Kansas lawyer is 'go to guy' in battle against Obama on immigration

By Mica Rosenberg and Jeff Mason

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – As President Barack Obama prepares to announce major immigration policy changes, conservative attorney Kris Kobach is fighting a case in federal court he says has the potential to “torpedo” the president’s plans.

Kobach, the Republican secretary of state of Kansas, is an architect of laws in several states to combat illegal immigration. He is also the most prominent figure among a small group of lawyers working to punch legal holes in Obama’s immigration policies.

Obama has pledged to act alone in the face of congressional inaction on immigration reform, and an announcement could come in early September. Immigration advocates close to the White House are pressing for work permits and relief from deportation for up to 5 million people.

While opponents can’t craft a legal strategy until Obama lays out the specifics of his plan, Kobach is likely to be at the forefront of any battle.

“I think anybody inclined to challenge (Obama’s action) would either already know, or would ask around and find out, that Kobach is one of the main go-to guys,” said Michael Jung, a private lawyer in Dallas who has worked with Kobach.

Kobach, who is pursuing an existing lawsuit against the administration over a 2012 executive order Obama issued on immigration, said any new lawsuit would depend on what the administration rolled out.

But he made clear his distaste for unilateral White House action on immigration.

“In my opinion it really goes to the core of what America is about as a nation, we are a nation of laws,” Kobach told Reuters in an interview. “When you have this systematic violation of the law by official policy that’s really troubling. It just bothers me down to the very fiber of my being.”

Some legal experts say any legal challenges would have only slim chances of success. The biggest hurdle is proving “standing,” a requirement that the person bringing the suit show that they have been directly harmed.

LAWSUITS A DISTRACTION

But any lawsuits would provide fodder to Republicans, who have tried in recent months to paint Obama as a lawless president who is overstepping his authority.

They could also be a costly distraction for an administration struggling to keep up with myriad challenges at home and abroad. For example, a series of legal challenges to Obamacare, Obama’s 2010 signature healthcare overhaul, has at times frustrated the White House’s efforts to refocus attention on issues it wants to talk about.

Kobach, a telegenic 48-year-old with degrees from Harvard, Oxford and Yale universities, helped to draft a controversial 2010 Arizona law requiring state and local officials to check on the immigration status of individuals. Critics said the law encouraged racial profiling.

Kobach says he has made progress on surmounting the issue of “standing” in his existing case against the government.

That lawsuit challenges Obama’s 2012 decision to grant temporary deportation relief and work permits to young people brought to the United States illegally as children by their parents – a program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.

After DACA was announced, Chris Crane – head of a union representing 7,600 Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees and an outspoken critic of Obama’s immigration policies – spoke to Kobach about bringing a suit.

Crane also opposed earlier memos issued by John Morton, ICE’s former director, instructing agents to use “prosecutorial discretion” and release immigrants who pose no threat to national security in order to focus the agency’s limited resources on deporting criminals. 

PROVING INJURY

Crane and nine other ICE officers sued as individuals, not as an entire union. They argued the presidential directives forced the law enforcement officers to violate a 1996 law requiring detention of immigrants if they are not entitled to be legally admitted to the United States. 

A Texas judge dismissed the case last year, saying it was an employment matter that should be heard by a different court, but found the agents did have standing to sue.

“The central argument is that if you are put in a position where you have to choose between breaking the law and being punished by your superiors – that’s an injury,” Kobach said in a telephone interview from Kansas.

Kobach and the ICE agents have appealed the judge’s dismissal and a decision is expected next year. 

“The Crane case has the potential to completely torpedo any administration plans to expand the number of aliens who get deferred action,” Kobach said. “If the ICE agents win, then the administration’s legal position collapses.”

Muzaffar Chishti from the Migration Policy Institute think tank said that while Kobach and the ICE agents made an interesting argument, case law was stacked against them and their appeal would be difficult to win.   

White House spokesman Shawn Turner said the immigration measures the White House unveils in the coming weeks would be bulletproofed against “frivolous” lawsuits, but officials are well aware that opponents are gearing up for possible legal actions.

“At the end of the day, most likely what the lawyers are concluding is that this will really be more of a political question than a legal one,” said Michael Gottlieb, a former associate White House counsel to Obama and now a partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP in Washington.

In the ICE agents’ case, Kobach also argued that Mississippi had standing to sue because the state’s finances were strained by the presence of DACA recipients, but the judge rejected those claims.

“If a future presidential directive were structured similarly to DACA, then the two entities that would most likely have standing would be ICE agents and states,” Kobach said.

Mississippi is part of Kobach’s appeal and hopes to win standing on review. The state would have to review any new action by Obama to evaluate whether officials want to bring a new case, said Nicole Webb, a spokeswoman for the governor’s office.

