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Steps toward a North American Union

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March 27, 2024, 12:55:24 pm Mark says: Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked  When Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida began a speech marking the 100th day of the war in Gaza, one confounding yet eye-opening proclamation escaped the headlines. Listing the motives for the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, he accused Jews of "bringing red cows" to the Holy Land.
December 31, 2022, 10:08:58 am NilsFor1611 says: blessings
August 08, 2018, 02:38:10 am suzytr says: Hello, any good churches in the Sacto, CA area, also looking in Reno NV, thanks in advance and God Bless you Smiley
January 29, 2018, 01:21:57 am Christian40 says: It will be interesting to see what happens this year Israel being 70 years as a modern nation may 14 2018
October 17, 2017, 01:25:20 am Christian40 says: It is good to type Mark is here again!  Smiley
October 16, 2017, 03:28:18 am Christian40 says: anyone else thinking that time is accelerating now? it seems im doing days in shorter time now is time being affected in some way?
September 24, 2017, 10:45:16 pm Psalm 51:17 says: The specific rule pertaining to the national anthem is found on pages A62-63 of the league rulebook. It states: “The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem. “During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”
September 20, 2017, 04:32:32 am Christian40 says: "The most popular Hepatitis B vaccine is nothing short of a witch’s brew including aluminum, formaldehyde, yeast, amino acids, and soy. Aluminum is a known neurotoxin that destroys cellular metabolism and function. Hundreds of studies link to the ravaging effects of aluminum. The other proteins and formaldehyde serve to activate the immune system and open up the blood-brain barrier. This is NOT a good thing."
http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-08-11-new-fda-approved-hepatitis-b-vaccine-found-to-increase-heart-attack-risk-by-700.html
September 19, 2017, 03:59:21 am Christian40 says: bbc international did a video about there street preaching they are good witnesses
September 14, 2017, 08:06:04 am Psalm 51:17 says: bro Mark Hunter on YT has some good, edifying stuff too.
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« Reply #60 on: February 26, 2013, 04:11:04 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/immigration-detainees-released-budget-crunch-021333553.html

2/25/13
Immigration detainees released in budget crunch

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Associated Press has learned that federal immigration authorities have released a number of detainees around the country to save money.
 
Gillian Christensen, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington D.C., said Monday that field offices have been directed to review their numbers of detained immigrants to ensure the jail populations stay within budgeted resources.
 
Christensen says an unspecified number of immigrants have been released and placed on more cost effective forms of supervision.
 
She says she did not have further details about those forms of supervision or how many people have been released.
 
Christensen says the agency will continue to pursue the cases in court and deport people when necessary.
 
Immigration activists say the agency most likely released detainees in California, Texas, Florida, and New Jersey.
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« Reply #61 on: February 26, 2013, 04:26:36 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/english-requirement-immigration-reform-test-underfunded-esl-system-171501009--election.html
English requirement in immigration reform will test underfunded ESL system
2/26/13

The thorny topic of immigration reform has catapulted to the top of the to-do lists of both Republicans and Democrats, even as both sides continue to bicker over details. President Barack Obama and a bipartisan group of senators are eager to pass an immigration bill this year, with their main points of disagreement, deliberated in public and in private, centering around topics like border security, guest-worker programs and how long undocumented immigrants should have to wait before gaining citizenship.
 
There's one issue, however, both sides agree on: The nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants will need to know English before they can earn permanent legal status, commonly referred to as a green card. And therein lies a barely discussed problem with the potential to overwhelm states and put up a barrier to immigrants who want to legalize: The nation’s English as a Second Language system may not be up to the task.
 
Those familiar with the issue say the woefully underfunded adult ESL system would face challenges that could stretch it to its breaking point. They include the influx of millions of new students, a severe lack of clarity around funding, and the need for more flexible learning situations, as many immigrants—who often work several jobs—will find it difficult to attend classes.

The current ESL system is "cobbled together with toothpicks and Band-Aids,” said Paul Musselman, the president of Carnegie Speech, a virtual learning company that makes language software.
 
It would be “insane” to require illegal immigrants to learn English, added Leslie Robbins, the executive director of Riverside Language Program in Manhattan, which teaches legal immigrants intensive English courses. For one, she noted, the system is already overloaded. "There's not enough funding currently to deal with the numbers of people who both need and want English-language instruction," she said.
 
And Margie McHugh, an expert on immigrant integration issues at the Migration Policy Institute think tank, noted that the idea that somehow the system could accommodate 11 million new people is beyond anyone’s imagination."
 
McHugh estimated that, without schooling, about 55 percent of undocumented immigrants wouldn’t be able to pass the English portion of the U.S. citizenship test—which requires someone to understand English phrases when spoken to slowly and with repetition—if it were given today. That means about 4 million to 5 million people could simultaneously need instruction under the immigration reform law.
 
Politicians want to add a stricter English requirement in the reform bill in part to make sure undocumented immigrants are integrating and able to succeed economically. Immigrants who speak English well earn on average between 10 and 24 percent more than immigrants who don't, according to several studies, which means providing effective English courses could have a huge economic impact for the country as a whole and immigrants themselves. (Legal immigrants to the U.S. are not required to learn English to gain a green card, but must pass an English test in order to become citizens.)
 
But the current system in place for teaching English to the nations’ immigrants—state- and federally-funded classes provided by a patchwork of community colleges, public libraries and other community organizations—has been hit hard by state budget cuts since the recession began. Nationwide, 1.1 million people were enrolled in ESL courses in the 2006-2007 year, compared with just 730,000 people last academic year due to those cuts.
 
States may end up shouldering hefty costs associated with immigration reform if lawmakers don’t explicitly reimburse them in a bill. In 1986, Congress promised to reimburse state and local governments $4 billion in costs associated with the amnesty program, including providing adult ESL classes.

But even if the money's there, existing ESL classes on average have not proven to be all that effective at teaching its students English, in part because many immigrants don't have the time to attend classes frequently enough to make a difference.
 
Some techies as well as immigrant advocates, however, are hoping new language-learning software and online courses could help solve some of the issues, softening the blow to the ESL system if immigration reform passes.
 
“We need to get out there that there has to be a different way for people to learn English fast and with digital skills,” said Ada Williams Prince, the policy director for OneAmerica, a nonprofit immigration advocacy group. “It’s not enough to sit people in an ESL class."
 
A handful of colleges and community organizations are already experimenting with lower-cost digital ESL classes that use free online language programs instead of costly textbooks. They also allow teachers to have larger classes or, in at least one case, remove the need for ESL-trained teachers altogether.
 
A Gates Foundation-funded pilot program in Washington state—with the help of OneAmerica—taught 250 immigrants English in a 13-week program last year using free language-learning software provided by Livemocha, a Rosetta Stone-like online tool. Students were each given a laptop with a permanent Internet connection and worked in class with the help of a tech coach, but no formally trained ESL teacher. They also spent hours of their own time using Livemocha at home, with the goal of learning both digital and English skills at once.
 
This fall, another online ESL pilot program funded with $3.5 million by the Gates Foundation will begin in 10 community colleges, also in Washington. The colleges, partnering with Livemocha, will create an interactive curriculum including video and text chatting with native English speakers as a way to improve conversational skills. Each student will be given a laptop or tablet, but this time they'll be assisted by trained ESL teachers and tech coaches in classrooms.
 
The colleges hope the program will eventually be cheaper than traditional ESL classes, despite the costs of computers. They also hope the digital approach will be more effective than their previous textbook-based ESL classes, which have had a dismal track record of moving students to higher levels of English.
 
“We don’t believe it is more expensive to put technology in the hands of students than it is to put really not very exciting books in the hands of students,” Kathy Cooper, a policy associate at the Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges, said.
 
