"Mayor Anthony A. Williams said yesterday that noncitizens in the District should be allowed to vote in local elections, as a Latino coalition issued a report complaining that Hispanics lacked services and access to local government," the Washington Post reported. "I'm committed to expanding the franchise," Willams said at a news conference about the report.

Rabih Haddad, the subject of several lawsuits against the INS, will get an open deportation hearing today. The INS had argued unsuccessfully that the hearing should be closed for national security reasons. In a brief filed with the immigration court, the Justice Department says that Haddad's charity, the Global Relief Foundation, "has received substantial funding from a suspected financier of al-Qaida's worldwide efforts." In addition, equipment boxes were found in the charity's trash that are of the same make as equipment used by terrorists in the 1998 embassy bombings. "In this rehearing, I hope the government will come clean," Haddad told the Detroit News.

Columnist John O'Sullivan explains how the media kept the story of an illegal alien student on the front pages as part of a broader effort to discredit Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO). After the initial media frenzy following Tancredo's call to the INS about Jesus Apodaca, an illegal alien student seeking in-state tuition, "Everyone duly opened fire on him a second time--and they did so with subtlety as well as firmness. Instead of dealing with the general and unpopular fact that the INS openly tolerates illegal immigration, local press and politicians alleged that Tancredo was picking particularly on a meritorious young man who deserved a good education at Colorado's expense," O'Sullivan writes. "As the facts emerged, however, this attack began to falter too. After all, it was not Tancredo who had put the young man on the front page as a symbol of the virtue and vitality of illegal immigration--but the Denver Post. Still more embarrassing, the paper had done so at the urging of the local Mexican consulate that was campaigning to extend scholarships and other benefits to illegals. What had been uncovered was not only the INS's failure to enforce the law but also a cozy cabal between the media, local politicians and the Mexican government to put a nice friendly face onto the harsh reality of illegal immigration."

A confidential informant has furnished the Stein Report with news that INS employees in Nebraska have been told not to reveal that at least three of the five bank robbers who murdered 5 people on Thursday were illegal aliens. Perhaps the INS thinks that this information would draw attention to the fact that it is failing to protect the American public from the tidal wave of illegal immigrants. An INS headquarters spokesman claims that none of the men arrested for the robbery were in the U.S. illegally. Three of the men were U.S. citizens, and one was a Legal Permanent Resident, he said.

California Gov. Gray Davis has vetoed legislation that would have let illegal aliens get driver's licenses. "The decision forced Davis to weigh what he said were increased security risks from licensing non-citizens after last year's terrorist attacks against the urging of immigrant rights groups," AP reported. "California highways would be safer by having all drivers trained and insured, proponents said. But besides Davis' security concerns, opponents complained licenses encourage illegal immigration." In a message accompanying the veto, Davis said "the tragedy of Sept. 11 made it abundantly clear that the driver's license is more than just a license to drive; it is one of the primary documents we use to identify ourselves."

Read FAIR's press release

FAIR Applauds Gov. Davis' Veto of Driver's License Bills