United State's immigration policy

THEODORA
Key Points
* In the immigration debate, free marketers square off against cultural conservatives on the right side of the political spectrum; while on the left, civil rights and ethnic advocacy groups oppose environmentalists and job protectionists.
* Until 1994 the debate over immigration focused on what the INS calls illegal aliens, particularly those slipping across the Mexican border, even though a larger number of undocumented residents arrived legally and overstayed their visas.
* Immigrants, documented and undocumented, are also the targets of populist backlashes like California's Proposition 187, which bars undocumented immigrants from basic social services.

Problems With Current U.S. Policy
Key Problems
* Stricter border controls have proved unable to stem illegal immigration flows, leading instead to rising human rights abuses and victimization of border-crossers.
* Immigration clearly contributes to a downward pressure on wage levels and to decreased job availability in certain economic sectors.
* Many refugees fleeing repressive governments and violent political situations find themselves rejected by Washington.

Toward a New Foreign Policy
Key Recommendations
* First on the list of reform should be the current definition of family unification a policy that leads to chain immigration and should be restricted to spouses and children followed closely by a drastic reduction in job skills-based immigration.
* In humanitarian admissions, national preferences should be eliminated to admit everyone who can demonstrate that they are victims of individual persecution.
* Labor advocates and policymakers should give serious consideration to the national worker identification card. Backed by rigorous enforcement of labor laws, such cards would deflate the political pressure for militarizing the Mexican border.
A new immigration policy should do the following:
* Stress ethical and humanitarian objectives by giving priority to refugees fleeing from persecution.
* Streamline and restructure provisional work programs that open the U.S. to temporary workers who take jobs that U.S. residents don't want, while guaranteeing the basic rights of these workers to organize and receive worker benefits such as unemployment compensation.
* Protect the most vulnerable economic sectors from an influx of low-wage competition.
* Lower legal immigration flows to sustainable levels.
* Protect the basic human rights of all U.S. residents, legal or not.


US city votes down immigrant bill
A city council in central Florida has rejected a by-law that would have been among the strictest local legislation in the US against illegal immigrants.
Members of the Avon Park council voted 3-2 against the by-law, or ordinance, after a heated five-hour debate.
The law would have made English the official language and penalised people doing business with illegal immigrants.
A Pennsylvania council passed a similar law this month while other US towns and cities are considering such measures.
The council chamber in Avon Park was packed to capacity as people turned up to argue both for and against the controversial ordinance.
Those against included citrus growers and farmers who argued the measures would hurt the local economy, which is heavily dependent on migrant workers.
"The bottom line is we hire them because Americans don't want to milk cows," Joe Wright, a dairy farmer, told the meeting, the New York Times reported.
Competition
But those in favour of the by-law said that illegal immigrants are just that - illegal.
Some black residents have also voiced concern that they are competing with illegal immigrants for jobs and housing.
"This illegal practice will take away jobs from our high school kids looking for employment," the New York Times quoted resident Willie Jenkins as saying.
The ordinance was proposed by Avon Park Mayor Tom Macklin, who said he was frustrated at the federal government's failure to tackle illegal immigration.
The proposal said illegal immigration was overburdening local services in the town of 9,000, contributing to a rising crime rate and affecting the overall quality of life.
The Illegal Immigration Relief Act would have:
• Fined landlords $1,000 for every tenant found to be an illegal immigrant
• Denied city permits, contracts and grants to businesses that employed illegal immigrants
• Required city documents to be in English only.
Hazleton in Pennsylvania passed a similar ordinance on 13 July.
Civil rights and Latino groups are planning legal challenges to the legislation.

US city gets tough on immigrants
A city council in Pennsylvania has passed what are said to be some of the strictest local laws on illegal immigrants in the United States.
Under the law, businesses and landlords in Hazleton could be penalised if they help illegal immigrants, and all city documents will be written in English.
The measure has divided the former coal town, which has seen a large rise in Hispanic residents in recent years.
Hundreds of people on both sides protested outside the City Hall.
Police officers were drafted in to prevent any trouble after the measure was approved in a 4-1 vote following a two-hour debate.
Mayor Lou Barletta proposed the law as a response to the city's problems with violent crime, demand for schools and services and hospital costs.
Mexico anger over US border fence
Immigration is a key issue in the run-up to the US mid-term elections
Controversial border
Mexican officials have condemned US plans for a 700-mile (1,125km) fence along the two states' border, signed into law by President Bush on Thursday.
Mexican President-elect Felipe Calderon said the fence was "a grave mistake" which would lead to more Mexican deaths on the border.
George W Bush said the new barrier was needed to curtail illegal immigration.

US immigrants: Reviving a dream?
More than 40 years ago, members of a minority group that had faced persecution in the US since before its founding decided they had had enough.
Led by figures such as the Rev Dr Martin Luther King, African-Americans demanded equal rights through legal action and civil disobedience.
Their boycotts and their marches - and the brutal response they sometimes elicited - forced America to look at itself and make a change.
A generation later, new marchers are out on the streets of the United States.

Immigration tears Republicans in two
The thorny issue of immigration has divided the Republican party more than any other in recent history.
To get a flavour of how sharp the debate has become, just listen to that traditional barometer of grassroots conservative thinking - the radio talk show.
One phone-in host, referring to President George W Bush's primetime television address proposing immigration reforms, described it colourfully as "Like a mackerel in the moonlight. The closer you get to it, the worse it smells."
His views reflect a deep scepticism not from the far left, but from within the Republican party's core supporters.
The problem for the president is that the Republican divide is far from superficial and could get worse.
The immigration debate has highlighted a long-standing fissure between the big-business wing of his party and its socially-conservative populist base.
How should the US handle illegal immigration? The US Senate has cleared the way for a landmark immigration bill to be passed this week, after voting to limit debate on a sweeping overhaul of the existing law.
Senators voted to advance the measure, which covers border security and plans to give illegal immigrants the chance to gain US citizenship.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets across the country over the past few months in support of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the US.

http://www.adl.org/PresRele/Extremism_72/4822_72.htm

White Supremacists Ratchet Up Anti-Hispanic Action As U.S. Immigration Debate Rages
New York, NY, May 24, 2006 … As the national debate over immigration continues to hold the national spotlight, neo-Nazis and white supremacists have ratcheted up their anti-Hispanic action, using everything from Internet video games to street demonstrations and other confrontational tactics in an effort to exploit the debate as a means to spread hate. Their goal is to draw new attention to their hateful notions about minorities and hopes for making America a nation for "Whites only."
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which monitors and reports on the activities of far-right extremists, has updated its online report, "Extremists Declare 'Open Season' on Immigrants" with new information showing that extremists continue to focus their energies on Hispanic hate-mongering through racist rhetoric, crude stereotypes, and threats of using violence to intimidate illegal immigrants.

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2007/02/kkk_bolstered_b.html
KKK Bolstered by Immigration Debate
Fears over undocumented immigration are fueling a resurgence in membership to the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina and across the country, according to Klan officials and organizations that track hate groups.
In Gaston County near Charlotte, the imperial wizard of the Mount Holly-based chapter of the Klan says membership is growing faster than he's seen since joining in the 1960s.
"People are tired of this mess," said Virgil Griffin, 62. "The illegal immigrants are taking this country over."
Griffin recounted 1960s Klan rallies when dozens, sometimes hundreds, marched through towns such as Mount Holly, Salisbury and Wilmington. "We were strong in the '60s," he said. "We're not that strong now. We're hoping to get there."
The group wants to increase its numbers so it can influence local and national politics. The Klan's goals include military border enforcement and ending taxpayer-funded services to undocumented immigrants.