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OMAHA, Nebraska — A 13-year-old illegal immigrant who fled to his native Mexico amid a sex scandal with his schoolteacher could be eligible to return to the United States under a new visa the U.S. government started granting the week before he disappeared.

OMAHA, Neb. -- A 13-year-old illegal immigrant who fled to his native Mexico amid a sex scandal with his schoolteacher could be eligible to return to the United States under a new visa the government started granting the week before he disappeared. The visa helps illegal immigrants who are victims of sex crimes. If the boy, who spent most of his life in Lexington, Neb., qualifies, he could stay legally in the United States for four years and eventually apply for permanent residency. It also would extend temporary residency to his parents and his unmarried siblings under 18, if they...

OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) -- A 13-year-old illegal immigrant who fled to his native Mexico amid a sex scandal with his schoolteacher could be eligible to return to the United States under a new visa the government started granting the week before he disappeared. The visa helps illegal immigrants who are victims of sex crimes. If the boy, who spent most of his life in Lexington, Nebraska, qualifies, he could stay legally in the United States for four years and eventually apply for permanent residency. It also would extend temporary residency to his parents and his unmarried siblings under 18, if...

  The debate over immigration amnesty could soon return to the Senate floor. According to press reports, Senator Diane Feinstein (D–CA) plans to attach the proposed Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits, and Security Act of 2007 (AgJOBS) to the Farm Bill Extension Act of 2007. The AgJOBS bill is all too similar to the comprehensive immigration reform bill that was rejected in Congress last spring, which would have granted amnesty to millions of people who are unlawfully present in the United States. Amnesty would worsen the immigration problem in America, encouraging more illegal border crossings and undermining the credibility of American...

This issue has real implications for the country. It captures all the American people's anger and frustration not only with immigration, but with the economy," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and an architect of the Democratic congressional victories of 2006. "It's self-evident. This is a big problem." Republicans, sensing a major vulnerability, have been hammering Democrats, forcing Congress to face the question of illegal immigration on every bill they can find, from agriculture spending and housing assistance to the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

(October 23) Last night, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) filed to invoke cloture on S. 2205, Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin’s (D-Ill.) new stand-alone DREAM Act amnesty bill. The cloture vote, for which 60 YES votes are necessary to prevent a filibuster on the measure, is set for Wednesday, October 24. Reid is attempting to bring this nightmarish amnesty bill to the floor under Senate Rule XIV without it ever having been debated in committee. Click here for more background on the DREAM Act. It is imperative that NumbersUSA members call their senators today to ask them to vote...

Illegal immigrants who are victims of violent crimes in the U.S. can now apply for special visas, seven years after Congress offered protection against deportation to those who cooperate with law enforcement agencies. The U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services is finally starting to process the visas this week, agency spokeswoman Marilu Cabrera said. The long delay occurred largely because the agency drafted rules for issuing the so-called "U" visas before it became a division of the then-new Department of Homeland Security, she said. Consequently, the rules had to be reviewed again. Then the Department of Justice had concerns, she said....

The rub: Boxer’s amendment, SA 3246, is attached to the current spending bill up on the Senate floor. So, why is Boxer so interested in blocking aggressive immigration enforcement leading up to the 2010 Census? Hint, hint: U.S. states with large numbers of undocumented immigrants could receive additional seats in Congress after the 2010 census is conducted. A University of Connecticut study concluded Arizona, Texas and Florida could all see their House delegations increase due to rising populations that include sizable numbers of illegal immigrants. Although they can’t vote, such aliens are included in the census. The San Jose (Calif.)...

A bill expected to come before the Senate next month would give illegal immigrants who came into the country as children a chance to become legal residents by serving two years in the military. The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, known as the Dream Act, was conceived six years ago as a way of giving young illegal immigrants a vehicle to legalize their status by attending college. The bill, which is on hold in Congress, faces stiff opposition and an uphill road. It has gone through several changes and had been carried by different sponsors in the...

Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, who was named general chairman of the Republican Party only nine months ago, has advised associates that he will leave the post as soon as somebody clinches the party's presidential nomination. That probably will come after the Feb. 5 primary elections next year. When Martinez took the party post Jan. 19, it was expected he would stay on through the 2008 elections as the GOP's principal national spokesman. Many Republicans now grumble that Martinez has been ineffective in that role, partly because he has been drowned out by the many presidential hopefuls. Kentucky lawyer Mike...

Senate Democrats yesterday retreated from forcing a debate about giving illegal-alien students a path to citizenship in the middle of the defense bill, although Majority Leader Harry Reid promised to find time before the end of the year for a vote on the proposal. "...I"m going to do my utmost to do it by November 16," Mr. Reid, Nevada Democrat, said last night. The proposal faced strong opposition from Republicans who objected to mixing immigration with the defense bill and who vowed to filibuster...if Democrats insisted on bringing it up now. Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, told The Washington Times...

There's a move in Washington to give high-achieving children of illegal immigrants - including an estimated 70,000 in New York City - a path toward getting their green cards. Let's make it happen. A group of Democratic senators is considering attaching to the military authorization bill now under discussion an amendment called the DREAM Act, where DREAM stands for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors. It would apply to young people who were brought to the U.S. by their parents before they were 16, have been here for at least five years, have clean records and have graduated high...

N.Y. Drops Citizenship Proof For Driver's Licenses Move Should Cut Down Unlicensed Illegal Immigrants Andrew Kirtzman Reporting (CBS) NEW YORK They were celebrating outside the governor's office Friday as Eliot Spitzer handed a landmark victory to a half-million illegal immigrants. The state will no longer require proof of citizenship for driver's licenses. "We're changing our policy with respect to getting more people out of shadows and into the system so people don't hide they're here," Spitzer said. He said the current restrictions on non-citizens have filled the roads with unlicensed drivers five times more likely to get into accidents. But...

As California children move through elementary, middle and high school, the world is open to them. If they excel, they're told, they can go to college or to jobs. But for some students, there's a hitch. Though they've grown up here and know no other country, they realize at some point that they're different. They don't have a Social Security number. That means they can't get financial aid for college or ever get a legal job. Why? They were brought here, through no choice of their own, by parents who arrived as unauthorized immigrants. Unfortunately, too many of these kids...

After failing to secure amnesty for over 12 million individuals unlawfully in the United States with a deeply flawed comprehensive immigration reform, some members of the Senate are now reintroducing amnesty piecemeal, spread across several bills. One is the "Ag JOBS Act of 2007" (S.340) which could be attached to the upcoming farm bill. The bill contains the same language as this summer's failed immigration legislation, including provisions granting amnesty to undocumented workers. The Ag JOBS Act would create a pilot program that provides work visas, called "blue cards," to guest workers who wish to work in the agricultural sector,...

Measure Would Offer Legal Status to Illegal Immigrant StudentsBy JULIA PRESTON Published: September 20, 2007 WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 — A bill to offer legal status to illegal immigrant students who have graduated from high school was revived this week in the Senate, the first effort to advance a piece of broad immigration legislation that failed in June. Senator Richard J. Durbin, the Illinois Democrat who is an author of the student measure, said Wednesday that he would try this week to offer it as an amendment to the military authorization bill under debate in the Senate. The measure would provide...

Amnesty AgainBack to the Senate. By Kate O'Beirne Determined amnesty advocates who lost the fight for “comprehensive” immigration reform three months ago are now attempting to grant illegal aliens “amnesty on the installment plan.” Illegal aliens who entered the U.S. before age 16 and who have lived here illegally for five consecutive years will be the first to qualify under a bill the Senate is expected to vote on this week. Senator Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) will offer his Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act as an amendment to the defense-authorization bill. Later in the month, senators...

