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October 02, 2002
GA LEGISLATOR PUSHES LICENSE CHANGE Georgia State Rep. Barbara Mobley says she will continue to push for a bill that would let illegal aliens get driver's licenses. "Mobley says there are many immigrants driving in uninsured vehicles, which she said is a safety risk to Georgia residents injured in car accidents," the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported. However, citizens at a public hearing told legislators they strongly oppose the measure. "If someone is here illegally, we should not make it easier for them to live here," said one resident. SOMALI REFUGEES MUTILATE DAUGHTERS TO AVOID US LAW "US authorities have threatened to ban dozens of Somali refugee families from emigrating to America because the parents have mutilated the genitals of their young daughters," the BBC reported. "The traditional circumcision rite is believed to have been carried out recently on girls as young as two after their families were told the act was illegal in the United States." A U.S. embassy spokesman in Nairobi "announced that any family found to have mutilated their daughters in the last few months would be investigated and probably barred from resettling in America." LAID-OFF AIRPORT SCREENERS PROTEST CITIZENSHIP RULE "Scores of passenger screeners at the San Jose airport received pink slips Monday as the federal government prepared to replace them today with Transportation Security Administration employees," the San Jose Mercury News reports. After the layoffs, the screeners rallied outside the airport to protest new regulations requiring screeners to speak English and be U.S. citizens. HISPANIC ACTIVISTS PROTEST DAVIS VETO OF LICENSE BILL "Dozens of immigrant activists held a rally Tuesday to protest Gov. Gray Davis' veto of legislation that would have granted drivers' licenses to those in the process of obtaining legal status," the AP reports. "Davis vetoed the legislation Monday evening, saying he was concerned about security risks in licensing non-citizens after last year's terrorist attacks. . . . Davis' spokesman Byron Tucker said the governor agonized over whether to sign the bill and ultimately decided the risks were too great." STEIN REPORT AUDIO LEGISLATIVE UPDATE FAIR Executive Director Dan Stein and Government Relations Director Paul Egan discuss the pending Homeland Security bill in this audio legislative update. The clip is in Real Audio format, and runs 3 minutes. (700k) LAKIREDDY SEEKS SENTENCE REDUCTION Berkeley landlord Lakireddy Bali Reddy, who was "convicted of masterminding a scheme to bring illegal immigrants and Indian girls to the Bay Area to be his sex slaves, is asking a judge to reduce his prison term by almost two years," the San Jose Mercury News reports. "In June 2001, Reddy was sentenced to eight years and eight months at Lompoc federal prison, culminating in the Silicon Valley's highest profile case illuminating the abuse of the high-tech visa system." Lakireddy falsely claimed that the women were working for a high-tech company in the San Francisco area. BORDER DEATHS DECLINE, ACTIVIST GROUPS SPIN SURVEY Although overall deaths by illegal immigrants have declined in the past year, activist groups are highlighting the increase in deaths along remote stretches of the border to undermine U.S. enforcement policy. "Although deaths have declined 7% in the last year along the entire U.S.-Mexican border, the toll in the remote deserts and mountains of eastern Arizona has nearly doubled from 79 last year to 134, according to the U.S. Border Patrol," the LA Times reported. "What this tells you is this is getting deadlier," Claudia Smith of the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation said. In the past, Smith has stated her opposition to the use of any defensive equipment by Border Patrol officers, and has even protested the use of mag-lites by agents. The Border Patrol says that Operation Gatekeeper and related enforcement operations have been a success, and points to smugglers' disregard of human life as the reason for border fatalities. ILLEGAL ALIEN TEENS BEAT GUARDS, ESCAPE FROM DEMMING JAIL Several illegal alien teenagers, including one suspected of participating in a near-deadly ambush of FBI agents along the border escaped from a Demming, NM jail. "The youths attacked the guards at the Luna County Detention Center early Monday and drove away with pepper spray and a hand-held police scanner, officials said. All the teens are from Mexico, and authorities believe they fled there," AP reports. "The inmates apparently tore apart a cot and used the aluminum poles from the bed to beat the guards, Luna County Manager Scott Vinson said." HI-TECH STARTUP IMPORTS FOREIGN WORKERS TO CUT COSTS The Eastside Journal has a report about how one software startup company is reducing costs – importing foreign workers in the midst of a recession. "When Shirish Nadkarni started TeamOn Systems