These types of online language programs weren't available 25 years ago when Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which required the 2.7 million undocumented immigrants who were legalized under that law to enroll in at least 40 hours of English courses before obtaining green cards. No one knows how effective these courses were, because immigrants were not required to take a test at the end of them. But experts estimate it takes about 600 hours of instruction for someone to move from the bottom levels of English understanding to a conversational competence, which suggests 40 hours would not do much toward helping someone become fluent.
 
The Department of Education would have final say on which ESL classes are approved, but experts think it's possible it would approve online classes.
 
“I'm sure that if they go with a 40-hour seat time requirement that many people would try to come up with an online way for folks to fulfill that,” said the Migration Policy Institute's McHugh. She added that the Department of Education would have to create “appropriate safeguards” to make sure the programs were high-quality.
 
Of course, the digital divide creates its own share of problems: Immigrants are far less likely than nonimmigrants in the U.S. to have access to a computer or Internet connection. (That wouldn’t be an issue if students are provided with computers as they are in the Gates-funded programs.)
 
Some in the ESL field also cautioned that digital-language programs may make instruction better and more efficient, but it will not replace the need for a qualified teacher and classroom.
 
"When we use technology it’s an enhancement, not a replacement,” said Helene Rubenstein, the coordinator for ESL programs at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan.
 
Whatever the solution, McHugh said she hopes Congress does not scrimp on funding. Good English classes, she noted, are necessary "if we really expect people to succeed in integrating or improving their long-term prospects of joining their mainstream workforce and community."

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« Reply #62 on: February 26, 2013, 04:45:09 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/immigration-detainees-released-budget-crunch-021333553.html

2/25/13
Immigration detainees released in budget crunch

Apparent, it's the Dpt of Homeland Security that's behind this.

http://news.yahoo.com/dhs-releasing-illegal-immigrants-sequester-172429302--politics.html

2/26/13

DHS releasing illegal immigrants before sequester

WASHINGTON (AP) — A week before mandatory budget cuts go into effect across the government, the Department of Homeland Security has started releasing illegal immigrants being held in immigration jails across the country, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Tuesday.
 
Gillian Christensen, an ICE spokeswoman, said ICE has reviewed "several hundred cases" of immigrants being held in jails around the country and released them in the last week. They have been "placed on an appropriate, more cost-effective form of supervised release," she said.
 
Christensen said the agency's "priority for detention remains on serious criminal offenders and other individuals who pose a significant threat to public safety." She did not say how released immigrants were selected or what jails they were released from.
 
Tuesday's announcement of jail releases is the first tangible impact of the looming budget cuts for DHS.
 
The Obama administration has been issuing dire warnings about the impact of the sequestration and DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano told reporters at the White House Monday that across-the-board cuts would impact the department's core operations, including border security and airport screening operations
.
 
She also warned that DHS might not be able to afford to keep the 34,000 immigration jail beds mandated by Congress. On average last week, there were 30,773 people being held in ICE jails.
 
"I don't think we can maintain the same level of security at all places around the country with sequester as without sequester," said Napolitano, adding that the impact would be "'like a rolling ball. It will keep growing."
 
According to the National Immigration Forum, it costs the government about $164 a day to keep an illegal immigrant facing deportation jailed. In a report on immigration detention costs last year the advocacy group said costs for supervised release can range from about 30 cents to $14 a day.
 
Republicans lawmakers decried the releases Tuesday.
 
"It's abhorrent that President (Barack) Obama is releasing criminals into our communities to promote his political agenda on sequestration," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte. "By releasing criminal immigrants onto the streets, the Administration is needlessly endangering American lives. It also undermines our efforts to come together with the Administration and reform our nation's immigration laws."
 
The administration asked for about $1.96 billion for immigration jail operations in the last budget. It amounts to about $5.4 million a day, according to the National Immigration Forum's report.
 
Christensen said Tuesday that released immigrants will still face deportation proceedings.
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« Reply #63 on: February 26, 2013, 10:18:01 pm »

Uh-Oh...There's this movie called "Olympus Has Fallen" coming out on 3-22-13 Sounds similar to their virals...


Jude 1:11 KJV

Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
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« Reply #64 on: February 26, 2013, 10:30:06 pm »

Uh-Oh...There's this movie called "Olympus Has Fallen" coming out on 3-22-13 Sounds similar to their virals...


Jude 1:11 KJV

Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

Yeah, just saw the trailer for it on youtube - not something to recommend, but nonetheless more predictive programming...interesting Hollywood has yet again put China as the bad guys.
« Last Edit: February 26, 2013, 10:33:15 pm by BornAgain2 » Report Spam   Logged
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« Reply #65 on: February 27, 2013, 01:49:10 am »

Yeah, that movie is about the White House being taken over or something. I guess they'd get better results naming it Olympus rather than "America Has Fallen". Don't want to be too in your face about it. But the reality is, yes, Olympus has fallen, from within, the country has been taken over, and not a single shot fired.
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« Reply #66 on: February 27, 2013, 07:54:04 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/immigration-reform-gop-point-man-envisions-circuitous-path-181300968.html

2/27/13 Immigration reform: A GOP point man envisions (circuitous) path to citizenship

GOP Rep. Bob Goodlatte outlines a possible sequence of steps on immigration reform, at the end of which undocumented immigrants could seek US citizenship, standing in line with all others. A compromise both right and left can support?

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R) of Virginia opposes a unique path to citizenship for the more than 10 million undocumented immigrants in the United States today –but that shouldn’t stop those same individuals from becoming US citizens at some point.

“There’s a broad spectrum between deportation and easy, special pathway to citizenship,” Representative Goodlatte said Wednesday at a breakfast with reporters sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor, “to find a way to bring people out of the shadows and give them a legal status that will allow them to be better able to participate in our society."
 
Goodlatte, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which handles immigration issues, and other conservatives including Rep. Raúl Labrador (R) of Idaho are among those attempting the politically perilous task of piloting legislation on immigration reform. Their challenge is to chart a course that reform critics will not deride as "amnesty" for those who entered the US illegally and that emerging Latino and Asian voters will not rebuke as anti-immigrant.

In Goodlatte's view, the course to an immigration deal begins by determining how to give undocumented individuals legal status in the US. Then it adds reforms to America’s legal immigration system, including clearing many of the huge backlogs that exist for some groups of people seeking permanent legal status, a precursor to citizenship.

Only then would the formerly undocumented be able to apply for citizenship – citing family ties, employment-based sponsorship, or other means – but they would be in the application pool with all others hoping to secure a coveted US green card, the congressman said. He also noted that discussions are ongoing about how to amend restrictions that prevent unauthorized immigrants from adjusting their US status for up to a decade, a fix that would remove another impediment to citizenship for those currently in the country illegally.
 
“Those are good opportunities we could address,” Goodlatte said.

This circuitous citizenship route is what Goodlatte and other conservative lawmakers see as a potentially practical compromise to get immigration legislation through Congress.
 
“Everybody has a different definition of what a pathway to citizenship is,” he said. To me, rather than getting bogged down in semantics we should look at what actually would enable us to find common ground that would enable us to pass legislation.”
 
For liberals in Congress, however, the absence of a specific pathway to citizenship for the undocumented risks creating a permanent group of "second-class citizens" who shoulder many of the responsibilities of citizenship but have none of the political rights, as Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D) of Illinois, a key immigration negotiator, argues frequently.

As a practical matter, they say, putting as many as 10 million people into a system that currently admits 1 million per year will lead to years upon years of waiting.

“I don’t think there is a magic number” of years to wait for citizenship, said Angela Maria Kelley, an immigration specialist at the liberal Center for American Progress Action Fund, during a call with reporters on Friday.

Undocumented immigrants “can’t jump ahead of those in family or other backlogs, but [the time] can’t be so long that they’re being admitted to nursing homes at the same time they’re applying for citizenship,” Ms. Kelley said.

Liberal advocates also note that an immigration deal that lacks a pathway to citizenship could be politically explosive among the growing number of Asian and Latino voters.

