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Immigration News Blog

Friday, September 28, 2007

Virginia County to Vote on Illegal Immigration Rules

Virginia County to Vote on Illegal Immigration Rules
NPR audio:
This summer, the board of supervisors of Virginia's Prince William County approved a crackdown aimed at driving out illegal immigrants. Officials have recommendations of which county services to deny to the undocumented. The plan, which will be voted on next week, also includes more police questioning. Hispanics say the move has divided the community, and will backfire.

 

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Immigration issue mismanaged, expert says (The Capital Times)

Immigration issue mismanaged, expert says (The Capital Times)
Immigration is a resource. One that the United States has mismanaged horribly, Benjamin Johnson told members of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences Arts and Letters Tuesday. The problem is that recent U.S. policies have focused on the supply of immigrant workers and failed to account for the steady demand for workers to fill the jobs that immigrants do, said Johnson, executive director of the ...

 

Companies get tool to track illegals

Companies get tool to track illegals
Businesses, facing a government crackdown on hiring illegal immigrants, now have one more tool to help them verify a worker's status. The Citizenship and Immigration Services unveiled a system Tuesday that matches photographs from green cards and other immigrant work permits against a database of more than 14 million pictures. If the photos match, the employer will know that the person is using his or her own card, not a stolen or doctored one, federal officials said.

 

Monday, September 24, 2007

Immigration crackdown tough on farmers

Immigration crackdown tough on farmers
(The Arkansas City Traveler)
An illegal immigration crackdown blamed for a farm labor shortage has raised fears in Kansas, which draws heavily on immigrant labor in its dairy, cattle and meatpacking industries.

 

Working on Faith: failures to protect workers in the Katrina cleanup.

Working on Faith: failures to protect workers in the Katrina cleanup.
By Peter Rousmaniere
In the summer of 2006, I reported on three studies on Katrina cleanup workers. In the last few months, a fourth one was been published. In early summer of this year, Chicago-based Interfaith Work Justice published a report called Working on Faith. It addressed worker rights and protections among Katrina cleanup workers. Many of these workers were migrant workers.

 

Los Cabos boom helps Mexicans stay in Mexico

Los Cabos boom helps Mexicans stay in Mexico
This seaside jewel is the stuff of immigrant dreams. Maribel Uribe, 38, still can't get over her first glimpse of beauty: a paycheck ''three times what I made in my hometown,'' says the single mother of two. ``Opportunities are everywhere.''

 

Friday, September 21, 2007

Partnership between DOL and Interfaith Worker Justice

Partnership between DOL and Interfaith Worker Justice
By Peter Rousmaniere
Per the public interest organization:
In the past few years, the Interfaith Worker Justice and local interfaith committees have been building partnerships with local, state, and national Department of Labor (DOL) staff. These partnerships have sought to:

 

France: Immigration Debate Renewed

France: Immigration Debate Renewed
(New York Times)
France's draft immigration law has set off debate about what constitutes a family.

 

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Farmers Worry About Immigration Crackdown

Farmers Worry About Immigration Crackdown
NPR audio:
The government wants to hold employers accountable if they can't show that their workers have valid Social Security numbers. Farmers say doing so could put them out of business -- an estimated 70 percent of agricultural workers in the U.S. are undocumented.

 

Monday, September 17, 2007

Immigrant nation – new census data from 2006

Immigrant nation – new census data from 2006
By Peter Rousmaniere
As reported 9/12 in the Washington Post, Nearly one in five people living in the United States speaks a language at home other than English, according to new Census data that illustrate the wide-ranging effects of immigration. California led the nation in immigrants, at 27 percent of the state's population, and in people who spoke a foreign language at home, at 43 percent. In this 2006 census version called the annual American Community Survey, there were 37.5 million foreign born in the U.S.

 

2006 Remittances to Mexico flat – housing downturn in U.S.?

2006 Remittances to Mexico flat – housing downturn in U.S.?
By Peter Rousmaniere
According to the Migration Policy Institute, remittances to the U.S. were flat in 2006 compared to rapid growth in prior years. The report estimates that remittances were $24.5 billion. The report, like other I posted before, does not break out funds from the U.S., which must be the large majority. The housing turndown in the U.S., which began in 2006, may be the cause of the flat results.

 

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Demographic data: Number of immigrants reaches all-time high of 37.5 million

Demographic data: Number of immigrants reaches all-time high of 37.5 million
The number of immigrants nationwide reached an all-time high of 37.5 million in 2006, affecting incomes and education levels in many cities across the country. But the effects have not been uniform.

 

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Tomato farms in Florida – what they say they are doing for workers

Tomato farms in Florida – what they say they are doing for workers
By Peter Rousmaniere
Go to the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange website for its view of working conditions and labor relations.

 

Monday, September 10, 2007

Farm robots may fill in for immigrant labor

Farm robots may fill in for immigrant labor
With authorities promising tighter borders, some farmers who rely on immigrant labor are eyeing an emerging generation of fruit-picking robots and high-tech tractors to do everything from pluck premium wine grapes to clean and core lettuce.

 

No justice with no-match rule: A Bush administration proposal would have resulted in mass firings of workers just in time for Christmas

No justice with no-match rule: A Bush administration proposal would have resulted in mass firings of workers just in time for Christmas
But an effort by the labor and immigration movements has led courts to intervene and halt the plan -- for now. This could be the scenario for over eight million workers this coming holiday season, if a new regulation announced by the Bush administration goes into effect. But within days of a Washington press conference making the rule official, a federal judge stepped into the fray and stopped the administration from going through with its plan -- at least for the moment.

 

Friday, September 07, 2007

Searching for Skilled High-Tech Workers

Searching for Skilled High-Tech Workers
NPR audio:
Some employers say they are having trouble finding adequately skilled workers. Are foreign-born workers the solution? Microsoft thinks so -- this fall, the company is opening a software development center in British Columbia to attract qualified computer scientists who can't get visas to work in the U.S.

 

Solidarity maybe never: misdirected unions offend Catholic Latinos

Solidarity maybe never: misdirected unions offend Catholic Latinos
Source: California Catholic Daily
For more than 100 years, Catholics have supported unions. Why do American labor unions go out of their way to offend Catholics? That’s a question Jesuit Fr. George Schultze, a lecturer on Catholic social doctrine at St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, explores in his new book, Strangers in a Foreign Land: the Organizing of Catholic Latinos in the United States. Observing organized labor’s disappointing record in representing the interests of Catholic Latinos, Schultze laments that the unions have stunted their own effectiveness by endorsing positions repugnant to the workers they are trying to recruit.

 

Thursday, September 06, 2007

U.S. Business Grads Take Jobs in India

U.S. Business Grads Take Jobs in India
NPR audio:
Hundreds of business school graduates from U.S. colleges are taking jobs in Indian companies. India's second biggest tech company, Infosys, just hired 300 Americans to work in its Bangalore office. They say it's more exciting than an entry level job in the slower-growing U.S. economy.

 

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Short on labor, American farmers move to Mexico

Short on labor, American farmers move to Mexico
Source: NY Times
Celaya, Mexico — Steve Scaroni, a farmer from California, looked across a luxuriant field of lettuce here in central Mexico and liked what he saw: full-strength crews of Mexican farm workers with no immigration problems.

 

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Migrant workers 'being exploited'

Migrant workers 'being exploited'
In BBC Business
Migrant workers are being systematically exploited according to a report from the TUC.