POLARIZING FIGURE

Kobach’s interest in immigration issues began when he worked in the Justice Department in the Bush administration. Joining in 2001 shortly before the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, he led efforts to prevent terrorists from exploiting gaps in the U.S. immigration system.

Kobach has also helped to draft more than 16 other immigration-related measures around the country including a contentious ordinance in Farmer’s Branch, Texas that banned illegal immigrants from renting houses and a law in Kansas requiring voters to bring birth certificates, U.S. passports or citizenship documents to the polls.

His immigration activism has been polarizing in Kansas.

Last year, 200 activists descended on his home to protest his immigration agenda, leaving shoes on his porch to represent family members who were deported.

Sulma Arias, director of the group Kansas People’s Action that organized the protest, said Kobach’s legal campaign against the government foments a broader anti-immigrant agenda. “I think there are negative implications of him continuing to fight this, even though I don’t think he can win,” Arias said.

Such lawsuits were intended to create a hostile climate for possible future steps the president could take on immigration reform, she said.

Kobach’s Republican opponent in the August primary race for Kansas’ secretary of state, criticized him for using the elected office to pursue his national agenda. But Kobach said he was working on the cases only in his spare time during evenings and weekends. He won that race and faces a Democratic challenger in November.

(Reporting by Mica Rosenberg and Jeff Mason, editing by Caren Bohan and Ross Colvin)

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Immigration law needs overhaul to deal with minor violations: R. Reis Pagtakhan

Last week, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander issued a statement setting out the federal government’s opposition to Canadian municipalities becoming “sanctuary cities” for illegal immigrants.

The sanctuary city concept is one in which a city agrees not to take action against illegal immigrants. In Canada, at least two cities – Toronto and Hamilton, Ont. – have declared themselves to be sanctuary cities.

While some immigration enforcement laws are harsh and disproportionate, the fact of the matter is immigration laws, like any law, must be followed.

The Canadian government rightly points out that it is important for Canadians to have faith and integrity in our immigration system. Canadian cities have an obligation to respect Canadian laws, as well as enforce and uphold these laws when required.

What communities should do if they have concerns about the way illegal immigrants are treated is to convince the federal government to change their laws so any punishment is more in line with the actual immigration violation that has been committed.

One penalty – deportation

When non-Canadians violate immigration laws, they are usually faced with one penalty – deportation. While this penalty may be appropriate for long-term repeat offenders, it is not appropriate for first-time offenders with minor violations.

In 2013, two students from Nigeria, Victoria Ordu and Favour Amandi, were deported from Canada for allegedly working illegally in Canada. Ordu and Amandi claimed they did not know they were working illegally and when they found out, at least one of them stopped working.

While the government found that these students broke the law, the problem that arose was what to do with them.

In these situations, immigration enforcement officers are really only given two options: either turn a blind eye or unveil the nuclear option of removing that person from Canada.

While both Ordu and Amadi were removed from Canada, they were recently allowed back into Canada to finish their studies. The end result was the two students lost multiple school years and Canada let them back in anyway.

Since Ordu and Amadi were allowed to return to Canada, what was the point of sending them home in the first place? Is immigration purgatory really an appropriate penalty?

Graduated penalties needed

The problem with Canadian immigration enforcement is there is typically no middle ground of penalties. While Canadian immigration law allows for the issuance of fines for immigration violations, this provision of the law has never been put to use.

What the federal government should do is introduce graduated penalties that can be assessed on non-Canadians for violation of immigration laws.

For minor violations, a fine or an official warning may be more appropriate. These types of penalties could be recorded on the non-Canadian’s immigration file and, should they violate immigration laws a second time, harsher penalties could be given out.

The introduction of graduated penalties does not mean that ordering deportation should always be used as a last resort.

Clearly, there are cases where deportation will be the appropriate penalty, even for a first offence.

For instance, where an individual commits a criminal offence, used fraudulent means to enter Canada or has been found to have been illegally in Canada for months or years, deportation may be the appropriate penalty.

What is important is that immigration officers be given the ability to exercise their discretion to assess what is an appropriate penalty under the circumstances. Leaving immigration officers with the choice to do nothing or to break out the nuclear option does not serve anyone well.

Cities, first and foremost, have an obligation to their residents.

While it would be insane to require cities to check an individual’s immigration status when they want to register for swimming lessons, if the situation calls for a city to enforce or assist in the enforcement of immigration laws, cities should provide their co-operation to the federal government.

R. Reis Pagtakhan is an immigration lawyer with Aikins Law in Winnipeg

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Nearly 300 women, children deported from immigration detention centers

Nearly 300 Central American women and children have been deported from family detention centers that opened in the wake of a recent influx of people illegally crossing the Southwest border.

As of Wednesday evening, 280 women and children had been deported from the Artesia Family Residential Center in Artesia, N.M. Another 14 had been removed from Karnes County Residential Center in Karnes City, Texas.