“I find it stunning and cynical and short-sighted, and I think it will set [Republicans] back” politically, Kelley said. “If there are any Republicans in the House whose goal it is to rebrand themselves and be Republican Party 2.0 with the Latino community, this is taking them way back, back to the era of fax machines,” Kelley continued. “It would be highly insulting. I hope this is early chest-thumping.... I hope they would calm down.”
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« Reply #67 on: March 01, 2013, 12:01:59 am »

Uh-Oh...There's this movie called "Olympus Has Fallen" coming out on 3-22-13 Sounds similar to their virals...


Jude 1:11 KJV

Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

There's another very-OWG themed movie coming out a couple of months from now - "Erased"(Yahoo put up the trailer recently). Biometrics, video cameras at street corners, the whole enchalada - plot centers around a man who's entire identity gets erased, and is on the run from the CIA - speaking of which when the mark of the beast prophecy comes to pass, I wonder if that will be the case here...everyone who takes it will have to go through a program to get their old memory in their brain swiped, and re-programmed and remote-controlled...scripture does say those who take the mark will burn in the lake of fire forever. It's as if NWO's programming arm Hollywood is really gearing up their predictive programming fast now.

Come to think of it, Hollywood has made a few of these futuristic movies centering around characters getting their old memory swiped the last 20 or so years.
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« Reply #68 on: March 01, 2013, 02:50:48 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/gop-could-break-unwritten-rule-pass-immigration-reform-061006805--abc-news-politics.html

How the GOP Could Break an Unwritten Rule and Pass Immigration Reform

03/01/13
House Republican leaders eschewed a long-held principle when they held a vote on the Violence Against Women Act on Thursday. Only 87 out of 232 House Republicans backed that bill, but they still chose to bring it to a vote.
 
That decision made all the difference. The bill passed thanks to near-unanimous support from House Democrats and backing from some Republicans.
 
By allowing the bill to come to a vote, Republicans broke the "Hastert Rule" -- named after former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). The basic idea: don't let something come to a vote unless a majority of the party supports it.
 
If the unofficial Hastert rule is no longer a precedent for House Republicans, that could have a implications for other controversial, bigger pieces of legislation this year, such as immigration reform.
 
The rule has been a guiding convention for House Republicans for years. Hastert coined the phrase in a 2004 speech, in which he said that the House would only bring a bill to the floor if "a majority of the majority" (i.e., a majority of Republicans) backed it. Since then, Republicans have largely operated under that rule when they have controlled the House of Representatives, including under the current speakership of John Boehner (R-Ohio).
 
But Thursday's vote was not the first time this year that House GOP leaders allowed a vote on a bill that did not enjoy support from the majority of their conference. A deal to avert the fiscal cliff at the beginning of the year passed the House with only 85 Republican votes at the tail end of the last Congress. And only 49 Republicans voted for a relief package for victims of Superstorm Sandy, which passed into law.
 
That has led some to believe the rule could be tossed aside again on key issues, a bow to the reality of divided government.
 
"The idea that you're going to do everything just within your party might be a good idea [for the GOP], but it's not going to last very long," said Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a long-time observer of Congress.
 
Ornstein added that bills that can pass the Democrat-controlled Senate and receive President Barack Obama's signature "are probably going to require more Democrats than Republicans" to vote for them in the House.
 
Boehner's flock of House Republicans is uncompromising, often more so than their GOP colleagues in the Senate. For example, 35 percent of House Republicans voted for the fiscal cliff deal compared to 85 percent of Senate Republicans.
 
Thus Boehner may not be able to follow Hastert's mantra if he wants to ensure that the House does not become mired in gridlock and maintain his conference's credibility, argued John Feehery, a lobbyist and former communications director for Hastert. Feehery would know -- he penned the "majority of the majority" speech.
 
"I think John Boehner won't have much of a choice in these first several months of the 113th Congress. He has to get stuff done," Feehery wrote in a January op-ed column titled, "Rules Are Made to Be Broken."
 
"The Speaker doesn't have much room to maneuver," he added. "His conference is in no mood to compromise, nor in much of a mood to vote for anything that resembles responsible governance."
 
Boehner's office played coy as to how or if the majority-of-the-majority-principle would be applied to future votes.
 
"The current Speaker has never mentioned such a rule," Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said in an e-mail.
 
The weakened Hastert Rule could have an impact on a wide range of pressing fiscal issues, including a fix to replace the $85 billion in mandatory spending cuts this year known as "sequestration."
 
But it has also given Democrats hope that some of their legislative priorities, such as comprehensive immigration reform, could get through the GOP-controlled House. Obama has said that he wants a bill passed as soon as this summer and groups of lawmakers in both chambers have begun to draft legislation.
 
"It's clear that the Hastert Rule isn't as hard and fast as it has appeared to be over the past couple of years," Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), a member of a bipartisan working group in the House drafting immigration reform legislation, told ABC/Univision. "That does provide hope that if we were in a situation where the Senate passed an immigration reform bill and the president and American people were demanding a bill, that Speaker Boehner could find a way to move the legislation toward a sensible outcome if a majority of House Republicans do not support it."
 
Gutierrez said, however, that the aim is to come up with a bill that satisfies both a majority of Republicans and Democrats, undoubtedly a tough task.
 
"That would be a plan B, regardless," he added. "The best scenario is to have a bill where the Hastert Rule isn't a hindrance."
 
So far, Boehner has been able to bring bills to the floor without majority Republican support while not experiencing a major backlash from the rank-and-file. For example, he allowed a floor vote on a version of the Violence Against Women Act that was backed by House Republicans, but the version of the bill did not contain specific protections for undocumented immigrants, Native Americans, gays, and lesbians. That bill failed to pass and the House later approved another version with the protections included, even though the bill didn't have majority Republican support in the House.
 
But Ornstein said it's unclear how many more times Boehner and House leaders could accomplish that kind of maneuver before it foments a rebellion from Republicans who represent very conservative districts, which could undermine his role as Speaker of the House.
 
At the same time, Ornstein said, Boehner must recognize demands from top Republicans who believe the party must address controversial issues like immigration in an effort to help repair their standing with Hispanic voters. Some GOP strategists have said that will be necessary to remain competitive in national elections.
 
"There's no tougher job in the country than Boehner's at this point," Ornstein said.
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« Reply #69 on: March 01, 2013, 03:01:21 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/senate-republicans-sell-immigration-plan-195727731.html
3/1/13
Senate Republicans sell immigration plan to House

McCain, Graham, Flake met with House hardliners to promote immigration plan


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Jeff Flake met with key House conservatives this week to promote legislation to overhaul the nation's immigration laws and provide a pathway to citizenship for an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants, McCain's communications director said Friday.

McCain, R-Ariz.; Graham, R-S.C.; and Flake, R-Ariz., are members of a bipartisan group of eight senators working to craft a comprehensive immigration bill to enhance border security, streamline legal immigration, ensure employers don't hire illegal immigrants and provide eventual citizenship to illegal immigrants already here.

If it gets through the Senate, the legislation faces a potentially tough road with House Republicans skeptical of granting citizenship to illegal immigrants, and the meeting included at least one lawmaker known for taking a hard line on the issue.

"Sen. McCain was glad to have the opportunity to update key House members and get their advice and recommendations on this important effort. He looks forward to continuing these conversations as we move forward," said Brian Rogers, McCain's communications director.

Members present Thursday at the meeting organized by the House Republican Policy Committee included Rep. Steve King of Iowa and Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho.

King is known for decrying amnesty for illegal immigrants while Labrador has said he supports finding a way to legalize the status of illegal immigrants already here, while rejecting the idea of giving them a special pathway to citizenship.

