December 3, 2008
More immigration coverage
GOP puts faith in immigration
Immigration will be highlighted again as an issue for the midterm election campaigns today when President George W. Bush signs the Secure Fence Act, but its effectiveness as a winning issue for Republican candidates remains unproven, according to analysts and polls.
Senate OKs U.S.-Mexico border fence
The Senate approved a 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border as the last major gesture on controlling illegal immigration before breaking for the Nov. 7 elections.
A push in House for immigrant bill
As Congress headed into its last week before taking a recess, House Republicans continued to press ahead on their version of enforcement-only immigration overhaul, over the objections of many Senate Republicans and Democrats.
Suffolk OKs worker bill
The Suffolk legislature overwhelmingly approved County Executive Steve Levy's controversial immigrant workers bill yesterday despite widespread acknowledgment by lawmakers that the measure will have little impact on the problems tied to undocumented workers and already has increased racial tensions.
Immigration bill on fall agenda
With immigration reform stymied by a fractured GOP, Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) and other House Republican leaders sought to salvage the issue for their fall campaigns yesterday by announcing they would craft new legislation to toughen the borders and police the interior.
SUFFOLK COUNTY
Immigrant job bill called redundant
A coalition of immigrant advocates and civil liberties activists yesterday said a proposed Suffolk County law aimed at contractors who hire undocumented immigrants will inflame racial tensions and isn't needed because the federal government already has a similar law on the books.
Immigration bill debate gearing up
A new Congressional Budget Office estimate highlights the ambitious sweep of the Senate's comprehensive immigration bill, pegging the cost over the next decade as high as $127 billion.
Taking it to the streets
More than 200 union members, immigrant advocates and people opposed to undocumented workers rallied last night outside the Suffolk Legislature's building in Hauppauge to debate the merits of County Executive Steve Levy's immigrant workers bill.
Biz group criticizes bill
The Long Island Association, the region's largest business group, has come out against Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy's controversial immigrant workers bill.
Church council rips Levy immigration policy
A coalition of 400 churches across the region came out yesterday against Suffolk Executive Steve Levy's latest initiative on illegal immigration, saying it may increase discrimination and that it goes against Christian values to help the less fortunate.
Wall won't work
Six years ago, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak sidled up to his army's chief of staff with a serious problem.
VIEW FROM THE BORDER
They're bound and determined for U.S.
For four hellish days, Felix Aguilara and his wife, Yolanda, trudged 100 miles through the boiling Arizona desert in their quest to realize the American dream, at times hallucinating from exhaustion.
A call to reject worker verification bill
Immigrants and union leaders implored the Suffolk County Legislature yesterday to reject County Executive Steve Levy's proposal to require county contractors to certify every year that their employees are eligible to work in the United States.
Levy gets fight over workers
A labor union that was one of Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy's largest campaign contributors yesterday denounced as "discriminatory" his proposed law involving contractors and undocumented immigrants.
A place of peace in turbulent time
Silvia crouched for hours in the current of the Rio Grande, hiding from "la migra" - the U.S. Border Patrol.
Arrested for helping migrants
In a case that is shocking immigrant rights groups nationwide, prosecutors in Arizona have charged two volunteers who say they tried to save the lives of three sick migrants stranded in the desert with felony charges of transporting illegal immigrants.
Laying down the law
Nancy Hnasko, who fondly recalls her own family's past as Polish-Slavic immigrants in this old coal town, said she has mixed feelings about Mayor Louis Barletta's war on illegal immigrants.
Levy proposal extends to nonprofits
Many social service agencies, charities and town governments with contracts from Suffolk County would be required, along with private-sector contractors, to verify their employees are eligible to work in the United States under a proposal unveiled Wednesday by County Executive Steve Levy.
Wording key in immigration bill
The success of ideas being floated to resolve the differences between the House and Senate immigration bills could come down to the nuance and definition of words such as "trigger" and "certification," say many in the debate over immigration.
Mayor's stand on immigration
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday took aim at hard-line GOP members of the U.S. House, saying their belief that border patrols alone can stop undocumented immigrants "is either naive and shortsighted, or cynical and duplicitous."
Taking immigration issue on a road show
Congress takes its fight over immigration legislation on the road this week as leaders of the House and Senate back in the capital work to clear the way for difficult negotiations over their two distinctly different approaches.