Most of them have been repatriated to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

In late July, immigration officials stopped receiving and deporting women and children from the Artesia facility after a chicken pox quarantine. They resumed immigration removal flights to Central America on Aug. 7.

Since then, officials have deported 71 mothers and children from the Artesia center, said Leticia Zamarripa, a spokeswoman with Department of Homeland Security.

Immigration officials halted the intake and removals of detainees at the facility “out of an abundance of caution,” after a resident was diagnosed with chicken pox.

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement takes the health, safety and welfare of those in our care seriously and is committed to ensuring that all ICE detainees receive timely and appropriate medical treatment,” Zamarripa said in a prepared statement.

Since the chicken pox case, healthcare personnel have been clearing residents who have immunity to chicken pox, such as those who have already had the disease, or have been fully immunized through vaccination, she said. The health staff is available around the clock for those detained at the facility.

“Once medically cleared, residents who have a final order of removal and a valid travel document may be repatriated,” Zamarripa said.

Aside from having to contend with a few cases of chicken pox, the facility and other similar centers have been plagued by other difficulties. For instance, the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general report has cited various other problems—inadequate amounts of food, inconsistent temperatures and unsanitary conditions—at various immigration holding facilities for children.

Also,  immigration officials have been accused of not allowing the mothers and children due process as the U.S. speeds up the processing of the thousands of single parents with children who have fled Central America and entered the U.S.

Last week, an immigration attorney said his 11-year-old U.S. citizen client was detained at the facility for more than a month. The boy was released Aug. 12, soon after officials realized he was a citizen. 

Currently, more than 1,000 women and children remain in the two family detention facilities — 536 in Artesia and 532 in Karnes.

In the last nine months, about 63,000 single parents with at least one child have been apprehended along the Southwest border, mainly in southern Texas. At the same time, about the same numbers of children traveling without a parent have been apprehended along the border.

Most of the migrants are from Central America — mainly Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Although some have tried to enter the U.S. illegally, many have given themselves up to Border Patrol officers upon entering the United States. A combination of factors — including escalating gang violence, poverty and rumors about potential immigration relief — has prompted more people to head north.

The exodus has overwhelmed Homeland Security officials, who have vowed to speed up immigration hearings but have also struggled to house immigrant families and unaccompanied children.

Follow me @theCindyCarcamo on Twitter for immigration and other national news.

 

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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Swedish Nationalists Rise as Record Immigration Stirs Backlash

The Sweden Democrats, a nationalist
party that targets deep cuts to immigration, is poised to double
its support in elections next month as Swedes prepare for a
change of government.

Several polls show the party garnering more than 10 percent
of votes, enough to ensure that neither the government of Prime
Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt nor the Social Democrat-led
opposition can win a majority on Sept. 14. Both blocs have
refused to collaborate with the Sweden Democrats, even as the
electorate tries to drag the group into the mainstream.

Support for the party, which came into being in the 1980s
following a merger of political movements including a group
called Keep Sweden Swedish, has swelled as the country absorbs a
growing number of immigrants and asylum seekers from the Middle
East
. The development casts a shadow over Sweden’s reputation as
an open society that has regularly topped United Nations
rankings in accepting asylum seekers.

“We’re becoming more tolerant toward immigration but at
the same time there’s very strong, broad opposition against our
liberal policies,” said Andrej Kokkonen, a researcher at
Gothenburg University. “The Sweden Democrats have capitalized
on that.”

Immigration Jump

Sweden expects more than 80,000 asylum seekers this year,
after a 70 percent jump in the first six months. Refugees are
entering the country at a pace not seen since the breakup of
Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, according to the Migration Board
in Stockholm.

The government is urging Swedes to take a more
compassionate view towards asylum seekers in an effort to turn
the xenophobic tide.

“I’m now pleading with the Swedish people to have
patience, to open your hearts, to see people in high distress
whose lives are being threatened,” Reinfeldt said in a speech
on Aug. 16. “Show them that openness, show them tolerance.”

Sweden received the most asylum applications per person in
the world from 2009 through 2013, according to the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees. The share of Swedes born abroad was
15.9 percent last year compared with 11.3 percent in 2000.
Immigration rose 12 percent to an all-time high last year.

Party leaderJimmie Aakesson, who has sought to reinvent
the Sweden Democrats to make it more palatable to the broader
electorate, says he wants to cut asylum immigration by 90
percent. A poll done by television broadcaster SVT in May showed
44 percent of Swedes think their country has accepted too many
immigrants, up from 37 percent a year earlier. Only 10 percent
want a more open policy toward foreigners.