McCain, Graham, Flake and others argue that Republicans must tackle comprehensive immigration legislation partly to win back support from Latino voters crucial to national election outcomes, but that argument is a harder sell to House members who often represent overwhelmingly white districts.
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« Reply #70 on: March 01, 2013, 04:34:15 pm »

3/1/13
AP Exclusive: DHS released over 2,000 immigrants

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Homeland Security Department released from its jails more than 2,000 illegal immigrants facing deportation in recent weeks due to looming budget cuts and planned to release 3,000 more during March, The Associated Press has learned.
 
The newly disclosed figures, cited in internal budget documents reviewed by the AP, are significantly higher than the "few hundred" illegal immigrants the Obama administration acknowledged this week had been released under the budget-savings process.
 
The government documents show that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement released roughly 1,000 illegal immigrants from its jails around the U.S. each week since at least Feb. 15. The agency's field offices have reported more than 2,000 immigrants released before intense criticism this week led to a temporary shutdown of the plan, according to the documents.
 
The states where immigrants were released include Arizona, California, Georgia and Texas.
 
The White House has said it was not consulted about the releases, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has acknowledged they occurred in a manner she regrets. White House spokesman Jay Carney on Wednesday said the government had released "a few hundred" of the roughly 30,000 illegal immigrants held in federal detention pending deportation proceedings. Carney said the immigrants released were "low-risk, noncriminal detainees," and the decision was made by career ICE officials.
 
As of last week, the agency held an average daily population of 30,733 in its jails. The internal budget documents reviewed by the AP show the Obama administration had intended to reduce those figures to 25,748 by March 31.
 
The White House did not comment immediately Friday on the higher number of immigrants released.
 
ICE spokesman Brian Hale said Friday the numbers of immigration detainees fluctuate daily, but he reiterated only several hundred illegal immigrants had been released. "Beyond that normal movement, and as fiscal uncertainty remains over the continuing resolution and possible sequestration, ICE reviewed its detained population to ensure detention levels stay within ICE's current budget and placed several hundred individuals on methods of supervision less costly than detention," Hale said in a statement. "At this point, we don't anticipate additional releases, but that could change."
 
The immigrants who were released still eventually face deportation and are required to appear for upcoming court hearings. But they are no longer confined in immigration jails, where advocacy experts say they cost about $164 per day per person. Immigrants who are granted supervised release — with conditions that can include mandatory check-ins, home visits and GPS devices — cost the government from 30 cents to $14 a day, according to the National Immigration Forum, a group that advocates on behalf of immigrants.
 
The release of thousands from immigration jails is consistent with Napolitano's early warnings on Monday — hours before anyone knew publicly that any illegal immigrants had been released — that the pending, automatic budget cuts known as the sequester would limit the government's ability to maintain enough detention center beds for at least 34,000 immigrants.
 
"We're doing our very best to minimize the impacts of sequester, but there's only so much I can do," Napolitano said Monday. "You know, I'm supposed to have 34,000 detention beds for immigration. How do I pay for those?"
 
Late Thursday, after intense criticism over what the administration acknowledged was the release this week of several hundred immigrants, Napolitano told ABC News that she had been surprised to learn about the action.
 
"Detainee populations and how that is managed back and forth is really handled by career officials in the field," Napolitano told ABC. "Do I wish that this all hadn't been done all of a sudden and so that people weren't surprised by it? Of course."
 
The announcement that a few hundred illegal immigrants were being released was among the most significant and direct implications described so far by the automatic budget cuts. Republicans in Congress quickly criticized the decision and pressed the Homeland Security Department for details, including the number of illegal immigrants released and the nature of any criminal charges they were facing as part of the deportation process.
 
"Simply blaming budget reductions as a means to turn a blind eye toward the national security of the American people is a dangerous plan, and one that calls into question the department's preparations for sequestration," wrote two Republican lawmakers, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
 
The senior Homeland Security Department official in charge of arresting and deporting illegal immigrants announced his retirement to his staff on Tuesday, the same day the administration first openly confirmed the release of what it called several hundred immigrants. The executive associate director over ICE enforcement and removal operations, Gary Mead, told his staff he was leaving his job with mixed emotions. A career law enforcement officer, Mead will leave at the end of April.
 
After AP reported on Mead's retirement, ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said his decision was not related to criticism over the jail releases and said Mead had notified the agency's senior leaders "several weeks ago" that he intended to leave. She also called AP's reporting about Mead's departure "inaccurate and misleading." On Thursday, ICE corrected her statement to say that Mead has notified his bosses "more than a week ago," not several weeks ago.
 
The later government statement also criticized AP's reporting as "ill-informed, inaccurate information" and complained that AP had failed to contact the agency before publishing what it called a "misguided headline," although the AP had noted its unsuccessful efforts to contact Mead directly by telephone and email.

http://news.yahoo.com/ap-exclusive-dhs-released-over-2-000-immigrants-211615464--politics.html
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« Reply #71 on: March 02, 2013, 04:33:09 am »

Again, more petty games by the feds.

What I would like to know is how do they save money from letting go somebody that's already in custody? If they know they are here illegally, then put them on a bus and send them out of the country. What's the problem? The problem is the federal government is playing games with immigration.

Consider that the fewer people they officially deport, the smaller the number will be, thus giving the impression that illegals entering the country has decreased seeing there are less people deported.

Immigration and how the federal government is handling it is in my opinion one of the biggest insults to the American public since the Civil War. We literally have a government that is letting foreigners into the country in violation of federal and state laws, intentionally. These people are outright doing it on purpose as an open disregard for US immigration law.

What the US has is a rogue government. God help us because the ONLY way for a population to deal with it's own government having gone rogue is to remove those government officials in violation of the law, by force if necessary, and then go back over the books and overturn all the bad legislation passed unconstitutionally. I don't see that happening.

Prophecy just doesn't suggest anything of the sort will happen. In fact, it says things will only get worse.
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« Reply #72 on: March 04, 2013, 04:55:29 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/jeb-bush-trying-scuttle-immigration-reform-162200381.html

3/4/13
Is Jeb Bush trying to scuttle immigration reform?

One of the GOP's most influential leaders appears to change his mind, now saying he's against a path to citizenship
 
In what appears to be a remarkable about-face, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Monday stepped back from his previous position on immigration reform, telling NBC's Today that he does not support a path to citizenship for immigrants who entered the country illegally. "I think there has to be some difference between people who come here legally and illegally," Bush said. "It is just a matter of common sense and a matter of the rule of law. If we're not going to apply the law fairly and consistently, we're going to have another wave of illegal immigrants coming into the country."
 
Bush is even more explicit in a forthcoming book called Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution that he co-authored with lawyer Clint Bolick. According to Elise Foley at The Huffington Post, who nabbed a copy of the book before its official publication date, Bush and Bolick write, "It is absolutely vital to the integrity of our immigration system that actions have consequences — in this case, that those who violated the law can remain but cannot obtain the cherished fruits of citizenship." They continue: "To do otherwise would signal once again that people who circumvent the system can still obtain the full benefits of American citizenship."
 
Technically, Bush says he does support a path to citizenship, but only if undocumented immigrants return to their home countries and apply through legal channels. That is miles away from his previous stance on the issue. As recently as January, Bush and Book wrote the following in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal (emphasis added):
 
A practicable system of work-based immigration for both high-skilled and low-skilled immigrants — a system that will include a path to citizenship — will help us meet workforce needs, prevent exportation of jobs to foreign countries and protect against the exploitation of workers…
 
America's immigration system should provide opportunities for people who share the country's core values to become citizens, thereby strengthening the nation as have countless immigrants have before them. [The Wall Street Journal]
 
In addition, Bush spent much of the 2012 presidential campaign criticizing Republicans — and by implication, standard-bearer Mitt Romney — for taking a hard-line stance on immigration. Bush's new position has angered at least one member of the Romney campaign, according to The Miami Herald:
 
"Where the hell was this Jeb Bush during the campaign?" said one advisor. "He spent all this time criticizing Romney and it turns out he has basically the same position. So he wants people to go back to their country and apply for citizenship? Well, that's self deportation. We got creamed for talking about that. And now Jeb is saying the same thing."
 