Tell your senator: Vote NO on Senate Amendment 2237Exactly one week ago, I warned about the return of the DREAM Act, which would confer special tuition benefits on illegal alien students despite federal prohibitions on such special treatment. It was September 11 and no one was paying attention, I guess. Well, now bipartisan open-borders lawmakers in Congress are poised to slip the DREAM Act (Senate Amendment 2237 text here) in during consideration of the Department of Defense authorization bill (H.R. 1585) this week. Numbers USA has the lowdown. The sponsor is Dick Durbin. Open-borders Orrin Hatch has sponsored previous DREAM...

Friends, this is not a do-it-if-you-have-time request. This is the most urgent kind of request for your action Friday — and again Monday.... In the middle of actions on Defense next week, the open-borders Senators are going to attempt to attach three proposals that would give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens and dramatically increase the importation of additional foreign labor for American jobs. Many of the Senators who helped us kill the Comprehensive Amnesty in June are indicating they are in favor of these preferences for illegal foreign workers and new foreign workers over American workers. We must keep...

Sharing only a common interest in immigration reform, an improbable collection of advocacy, business and political groups met for six hours Thursday in a first step toward hashing out a new alliance. [. . .] "The next step is for us to begin to craft a message. And within two years, if everything works out, the American pubic will be hearing from us in the media," said Sosa . . . [. . .] Among the diverse parties at the table were representatives of the Texas Farm Bureau, the Texas Vegetable Association, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the...

Plan to Allow Some Mexican Trucks Full U.S. Highway Access Nears Approval Friday , August 17, 2007 AP WASHINGTON — Some Mexican trucks will be allowed to carry cargo anywhere in the United States as soon as a federal inspector general certifies safety and inspection plans, the Bush administration announced Friday. The latest step toward implementing a controversial provision of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement drew instant condemnation from labor and driver-owner groups that fear the program will erode highway safety and eliminate U.S. jobs. The decision was announced by a Transportation Department notice in the Federal Register,...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A crackdown on illegal immigration will have to go forward without help from Congress, the Bush administration said Friday, asserting that an executive-branch-only approach is better than doing nothing. Two Cabinet secretaries -- Homeland Security's Michael Chertoff and Commerce's Carlos Gutierrez -- said they hoped to have new tools to combat illegal immigration before moving further to cope with the problem. But Congress could not agree on comprehensive legislation. The officials said they'll rely instead on tools already in their arsenal, some of which are already under way, including a plan to administratively sanction employers who hire...

(AP) WASHINGTON -- A crackdown on illegal immigration will have to go forward without help from Congress, the Bush administration said Friday, asserting that an executive-branch-only approach is better than doing nothing. Two Cabinet secretaries — Homeland Security's Michael Chertoff and Commerce's Carlos Gutierrez — said they hoped to have new tools to combat illegal immigration before moving further to cope with the problem. But Congress could not agree on comprehensive legislation to attack the problem. The officials said they'll rely instead on tools already in their arsenal, some of which are already under way, including a plan to administratively...

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Friday the administration has to be “realistic about what this Congress is going to be willing to do” with regard to comprehensive immigration reform, all but pronouncing chances for a bill dead. “I think that the leaders in Congress have decided that this is not something that they’re going to take up,” Perino told reporters. “And so I think the president, while he would like to have seen comprehensive immigration reform, does not believe that the Congress will be able to get that done.” The administration had announced earlier that it would use new...

New Bush immigration initiative in works WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration is planning new efforts to curb illegal immigration by raising fines and speeding up deployment of border agents after failing to push through legislation earlier this year. The proposals would raise civil fines on employers who hire undocumented immigrants by as much as 25 percent and overhaul temporary worker programs, according to a summary of the plans obtained by The Associated Press. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez planned to announce the changes in a news conference Friday. A DHS spokesman on Thursday declined...

When the American people rose up in wrath a couple of months ago and stopped dead in its tracks a bipartisan effort to ram a phony immigration "reform" bill through the Senate, I warned that our triumph was inspiring but very probably short-lived. It is extremely difficult to focus the attention of the people at large on any policy, however bad, that is wanted eagerly by an influential minority. The policy in question -- namely, to legalize the status of the 10 or 15 million illegal aliens in this country, keep them working here for peanuts, put them on track...