Stockholm Riots

Support for the Sweden Democrats has risen to 10.9 percent
from the 5.7 percent the party got in the election four years
ago, according to a poll published Aug. 18 by United Minds and
Aftonbladet. The three-party opposition, led by the Social
Democrats
, was backed by 46.5 percent, compared with 38.8
percent for Reinfeldt’s four-party government, the poll showed.

In European Parliament elections in May, the Sweden
Democrats won 9.7 percent of the vote, matching a surge across
the region for parties opposed to immigration and skeptical
toward the European Union. The U.K. Independence Party and
French National Front this year became their countries’ biggest
political groups in the European parliament.

Sweden’s growing support for its anti-immigration party
follows a series of riots that shocked the nation. In Stockholm
suburbs characterized by above-average joblessness, Swedes last
year watched youths from immigrant backgrounds torch cars during
street battles with police.

Suffocating Opposition

“It’s good that they address certain issues that the other
parties don’t really dare to do something about like immigration
but I don’t completely support them,” said Martin Welander, 20,
a business student at Oerebro University. “The other parties
have tried to suffocate all criticism of immigration.”

Erik Wallander, a 30-year-old system developer, describes
the policies of the Sweden Democrats as “unpleasant.”

“People who are unemployed and don’t have it so good look
for someone that’s easy to blame,” he said. “It’s pretty
convenient to point to immigrants.”

Swedish unemployment is the highest in Scandinavia, even as
a report today showed joblessness dropped to 7.1 percent last
month from 9.2 percent the previous month. The figures aren’t
adjusted for seasonal swings. A year earlier, the jobless rate
was 7.2 percent. About 16 percent of people born abroad didn’t
have a job last year, compared with 6.3 percent for ethnic
Swedes. Finance Minister Anders Borg said this month
developments in Iraq and Syria mean there’ll be a
“significant” increase in costs that will “hit public
finances.”

Mass Unemployment

Aakesson said in an interview in May that Sweden’s “mass
unemployment is primarily imported.”

Immigration risks destroying the welfare state by creating
“parallel societies” of people “that don’t think of
themselves as part of Swedish society,” he said.

Aakesson is now trying to replicate the success of other
Nordic parties set on tightening immigration. In Norway, the
Progress Party joined the government for the first time last
year while the Danish People’s Party has been a power-broker for
more than a decade, shaping some of Europe’s toughest
immigration standards.

Even some of Sweden’s immigrants have started to question
the nation’s policies toward outsiders.

Enikoe Blixt, 37, a biomedical analyst in Linkoeping who’s
originally from Hungary, said that while the Sweden Democrats
are “too xenophobic,” the country needs to be better at
absorbing its immigrants.

“There should be more of a requirement to learn the
language and greater demands on these people that come here to
really integrate into society,” Blixt said. The goal is “to
avoid these people from becoming segregated.”

To contact the reporters on this story:
Johan Carlstrom in Stockholm at
jcarlstrom@bloomberg.net;
Niklas Magnusson in Stockholm at
nmagnusson1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Jonas Bergman at
jbergman@bloomberg.net;
Tasneem Hanfi Brogger at
tbrogger@bloomberg.net
Tasneem Hanfi Brogger

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Federal Contractor Being Blamed For Six Month Immigration Fingerprint Backlog

A controversial federal contractor is being blamed for taking as long as six months to collect fingerprints needed to proceed with immigration court cases.

The company, which also administered the background checks for National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden and Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis, was hired two years ago to collect biometric information, including fingerprints, for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The information is used to determine immigration status, benefits, and to determine whether immigrants have a criminal background.

“Why is it taking so long?” San Antonio immigration judge Anibal Martinez asked immigration lawyer Linda Brandmiller in a recent hearing when told of the backlog, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

“I have no idea,” Brandmiller said. “The problem is with both detained and nondetained [immigrant cases].”

According to the paper, immigration lawyers say that wait times have tripled in recent months — an increase that is also likely due in part to a heavy influx of illegal immigrants from Central America.

According to Brandmiller, until recently biometrics results were provided after a little over a month. Her clients’ background checks are still sometimes conducted in that time frame, but some wait more than six months, she told the San Antonio Express-News.

“When we are reporting to the judge and all he is waiting on is a few details like this, it makes it difficult,” Brandmiller said.

Such delays drag down the process of determining status for immigrants.

“It’s one more time we have to set another court hearing,” Dana Marks, an immigration judge and president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, told the Express-News. “It’s inconvenient for the people involved and inconvenient for the court,” she said, adding that the backlog leads to more continuances, “which isn’t an ideal solution.”

In 2012, the Department of Homeland Security awarded USIS the five-year, $889 million contract to conduct the immigration checks. (RELATED: Company That Did Background Check On Snowden Got Hacked)

Besides its failure to catch Snowden and Alexis, USIS has been hammered amid allegations that it failed to complete 665,000 background checks in order to cut costs.