Asked to respond, Bush said by email: "i am not advocating self  deportation. read the book
." [The Miami Herald]
 
What is the former Florida governor hoping to accomplish? There was immediate speculation that Bush, who is considered a possible presidential contender in 2016, is seeking to place himself to the right of Sen. Marco Rubio, a fellow Floridian who is leading a bipartisan effort to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would likely include a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers. When asked by NBC whether he was running for president, Bush left the door wide open. "I have a voice," he said. "I want to share my beliefs about how the conservative movement and the Republican Party can regain its footing, because we've lost our way." When pressed, he refused to rule out a run. "I won't," he said, "but I'm not going to declare today either."
 
Others say that Bush's shift reflects the stubborn fact that the GOP is not serious about comprehensive reform, despite Rubio's efforts and the appeals of party leaders (one of whom used to be Bush himself). "If I had to hazard a guess," writes Jamelle Bouie at The American Prospect, "this is another sign Republicans are moving away from comprehensive immigration reform, and towards something more piecemeal and less effective."
 
And where does that leave Rubio's proposal? According to Benjy Sarlin at Talking Points Memo:
 
"Wow," Marshall Fitz, director of immigration policy at the liberal Center For American Progress, told TPM in an email. "For a guy who has been a luminary on this issue for the GOP, his endorsement of such a regressive policy is deeply troubling."
 
The big question going forward, Fitz said, is "whether it cuts Rubio’s legs out from under him" by pressuring his right flank, or merely gives Rubio more power within the bipartisan gang negotiating a bill by demonstrating that conservative concerns about a bill are still a major hurdle that only he can address. [Talking Points Memo]
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« Reply #73 on: March 05, 2013, 10:09:43 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/immigration-officials-tight-lipped-detainee-release-known-222819522.html

3/5/13
Immigration officials tight-lipped about detainee release. What is known?

Here are the basics about the detainee release – from the terminology that immigration officials use to a glimpse into the kinds of people who have been released.


US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said last week it was releasing a "few hundred" detainees to save money ahead of the automatic spending cuts in the “sequester.” A few days later, the Associated Press reported that the move involved closer to 2,000 detainees, who were set free from Atlanta to Livingston, Texas.
 
As criticism about the move – was it a sequester-related scare tactic by the White House? – rose from politicians like House Speaker John Boehner, ICE contended that it did not coordinate with the White House. The released detainees, it said, were "noncriminals and other low-risk offenders who do not have serious criminal histories."
 
But this week, Gov. Rick Perry (R) of Texas has been among those suggesting a more sinister development – that many of the released detainees are "criminal aliens," whose release onto the streets represents a massive and "unconscionable ... federally sponsored jailbreak."

 RECOMMENDED: Could you pass a US citizenship test?

To be sure, immigration record keeping and reporting are so poor in the United States that entire academic departments make their hay out of squeezing ICE for information and then analyzing the data for public consumption. When a nonpartisan immigration think tank released a report about ICE's work on the border recently, one person at the center suggested with a sigh that the report told a powerful tale that the agency had largely failed to tell itself.
 
Yet the lack of detailed information from ICE about its detainee policy has only added fuel to the questions and criticisms surrounding the detainee release.
 
Here it what is known so far about the release – from the terminology ICE uses for illegal immigrants to a glimpse into the kinds of people ICE has released.

Want your top political issues explained? Get customized DC Decoder updates.
 
The detainee controversy comes after other moves by the Obama administration. Since early in the Obama presidency, ICE has used greater discretion in deciding whom to target for deportation, focusing on those deemed higher risks to public safety. And last year, the administration set up a program that allows young illegal immigrants who were brought to the US as children to be eligible for work permits.
 
The new ICE move comes as Republicans weigh how far to go on agreeing to a "path to citizenship" as part of a looming immigration reform package. Both Democrats and Republicans, in fact, have used the detainee release for political posturing in the larger immigration debate.
 
Critics say the release shows that the Obama administration is not willing to enforce the existing laws that target undocumented immigrants – which for the critics could be an immigration-reform deal breaker. Others counterargue that the administration's actions actually show it's serious. Not only has the White House beefed up border security, they say, but President Obama has also deported more illegal immigrants per year than has any other president.
 
At least part of the detainee release has to do with the number of detention beds. A congressional funding mandate says that 34,000 detention beds need to be filled (with an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the US). But a day before ICE announced the detainee release, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano talked about reducing the number of detention beds.
 
Indeed, ICE officials have begun whittling down the number of beds without congressional approval. Facing the sequester, ICE officials plan to draw down to as few as 26,000 beds by March 31, the Associated Press said after its review of DHS records. The savings is about $150 per night, per bed.
 
Critics see in the bed reduction a willful ignorance of Congress. And such disregard is an ongoing point of contention and distrust between especially House Republicans and Mr. Obama. But according to the administration, the release was simply an acceleration of the discretionary decisions already being made by ICE – weighing detainees' flight risks and criminal past against available bed space.
 
Those released have been put into so-called alternatives-to-detention programs, which include phone check-ins and GPS anklets. They show up for court 96 percent of the time, data indicate. But overall, illegal immigrants notified by mail of deportation proceedings against them decide 59 percent of the time not to show up, according to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), an anti-illegal immigration think tank in Washington.
 
Another issue that has come up in the detainee release is ICE’s terminology, which in the eyes of many is head-shakingly vague. ICE uses the term "criminal aliens" to describe persons found guilty of minor violations such as traffic offenses, as well as people convicted on more-serious charges such as assault – and it also describes those who have simply committed immigration violations.
 
More recently, however, ICE has tried to finesse the definition of what constitutes a criminal alien, saying it would spend most of its resources detaining and deporting "high-risk criminal aliens." This refers to those who had committed crimes more serious than misdemeanor traffic tickets.
 
Since 2010, the Obama administration has stepped up deportations for high-risk criminal aliens, a group that made up 27 percent of detainees in 2009 and 43 percent in 2010.
 
Questions about criminality in the detainee population have loomed large after the recent release, especially since law-and-order perceptions about illegal immigrants are a key part of immigration politics.
 
Politicians like Governor Perry have been dissatisfied with the amount of information ICE has given out about the detainees.
 
“Aside from allowing this federally sponsored jailbreak to occur, ICE has also failed to provide any information regarding the number of detainees released, their countries of origin, locations where these individuals have been released, and the reasons they were detained – despite repeated requests from my office," Perry wrote on Monday to John Morton, director of ICE. "The finger pointing at the highest levels of the Obama administration and unwillingness to take responsibility for this massive security threat is unacceptable.”
 
Media organizations have tracked down some of those involved in the detainee release, giving some insight into the kinds of people ICE saw fit to release.
 
Anthony Orlando Williams, a Jamaican national in his 50s now staying in Stone Mountain, Ga., was thrown into detention three years ago for violating probation after a 2005 conviction of simple assault, simple battery, and child abuse, all tied to a domestic dispute, according to The New York Times. "I'm good, man. I'm free," he told the paper.
 
Another man probably released as part of the sequester move was Miguel Hernandez, a 19-year-old illegal immigrant who had been picked up in rural Georgia. "I'm not a criminal," Mr. Hernandez told CNN, although he noted that he thought some of those who were released along with him may have been previously deported.
 
Time will tell if those freed comply with the terms of their release. If ICE is right, and the release becomes part of an argument against mass incarceration of “low risk” illegal immigrants, then the budget cuts may have presaged sound policy, some immigration-policy experts suggest.
 
"This really points out that despite the rhetoric about our targeting hardened criminals, there's actually not that many hardened criminal illegal immigrants to go around," says Allert Brown-Gort, an immigration expert at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. "There are lots and lots of people in the system that are clearly no danger to society, which is why [programs like the release and alternatives-to-detention] make sense."
 
