The Arizona state House is considering a proposal to criminalize illegal immigrants as trespassers if police have reasonable suspicion to check a person's immigration status and find it lacking.
Because the Obama administration has slowed the implementation of a 2007 executive order signed by Pres. George W. Bush that would have mandated federal contractors and subcontractors use an otherwise voluntary work authorization database, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley hopes Congress will make the process law.
Nearly three years after the Justice Department found that the nation’s immigration courts were seriously overburdened and recommended hiring 40 new judges, only a few hirings have taken place and the case backlog is at its highest point in a decade, according to a study released Wednesday.
While cracking down on companies that flout immigration laws, the Obama administration wants to extend simultaneously a hand of friendship to those playing by the rules, according to the newly appointed official in charge of worksite enforcement.
Backers of comprehensive immigration reform are scrambling to keep their priority issue in the forefront of the Congressional agenda as Democratic leaders remain focused on other competing items.
With many forecasters projecting unemployment to remain above 10 percent next year and not return to pre-recession levels of roughly 5 percent for years after that, Obama is likely to be confronted with defending the effectiveness of his economic policies as the nation endures its worst employment situation in a generation.
The turmoil ravaging General Motors and Chrysler generated big jumps in joblessness last month throughout the Midwest, sending Michigan's unemployment rate above 14 percent and pushing three nearby states into double digits.
Reporting from Washington — Lawmakers will gather at the White House next week for a working session on immigration reform, a meeting that has been highly anticipated by Latino leaders eager for President Obama to honor his campaign promise to put millions of undocumented workers on a "pathway to citizenship." But many Democrats are now concluding that they may well not have the muscle to pass such a controversial measure -- at least not immediately, and possibly not until after the 2010 midterm election.
"Together, we must build a future where the promise of America is kept for a new generation," Obama said. "We also know that keeping this promise means upholding America's tradition as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. Those things aren't contradictory; they're complementary.
Readers overwhelmingly oppose a bill that would provide students who are in the country illegally a pathway to residency among other rights that are now granted to resident students.