New immigration rule targets employer records
As a massive immigration overhaul remains hung up in Congress, the Bush administration continues to highlight a new, tougher approach to border security and immigration law enforcement.
Another immigration obstacle
The prospect for enacting immigration reform legislation this year has run into yet another hurdle - a procedural glitch being raised by the House.
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
Rocky road to conciliation
Following Senate approval yesterday of a sweeping immigration bill that is at odds with the House's tough enforcement-only measure, congressional leaders now must determine whether they can find a path to compromise on the politically potent and far-reaching legislation.
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
Guard heads south
The National Guard announced yesterday it would start sending soldiers to the Mexican border next week, while in the Senate a sweeping immigration reform bill overcame more hurdles on its way to expected passage in a floor vote today.
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
Immigrant bill divide widening
By the count of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the sweeping immigration bill now being debated in the Senate would, if enacted, add at least 73 million immigrants to the U.S. population over the next 20 years.
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
Safe passage in Bush's hands
Immigration legislation working its way through the U.S. Senate enjoys the broad backing - at least in principle - of most Democrats and moderate Republicans, congressional sources say, yet final passage remains uncertain because of staunch opposition from the GOP's conservative wing.
Bush at the border
President George W. Bush took his immigration sales pitch to this dusty desert outpost on the Mexican border yesterday, visiting a rare patch of border fence to signal fresh support for building more anti-immigrant barriers.
Laborer faces deportation
After taking a picket sign from a man protesting illegal immigration, a 19-year-old day laborer was charged with felony grand larceny by Southampton Village police and now faces deportation because a fingerprint check revealed he entered the country illegally.
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
Bill gains in Senate
The Senate yesterday endorsed a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants but also backed law-and-order provisions to satisfy Republican hard-liners - a 370-mile border fence and a no-felons-allowed bar to legal status.
New tactics, same battle for U.S. Border Patrol
"In spite of the major successes in repatriation, many deportees simply turned around and recrossed the seriously undermanned border."
6,000 troops on the lines
Mixing a show of muscle with an outstretched hand, President George W. Bush is sending up to 6,000 National Guard troops to the Mexican border while endorsing a plan to give illegal workers already here a shot at citizenship.
The Bush plan, point by point
President George W. Bush outlined a five-point plan to reform immigration in the country during his address to the nation last night.
Their job: Backup
The National Guard is renowned for its front-line military role in Iraq, but the 420 guard members now assigned to the Mexican border are mostly technicians who tote laptops, surveillance gear and blueprints, not guns.
King sticks to his guns
As far as Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) is concerned, President George W. Bush's gambit of announcing that he will send the National Guard to the border to win support for a citizenship plan for illegal immigrants simply failed.
VIEW FROM MEXICO
Fears increase at crossing
For nine years, Asucena Balma has worried herself sick every time her husband sneaks across the border from the couple's home in Mexico, braving bandits, vigilantes and desert heat to reach his housecleaning job in Medford.
Taking a view of unseen lives
A couple dances in a kitchen, the man twirling the woman, who beams at him. A woman in a checkered apron hands down a foam cup while standing in a truck bed, the sun high above her. A man with mud-caked pants collects hay and glances backward, exposing his baseball cap underneath a hooded sweatshirt and a tired look on his face.
Tightening the border
President George W. Bush is expected to use a prime-time address Monday to announce plans to send National Guard troops to the nation's southern border to help stem the tide of illegal immigration, senior administration officials said Friday night.
Latinos not laughing at WBAB radio bit
In heavily accented English, a WBAB radio fake commercial invited landscapers and dishwashers to head on over to the "Wetback Steakhouse."
Criminalization enters debate
What has come to be one of the most controversial points in the nation's ongoing debate over illegal immigration came in a suggestion from the Bush administration.
Work boycott forced pair to choose
An estimated 1 million immigrants and their supporters nationwide skipped work, marched in the streets, stayed out of stores and walked out of classes on May 1 in an economic boycott to press Congress to reform the nation's immigration laws.
King calls for English oaths
Stung by a recording of "The Star-Spangled Banner" in Spanish, Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) has jumped on a bandwagon to insist that the national anthem, the Pledge of Allegiance and the new citizens' oath should be sung and said in English.
Aiming to make a difference
The sights and sounds of more than a million people in rallies, marches and boycotts across the country for immigrant rights reached the nation's Capitol, but may not sway many in Congress in the political battle over immigration reform legislation.