Critics, meanwhile, maintain that the detainee release is a ruse that has little to do with budgets – and that ICE's lack of details bolsters the argument that politics is afoot.
 
"Obviously there's nothing in the sequester that says ICE has to release anybody: The idea is absurd," says Steven Camarota, research director at CIS. "They could hold or defer some payments, they could furlough some part of a bloated bureaucracy, but instead they chose to release illegals."
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« Reply #74 on: March 06, 2013, 02:57:03 am »

I tell ya, if i weren't a Christian and were into the world and being a citizen and all that carnal stuff, I'd be really p.o.'d at the way representatives are acting. The whole immigration issue is purely political, and politicians continue to play games with the public.

Quote
"Obviously there's nothing in the sequester that says ICE has to release anybody: The idea is absurd," says Steven Camarota, research director at CIS. "They could hold or defer some payments, they could furlough some part of a bloated bureaucracy, but instead they chose to release illegals."

Seriously, somebody should be fired for that stunt. And that kind of stuff is what I'm talking about. People in government running a muck, making a mockery of government based on party bias.
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« Reply #75 on: March 06, 2013, 08:56:51 pm »

Wash. state groups forge compact for immigration reform

3/5/13
http://tdn.com/news/state-and-regional/washington/wash-groups-forge-compact-for-immigration-reform/article_68e9ed5f-be95-5045-a173-13e03a2c5fde.html

Washington joined a handful of other states with a compact in support of immigration reform Tuesday, marking another effort by states to push Congress to overhaul U.S. immigration policies.

The compact, signed by a coalition of more than 40 agriculture, business and faith entities, calls for sensible policies that meet the needs of Washington residents and create a fair path to legal status for illegal immigrants.

The compact includes five principles for keeping families together, ensuring a strong economy and focusing local law enforcement efforts on criminal activities, rather than civil violations of federal code, such as immigration violations.

Similar compacts have been created in Arizona, Texas, Iowa, Colorado and Utah.

Much like those states, though, the Washington state compact offered scant details about what should be included in reform legislation.

The purpose of the compact is not to get into the details of immigration reform, but to promote the values that are essential in resolving the issue and give Congress a push, said former congressman Sid Morrison, a Republican who represented Washington's 4th District from 1980-1992.

The district includes the heavily agricultural Yakima Valley and the larger Columbia River Basin, where thousands of immigrants labor in farm fields, fruit warehouses and vegetable processing plants.

"Being a lifelong part of this valley, I know that they reflect the values of many of the folks who have come here, with good intent, lived the American dream, better themselves, feed their families, and yet were illegal."

Supporters of the compact include the Washington Association of Business, the Washington Growers League and the King County sheriff.

Resolving the issue is the federal government's responsibility, but the compact offers a set of principles that members of Congress should consider as they debate any legislation, said Mike Gempler, executive director of the Washington Growers League.

Making it harder for people to immigrate illegally _ and easier for people to immigrate legally _ will go a long way toward fixing the problem, he said.

But any solution, he said, must include provisions that protect the U.S. and Washington state economies, whether the issue is the general size of the workforce or the need for seasonal workers for agriculture.

"Any bill that is passed into law must consider what kind of workforce is needed for our economy for the future, and how we will achieve it," he said.

Marisol Guerrero, 36, traveled from Sunnyside to Yakima for the announcement with her two children, 7-year-old Ashley and 4-year-old Bryan.

"It's important for me to see reform, so that students can achieve their dreams," she said. "I'm a single mom and I'm the only one who is going to support my kids when they need me."

While in Congress, Morrison co-authored legislation to reform U.S. immigration policies 27 years ago. That bill passed the House, but failed in the Senate.

Morrison said he believes immigration issues could have been resolved then. He now serves on the boards of Central Washington University and Energy Northwest, the public-power consortium that operates the Northwest's only commercial nuclear reactor.

Washington state hires more college graduates than any other state, but graduates fewer of its own citizens, he said.

"We're kidding ourselves by not looking at the resource we have here in people," Morrison said.

Ridding these people of the "illegal cloud" enables them to be trained as documented workers, he said, adding, "These are some of the best workers in the world, no matter what they pursue."
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« Reply #76 on: March 07, 2013, 02:34:32 am »

Quote
Ridding these people of the "illegal cloud" enables them to be trained as documented workers, he said, adding, "These are some of the best workers in the world, no matter what they pursue."

Translation: We need slaves to do the dirty work.

And pay no attention that the worker, while "some of the best", are breaking the law right off the bat and they haven't even started their job yet and they are already criminals, and traitors to their home countries they left behind. Criminals don't run their mouths, and their handlers know it.
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« Reply #77 on: March 07, 2013, 04:36:04 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/latinos-closing-digital-divide-poll-shows-204407512.html

3/7/13
Latinos Closing Digital Divide, Poll Shows

A new study out today shows Latinos are closing the digital divide -- and cell phones are the device of choice.
 
The report released today by the Pew Hispanic Research Center found that, in just three years, the gap between whites' and Latinos' use of Internet closed by half.
 
In 2009, only 64 percent of Hispanics used the Internet, compared to 72 percent of blacks and 80 percent of whites. In 2012 Hispanics matched blacks in usage at 78 percent, while whites slightly increased to 87 percent.
 
"These are trends we've been following for awhile," said Mark Lopez, associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center. "Some of the biggest gains that were made, particularly in Internet use, among Latinos were among foreign-born and among Spanish-dominant Latinos who had very low usage rates just a few years ago."
 
Most Latino Internet users depend on their mobile devices, rather than desktops and laptops, when accessing the Internet -- 76 percent, versus 60 percent of whites.
 
Hispanics and blacks outpaced whites in cell phone ownership at 86 percent, 90 percent and 78 percent, respectively.
 
It is a trend that could be, in part, because of Pew's findings that Latinos lag whites when it comes to desktop and laptop ownership (72 percent Hispanics vs. 83 percent whites) and nearly half (47 percent) of Latino adults live in cell-phone-only households. Comparatively, 38 percent of blacks and 30 percent of whites don't have a landline, a trend that has grown significantly since 2004 when only 6 percent of Hispanics, 4 percent of blacks and 4 percent of whites did not have one.
 
While Spanish-dominant and foreign-born Latinos have helped close the gap in Internet use, when it comes to social media, most (60 percent) who are tweeting and Facebooking are doing it in English, and at rates similar to other groups.
 
"It is interesting that, when it comes to social media, English is the dominant language," Lopez said.
 
He added that it probably has to do with the large, young generation present in the Latino community.
 
"Many Latinos are young and most likely to adopt those technologies first," he said, citing Pew's findings that those households with children under 18 are more likely to use newer technologies than those without children.
 
"[It] may be having spillover effects, but we don't know," Lopez said. "What's interesting about this is this a reflection of the relative use of [the] Latino community and also suggests that when it comes to a lot of newer technology Latinos are adopting them at similar rates to those of other groups. So as technology becomes more important, this may actually be an important phenomenon for Latinos moving forward."
 
Elianne Ramos, who is principal at Speak Hispanic Communications and had no part in the Pew research, said that the use of cell phones for Internet use could also be attributed to the lack of access for home Internet connectivity.
 
"One lifeline is the cell phone," she said. People may be "using it to access the Internet [because] it is their only connection to the online world."
 
In today's Hispanic culture, most are Internet consumers, Ramos said, adding that this study will be important to look toward the future as they become creators.
 
"What mobile's doing is it's changing the nature of the divide from being about access to being about quality," she said. "The hope is more people will start becoming content creators instead of consumers. ... Now, we are kind of playing catch up [and] starting to get access, but we still don't have the training."
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« Reply #78 on: March 11, 2013, 12:58:04 am »

3/10/13
Jeb Bush: I'm 'in sync' with Senate Republicans on immigration reform

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Sunday downplayed talk that his immigration plan undercuts Senate Republican efforts and said he’s more focused now on solving the country’s problems than positioning himself for a 2016 presidential run.
 
