Immigrants and Politics Blog

[KR: From the article, it sounds like the process for revising the text included consultation with liberals, conservatives, and community organizations. However, there is no mention of Latinos in questions on U.S. history, and some of the questions demand knowledge that is greater than what the average voter already knows. Some argue (as Peter Shuck recently did at a conference) that it is a good thing to expect new voters to know more than a 4th-grade level of civics and American history, but isn’t this just a new form of “literacy test” for voting that was outlawed in the 1960s for native-born populations?]

September 28, 2007
New Test Asks: What Does ‘American’ Mean?
By JULIA PRESTON, New York Times

Patrick Henry and Francis Scott Key are out, but Susan B. Anthony and Nancy Pelosi are in. The White House was cut, but New York and Sept. 11 made the list.

Federal immigration authorities yesterday unveiled 100 new questions immigrants will have to study to pass a civics test to become naturalized American citizens.

The redesign of the test, the first since it was created in 1986 as a standardized examination, follows years of criticism in which conservatives said the test was too easy and immigrant advocates said it was too hard.

The new questions did little to quell that debate among many immigrant groups, who complained that the citizenship test would become even more daunting. Conservatives seemed to be more satisfied.

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[SM: The rapid demographic changes in North Carolina have brought tension and hostility directed at Latino immigrants. This article deals directly with the dimension of threat that both immigrants and locals feel in the new ethnic context.]

Hispanic People Feel New Hostility: Immigrant Debate Feeds Anger, Fear
KRISTIN COLLINS; News and Observer
September 23, 2007

Miguel Munoz was standing in a drug store parking lot having a conversation in Spanish when a pickup pulled up beside him. The driver shouted curses, shook his fist and called Munoz an “illegal alien.” “He said, ‘When you come to my country, you need to speak English,’ ” said Munoz, a Durham lawyer who immigrated legally from Mexico 17 years ago. In that parking lot, Munoz said, he realized for the first time that some people see him as an invader in the place he calls home.

As furor over immigration rises across the nation, many Hispanics say they are increasingly the targets of hostility in a state where they once felt welcome. Some commentators and politicians concerned about illegal immigration routinely associate illegal immigrants with violence, disease and dependence on public resources. Immigrants and their advocates say the prevalence of such ideas has changed the way many Americans view Hispanic immigrants — legal or illegal.

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[KR: Not quite politics, but it is interesting to note amidst the climate of immigration restriction that large employers (and even some smaller ones) play an important role in the civic engagement story. We found similar types of company-sponsored associations in the Silicon Valley for our multi-city civic engagement study.]

Microsoft backs cricket to woo Indian employees

By Daisuke WakabayashiMon, Reuters
Sep 10, 2007

On a cloudless summer day, Manish Prabhu stares out at a converted soccer field thousands of miles from his native India and watches a cricket ball skip past some fielders dressed in white.

It is an unlikely place for a game of cricket, but Prabhu has spent hundreds of afternoons playing with the Microsoft Cricket Club on this bumpy turf near the company’s campus in Redmond, Washington.

“The chance to play so much cricket surprised me,” said Prabhu, a senior program manager at Microsoft Corp.’s automotive business. “There is someone in almost every business team at Microsoft that I’ve played cricket with.”

Microsoft’s cricket program — comprising four teams that compete against other local teams — is not just a corporate softball team for the globalization era. It is a valuable tool in keeping the company’s largest minority group happy.

Competing against fast-growing technology companies in India offering jobs with handsome pay raises and quick promotions, Microsoft has to work harder these days to attract and retain the best and brightest Indian engineering talent.

Furthermore, Microsoft like many technology companies is being squeezed by U.S. immigration quotas limiting the number of work visas issued to foreign nationals.

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[SM: This article speaks to the linkage between naturalization, voter registration and the immigration protests of 2006.]

Registering to vote a priority for Houston’s new citizens
The application rate has jumped recently, possibly because forms are now passed out before the swearing-in
By JAMES PINKERTON, Houston Chronicle
September 12, 2007

Minutes after being sworn in Wednesday morning as a U.S. citizen, Roger Negron had already registered to vote and was filling out a passport application.

As Negron stood near an exit, the voice of a League of Women Voters volunteer boomed as she collected voter registration cards from hundreds of new American citizens streaming out of the Berry Center arena in northwest Harris County.

‘’Voter registration! Turn in your voter registration! Congratulations,” shouted volunteer Judy Viebig. ‘’That’s great! We’ll mail you your card.”

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[KR: I have always wondered how many undocumented immigrants Canada has. My guess is that Canada probably has a much smaller share than the US (as a % of all foreign born). If so, is it because the Canadian state is much better at enforcement, or is it related to other factors such as fewer work opportunities at low-skill levels, colder climes, higher costs to entering Canada? Perhaps the rise of enforcement actions (raids, no-match letters) will alter the cost calculations of remaining in the U.S.]

Illegal Immigrants Chase False Hope to Canada
By MONICA DAVEY and ABBY GOODNOUGH
New York Times, September 21, 2007

WINDSOR, Ontario, Sept. 20 — Fleeing stepped-up sweeps by the American authorities, illegal immigrants to the United States, mostly Mexican, are arriving in growing numbers at the foot of the bridge in this Canadian border town seeking refugee status.

Still more immigrants, mostly Mexicans living illegally in Florida, have begun trying to make their way past America’s northern border at other locations, the majority of them flying into the airport in Toronto, Canadian officials said Thursday.

The arrivals here began suddenly three weeks ago, just a family or two at first, fueled by the notion — largely unfounded, the authorities here say — that Canada would grant them asylum.

