Chapter 16

The Federal Courts

What recent court cases have concerned immigration?

Seven Are Arrested in Prostitution Raid
Prince William County police said yesterday that they raided a house of prostitution in Manassas and made seven arrests.
Charged with frequenting a bawdy house were José E. Cubias-Reyes, 26; Eric M. Aguilera, 33; Ariel S. Moya, 22; Israel Díaz-Díaz, 44; and Edson N. Lino-Cardenas, 33. All live in Manassas or Manassas Park. They were released on a summons and are to appear in court June 6.
Yudelka S. Escolbores, 25, was charged with prostitution. She is being held without bond and will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement after her criminal case is processed, police said. She also is due in court June 6.
A 17-year-old male was arrested for allegedly collecting money at the establishment, in the 7600 block of Chestnut Street, and was charged with pandering.
-Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/25/AR2008042502684.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/18/AR2008041803281.html

What effect have these cases had on immigration policy?

Because most of the cases that immigrants are involved in are concerning with being here illegally, the cases have a negative effect on the case for immigration in the United States.

http://www2.nysun.com/article/40166

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/23/AR2008042303757.html

Chapter 15

The Federal Bureaucracy

What bureacracies help immigrants?

Most of the bureacracies are centered around keeping illegal immigrants out, but the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services organization grants green cards to immigrants and also provides services to immigrants once they enter the country in order to help them adjust to life in the U.S., such as ESL classes.

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/04/AR2008030403070.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/26/AR2008032603281.html

What do the Deparments and Agencies with Responsibility for Border Security on pg. 487 do to hinder illegal immigration?

Each deparment or agency deals with a different aspect of immigration, each of which pretty much makes it more difficult for an immigrant to legally enter this country. For example, the Department of Transportation patrols the border, the Department of State decides how many immigrants will be granted access, and the Department of Justice prevents the entrance of illicit drugs or guns across the border.

The Congress, the President, and the Budget

What money is spent on controlling immigration? How?

This article sums up some of the budget that is allocated to border patrol and such:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2008/homeland.html

For the 2008 budget, immigration it was proposed that immigration budget be cut down.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/21/AR2008012102168.html

What intereste groups impact this spending?

The most prominent immigration interest groups in Washington are:

American Immigration Control Foundation

Center for Immigration Studies

Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)

Immigration Forum

National Immigration Forum

Urban Institute

The Presidency

What are Bush’s views on immigration?

This link is to manuscript straight from the White House of Bush's 2006 approach to immigration:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/05/20060515-8.html

Bush seems to be somewhere in the middle concerning immigration, in the following article he states that "our economy depends on" foreign workers and calls on Congress to act now before the problem of illegal immigration "grows worse."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/15/AR2007061500843.html

What immigration laws has he supported or vetoed?

During the beginning of his second term, Bush proposed a new illegal immigrant reform.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/01/20040107-1.html

Going against his own party, Bush proposed to liberalize immigration.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41340-2005Jan1.html

Recently, Bush has tried to renew immigration efforts.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/04/09/bush_to_renew_immigration_law_efforts/

Chapter 12

Congress

What is currently going on in Congress concerning immigration?

Since the 109th Congress in 2005, both the House and the Senate have been trying to pass new, tougher laws on immigration. While many of the bills have been killed, this one has been recently introduced.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-1430

The bill is called the SAFE for America Act, implying that America will not be safe from those darn Mexican immigrants until we pass this. It has not been debated yet. The bill mainly states that we should eliminate the immigration diversity program.

The biggest change to immigration laws was proposed in 2006 and passed the Senate but was highly opposed in the House.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501548.html

Who are the major players in the House and the Senate concerning immigration?

Here is a summary of the 2007 Immigration Reform Bill:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/06/28/immigration.vote.rollcall/index.html

Here's a list of Senators that voted on the President's last immigration bill:

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/06/more-than-two-t.html

Chapter 11

Interest Groups

What interest groups are based upon immigration?

Some of the most popular immigration based interest groups are: Carecen International (www.freewebs.com/careceninternational/index.html), Federation for American Immigration Reform (fairus.org), Mexican American Political Association (mapa.org), American Immigration Control Foundation (americanimmigrationcontrol.com)

What do these groups do?
Interest groups fight for the platform of immigration they believe in by contacting senators, house represenatatives and the president in order to gain some control in the immigration situation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/27/AR2006032700684.html


What role do these groups play in politics?

This website provides a mix of the latest news on immigration laws and interest group activity.

http://www.nilc.org/

Chapter 9 & 10

Nominations and Campaigns, Elections and Voting Behavior

How is immigration confronted within elections?

I found this site on CNN.com: it oulines each candidate's view of immigration for the coming 2008 electon. It also mentions which candidates voted for the 700 mile wall on the border.... which was one thing that caught me by surprise.

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/issues/issues.immigration.html

I also found a very interesting website dedicated solely to immigration. If you have time you should look through it.

http://immigration2008.com/

What demographic groups support and are against immigration?

Even within the parties people have split views of immigration and its legalization, it seems that the demographic trends for those that support immigration are a random group of people, although clearly legal immigrants support immigration.


Are illegal immigrants included in elections? How does this affect their situations?

As illegal immigrants are not included in elections at this time in the U.S., this creates a kind of labrynth that will seemingly never be solved. Citizens of the U.S. are hesitant to vote for less strict immigration laws and since illegal immigrants have no voice in elections, it is impossible for their situations to be considered.

However, a new push in New York has changed this situation, as illustrated in the article from the New York Post. http://www.nypost.com/seven/02202007/news/regionalnews/let_aliens_vote__activists_regionalnews_frankie_edozien.htm