Bush, a Republican, said he talked with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., part of the Senate group working on an immigration reform proposal, who last week criticized Bush for seeming to not support a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, a key part of the bipartisan group’s plan.
 
Bush told ABC’s “This Week” that Graham was responding to concerns before Bush’s book on immigration was released.
 
“I told him that I support his efforts and I applaud what he’s doing,” Bush said. “And he concluded, after he heard what the thesis of the book is, that we’re in sync. We’re on the same path.”


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/10/jeb-bush-im-in-sync-with-senate-republicans-on-immigration-reform/#ixzz2NCxeOBeQ
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« Reply #79 on: March 11, 2013, 06:24:58 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/proposed-elements-bipartisan-senate-pact-creates-second-class-141253922--politics.html

Proposed Elements in Bipartisan Senate Pact Creates Second-Class Citizenship
3/11/13
A bipartisan group of senators has reached a tentative agreement to create a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, but that path is filled with stuff both parties usually reject as intolerable for American citizens. The senators hope to finish the bill and present it to the Senate Judiciary Committee by early April, the Los Angeles Times' Brian Bennett reports.
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« Reply #80 on: March 12, 2013, 09:20:10 pm »

Senate Immigration Group: National ID Too Costly
3/12/13
http://news.yahoo.com/senate-immigration-group-national-id-too-costly-203805099.html

Senators working on a sweeping immigration bill will likely abandon the idea of a new high-tech ID card for workers because it's too expensive, a key negotiator said.

That means their emerging legislation, which they've promised will crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants, likely will seek to expand a little-used system criticized as error-prone and vulnerable to fraud that employers can use to check the legal status of workers, mainly using Social Security numbers.

The system, called E-Verify, is now purely voluntary, and officials with labor and immigrants' rights groups say it would have to be greatly improved before being required nationally
.

Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., members of the bipartisan Senate immigration negotiating group, had championed creation of a biometric ID card instead that would use personal markers such as fingerprints to make it easy for employers to check the status of prospective hires. But Graham said cost estimates came back higher than he expected.

"That seems to have been cost-prohibitive, so we're looking at other ways to achieve the same goal," Graham told reporters this week at the Capitol.

Graham said no final decision had been made on ditching the biometric ID card idea, which had also sparked civil liberties concerns, and he declined to say how much such a card would cost. A study by the University of California, Berkeley Law School's Warren Institute last year estimated start-up costs to the government for such a program would top $22 billion.

For Graham, Schumer and the other six senators trying to finalize an immigration bill by next month, a workable employer verification system is fundamental to legislation that also would secure the border, improve legal immigration and provide eventual citizenship to the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants already here. The immigration bill signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 is often criticized because it legalized nearly 3 million people while offering assurances that employers would have to verify the legal status of workers, but included no real mechanisms to ensure that happened.

Graham said that no amount of border enforcement would stop the flow of illegal immigrants without measures to keep employers from hiring them.

"If you don't control who gets a job, it doesn't matter how high the fence is," Graham said. "The best virtual fence is an employer verification system."

E-Verify was launched as a pilot program in 1997 and now is used by about 7 percent of employers. It's largely voluntary as a federal program but mandatory in some states. Draft immigration legislation by President Barack Obama, which he has said he'll offer if the Senate group doesn't come to agreement quickly enough, would make E-Verify mandatory nationally, and the Senate group is likely to take the same route.

E-Verify allows employers to electronically submit prospective workers' Social Security numbers or other information to be checked against government databases. Critics say it's error-prone because of mistakes in government records and that it has no reliable way to catch someone who is using a fraudulent Social Security number. Immigrants' rights groups also complain that workers can't easily contest disqualifications and that employers have been known to misuse the program by threatening to run workers through E-Verify if they try to organize a union.

The federal Citizenship and Immigration Services, which helps administer the program, says it's gotten progressively easier to use and more accurate.

"Improving the accuracy of the E-Verify system remains our primary goal," Soraya Correa, an associated director at the agency, told a House hearing last month.

But because of how hard it is for a worker to contest a disqualification, critics say any error rate is too high.

"The error rate is low but when applied to the entire American workforce, every workplace in the U.S., that's a problem," said Emily Tulli, an attorney at the National Immigration Law Center. "Only 7 percent of employers are currently utilizing it so if you think about taking that utilization from 7 percent to 93 percent more, it is problematic."

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposed E-Verify for years as cumbersome and unwieldy, but recently decided to support it as long as certain protections are in place for businesses. Randy Johnson, the Chamber's senior vice president for labor, immigration and employee benefits, said the program has improved, and for businesses, it's a reasonable price to pay as part of an overall immigration overhaul. Business supports an immigration overhaul in part because it would ensure a reliable workforce.

Businesses "see this E-Verify system as a necessary slice of the pie to move comprehensive immigration reform forward," Johnson said.

If they do expand E-Verify, senators are expected to endorse ways to make it more reliable and better at detecting ID fraud, such as by expanding the use of photo IDs in the system. For many lawmakers, especially Republicans skeptical of immigration legislation, an airtight employer verification system will be necessary for them to be able to support the bill.

But critics are skeptical that any changes would make the program acceptable.

"The system is still too error-prone," said Chris Calabrese, an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union. "It will prevent lawfully present Americans from being able to work."
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« Reply #81 on: March 12, 2013, 09:44:32 pm »

Latino Voters Poll: Same-Sex Couples Should Be Included In Immigration Reform
3/8/13
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/08/latino-voters-poll_n_2836354.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-marriage

WASHINGTON -- Nearly two-thirds of Latino voters support allowing same-sex couples equal immigration rights, according to a poll released Friday, contradicting the often-repeated line that those voters are more socially conservative than average.

The poll was conducted by polling firm Latino Decisions for the group Immigration Equality, which advocates for same-sex couples to be included in reform. Under current law, same-sex couples do not have the same immigration rights as heterosexual ones. An American can't petition for legal status for their same-sex partner because even legal marriages are not recognized at the federal level under the Defense of Marriage Act.

When asked whether same-sex partners should be allowed to petition for legal residency for a spouse, 64 percent of Latino voters said they would support such a policy, while 24 percent said they would oppose it. A strong majority -- 92 percent -- of those who support inclusion in immigration law said it was important that it be made part of reform.

Most Latinos who self-identified as Catholic or evangelical also supported provisions for same-sex couples. For Catholics, views were particularly pronounced when the survey asked about same-sex binational couples who were raising a U.S. citizen child. While 62 percent of Latino voters overall said it was "very important" that those children be able to keep both parents in the U.S., the ratio went up to 70 percent among Catholics.

Exit polling in November found that a majority of Latino voters -- 59 percent -- support state recognition of same-sex marriages, well above the 48 percent of voters overall who supported legalizing gay marriage in their state.

A HuffPost/YouGov poll released Jan. 31 found that 45 percent of Americans support granting the same immigration rights to same-sex couples, while 38 percent are opposed and 17 percent said they are not sure.

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« Reply #82 on: March 13, 2013, 04:11:36 am »

What the heck does same-sex couples and immigration have to do with each other? Nothing. Roll Eyes
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« Reply #83 on: March 13, 2013, 08:07:33 pm »

South Carolina becomes ground zero for immigration reform ad wars
3/13/13
One of the most active states in the ad wars over immigration reform is far from the border—and doesn't even have a large population of foreign workers.
 
South Carolina, however, is home to two key figures in the push to legalize the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants and reform the immigration system: Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is part of a Senate working group drafting a bill, and Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy, who heads the House's immigration subcommittee.
 
Graham, who could face a primary challenge when he runs for re-election in 2014, has in particular become a target of the ads. NumbersUSA, which opposes legalizing undocumented immigrants and favors lower rates of legal immigration, blanketed South Carolina TV stations with ads last month that accused Graham of supporting "amnesty" for illegal immigrants when unemployment rates for native-born workers is high.
 