The journey, some of the immigrants said, was first suggested by an organization in Naples, Fla., which charged a fee for assisting with the paperwork. Now the idea has spread on the Internet and through social networks.

By Thursday, at least 200 people had turned up here, across the border from Detroit, with as much of their lives as they could shove into suitcases, boxes and garbage bags in their cars. Thousands more, refugee advocates and Canadian officials say, may be on their way.

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[KR: Michael Gerson, senior speechwriter for Bush from 2001 to 2006, notes that Tancredo and immigration for Latinos today may be akin to Goldwater and race for blacks in 1964. The analogy may seem a bit of a stretch, although the fact that only McCain was willing to show up to a Univision debate last week may indicate that Tancredo is having even more of an influence on the primary base in 2007 than Goldwater in 1964.]

Division Problem
The GOP’s Ruinous Immigration Stance

By Michael Gerson
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Washington Post

Immigration used to be a debate among Republicans. Now the issue survives mainly as a weapon.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney– who once commented on illegal immigrants, “I don’t believe in rounding up 11 million people and forcing them at gunpoint from our country” — attacks Rudy Giuliani for not rounding up enough illegal immigrants when he was mayor of New York. Giuliani — who once said, “If you come here and you work hard and you happen to be in an undocumented status, you’re one of the people who we want in this city” — criticizes Romney for tolerating “sanctuary cities” in Massachusetts.

One gets the impression of decent men, intimidated by the vocal anger of elements of their own party.

That anger is pushing Republicans into some powerful symbols of indifference to Hispanic voters. The Univision Republican debate, scheduled for last Sunday with simultaneous translation into Spanish, was postponed when only Sen. John McCain agreed to show up. Rep. Tom Tancredo objected to the event on principle: “We should not be doing things that encourage people to stay separate in a separate language” — which raises the question: Is saying “Viva Cuba Libre” no longer permissible for Republicans? And this snub came on the heels of conspicuous Republican absence at a forum held by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, and at the National Council of La Raza convention.

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[KR: ICE and the Census Bureau may need to resolve their public differences before outreach efforts get underway for Census 2010. It will be interesting to see how the undercount in 2010 compares to the one in 2000 (although, how would one figure out the magnitude of the undercount among undocumented immigrants?)]

Official: No immigration raids for ‘10 census
August 17, 2007
Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Census workers know it will be difficult counting illegal immigrants for the 2010 population tally and even tougher if those immigrants are hiding from enforcement agents.

“If you have federal officials going door to door trying to count people, and federal officials going door to door trying to deport people, it doesn’t work,” said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

To make it easier, the Census Bureau wants immigration agents to suspend enforcement raids during the population count, the Census Bureau’s second-ranking official said in an Associated Press interview.

Deputy Director Preston Jay Waite said immigration enforcement officials did not conduct raids for several months before and after the 2000 census. But today’s political climate is even more volatile on the issue of illegal immigration.

Enforcement agents “have a job to do,” Waite said. “They may not be able to give us as much of a break” in 2010.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman declined to say whether immigration officials would halt raids. “If we were, we wouldn’t talk about it,” Pat Reilly said.

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[KR: After a hiatus for the summer, the Immigrants and Politics Blog is back. The first post is one sent by Sylvia Manzano about Rudy Guiliani’s clarifications about his stance on immigration. More postings below…]

Rudy: Illegal immigration not a crime
By LIBBY QUAID, Associated Press
Fri Sep 7, 2007

Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani said illegal immigration is not a crime, prompting rival Mitt Romney to accuse him of not taking the problem seriously.

The two have clashed for weeks over illegal immigration, an issue that inflames GOP conservatives who influence primary elections. The irony is that both candidates have in the past taken more liberal stands on the issue.

“It’s not a crime,” Giuliani said Friday. “I know that’s very hard for people to understand, but it’s not a federal crime.”

Giuliani’s comments came in an interview with CNN Headline News and radio talk-show host Glenn Beck.

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[KR: I have heard from legal rights and South Asian activists in the Bay Area that this case was based entirely on interrogation evidence. The article also notes various procedural problems with the case, including a juror statement of racist remarks in the jury.]

Lodi man gets 24 years in terrorism case
By Eric Bailey, Los Angeles Times

September 11, 2007

SACRAMENTO — A federal judge here Monday sentenced Hamid Hayat to 24 years in prison for attending a terrorism training camp in Pakistan, returning to the U.S. to commit violent jihad and then lying about it to the FBI.

U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell’s ruling comes more than two years after FBI agents arrested Hayat, spawning a case prosecutors say has helped discourage would-be terrorists but that Muslim activists call a gross injustice against an innocent man.

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[KR: What happened to manufacturing now seems to be happening with agriculture. Why didn’t this happen sooner? Are the costs associated with uncertain labor supply now greater than the costs associated with food importing and production in Mexico?]

Short on Labor, Farmers in U.S. Shift to Mexico
By JULIA PRESTON, New York Times
September 5, 2007

CELAYA, Mexico — Steve Scaroni, a farmer from California, looked across a luxuriant field of lettuce here in central Mexico and liked what he saw: full-strength crews of Mexican farm workers with no immigration problems.

Farming since he was a teenager, Mr. Scaroni, 50, built a $50 million business growing lettuce and broccoli in the fields of California, relying on the hands of immigrant workers, most of them Mexican and many probably in the United States illegally.

But early last year he began shifting part of his operation to rented fields here. Now some 500 Mexicans tend his crops in Mexico, where they run no risk of deportation.

“I’m as American red-blood as it gets,” Mr. Scaroni said, “but I’m tired of fighting the fight on the immigration issue.”

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