In a letter sent last month, U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings and U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn expressed concern that, despite its numerous failing, the Department of Homeland Security still awarded USIS a separate $190 million support services contract with U.S. Customs and Immigration Services.

On top of those errors, USIS suffered a cyber attack in which Department of Homeland Security personnel’s personal information was put at risk.

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Obama weighs broader move on legal immigration

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is considering key changes in the nation’s immigration system requested by tech, industry and powerful interest groups, in a move that could blunt Republicans’ election-year criticism of the president’s go-it-alone approach to immigration.

Administration officials and advocates said the steps would go beyond the expected relief from deportations for some immigrants in the U.S. illegally that Obama signaled he’d adopt after immigration efforts in Congress collapsed. Following a bevy of recent White House meetings, top officials have compiled specific recommendations from business groups and other advocates whose support could undercut GOP claims that Obama is exceeding his authority to help people who have already violated immigration laws.

“The president has not made a decision regarding next steps, but he believes it’s important to understand and consider the full range of perspectives on potential solutions,” said White House spokesman Shawn Turner.

One of the more popular requests among business and family groups is a change in the way green cards are counted that would essentially free up some 800,000 additional visas the first year, advocates say.

The result would be threefold: It would lessen the visa bottleneck for business seeking global talent; shorten the green card line for those being sponsored by relatives, a wait that can stretch nearly 25 years; and potentially reduce the incentive for illegal immigration by creating more legal avenues for those wanting to come, as well as those already here.

Obama’s aides have held more than 20 meetings in recent months with business groups and other interest groups to discuss possibilities, ahead of an announcement about next steps the president is expected to make in September. Coordinating these “listening sessions,” as the White House calls them, is its Office of Public Engagement, led by top Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett.

Obama’s options without new laws from Congress are limited and would only partially address obstacles business groups say are preventing them from hiring more workers. Even so, administration officials say these groups are urging the White House to help streamline a complex and unpredictable system.

Republicans are working to use immigration and the surge of unaccompanied minors at the border against Democrats in the midterm elections by arguing that Obama and his party are undermining the rule of law.

“Politically we think it flips the switch because it’s not just talking about a benefit to those who broke the law,” said former Rep. Bruce Morrison, D-Conn., who authored the 1990 immigration law and is now lobbying on behalf of groups representing tech industry professionals, business management and U.S. citizens married to foreigners.

Matt Mackowiak, a Texas-based Republican strategist, said the moves on legal immigration might prompt businesses to praise the president, even if it’s not enough to persuade the business community to side with Democrats in the upcoming elections.

“From the White House’s perspective, this is an easy way for them to score some points,” Mackowiak said. “They’ll say: ‘We’re arguing about substance, Republicans are arguing about process.’”

Obama in June announced that in the face of congressional inaction, he would act on his own to address as much of the nation’s immigration mess as he could. Since then, advocates for the roughly 11 million people living in the country illegally have lobbied for deportation relief particularly for the parents of U.S.-born children and the parents of youth who authorized to remain in the country under a program Obama announced in 2012.

But in recent weeks, other groups have stepped up public pressure in favor of presidential action that would change how the legal immigration system operates, too.

Those who support changing the green card count say each year half of the 140,000 employment-based green cards issued go to spouses and children, unnecessarily reducing the numbers available to workers.

Other requests have included removing the requirement that some spouses of U.S. citizens return to their native country for at least three years before they can apply for U.S. residency, as well as extending work permits to the spouses of all temporary H1-B skilled workers.

The potential for broader executive action ignited flames this week from Republicans in Congress already vehemently opposed to legislation that would increase immigration quotas.

U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., slammed the White House this week for meeting with big business to bring in more workers while “tens of millions of Americans are on welfare, unemployment and public assistance.”

Not all industries are pushing for broad action, though. Agriculture leaders, who acknowledge as much as 70 percent of their workforce is “unauthorized” have remained on the sidelines — a reminder of the limits of any Obama’s executive authority.

Kristi Boswell, director of congressional relations for the American Farm Bureau, said her organization has met this summer with White House to encourage administrative changes that would reduce immigration raids targeting farms and processing plants and cut the red tape on hiring guest workers.

“Absolutely, ag workers have an ability to benefit at least temporarily from executive action,” she said but added that reforming guest worker provisions and other aspects of the immigration system couldn’t be done by the president alone.

For that, she said, Congress will still have to act.

___

Wides-Munoz reported from Miami.

___

Follow Laura Wides-Munoz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lwmunoz and Josh Lederman at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

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White House takes suggestions from business on immigration changes

In addition to reviewing the deportation system of immigrants in the U.S. illegally, the Obama administration is weighing executive actions to change the legal immigration system in ways that could benefit businesses, the Wall Street Journal reports.

In more than 20 meetings this summer, White House and other administration officials have recruited suggestions from industries like technology, agriculture and construction.