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
On LI, reaction among Latinos mixed
A proposal co-sponsored by Rep. Peter King urging that the national anthem and Pledge of Allegiance only be sung and spoken in English sparked mixed reactions among Latinos and politicians across Long Island last night.
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE - NATIONAL BOYCOTT
Day without immigrants’
On a typical Monday morning during spring, the 7-Eleven on Horseblock Road and Blue Point Road in Farmingville attracts a crowd of about 100 Mexican day laborers hungry for work.
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
Shutdown to show their power
Nelson Hernandez was just a teenager when he fled El Salvador's civil war two decades ago with his family and settled on Long Island as an undocumented immigrant.
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
Prospects brighten for Senate bill
The Senate moved closer to an immigration compromise Friday when a key Democratic leader said he'd be willing to allow a reform bill - along with up to a dozen controversial GOP amendments - to come to a vote soon.
It's Star Spangled Spanish
A British music producer says he simply wanted to honor immigrants by coming up with a Spanish-language version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" that he dubbed "Nuestro Himno," or "Our Hymn."
Putting rumor of raids to rest
Eduardo Pabon, owner of one of the most popular Latino restaurants in Brentwood, knows all about the rumor.
Bush urges compromise
At a White House meeting with Senate leaders yesterday, President George W. Bush gave his biggest boost yet to a compromise immigration reform bill that stalled in a partisan procedural fight in the Senate earlier this month.
Clinton's immigration positions draw criticism
On April 5, at the height of the Senate's immigration debate, Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered an impassioned speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, praising the "hard work" of undocumented immigrants and honoring those who died in the military.
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
Clinton backs border 'smart fence'
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton raised eyebrows this weekend by saying that she thought use of a "smart fence" along parts of the U.S.-Mexico border could identify people approaching the barrier.
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
Illegal workers nabbed
Amid congressional wrangling over immigration legislation, Department of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff announced yesterday the arrests of nearly 1,200 illegal workers and the filing of criminal charges against managers of the nation's biggest pallet company as he highlighted a crackdown on businesses.
McCain, Schumer spar on immigration
Sen. John McCain isn't one of Chuck Schumer's biggest fans in the first place, but the New York Democrat's role in the immigration reform debate has really aggravated the GOP's possible presidential front-runner.
Immigrant groups differ on boycott
Mirroring a national split in the largely Hispanic immigrant reform movement, officials of La Fuerza Unida Inc., of Glen Cove, and the Workplace Project of Hempstead yesterday sent different signals to immigrants on whether to support the May 1 nationwide boycott and strike being urged by some activists.
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
Local activists support May boycott
Buoyed by a massive rally earlier this week, activists on Long Island and in New York are calling on the immigrant community - especially undocumented workers - to join in a nationwide economic boycott May 1.
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
Blacks weigh in on immigration debate
James Ryans, an African-American who teaches math and science at a New York City high school, helped support himself growing up in Georgia by stocking shelves in a grocery store.
IMMIGRATION PROTESTS
Taking it to the streets
A sea of people donning white T-shirts and flying flags flooded the Washington, D.C., mall yesterday to protest a bill that would instantly turn millions of illegal aliens into felons.
Immigration rally engulfs City Hall
Tens of thousands of people converged in the streets near New York City Hall Monday in support of immigration reform, chanting and waving flags that showed both pride in their homeland and in their newfound home in the United States.
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
Heat for King during recess
With their eyes set on the prospect of legalizing millions of immigrants, more than 300 mostly Hispanic protesters waved flags from their native countries along with the American flag shouting, "Yes We Can," and "Take Out Peter King" in Spanish in front of Rep. Peter King's Massapequa Park office.
Senate deal hits wall
The highly touted bipartisan "breakthrough" compromise on immigration reform of Thursday foundered on Senate partisanship Friday, leaving the future of the potentially historic legislation up in the air as Congress departed for a two-week break.
ISLANDWIDE
Immigration bill a touchy issue
Some called it a reward for lawbreakers. Others hailed it as a major breakthrough in one of the country's thorniest problems. Still others predicted it simply won't work.
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
Immigration deal a 'hard sell'
WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed to a last-ditch compromise yesterday to save immigration reform, but their effort still must run a gantlet of conservative Republicans in the Senate and House.
Fraud, false IDs fought
U.S. immigration and law enforcement authorities yesterday announced they are creating task forces in 10 cities including New York to combat the burgeoning problem of document and immigration benefits fraud.
