Immigration is unclear for politicians at every level

“President Bush has rediscovered illegal immigration as a political issue. After previously focusing on ““welcoming’’ all who come to America by whatever means, the president spent most of his recent speech in Tucson, Ariz., sounding like Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Colorado Republican, who has been the most vocal proponent of sealing U.S. borders to illegal aliens.

Ninety percent of the speech was about the president’s new get-tough policy. The rest focused on his ““guest-worker’’ program, which is amnesty by whatever name he calls it. He says he wants to end the government’s catch-and-release policy in which non-Mexican illegals are apprehended, detained and then released, but that there aren’t enough beds in detention centers to hold all of those apprehended. By some estimates, sufficient housing won’t be available for at least six years. There are many ““sounds–good’’ proposals in the president’s speech and his remarks might have more credibility had they come immediately after Sept., 11, 2001. An unknown number of people crossing our borders have no interest in building homes; they wish only to destroy America’s ““home.’’ “

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• The Utah Forensics Team is hosting a debate Thursday centered around the issue of immigration reform in Utah. – The event, titled “Broken Borders: Debating the State of Immigration,” will feature Tony Yapias, the former director of the Utah State Office of Hispanic Affairs; Utah Reps. Mike Noel and Chris Herrod; and Dee Rowland, a government liaison for the Utah Catholic Diocese
• From a group calling themselves Electronic Civil Disobedience comes the Transborder Immigrant Tool, a simple mobile application intended to aid and abet border-crossers from Mexico to the United States by mapping the safest routes to take. – This GPS app is built to work on the cheapest cell phones available.
• The Center for American Progress applauds Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s push to move forward with the congressional debate.
• Statement on Sec. Napolitano’s First Speech on Immigration Reform
• Business groups in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez said Wednesday they are calling for United Nations peacekeepers to quell the drug-related violence that has given their city one of the highest homicide rates in the world.
• PMDG Launches Regional Mexico Marketing Initiative
• Mexico, U.S. Blame Each Other After Border Crackdown Fails
• U.S. officials wrong in celebrating fall of the Berlin Wall as work continues on our own border wall
• Native American corporations, particularly an array of Alaska Native Corporations, have become major defense and homeland security contractors – responsible for a wide range of national security operations, including electronic surveillance on the border, running immigrant detention centers, and supplying security and other services in U.S. overseas wars and energy exploitation.
• Native Americans Profit from Abusive Immigrant Detention and Billions of Dollars in National Security Contracts
• A soldier every 3 feet on the US/Mexico border = 6,930,880 soldiers – Immigration Anecdotes
• More than 200 bodies recovered at Arizona/Sonora border
• Rights activists in the northern Mexican border city of Tijuana have hung 5,100 small white crosses on the fence straddling the U.S. frontier to commemorate migrants who have died trying to cross.
• Remembrance at the border: Migrants killed while crossing remembered – About 200 attended the vigil hosted by the Border Network for Human Rights to honor the memory of undocumented immigrants who have died while trying to cross the border.
• Pobre Pecos, Pobres Presos—Justicia Penal para los Inmigrantes en el Condado de Reeves en Texas
• Mexicans Fleeing Violence Spur a Boom in El Paso – Spike in Murder Rate in Juárez Is Among the Factors Boosting Nightlife and Home Sales in U.S. Border City
• Texas Dr. Antonio Falcon: We’re Facing A Catastrophic Situation On The Border
• Immigrant Gulag Larger Than Homeland Security’s Detention Centers – The Obama administration is trying to wiggle its way out of the immigration crisis created by the Bush administration without taking any decisive steps to distance itself from its predecessor’s immigration policies and enforcement practices.
• Lawmakers Scrap Plan for 300 More Miles of Fencing on Mexican Border
• Ideas for Immigrant Detention Include Converting Hotels and Building Models