“The decline in job prospects in construction, service and other low-skilled jobs are communicated through extended networks of would-be movers from Mexico and Latin America,” said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, another Washington think tank. “It also may propel more return migration.”

Census data released last month showed that overall immigration slowed dramatically in 2007, though the Census Bureau does not distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants are notoriously difficult to count. Many researchers, including the federal government, estimate there are about 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. That’s a big increase from the start of the decade, when the Pew Hispanic Center estimated there were about 8.5 million.

From 2000 to 2004, about 800,000 illegal immigrants a year entered the U.S., the Pew report estimates. Since then, the average has dropped to about 500,000 a year. A decade ago, the number of newly arrived illegal immigrants began to outnumber those legally entering the country, said the report, written by the Pew Hispanic Center’s senior demographer, Jeffrey Passel, and senior writer, D’Vera Cohn.

“The reverse now appears to be true,” the report said. Illegal immigrants make up about 30 percent of all immigrants, according to the report. About four in five come from Latin America, with most coming from Mexico.

Congress has passed several measures designed to increase border enforcement, and the Bush administration has stepped up raids on businesses. Some local communities have also passed ordinances to address the issue. Congress, however, has failed to pass a comprehensive package addressing illegal immigration, despite several attempts.

Illegal immigration has not been a big issue in this year’s presidential election in part because both of the major parties’ nominees, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, support comprehensive immigration packages that include increased enforcement and an eventual path to citizenship for many illegal immigrants.

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Edwin Ramos has a long criminal history. At the age of 17 he commited two violent felonies, one was gang related and the other was an attempted robbery of a pregnant woman. He is a member of the gang MS-13 that targeted Hispanic people just because they weren’t in the gang. Edwin’s latest arrest was on March 30, 2008 for gang and weapons charges, but San Fransisco refused to file charges against him. He was released from jail on April 2nd, and then just two months later allegedly commited a triple murder.

San Fransisco knew Edwin Ramos was an illegal immigrant, he was convicted of two violent felonies, and they did nothing. They arrested him again and refused to file charges, doing nothing. Nothing. The sanctuary city may have to wake up and get with the real world.

Unfortunately, the city of San Fransisco has absolute immunity from lawsuits that challenge its ordinances. What a crazy loophole, how can the city have absolute immunity? They violated federal law!

The only chance for this illegal immigrant lawsuit to get through, is for it to go in front of a jury. The jury can nullify the stupid San Fransisco loophole and allow the wrongful death lawsuit against San Fransisco. The best outcome would be for San Fransisco to have to pay millions and millions, realize they need to take responsibility for the illegal immigrants in their city, and Mayor Gavin Newsom would have to pay at least $100,000 from his personal bank account because of his responsibility (or lack of responsibility) which resulted in the death of the Balonga family. It is a true shame that San Frasisco could be so irresponsible for so long, that it took the death of three good Americans for people to wake up and realize how wrong San Fransisco is.

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Like those in Tucson, for example. The Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) has, in fact, welcomed Raza Studies in its classrooms for about a decade, but it’s been mighty secretive about the association.

What, exactly, is Raza Studies? Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne asked that question in November 2007 when he inquired if it wouldn’t be too much trouble for TUSD to send to him the Raza curricula it was teaching and the textbooks from which it taught them. Actually, TUSD replied to Horne, meeting his request would be a heckuva lot of trouble.

Then the local papers piled on Arizona’s superintendent. The first sentence of a November 26th editorial in the Tucson Citizen read, “Memo to Tom Horne: Butt out.” Another editorial, titled “Horne meddling in TUSD’s ethnic studies efforts,” this one in Tucson’s Arizona Daily Star, noted that “Students enroll in these classes because they cover information that is not offered in other classes. While U.S. history classes and textbooks do a better job than those of the past of including more about our shared history, much is left out.”

What is left out of traditional syllabi, of course, is the grievance and distortion. When Horne finally acquired the program materials he requested, they included texts with titles such as Occupied America and The Pedagogy of Oppression. And according to John Ward, a Tucson teacher who saw his U.S. history course coopted by the Raza Studies department, the Raza curriculum’s focus is “that Mexican-Americans were and continue to be victims of a racist American society driven by the interests of middle and upper-class whites.”

When Ward raised concerns about Raza Studies (which is part of TUSD’s larger Ethnic Studies department) he was, despite being Hispanic himself, called a racist and eventually reassigned to another course. Ward told a reporter from the Arizona Republic that by the time he left the Raza Studies class, he had observed a definite change in the students: “An angry tone. They taught them not to trust their teachers, not to trust the system. They taught them the system wasn’t worth trusting.”