High-tech firms, in search of ways to increase the number of skilled foreign workers that can come to the U.S., have pitched the idea of excluding workers’ spouses from the 140,000-per-year visa cap. They would also like to see the government “recapture” unused green cards from previous years, which could add more than 200,000 new green cards to the system, the Journal reports.

While people from the agricultural movement aren’t pushing for aggressive executive action for fear of further alienating Congress on the issue, some still see a way the administration could help. Kristi Boswell, who is the director of congressional relations for the American Farm Bureau, told the Journal her members would like to see the administration direct its focus away from efforts to seek out and deport illegal workers that could cause “instability” for farmers.

And a representative for construction companies, Houston attorney Alberto Cardenas Jr., said that if the administration grants work permits to some immigrants in the country illegally, they should be required to work for legitimate companies so that the underground companies that pay in cash have less sway over workers.

“The president has not made a decision regarding next steps, but he believes it’s important to understand and consider the full range of perspectives on potential solutions,” White House spokesman Shawn Turner told the Journal in an email.

Those groups were actively involved in crafting the Senate immigration bill that passed in June 2013, but have been similarly stymied by the gridlock in Congress on the issue.

Mr. Obama is reportedly weighing unilateral steps he could take to defer deportations for anywhere from 550,000 to 4.4 million immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally, as well as providing some with work permits. The move is sure to draw harsh criticism from Republicans, who argued that they could not pass immigration reform in 2014 because the president cannot be trusted to enforce the law.

“I promise you the American people don’t want me just standing around twiddling my thumbs and waiting for Congress to get something done,” Mr. Obama said earlier this month regarding immigration, although he said it was his “preference” to work with Congress. He said he will have to “make choices in terms of how we allocate personnel and resources” in the immigration enforcement system in light of congressional inaction.

He is expected to make a decision on how to proceed by the end of the summer.

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Customs and Immigration Union Vows to Support Officers Suspended for Helping RCMP Undertake Arrest in Manitoba

OTTAWA, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Aug 18, 2014) – Customs and Immigration Union (CIU) National President Jean-Pierre Fortin has confirmed the CIU will do everything in its power to overturn the discipline imposed last week by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) on three Border Services Officers in Manitoba.

The three officers in question were on duty earlier this year at a local port of entry when an RCMP officer contacted the port with an urgent request for assistance to help apprehend a reportedly armed individual who was suspected in a kidnapping and wanted on outstanding warrants. In accordance with their understanding of ongoing inter-agency assistance protocols and s. 129(b) of the Criminal Code which requires such assistance when asked, the officers immediately responded as did the Superintendent on duty. Together with the RCMP they were successfully able to apprehend the individual in question. They were away from the port of entry, which remained staffed by three other officers, for approximately one hour. The incident was formally reported to CBSA senior management approximately 12 hours later. Following the incident, the RCMP formally thanked the CBSA officers in question.

Rather than commend the officers for their swift actions that helped keep the community safe, local CBSA management advised that the officers would be investigated for leaving the port of entry for an “unauthorized” purpose. Last week, CBSA imposed suspensions of between 4 and 25 days to the Officers.

CIU National President Fortin was emphatic in his support of the officers involved:

“These officers responded to a time-sensitive emergency request from a local RCMP officer to assist in the arrest of a reportedly armed suspect. Our Agency works in partnership with the RCMP and other law enforcement agencies on an ongoing basis and they also had a legal obligation to assist the officer pursuant to the Criminal Code.

CBSA’s decision to discipline our members contradicts our law enforcement and public service mandate to protect and serve.

The CIU will contest this matter on behalf of our members using every means available to us.”

The Customs and Immigration Union (CIU) is a component of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), which represents Canada’s Front-Line Customs and Immigration Officers. CIU also represents Investigation, Intelligence and Trade Customs Officers, Immigration Inland Enforcement and Hearings Officers, as well as all support staff – all of whom work at the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

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Customs and Immigration Union Vows to Support Officers Suspended for Helping RCMP Undertake Arrest in Manitoba
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Immigration crisis at border afflicts heartland harvest

— The heated tempers of the nation’s border states are driving the debate over immigration policy. States farther away from the U.S.-Mexico border, though, are reckoning with a different set of challenges: a skimpy agriculture labor market and cumbersome immigrant-worker programs that go unfixed amid partisan gridlock on Capitol Hill.

Over 20,000 U.S. farms employ more than 435,000 immigrant workers legally every year, according to 2012 U.S. Department of Agriculture census data. Thousands _ probably tens of thousands _ more are employed illegally. Naturally, agricultural powerhouses near the border, such as Florida and California, employ tens of thousands of seasonal immigrant laborers every year. But deeper in the homeland, such as the fruit orchards of the Carolinas, farmers confront a blue-collar labor vacuum.