In response, a newly formed super PAC called Republicans for Immigration Reform is defending Graham against those charges. The ads, which start this week, feature Charleston Chamber of Commerce President Bryan Derreberry praising Graham for fighting for "modern immigration laws" that will help the economy.
 
"Sen. Graham is right on target. ... We have to be able to update our immigration laws," Derreberry says.
 
Meanwhile, evangelical leaders who support immigration reform are launching their own radio advertisement buy in the state, flooding Christian stations with 450 spots about how Christians are called to welcome immigrants and offer them a path to citizenship. The Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land told reporters on Wednesday that the group of pastors and Christian leaders hopes to counter those who oppose immigration reform by encouraging congregants to call Gowdy, Graham and other politicians and demand immigration reform. The group has already organized hundreds of calls to lawmakers.
 
"We certainly appreciate Sen. Graham's leadership on this issue both in the last reform debate and this one," Land said. "We believe that that kind of courageous leadership should be supported
."


http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/south-carolina-becomes-ground-zero-immigration-reform-ad-160709021--election.html
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« Reply #84 on: March 13, 2013, 09:53:29 pm »

Look at the time stamp on this article - TEN HOURS ago...uhm...wasn't it Noon Central then, and the new Pope's name wasn't announced then? Yeah, all of this is pre-determined way ahead of time, then they throw in this dog and pony show.

http://news.yahoo.com/pope-reflects-spanish-speaking-catholics-importance-church-161606915--politics.html
3/13/13(10 hours ago)
New Pope Reflects Spanish-Speaking Catholics' Importance to the Church

The selection of Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, a 76-year-old Jesuit who is an advocate for the poor, as the first pontiff from outside Europe should please many U.S. Catholics, almost 30 percent of whom are of Hispanic or Latino heritage.
 
Of seven news organizations surveyed about the selection process prior to the conclave, only two—the Associated Press and NBC—had listed the Jesuit cardinal from Buenos Aires as a possible pontiff.
 
A Reuters interactive that rated the possibilities did not even include the priest now called Francis I.

Early analysis of the selection of Bergoglio, born in Argentina to an Italian railroad worker and his wife, indicates he may be a compromise candidate who was runner-up to the cardinal who became Benedict in the last conclave, but Francis is certain to please many Spanish-speaking Catholics.
 
Argentina's last census placed its total population at 37 million, 70 percent of which are Catholic.
 
A Population Reference Bureau map, which shows its most recent numbers (from 2004) and projections through 2050, indicates that Latin America and the Caribbean as a collective region is 83 percent Catholic; South America has almost 455 million Catholics, or 42 percent of the world’s total number.
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« Reply #85 on: March 14, 2013, 05:27:27 am »

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flooding Christian stations with 450 spots about how Christians are called to welcome immigrants and offer them a path to citizenship.

THAT is a stone-cold lie.

If anything, scripture tells the believer to stay away from Caesar's world, and believers definitely have no place in the secular political system.

If they are called for such a thing, it ain't God calling them!
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« Reply #86 on: March 14, 2013, 01:12:29 pm »

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/social-security-risk-impact-immigration-reform-124712696.html
Immigration Reform Could Cost Social Security Billions
3/14/13

Immigration reform is a hot button issue being debated across America, from the floor of the Capitol to main street U.S.A.
 
There are currently an estimated 11.5 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S., that's a 33% increase since 2000. And in fact, today 5.2% of the U.S. labor force consists of undocumented workers.
 
The “Gang of Eight,” a bipartisan group of eight senators, is currently working on a plan to reform immigration policy in the U.S. The group of lawmakers is expected to present its bill, which will provide a path to U.S. citizenship for all those living in this country illegally, on the floor of the Senate later in March.

The senators have a difficult task. They must consider how legalizing over 10 million immigrants might affect jobs, border security and tax revenue. Another issue they must consider is that if passed, immigration reform could also impact Social Security taxes and checks.
 
Stephen Goss, chief actuary of the Social Security Administration estimates that 3.1 million illegal workers pay into Social Security each year. In 2010, undocumented workers and their employers paid $15 billion to Social Security with no intention of ever collecting benefits -- that year illegal workers only received $1 billion back.
 
How do working illegal immigrants pay in to and collect Social Security? Some are issued Social Security numbers with their temporary or student visas, others forge documents and were issued numbers by Social Security before they tightened their screening process in 2001, some steal numbers, and others simply make them up.
 
When workers pay Social Security under numbers that don’t match their names the administration sorts these into their “suspense” file. No one gets credit towards benefits for this money but the money does still go to the Social Security trust fund.

Over the course of many years, Goss estimates that a total of $150 billion in undocumented workers' money has flowed into the Social Security trust fund. That’s about 8% of the total $1.7 trillion Social Security has in reserve.
 


In 2010 Goss said if not for the millions of illegal workers paying into the system Social Security would have “entered persistent shortfall of tax revenue to cover payouts starting in 2009."

He tells The Daily Ticker today that things may have to change. “It might mean that we might have to have a higher tax rate or lower benefits,” he says.
 
While some argue legalizing millions of illegal immigrants will help keep Social Security solvent, Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies disagrees.
 
If they’re legalized then they can collect Social Security and guess what? People with low incomes get more out of Social Security, generally speaking, than they pay in," he argues. "So the Social Security argument is actually an argument for keeping illegal immigrants illegal because that way they won’t ever collect Social Security."
 
It’s true that undocumented workers typically earn lower wages. The average illegal immigrant run household makes about $17,000 less a year than its legal counterpart.



Edward Alden of the Council on Foreign Relations says that granting amnesty would actually lead to higher wages and allow immigrants to pay more towards Social Security.
 
"You have people who are often working in very low wage jobs because they’re uncertain about their status they’re scared," Aldin tells The Daily Ticker. "So these people generally, the analysis shows their wages will go up, they’re going to pay more into the Social Security system. The CBO has run these numbers, in the short-run there’s a big boost for the Social Security system."

In 2007 the Congressional Budget Office projected that granting amnesty to illegal immigrants would actually boost Social Security funds $57 billion by 2017. Steven Goss of the Social Security Administration also claims that amnesty would more than double the numbers of those paying into social security and depending on legislation might benefit the fund.
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« Reply #87 on: March 14, 2013, 01:18:46 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/wa-house-oks-college-aid-142331325.html
3/14/13
Wa. House OKs college aid for illegal immigrants

Washington House passes measuring making young illegal immigrants eligible for college aid


SEATTLE (AP) -- The Washington House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a measure making young illegal immigrants eligible for state college financial aid. The measure's bipartisan 77-20 vote was highlighted by impassioned speeches by Republicans who broke ranks with their party to vote in favor of the bill. "People will seek this nation out from all over the world. They want a life of opportunity," said Republican Rep. Charles Ross of Naches. "These kids, I want them to someday go to Cornell, to be a state lawmaker or more." House lawmakers amended the bill on the floor to open college aid to all young illegal immigrants. The bill has undergone several changes since it was introduced earlier this year.

The bill's previous version made only young immigrants who had qualified for the Obama Administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program eligible for the State Needs Grant. That federal program provides young immigrants who arrived in the United States as children a legal way to live in the country on renewable two-year stays, if they meet certain age and non-criminal history criteria.
 
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« Reply #88 on: March 14, 2013, 01:39:29 pm »

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They want a life of opportunity," said Republican Rep. Charles Ross of Naches.

No, what you slugs want is the tax dollars, and the Department of Education wants them all in massive student loan debt.

This whole deal is disgusting. Angry
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« Reply #89 on: March 14, 2013, 10:00:47 pm »

Judges asked to close some immigration cases

Video of news clip: http://news.yahoo.com/video/judges-asked-close-immigration-cases-231706781.html

3 hrs ago, KTRK – Houston

A backlog of immigration cases across the U.S. has courts clogged and now the DOJ is telling judges to do something about it
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