A persuasive case can and should be made that teaching students history and literature (not to mention science and math) through some concocted ethnic perspective that the pupils supposedly possess is balderdash. It does Hispanic youngsters a profound disservice to predicate their educations on ethnic identity, to have them skip the great works of literature and read only tracts by, say, Mexican authors, and to teach them only the history that involves Latin America(ns).

But when an ethnically based education, which is bad enough, transmogrifies into an ethnically based education of grievance and oppression that vilifies the United States and anyone with white skin - well, this is simply untenable. And yet this product is exactly that which goes by the name Raza Studies and that Tucson blithely pushes.

Moreover, the city is intransigent about the whole thing. To valid concerns about its Raza Studies department, the school board responded last month, according to the Arizona Republic, “by announcing plans to hugely expand the [entire Ethnic Studies] program, making it a required course of studies for freshmen. And, eventually, expanding it into elementary schools.” Within a year, it seems, all of Tucson’s children will be taught based on their ethnicities distinctive curricula that will share no common denominator as strong as the condemnation of whites and of the United States.

The school district is also sponsoring in two weeks, in partnership with the University of Arizona School of Education, the 10th Annual Institute for Transformative Education seminar, at which “Classroom teachers will have the opportunity to learn … the areas of Latino critical race theory, critical race theory, critical multicultural education, Chicana/o studies, ethnic studies, cultural studies, critical pedagogy, and critical race pedagogy.” Ugh.

To defend and then expand an educational program that reveres Che Guevara, that paints American history as a series of lamentable and dishonorable events, that divides students by their ethnicities and then attempts to instill in them a defiant stance toward authority and country is a form of noxious educational malpractice. But beyond that, it’s a direct challenge to the values that millions of Americans hold dear and will this Friday, on the Fourth of July, celebrate. One hopes that the citizens of Tucson have had their fill of this nonsense in their schools, and that they’ll stand up and say so.

Liam Julian is a writer at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution.

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For many Central Americans, the dream to work in the U.S. is fading quick.

“What I want to say to all the people from El Salvador or other countries, the situation in this country is not easy. It’s very difficult and it’s not worth it to risk your life,” said day laborer Jose Manuel Munoz through a translator.

From suburban Washington to rural El Salvador, ABC 7 heard from many immigrants that they are warning their friends and relatives to not come to America. “I say to the rest, this is not a good time to come to the United States. If you are okay, over there, in El Salvador, stay there,” said Rosa Nativi.

Carlos Diaz’ sister lives in Manassas. “She has told me that a lot of people is afraid to get out of their houses, to walk in the streets, because they’re getting caught by immigration department and they’re getting deported,” he said.

“If somebody pays me one million dollars, I will never do it again. Not ever,” said a man who wanted to be known as “Carlos”.

The 57-year-old day laborer left his hometown of Ilopango, El Salvador and turned to a coyote, or human smuggler, for help. He was desperate to reunite with his wife of more than 30 years who was already in Maryland, working as a housekeeper.

“I paid $7,500 and after this moment, I don’t think I have earned that money in the three years I have been here,” said “Carlos”.

His illegal journey to the U.S. lasted a month and nearly cost him his life. “The most terrible thing is you don’t know if you’re going to make it,” said “Carlos”.

In the end, with a mangled leg, he was literally carried across the border. For now, he sits and waits for work that rarely comes. Like many day laborers, Carlos wants to go home.

Federal law actually allows illegal immigrants to leave the U.S. voluntarily but it must be at their own expense.

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If you’re a Republican and feel that McCain will be the better of the two candidates to stop illegal immigration, he once supported amnesty for illegal immigrants. After much pressure from conservatives, he changed his view to concentrate on walls and borders, mainly tied to security purposes for terrorists.

If you don’t think Bush did anything to stop illegal immigration, just wait until McCain gets in office. And considering Obama is his only candidate, McCain (former amnesty supporter) is the best you’ve got.

So what does that mean? Get local. Look at what states like Arizona are doing, you can do the same thing. All you have to do is pressure your elected officials, or fight to elect new ones. Stopping illegal immigration state by state, on a local level, is the only way we can make a difference in the near future.

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Arizona is able to do this because of federal and state law that mandates only U.S. citizen and legal residents are eligible for Medicaid. The state hospitals are pressured by Arizona leaders to transport non-citizens back to their native country.

This sounds good and all, but the cost to transport the non-citizen can be up to $100,000. The hospital (meaning your tax dollars) has to pay up to $100,000 to send the illegal immigrant back to Mexico! I don’t know if it would be cheaper to treat the illegal alien patient and then send them back by bus . . . but there has to be a better way.