Inc., he didn't have the cash to lure a stampede of skilled workers. . . Nadkarni, who grew up in Bombay (now called Mumbai), turned to his native country." According to the Journal, "The numbers vary, but according to some estimates, annual salaries for software developers in India run $17,000 to $20,000, compared with $65,000 or more in the United States." Related, longer article: India's abundance of high-tech workers drew in company (East Side Journal) Related: Nonprofit uses technology to aid world's poor (East Side Journal) NEW, TIGHTENED VISA RULES TAKE EFFECT . . . The BBC has a story about new visa regulations since 9/11. "Students will be subjected to more stringent rules before they can enter the United States in a clampdown that could be extended to tourists, immigration officials have announced." In addition, "Officials also want to limit the time granted to business visitors and tourists to 30 days from as much as six months." INS Commissioner James Ziglar said the new rules ". . . strike the appropriate balance between INS' mission to ensure that our nation's immigration laws are followed and stop illegal immigration and our desire to welcome legitimate visitors to the United States." Related: New U.S. Entry Rules Worry Asia's Muslims (Reuters) DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY: RECRUIT IMMIGRANTS TO BOOST GROWTH "Researchers at Duquesne University have put numbers to a well-known Pittsburgh dilemma: We're an older region with a declining population that must attract many new workers in order to keep our economy stable," says Pittsburgh Tribune Review writer Jim McKay. "Immigration worked for Pittsburgh before. Immigrants from European countries, as well as migration of African Americans from Southern states, placed Pittsburgh among the nation's 10 largest cities from 1910 to 1940. In recent years, though, Pittsburgh has been largely ignored by new arrivals in contrast to a national trend that has seen immigrants contribute to the growth and revitalization of cities elsewhere." The Duquesne researchers say Pittsburgh should have an immigrant recruiting program similar to the one Iowa rejected. SUSPECTED TERROR FINANCIER FIGHTS DEPORTATION Rabih Haddad, who founded the now-shuttered Global Relief Foundation, argued against his deportation in an open hearing yesterday. Previous hearings had been closed by the INS, which said opening hearings about Haddad could compromise terrorism investigations. A group of newspapers filed suit to open the hearings. Haddad is charged with overstaying his visa, and the Global Relief Foundation was raided by federal agents last year, after evidence linking it to an al-Qaeda financier surfaced. "I have been railroaded by the government in a series of actions that had denied me the most basic of rights," Haddad said in a statement. Related: Haddad denies U.S. accusation of charity link to terror (Detroit Free Press) Related: Activist fears he won't be freed (Detroit News) Related: Family Defends Islamic Charity Head (WP) INS CAN'T READ NEW BORDER CARDS AT MANY STATIONS "Despite new requirements that Mexicans carry new high-tech border-crossing cards to make short visits to the United States, federal authorities do not have enough machines in place at U.S. border checkpoints to read the encoded information encrypted on the cards," Gannett News Service reports. "The computer equipment at ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexican border also are still unable to read biometric information - digital photographs and fingerprints - that appear embedded in the card," an INS spokeswoman said. Related: Technology gap means info hidden in new visas (Tucson Citizen) Related: Card switch strands some along border (DMN) FAIR REPORT: HIGH IMMIGRATION DRIVING HIGHER ENERGY USE Immigration Caused One-Third of Increased Energy Use in Last 25 Years The U.S. will not be able to combat energy shortages and meet emissions-reduction goals if we do not lower immigration, finds a new FAIR report. Running in Place: Immigration and U.S. Energy Usage also shows that immigration has been directly responsible for a full one-third of the increase in U.S. energy use over the last 25 years. The report was released today by FAIR and authored by Dr. Donald F. Anthrop, professor of environmental studies at San Jose State University. Dr. Anthrop has been a consultant to the California Energy Commission on energy conservation standards and has testified on behalf of the Sierra Club regarding water resources. If immigration continues at current levels-now over one million each year-meeting the Kyoto Protocol emissions-reductions goals would require that per capita energy consumption in the year 2012 would have to be reduced by 28 percent from the 2000 level, necessitating major lifestyle changes for Americans and causing serious economic dislocations. The report is available in HTML and in PDF format. (641k) See also: FAIR's press release about the report |
