Hundreds from Across State Protest Immigration law

Those protesting the recently passed immigration law on the Capitol grounds Sunday weren’t expecting changes to be made, but rather for their voices to be heard and for others to understand their frustrations, concerns, and in some cases, pleas.

Hundreds gathered at the state Capitol grounds in protest of last week’s passage and signing of HB 658, the latest version of Alabama’s immigration law. The protesters remain upset at the lack of changes in what they consider flaws in the law, including the involvement of schools in tracking data on immigrants and police being able to stop those based on whether they appear to be in the country illegally.

The Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice led the mega-march from the Capitol to the Governor’s Mansion.

Groups from all over the state including Albertville, Alexander City, Athens, Clanton, Decatur, Dothan, Birmingham and Russellville participated in the march. Frank Barragan traveled from Mobile.

“The idea of what this law is doing to this state, and eventually it has affected the country economically ... breaks my heart because it seems in Mobile, there’s going to be a few of the nurseries that are going to be closing because there’s no more workers.

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US Citizenship and Immigration Services Accept Online Applications

San Luis, AZ--U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services created a user-friendly system to streamline the application process for immigration benefit seekers and their legal representatives.

Its expected to be cut back on the waiting time and money for those using it.

With just a click of your mouse inside the comfort of your own home, individuals who want to extend or change their immigrant status in the U.S. may now do so.

"It's better than spending the time and money to go to offices because having Internet in your own home, you'll be able to do everything there," Manuel Osicawa said.

"I think its very beneficial because you don't have to go out and just stay home without having to delay your errands," Laura Ortiz said.

The USCIS recently launched the electronic immigration system.

The system is in phase one in which applicants can file form I-539, the application to extend/change non-immigrant status.

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Minorities make up majority of US births

FOR the first time, racial and ethnic minorities make up more than half the children born in the US, capping decades of heady immigration growth that is now slowing.

New 2011 census estimates highlight sweeping changes in America's racial make-up and the prolonged impact of a weak economy, which is resulting in fewer Hispanics entering the US. "This is an important landmark,'' said Roderick Harrison, a former chief of racial statistics at the Census Bureau, who is now a sociologist at Howard University. ''This generation is growing up much more accustomed to diversity than its elders."

The report comes as the US Supreme Court prepares to rule on the legality of Arizona's strict immigration law, with many states weighing similar get-tough measures.

"We remain in a dangerous period where those appealing to anti-immigration elements are fuelling a divisiveness and hostility that might take decades to overcome," Harrison said.

As a whole, the minority population in the US continues to rise, following a higher-than-expected Hispanic count in the 2010 census. Minorities increased 1.9 per cent to 114.1 million, or 36.6 per cent of the total US population, lifted by previous waves of immigration that brought in young families and boosted the number of Hispanic women of child-bearing age.

But a recent slowdown in the growth of the Hispanic and Asian populations is shifting notions on when the tipping point in US diversity will come - the time when non-Hispanic whites become a minority. After 2010 census results suggested a crossover as early as 2040, demographers now believe the pivotal moment may be pushed back several years.

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Gregory Rodriguez: Immigration and the new old me

The news that Mexican immigration to the United States has come to a virtual halt has me thinking about all the ways that will change things. It will affect politics, culture, labor and the nation's racial climate. And it will also change how we see each other and ourselves as Americans and as Californians, me included.

I'm one of those mythical native Californians you might have read about. I was born near the corner of Sunset and Vermont in Hollywood. My father was born in L.A. and baptized, as was I, at La Placita Church downtown. My mom was born in northern San Diego County and baptized at the San Antonio de Pala mission there. My paternal great-grandfather arrived in the U.S. - Arizona - from Mexico in 1893. My family has been American so long that sometimes I think I should wear one of those buckled Pilgrim hats.

And yet, despite my rootedness in Southern California, migration has had an inordinate effect on my life, especially my intellectual and professional life. I've always been something of a tour guide, interpreter and even a booster for my regional homeland. As a young Dodgers fan I always resented that half the stadium would root for the Chicago Cubs. I pronounced the glories of L.A. to my friends whose parents longed for the hometowns - New York, Milwaukee, Saigon - they left behind. (And then there's my love life. I once realized that most of the women whose lives have collided with mine were from families - Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, German, Mexican - that arrived here because of migration's big catalyst: wars we fought or labor shortages caused by those wars.)

