In the news today: July 17, 2007

• At the top of our news-reel is a story in the New York Times today about how a significant percentage of HIV cases in Mexico can be traced back to migrant workers who went to the U.S. and brought the disease back home.

• The Christian Science Monitor takes a look at how an increasing number of local police across the country are enforcing immigration law.
• The Voice of America reports on lacking health care in immigrant detention centers.
  

Daily features: July 17, 2007

• Daily video/Candidate tracker
  

Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Richardson discussed his views on immigration last week. He outlines a few main points: the need to secure the borders but not necessarily with a border fence or wall; the need to punish those who knowingly employ illegal workers; use more aggressive foreign policy with Mexico; raise legal immigration quotas; and formulate an earned legalization plan that would be contingent on learning English, passing a background check, paying taxes, paying a fine for entering illegally, and being employed.

• Tuesday blog round-up

• We discovered a new blog that struck us as rather interesting. The Southern Poverty Law Center's "Intelligence Project" compiles links to news articles every day that tracks the anti-immigration movement. You can subscribe to the Intelligence Project and receive updates every day.
• Apparently, illegal immigration in Illinois costs each household in that state $695/year. The comments on this site are interesting and we're sure our opinionated commenters will want to join in on the discussion.
  

• Cartoon of the day

Published in the El Universal (Mexico City) on July 16, 2007.

In the news today: July 16, 2007

• A New York appeals court has ruled that spouses of Chinese women affected by stringent population controls in their country do not necessarily qualify for asylum in the U.S.
• A Tulsa couple could be deported back to Mexico even though they are the parents of four American citizens.
• The Des Moines Register has a handy compilation of where GOP presidential candidates stand on immigration.
• The Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote a great news-feature on how Texas ranchers near the border feel about the border fence.
  
• John McCain's campaign staff dwindles even more.
  
• Earlier: McCain's stances on immigration, Iraq blamed for lagging campaign

In the news today: July 13, 2007

• A Mexican couple gets a one-year deportation reprieve as their 17-month-old daughter undergoes surgery for a rare heart defect reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
• A Pakistani held at an immigration detention center has sued the Immigration Department for placing him in a room with a heroin user as well as for violence and harrassment endured while a detainee, reports ABC News.
• The Los Angeles Times reports that 10 more suspects have been arrested in an "ongoing federal investigation into a scam involving Asians willing to pay thousands of dollars to immigrate to this country by entering into phony marriages with U.S. citizens from Vietnamese and Chinese communities in Southern California."

Daily features: July 13, 2007

• Daily video

The Department of Homeland Security is withholding border security money from Arizona. Aired on CNN, July 12, 2007.

• Friday blog round-up

• Michael Linton of the FirstThings blog talks about his daughter's experience with undocumented workers at a restaurant where she waitressed.
• The ImmigrationProf blog provides links to contacting your congressmembers if you are interested in having them support or rally against the DREAM Act. For those of you not in the know:
• "It would provide a 6-year path to permanent residence and eventual citizenship for individuals brought to the U.S. years ago as undocumented children if they graduate from high school and continue on to college or military service."

• Cartoon of the day

By Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com.

Daily features: July 12, 2007

• Daily video

Tomás Contreras, a legal immigrant and entrepreneur, talks about his three-month stay in an immigrant detention center. He was detained on his way back from visiting family in Mexico. This video is part of Voces de la Frontera's reality tour.

• Thursday blog round-up

• 'Gandhian' visa flower protest by Indian immigrants gets noticed, and the SAJA blog compiles news links.
• The StructuralPatterns blog wonders why and how Rudy Giuliani can 'collapse' immigration and terrorism together.
• The GreenFertility blog ridicules Pat Buchanan for stating that immigrants bring disease into the country; followed by a news article that states that the unhealthy are very unlikely to immigrate at all.
  

• Cartoon of the day

By Daryl Cagle at MSNBC.com. Published July 11, 2007.

Daily features: July 11, 2007

• Daily video

The border fence cameras/sensors may not be working as expected. Aired on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360", July 10, 2007.

This shouldn't be suprising to our readers: Virtual' AZ border fence to stay quite virtual for now

• Wednesday blog round-up

• The Houston Chronicle's blog reports that some attorneys there are encouraging legal immigrants who've been waiting on their green cards for many years to join the class action lawsuit in Chicago.
• This fits in with our earlier post, Citizenship applicants sue U.S. over delays
• Neal Boortz writes in his blog that no action on illegal immigrants will ever be effective because such action would disproportionately affect Hispanics, which would be "politically incorrect", much to his chagrin.
• Tanya Doriss at the Center for American Progress writes about reproductive justice and immigrants' rights. Her arguments are backed by statistics.
  

• Cartoon of the day

Published in the El Universal newspaper (Mexico City), July 10, 2007.

Friday blog round-up

• The BillT blog links to an article about Microsoft opening a research center in Vancouver to get around strict immigration rules in the United States.
• The National Center for Policy Analysis says that due to the declining fertility rate in Mexico, the influx of illegal immigrants to the U.S. will likely fix itself in time.

Daily video: Income inequality in Mexico and its connection to illegal immigration

Aired on CNN, July 5, 2007. (Note: Video quality is not great.)

Students walk from Mexico to go to school in Arizona every day

The Los Angeles Times published an interesting news-feature today on students who walk from Mexico to Arizona every day to attend public schools there. Nicholas Riccardi writes:

Children who are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants but live in Mexico cross every morning to get a better education for free in Arizona, breaking the law that requires them to live within the boundaries of the district. To many of their parents, who have ties in both countries, not living in the district is the educational equivalent of jaywalking.

"I pay taxes. I work over here," said a 31-year-old corrections officer who would not give his name as he walked his son from Mexico to elementary school in San Luis. "What's the difference?"

There are no hard statistics on the number of children who break the residency requirement, but some people opposed to U.S. immigration policy have seized on the issue as another example of how they say migrants exploit the U.S. They contend that most school districts do not enforce the law because they risk losing state funding, which is based on the number of enrolled students.

"The whole thing's outrageous. We're not the school district for northern Mexico," said state Rep. Russell K. Pearce.