“Because we’re not a border state, it’s definitely harder to get people over this far from the border to work,” said Chalmers Carr, the owner of the East Coast’s largest peach grower, South Carolina’s Titan Farms. “2006, 2007, even 2008, we had a very robust economy and there were not enough farmworkers then. And there’s truly not enough farmworkers now, legal or illegal.”

South Carolina in particular has a unique view, having seen the greatest percentage increase in Hispanic population in the country from 2000 to 2010 _ nearly 150 percent, according to the most recently available census data. Although its Hispanic population sits at a comparatively low 5.1 percent, the increase reflects decisions by immigrants to make the trek deeper into the U.S. And while many are taking temporary seasonal work, the labor shortage has become a permanent issue for growers and workers alike.

“It’s not a temporary situation,” said Lynn Tramonte, the deputy director of America’s Voice, which focuses on changing immigration policy. “It might be a seasonal job, but we’re going to keep having grapes that need to be picked and cows that need to be milked, and immigrants are coming to do that sort of labor.”

Immigrant workers who slipped over the borders years ago are aging out of the workforce, and their younger, more able-bodied counterparts are being kept from the fields because of the bureaucratic clutter. But the crops and the growing season don’t wait.

“We’re losing that aging population, but we’re also not getting anybody replacing them because of the mess we have at the border and no immigration law,” said Manuel Cunha Jr., the president of California’s Nisei Farmers League, which represents over 180 types of farms, including those that produce raisins, vegetables and flowers.

The trend certainly isn’t limited to the southern edges of the country either.

“In northern Ohio, we’re on the front lines, and it’s not because we’re on the northern border,” said Mark Gilson, the owner and operator of Gilson Gardens, a nursery in northeast Ohio, which relies largely on seasonal immigrant workers. “It’s because the agricultural jobs are here.”

The idea by those on the anti-immigration front that U.S. workers should fill those agriculture jobs is simply out of kilter with reality, the farmers say.

“I get lambasted for why do I hire migrant workers? Why don’t I hire Americans?” Carr said. “I can clearly tell you Americans aren’t out there willing to do these jobs.”

He’s quick to share numbers that back up his claim. From 2010 to 2012, Carr said, he advertised for 2,000 jobs. Only 432 – less than 25 percent – of his applicants were U.S. workers. Then 390 of them never showed up or they quit on the first day.

“About 5 percent of the agriculture jobs needed, you’ll get American workers for. . . . You’ve got a choice to import your food or you can import your labor to harvest your food,” Carr said.

“Local Americans don’t want to do this work. It’s seasonal; it tends to be low-paying,” agreed Gilson. “People who are on unemployment don’t want to go off unemployment to do this type of work.”

Those realities may be what’s shifting the debate in states that traditionally opposed any immigration restructuring. The support of South Carolina U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham for a less-restrictive immigration policy has prompted much criticism from other more conservative Republicans. Such reaction forced him to back off a push to overhaul immigration law during his 2008 bid for the presidential nod. Even those conservative attitudes are changing now, however.

Despite the shift in perception, lawmakers left Washington for the August recess with immigration plans in limbo and little expected to come of them once they return in September and turn their focus to November’s elections.

Away from the partisan politics inside the Beltway, it’s a delay that could wreak havoc for seasonal growers who are limited by complicated federal programs such as the H-2A and I-9 temporary immigrant visas.

Both programs provide passes for immigrants looking to cross the border for seasonal work. But minimum wage and identity requirements make the programs difficult for growers to adhere to, and they can be incentives either to buck the system or to move farms overseas.

“When we need those workers we have to have them, because Mother Nature doesn’t hold up and wait for us to get workers,” said Cunha. “When it’s time to harvest, it’s time to harvest.”

On top of that, South Carolina’s Carr says the recent influx of children slipping across the U.S. border has clogged the bureaucratic process further.

“I don’t know how many problems go on this long without being fixed. . . . I don’t think businesses such as mine can continue to wait and operate based on what may happen six years from now,” he said.

Despite the heated politics and lawmakers’ seeming unwillingness to address the problem, farmers and experts say people are starting to recognize that any changes in immigration law will have complicated economic and personal effects.

“These aren’t just people with their heads down in the field for us. We respect their hard work, and we share traditional American values with them,” said Gilson, of Ohio. “We’re small businesses, so we tend to be politically conservative. And yet we’re conflicted, in a way, because we need these people and we respect these people.”

Email: awatkins@mcclatchydc.com; Twitter: @AliMarieWatkins.

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Immigration crisis at border afflicts heartland harvest
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IMMIGRATION CRISIS Senate Dems wary of Obama using executive power

Obama_Iraq.jpg

FILE: Aug. 9, 2014: President Obama speaks at the White House about the ongoing situation in Iraq.AP

Senate Democrats at risk of losing re-election in moderate or conservative-leaning states this fall are wary about President Obama using his executive powers to sidestep Congress and act alone on immigration reform.