As a kid, of course, some still saw my ethnicity and skin color as signs of my being an outsider. In third grade I was called the "N-word." By the 11th, the haters had wised up and switched to more "accurate" ethnic slurs. There were also incidents outside school, and what they all had in common was that they were committed by white kids who had fewer choices than I did. Their words stung, but they didn't keep me from being elected class president. As a suburban upper-middle-class kid from an educated family, I pretty much felt I could be what I wanted to be, and I chose to be an Angeleno.

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Ministers 'Playing Immigration Numbers Game' by including students

Ministers have included overseas students in the government's net migration count because they are more interested in playing the numbers game than with long-term migration, a leading thinktank has claimed.

The Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) report says the refusal to exclude international students from the government's drive to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands is damaging British education and putting at risk £4bn to £6bn a year in benefits to the UK economy.

The IPPR researchers Matt Cavanagh and Alex Glennie say only the 15% of overseas students who stay on to work permanently in Britain should be counted within the net migration figures, which measure the long-term flow of migrants in and out of Britain.

Home Office ministers have introduced a wide range of curbs on the 400,000 overseas students who come to Britain each year to study as part of their drive to reduce annual net migration from its current level of 240,000 a year to below 100,000 by the time of the 2015 general election.

Ministers have turned down demands from Universities UK and the National Union of Students to exclude overseas students from the long-term net migration figures, arguing they are simply complying with international standards laid down by the International Labour Organisation.

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Justices Take Up Divisive Arizona Law on Immigration

Less than a month after the Supreme Court heard three days of arguments over President Obama’s health care law, the justices on Wednesday will consider another major politically charged case about the scope of federal power, this one concerning Arizona’s aggressive 2010 immigration law.

The argument is a rematch between the main protagonists in last month’s case. Paul D. Clement, who argued for the 26 states challenging the health care law, represents Arizona. Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. again represents the federal government.

In their briefs, the two lawyers presented sharply contrasting accounts of what the Arizona law meant to achieve. Mr. Clement said the state was making an effort to address “an emergency situation” marked by “rampant illegal entries and cross-border smuggling.” The state law, he said, complemented federal immigration policy and was “a perfectly valid example of cooperative law enforcement.”

Mr. Verrilli countered that Arizona’s approach was in conflict with the federal efforts and would “supplant federal policy with a new and contrary state policy.” The state law, he wrote, “cannot be sustained as an exercise in cooperative federalism when its very design discards cooperation and embraces confrontation.”

The Arizona law, sometimes called S.B. 1070, advances what it calls a policy of “attrition through enforcement,” and it has been something of a trendsetter. It was followed by similar and sometimes harsher laws in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah. All have been subject to court challenges, and lower courts have blocked some of their provisions.

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A look at how Congress has Dealt with Immigration

A look at how Congress has dealt with immigration in the past 25 years:

1986: The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 both tightens controls on illegal immigration and extends amnesty for many illegal immigrants. It requires that employers attest to employees' immigration status and make it illegal to hire or recruit illegal immigrants. It also grants amnesty to some seasonal agricultural workers and to illegal immigrants who entered the United States prior to 1982 and have lived in the country continuously.

1990: The Immigration Act of 1990 created a lottery program that randomly assigned a number of visas, and increased the number of immigrants allowed into the country each year. The law also included exceptions for the English-language portion of the naturalization test.

1996: Under President Bill Clinton, several pieces of legislation are enacted that crack down on various facets of immigration. Specifically, there is a sharp increase in the categories of criminal activity for which immigrants, including permanent residents, can be deported. The laws also impose mandatory detention for certain types of deportation cases, and as a result deportation rates skyrocket.

Sept. 11, 2001: Terrorists attack New York and Washington, D.C., killing nearly 3,000 people. The events put immigration under a microscope because the attackers were foreigners, and change the way many politicians and Americans view immigration. Former Mexican President Vicente Fox goes so far as to say that if it were not for the attacks, Congress would have passed reform legislation that benefited Mexican emigration to America.

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