labor source or a parasitic scourge. The polemics increasingly revolve around how immigrants can be used, not how they deserve to be treated.

On the pro-immigration side, the Center for American Progress says immigration reform could be an economic recovery tool. The Fiscal Policy Institute released an analysis this week about immigrants' impact on the urban economy:

In the 25 largest metropolitan areas combined—comprising more than half of the country's Gross Domestic Product, and two thirds of all immigrants—foreign-born workers are responsible for 20 percent of economic output and make up 20 percent of the population.

In the New York City area, “54 percent of all guards, cleaning and building service workers, 60 percent of dental assistants, health and nursing aides and 54 percent of food service workers are immigrants.” In other words, don't kick them out: they are worth their weight in gross domestic product.

The report rebuts the numbers crunched by anti-immigrant activists showing the supposed public burden of immigration: undocumented immigrants, they argue, use public health care services, send their children to school, and take up space in jails at the taxpayer's expense.

That twisted logic prompted some conservative lawmakers to pen a letter to Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano, arguing that “rewarding illegal aliens with the right to hold jobs will not improve the chances Americans have of finding jobs, paying their mortgages, and feeding their families.” Any discussion of reform, they said, “will only hurt U.S. workers and make it harder for law abiding citizens to weather this economic downturn.”

In such a toxic political climate, the first defensive impulsive is to justify immigration in economic terms. But as business and community groups spar over whether immigration amounts to a net plus or minus, one variable is missing: these are people, not numbers.

True, America's economic development has historically been driven by an influx of fresh labor from abroad. But that legacy of migrant toil is riveted by struggles for civil rights and political empowerment.

Mainstream think tanks like the Council on Foreign Relations and the Migration Policy Institute contend that the government can wed immigration and economic policy in a centralized system to manage the flow of immigrant labor. Napolitano endorsed this idea in a speech at the Center for American Progress in November, calling for:

...carefully crafted programs that allow American businesses to hire needed foreign workers while protecting the labor and health‐and‐safety rights of all workers. We need to revise our current provisions for legal migration to help assure a legal workforce in cases where businesses can’t find Americans to fill their jobs.

AFL-CIO and Change to Win's talking points on reform envision a similarly nebulous “independent commission” designed to “assess labor market needs on an ongoing basis and—based on a methodology approved by Congress—determine the number of foreign workers to be admitted for employment purposes, based on labor market needs.... the commission will be required to examine the impact of immigration on the economy, wages, the workforce and business.”

It's an ostensibly rational policy with deeply troubling antecedents: the government has often dealt with cyclical labor shortages by funneling migrants into a transient underclass stripped of labor protections and political rights. Citing the slave-like conditions of farm guestworker programs, the Drum Major Institute warned in a recent report:

Even when workers are offered a path to permanent legal status, the very existence of a guestworker program ensures that they will be replaced with another influx of disempowered temporary laborers. It is unlikely that each successive cohort of guest workers would feel sufficiently knowledgeable and empowered to exercise their workplace rights, even when they are guaranteed the same formal protections that apply to U.S. workers. And with no permanent status, guest workers have little incentive to take risks—like trying to organize a union—that are often necessary to improve wages and working conditions.

As a social movement that aims to bridge economic goals and human rights, labor has made some strides in recent years by campaigning for the rights and protection of all workers, with or without papers. But by endorsing a prettified guestworker program, wouldn't they be aligning with employers that see immigrants as expendable commodities?

There's no way to get around this framework: borders are a fact of life, as are the economic discrepancies they demarcate, as are the inevitable illegal crossings. But if Congress acts on immigration in the coming months, activists can seize that political space to reframe the issue as not just a demand-and-supply problem, but a crisis of social responsibility in the global community. Whether you call it a “reward” for breaking the law, or a universal entitlement, immigrants seeking opportunity deserve some modicum of social dignity, and at the very least, freedom from arbitrary imprisonment, xenophobic hostility, and systematic exploitation.

Without a human rights-based counterpoint to the demand-supply rhetoric, lawmakers would be all too willing to cede immigration policy to the corporate gatekeepers of the private sector, while faithfully preserving the structure of inequity.

Immigrants can be assessed in terms of GDP. But the labor movement is founded on the idea that workers must be recognized as more than just units of production. Two-dimensional views of immigrant “contributions” crystallize the assumption that certain neighbors are less deserving of the full breadth of humanity. Is that a privilege to be earned, or an inalienable right?

Source:inthesetimes.com/