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
Compromise reached on reform legislation
Desperate to break the impasse over immigration reform within his own party, Senate majority leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) announced a deal late last night to allow illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S. - but only if they have lived here five years or longer.
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
Rove seeks immigration compromise
Embattled White House political czar Karl Rove has injected himself into the increasingly chaotic immigration battle in the Senate, lobbying GOP senators in hopes they'll accept a guest worker program reviled by some conservatives in his party.
Immigration protest at Stony Brook
The battle over immigration spread yesterday to Stony Brook University, where about 200 students, including some who walked out of classes, protested proposed federal legislation they described as an un-American, draconian crackdown on immigrants.
IRISH IMMIGRANTS
A brogue gets heard in debate
Tony emigrated from County Tyrone in Northern Ireland in 1996, overstayed his tourist visa when it expired and set up a thriving floor installation business on Long Island.
SPEAKING OUT
Lifting their voices
Hoisting the flags of their homelands and shouting "¡Sí se puede!" - "Yes, it can be done!" - thousands of people marched across the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday to rally about federal immigration reform.
IMMIGRATION: THE GREAT DEBATE
LI congressman takes a controversial stance
Fifty years ago, 11-year-old Peter King sat in a classroom at St. Teresa's Grammar School in Woodside watching a little girl, who was deeply depressed about the death of a close relative, struggle with a mountainous multiplication table on the blackboard.
REPORTING FROM MEXICO
Mexican families in catch-22 over illegal jobs
There are more stray dogs than young men on the streets of this dusty farm town, whose breadwinners are leaving in droves for illegal jobs on Long Island.
HIRING SITES
Organizing the workers
On any given weekday at 7 a.m., while day laborers clamor and run toward slowing vehicles in Farmingville and other Long Island communities, an orderly line of their fellow workers forms in a small trailer in Freeport.
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
Citizenship - or amnesty?
House hard-liners tore into the president and Senate moderates yesterday over what they called an amnesty plan for illegal immigrants, saying Republicans could lose control of Congress this fall if they appear to coddle lawbreakers.
Bishop Murphy weighs in on immigration
Wading into the immigration debate, Bishop William Murphy of the Diocese of Rockville Centre said in his weekly column yesterday that "care for the stranger and the alien is an imperative of the law of Moses and the law of Christ."
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
Immigration reform faces hurdles
With a bruising Republican-on-Republican battle over immigration brewing today in the Senate, many on Capitol Hill are predicting that passing comprehensive reforms before the fall midterm elections seems increasingly like a long shot.
Migrant bill loses favor
With an immigration showdown looming on the Senate floor, a controversial GOP proposal that might have spurred prosecutions against undocumented immigrants and humanitarian groups is fast losing favor, according to legislators and advocates.
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
Uneasy approval
The Senate Judiciary Committee rammed through a sweeping immigration reform bill yesterday, rejecting a House measure making it a crime to assist undocumented immigrants, while creating a way for millions of illegal immigrants to stay here legally.
Protests from the pulpit
The Rev. James Hannon made the sign of the cross over parishioners' foreheads after offering a Spanish Mass on Sunday. "Que Dios te bendiga" - May God bless you - he said, as they filed out of St. Anne's Church in Brentwood. Hannon also helps at a local organization that provides immigrants with food and clothing.
IMMIGRATION: CHALLENGING CHANGE
The battle hits the Capitol
The Republicans' election-year push for immigration reform was supposed to be a boon for the party, coupling tough border protections with a humane guest-worker program to bring 12 million undocumented immigrants out of the shadows.
New push for peace in Farmingville
Two years ago, Louise Scarola had a starring role as a besieged homeowner in the award-winning documentary film "Farmingville." She flew to Utah for Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival, gave talks about her embattled community and became a regular at seminars on illegal immigration.
King defends bill as 'God's work'
Peter King, the recreational boxer with a combative record during nearly 14 years in the House, is now taking on the Roman Catholic Church.
Sen. to fight new bill on immigrants
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton says that "Jesus himself" would be judged a criminal under a "mean-spirited" GOP immigration proposal that makes it a felony to help or hire undocumented immigrants.
Levy weighs link to immigration reformers
Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy said yesterday he is distancing himself from a Washington, D.C., group that critics describe as an anti-immigrant organization.