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

Chapter 7

The Mass Media and The Political Agenda

How does the media cover immigration? What are biased and unbiased examples?

A very biased article from Fox News as it presents polls on immigration... http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,190857,00.html

This article seemed as unbiased as possible when talking about immigration, as it got straight to the facts...
http://idexer.com/2008/01/13/illinois-city-wants-to-block-police-from-asking-for-papers.html

How does the coverage of immigration in the United States differ from the coverage in Mexico?

This article confronts the idea of American immigration to Mexico. It seems that they have the same issues as we do, although they haven't threatened to build a wall yet... (From the Mexico Reporter)
http://mexicoreporter.wordpress.com/2007/11/27/spreading-the-media-word-across-the-mexican-border/

How is immigration involved in the political agenda?

American citizens have made it very clear that they want the immigration issue solved... and as the upcoming election begins to unfold immigration is one of the key topics. The Republican and Democratic debates so far have confronted immigration... Here's an article on what's been happening... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/01/AR2008010102333.html

Chapter 6

Public Opinion and Political Action

What are the public's opinions and ideas on immigration?

This article combines many sources to offer proof that most Americans favor allowing illegal immigrants to keep their jobs and become legal over deporting them... http://www.immigrationforum.org/documents/PressRoom/PublicOpinion/2007/PollingSummary0407.pdf

One thing is for sure... Americans want the illegal immigration issue solved soon... as immigration and mental health become top priorities for the upcoming Senate session. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/10/AR2008011003503.html?referrer=emailarticle

What are the prominent immigration interest groups?

Two of the most prominent immigration groups are Carecen International, an interested group based on helping immigration (www.freewebs.com/careceninternational/index.html) and the Federation for American Immigration Reform, an anti-immigration interest group, (fairus.org)

Chapter 8

Immigration Within The Parties

What are the party platforms?

Republican Party-
The Republican Party salutes the work of the Customs and Border Patrol who police our borders and the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in ensuring that the identity of foreign
citizens who enter our borders is known;

The Republican Party supports reforming the immigration system to ensure that it
is legal, safe, orderly and humane. It also supports measures to ensure that the
immigration system is structured to address the needs of national security. America is a
stronger and better nation because of the hard work and entrepreneurial spirit of
immigrants, and the Republican Party honors them. A growing economy requires a
growing number of workers, and President Bush has proposed a new temporary worker
program that applies when no Americans can be found to fill the jobs. This new program
would allow workers who currently hold jobs to come out of the shadows and to
participate legally in America’s economy. It would allow men and women who enter the
program to apply for citizenship in the same manner as those who apply from outside the
United States. There must be strong workplace enforcement with tough penalties against
employees and employers who violate immigration laws. We oppose amnesty because it
would have the effect of encouraging illegal immigration and would give an unfair
advantage to those who have broken our laws.
To better ensure that immigrants enter the United States only through legal means
that allow for verification of their identity, reconnaissance cameras, border patrol agents,
and unmanned aerial flights have all been increased at the border. In addition, Border
Patrol agents now have sweeping new powers to deport illegal aliens without having first
to go through the cumbersome process of allowing the illegal alien to have a hearing
before an immigration judge. We support these efforts to enforce the law while
welcoming immigrants who enter America through legal avenues.
-www.gop.com

Democratic Party

Democrats are fighting for laws that will:
Secure our borders
Protect all U.S. workers and their wages & prevent exploitation of immigrant workers
Reunite families
Allow immigrants who pay taxes and don't have trouble with the law a path to earn the opportunities and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship.


Today's immigration
laws do not reflect our values or serve our security, and we will work for real reform. The solution is
not to establish a massive new status of second-class workers; that betrays our values and hurts all
working people. Undocumented immigrants within our borders who clear a background check, work
hard and pay taxes should have a path to earn full participation in America. We will hasten family
reunification for parents and children, husbands and wives, and offer more English-language and civic
education classes so immigrants can assume all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. As we
undertake these steps, we will work with our neighbors to strengthen our security so we are safer from
those who would come here to harm us. We are a nation of immigrants, and from Arab-Americans in
California to Latinos in Florida, we share the dream of a better life in the country we love.
-www.democrats.org



Are there differing views within the parties?

I think that with any issue there are differences within parties, but I think this article explains it beautifully... http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20070703/ai_n19339211

A clip of President Bush discussing immigration- http://www.gop.com/GOPTV/Player.aspx?Guid=a3aa7610-4c3c-4531-a99d-549e87b34c18&Type=e74f2689-0d29-4fa8-a868-d65ba3ed670e