Their biggest concerns appear to be that Obama will expand his 2012 executive action that deferred deportation for young illegal immigrants by extending it to as many as 5 million more people living illegally in the United States.

“This is an issue that I believe should be addressed legislatively and not through executive order,” said North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan, one of the most vulnerable Democrats in Republicans’ bid to take control of the Senate.

The president is scheduled to return from a family vacation at some point this weekend to engage in high-level White House talks. Administration officials will not disclose what will be discussed but have said the president does not intend to take action at least on the current immigration crisis — the influx of unaccompanied Central American youths crossing the southern U.S. border — until after summer.

Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., another vulnerable incumbent, said in a statement that he also is “frustrated with the partisanship in Washington. But that doesn’t give the president carte blanche authority to sidestep Congress when he doesn’t get his way.”

Such statements have immigration advocates on edge.

A coalition of advocacy groups, in a letter to congressional Democrats on Friday, said immigrant families should not have to wait until after the November elections for relief. The organizations said any attempts by Democrats to delay or dilute administrative changes “will be viewed as a betrayal of Latino and immigrant communities with serious and lasting consequences.”

The letter was released because of advocates’ concerns that leading Senate Democrats may be shifting their positions because of political considerations after previously urging Obama to act.

A spokesman for Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., declined to say Friday whether Schumer still believes Obama should act by October, as Schumer had said before. A spokesman for Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat, said the timing of executive action on immigration was up to Obama. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s spokesman had no comment on timing.

Still, Obama looks determined to move forward on his own despite the political risks for Democrats.

He is irritated by House Republicans’ inaction on immigration legislation passed last year by the Senate. The crisis over unaccompanied minors arriving in South Texas does not appear to have deterred him, and the slowdown of arrivals at the border may be shifting the issue away from the spotlight anyway.

The exact contours of Obama’s plans remain unclear.

Advocates and lawmakers who have talked with administration officials anticipate that he could expand a program that granted work permits and deferred deportation to more than 700,000 immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as kids. It could be extended to include parents of those children, as well as parents of U.S. citizens, or potentially others — groups that could add up to perhaps 5 million people.

During a news conference this month, Obama was not specific on his immigration plans. He did say that in the absence of congressional action and in order to address the crisis involving unaccompanied youths, he had to shift resources on his own and exercise prosecutorial discretion.

“I promise you the American people don’t want me just standing around twiddling my thumbs and waiting for Congress to get something done,” Obama said.

Some GOP leaders worry that opposition to a comprehensive overhaul will harm their party in the 2016 presidential race, where Latino turnout is higher than in midterm elections. Hispanics are a fast-growing sector of the presidential electorate and backed Obama overwhelmingly in 2012.

   But Republicans also see a nearer-term chance to translate Obama’s potential executive actions into electoral success in November. Republicans need to win a net of six seats in order to take control of the Senate for the remainder of Obama’s term. The GOP already is all but assured of maintaining control of the House.

As Republicans meet with voters in their districts during the summer break, lawmakers have raised alarms about the scope of Obama’s potential plans. In some cases, they are hearing clamors for impeachment in return.

“It is up to Congress to actually go back and restrain this guy,” one voter told GOP Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland at a town hall meeting on the Eastern Shore. Harris had warned that Obama could expand an existing deportation relief program to 4 million or 5 million more people, “competing with Americans for work.”

Republicans have tagged Obama as an “imperial president” who goes around Congress rather than working with lawmakers, and House Republicans have moved to sue him over it. The prospect of the president making a unilateral move on a contentious issue such as immigration has Republican consultants salivating.

“President Obama’s executive amnesty would inject adrenaline into an electorate already eager to send him a message of disapproval,” said Brad Dayspring, communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Also problematic for Obama: His apparent plans to act on his own authority come after years of saying that he did not have the legal justification to proceed without Congress.

“If, in fact, I could solve all these problems without passing them through Congress, I would do so. But we’re also a nation of laws,” he said in November. A heckler had interrupted a speech he was giving in San Francisco, prodding him to halt deportations, which have reached record highs on Obama’s watch.

Since then the White House has apparently concluded otherwise.

Democratic pollsters argue that any executive action by Obama could give a political boost to Democrats, not just from newly energized Latino voters but from an electorate at large that would welcome any action from gridlocked Washington.

“Voters are so sick of the do-nothing Congress they don’t mind if there’s an imperial president,” said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. “They would just like someone to get something done about something.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Source Article from http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/16/vulnerable-senate-democrats-wary-obama-using-executive-powers-on-immigration/
IMMIGRATION CRISIS Senate Dems wary of Obama using executive power
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