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We hope to keep contributing to the website. If you would like to help write articles or give news tips, feel free to leave a comment and we’ll get a hold of you.

Good to be back.

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If the illegal immigrants work and have a tax payer identification number, they are technically considered “resident aliens”, even if they don’t have a social security number or used a fake social security number to get a job. Therefore, they are eligible to receive the tax rebate check under the current legislation even though they aren’t an American citizen.

Nevada Senator John Ensign (R) said, “I’m not sure that the American taxpayer would like people who are in this country illegally to be getting a tax rebate.”

Really Senator Ensign? At least you have a clue! Supposedly, tomorrow they are going to start working on fixing both the Senate and House Bills to correct this loophole and not allow tax rebates for illegal aliens. At this point in the fight against illegal immigration … who knows what will happen.

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• HB26 — Notary Public Revisions — Prevents notary publics from using driving privilege cards as proof of identity. Donnelson.

• HB95 — Document Fraud — Creates a civil penalty up to $75,000 for falsifying documents to unlawfully establish legal status. Rep. Karen Morgan, D-Cottonwood Heights.

• HB98 — Utah Employment Verification Act — Requires public employers participate in the federal employment verification program and keep records. Donnelson.

• HB237 — Illegal Immigration Enforcement Act — Gives certain local and state law enforcement officers the authority to enforce federal immigration law and perform some functions of federal immigration officers. Donnelson.

• HB239 — Driver License Qualifications — Repeals driving privilege cards for undocumented immigrants. Donnelson.

• HB241 —- Repeal of Exemptions from Nonresident Tuition — Repeal of 2002 law allowing undocumented immigrants pay in-state tuition if they attend a Utah high school for three years and graduate. Rep. Glenn Donnelson, R-North Ogden.

• HB257 — Employee Verification — Requires participation in the federal employment verification program as a condition for receiving certain economic incentives and procurement contracts. Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Provo.

• HB262 — Recovery of Federal Reimbursement for Costs Associated with Illegal Immigrants — Requires attorney general to study state remedies to recover federal funds for costs associated with illegal immigration. Morgan.

• HB285 — Licensing Eligibility — Prevents Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing from issuing a license to undocumented immigrants. Sandstrom.

• SB97 — Immigration Task Force — Creates a bipartisan legislative task force to review and make policy recommendations on policies dealing with illegal immigrants. Sen. Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City.

• SB52 — Identity Theft Amendment — Authorizes restitution for identity theft victims. Sen. Carlene Walker, R-Cottonwood Heights.

That’s what I’m talking about! Voters spoke and local government listened.
Is your local government listening?

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Written in response to a series of letters to the editor in the Orange County Register:

Dear Editor:

So many letter writers have based their arguments on how this land is made up of immigrants. Ernie Lujan for one, suggests we should tear down the Statue of Liberty because the people now in question aren’t being treated the same as those who passed through Ellis Island and other ports of entry.

Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people like Mr. Lujan why today’s American is not willing to accept this new kind of immigrant any longer. Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all areas of Europe to come to the United States, people had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in New York and be documented. Some would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground. They made a pledge to uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad times. They made learning English a primary rule in their new American households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new home.

They had waved good bye to their birth place to give their children a new life and did everything in their power to help their children assimilate into one culture.

Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare, no labor laws to protect them. All they had were the skills and craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a future of prosperity. Most of their children came of age when World War II broke out. My father fought along side men whose parents had come straight over from Germany , Italy , France and Japan . None of these 1st generation Americans ever gave any thought about what country their parents had come from.

They were Americans fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan . They were defending the United States of America as ! one people When we liberated France, no one in those villages were looking for the French-American or the German American or the Irish American. The people of France saw only Americans. And we carried one flag that represented one country. Not one of those immigrant sons would have thought about picking up an other country’s flag and waving it to represent who they were. It would have been a disgrace to their parents who had sacrificed so much to be here. These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be an American. They stirred the melting pot into one red, white and blue bowl.

And here we are in 2006 with a new kind of immigrant who wants the same rights and privileges. Only they want to achieve it by playing with a different set of rules, one that includes the entitlement card and a guarantee of being faithful to their mother country. I’m sorry, that’s not what being an American is all about. I believe that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island in the early 1900’s deserve better than that for all the toil, hard work and sacrifice in raising future generations to create a land that has become a beacon for those legally searching for a better life I think they would be appalled that they are being used as an example by those waving foreign country flags.

And for that suggestion about taking down the Statue of Liberty, it happens to mean a lot to the citizens who are voting on the immigration bill. I wouldn’t start talking about dismantling the United States just yet.

(signed) Rosemary LaBonte

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