"Mexicans living in the United States sent $6.1 billion home to relatives in the first half of this year, up 29 percent from the first six months of 2002, officials said Thursday," EFE news service reports. "In 2002, Mexicans in the United States sent home a total of $9.8 billion, making remittances the second highest source of foreign exchange for the country, exceeding tourism, and only lagging behind oil revenues."

"Americans in ever-larger numbers are leaving most of the states that are premier destinations for immigrants and moving to Southeastern and Western states that are home to most of the white population growth in the nation, according to the first migration analysis of the 2000 census," Newhouse News reports. "[Demographer William] Frey found, as he did in an analysis 10 years ago for Newhouse News Service of 1990 Census data, that people from major urban immigrant hubs were increasingly following their suburban dream not just a few miles but across state and regional lines."

"Corporations allowed to import large numbers of lesser-paid foreign workers to fill jobs in the United States, coupled with numerous 'free trade' agreements, have caused depressed wages and unemployment for American workers, say economists and experts," Worldnetdaily reports.

"The National Education Association is supporting the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride this fall that organizers say will help draw a 'new map for the road to citizenship' in the United States," the group says in a press release. [NB: NEA members may be interested to know their dues are sponsoring potentially illegal activity, as transporting or harboring illegal immigrants is a federal crime.]

"The Bush Administration is expected to back plans to provide thousands of North Koreans with asylum in America, supporting efforts to transport them out of China, in a significant policy shift," the Sydney Morning Herald reported. The measure "was sponsored by senators Sam Brownback, a Republican, and Ted Kennedy, a Democrat."

"The federal government's decision to review the use of identification cards issued to Mexican nationals has confused local Latino advocates but pleased critics who favor stricter immigration laws," the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports. "We know people are here undocumented, and we know that they are working," said Jacqueline Rosier, "recently appointed to the Latino Commission for a New Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue's advisory panel." Also quoted was "Jane Russell, director of Georgians for Immigration Reduction, an organization that advocates stricter immigration laws, [who] said she doubts people are scrutinized the way they should be when they obtain the cards."

"The case of Jose Guillermo Alvarado, a convicted child molester who was indicted last Friday on charges of raping a 5-year-old boy raises disturbing questions about protecting the public from predators who are in the country illegally," says the Washington Times in an editorial. "Perhaps as early as July 1999, Alvarado illegally re-entered the United States and obtained a work permit from the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Apparently, Alavardo was never fingerprinted. Had he been, his name would have come up as a convicted sex offender, Montgomery County Police Detective Don Inman told The Washington Times yesterday. . . . Montgomery officials need to ask themselves why illegals like Alvarado are drawn to their jurisdiction."

"Spurred on by the record-setting pace of migrant deaths in the scorching Arizona desert, a trio of the state's lawmakers last week launched the first Republican attempt at sweeping immigration reform since the issue was dropped by President Bush after Sept. 11," the Denver Post reports. "What we learned is that an amnesty doesn't do anything to reduce the number of people coming into the country illegally. The only thing (the amnesty) did was encourage more people to come," Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) told the paper.

"Sen. Patrick Leahy ( D-Vt). Thursday introduced legislation in the Senate to give same-sex couples equal immigration benefits under the law," 365 Gay reports. "The Permanent Partners Immigration Act would modify the federal Immigration and Nationality Act to provide same-sex partners of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents the same immigration benefits that legal spouses of U.S. residents currently enjoy."

"The Bush administration's goal of promoting prosperity at home by opening up markets abroad took a major step forward with strong Senate votes to establish free trade with Chile and Singapore," the Washington Post reports. However, "[S]enators said the office of the U.S. trade representative, the chief negotiator in the two deals, had overstepped its bounds in including provisions that would grant one-year, renewable visas to 1,400 Chilean and 5,400 Singaporean professional workers."