Plenty of plums but not nearly enough workers to pick them has farmers anxious about harvest time in central California's San Joaquin Valley. Worries are similar for apple orchard operators in Washington. It is 100-plus degrees and climbing, the sun is blasting through the orchard's thick leafy blanket, and the pickers, their shirts soaked with sweat, want to call it a day. "Vamanos," they shout to their crew boss, who wants to keep them working beyond their 8 hours. He finally lets them go, but reluctantly. There are lots more plums to pick because there are fewer pickers here in...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 — When a broad immigration bill failed in the Senate in June after a vitriolic national debate, many legislators said the issue was dead, perhaps until President Bush left office. But already some of the less contentious pieces of the bill are returning to life. Last week, the Senate approved $3 billion for border security as part of a Homeland Security Department spending bill. Democrats and Republicans have also begun laying ground for a bill to create a new temporary immigrant worker program for agriculture. Another bill, also with bipartisan support, would give a path to citizenship...

When teenage brothers Juan and Alex Gomez were awakened at dawn on July 25 and arrested by U.S. immigration officials, they simply became two more among the thousands of kids who get snared in deportation dragnets along with their parents. But this week Juan's Internet-savvy high school friends in Miami have turned his case into a cause celebre in Washington — and even if the brothers eventually do get deported, the publicity they've garnered may well boost the passage of a federal immigration bill that would keep other young people like them from suffering the same fate in the future.

Colorado higher education director David Skaggs says he will try to remove legal barriers to in-state tuition for Colorado students whose parents are in the country illegally. Nonresident tuition at some schools can be four times the resident rate. At the University of Colorado, for example, 2006-07 tuition and fees for most resident undergraduates was about $5,600, while the tab for nonresidents ran $23,500. The issue has become a hot political topic nationally, and state law is vague on the issue of children who are born in the U.S to illegal immigrant parents. Metropolitan State College of Denver charges nonresident...

WASHINGTON -- Immigration officials have granted Miami Killian Senior High School graduate Juan Gomez and his family a 45-day reprieve from being deported to their native Colombia. They were released late Wednesday afternoon. Barbara Gonzalez, a spokeswoman with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, said the reprieve would give Congress enough time to decide whether they will take up legislation that would keep Gomez and his brother, Alex, in the U.S. News of the temporary stay came as a half-dozen of his classmates continued to work the halls of Congress lobbying the teen's case.

The Senate is now debating a bill to take low-income children (including illegals and children of illegals) off of state-run health insurance programs in order to stick them on some new federal health insurance program. Trent Lott just said the proposal before them is already $60 billion over "the baseline"..."and that's before it's even gone to committee." Sorry I couldn't fit a BOHICA alert in the title, but still thought some of you might want to know this is going on right now, live.

Immigrants, Supporters Pour In For ID by Melissa Bailey July 24, 2007 3:44 PM When City Hall opened its doors for the first members of the public to sign up for the city’s controversial new ID card, so many people showed up that the line — including many undocumented immigrants— still snaked down the hallway at closing time. By day’s end, officials reported that 250 people signed up for their Elm City Residency Card. The office stayed open an hour later to accommodate some of the extra crowd; others were told to return on Wednesday. Visitors signing up for the...

Specter has new immigration package By Elana Schor July 27, 2007 The Senate Judiciary Committee’s senior Republican said on Thursday that he is on the verge of offering a new immigration reform package, making significant changes that could win over recalcitrant members from both parties. Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), who accompanied President Bush Thursday on his visit to Pennsylvania, said he has spoken to Bush and the two Cabinet members who have led immigration talks about his new bill. Specter also told reporters that he has spoken to most senators involved in this spring’s failed “grand bargain,” outlining his plan...

Senate Democrats yesterday defeated a Republican effort The piecemeal approach is favored by some members of both parties, including several of those who fought hardest for the earlier bill, including Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican. The two top Democratic 2008 presidential candidates, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, told the National Council of La Raza earlier that they would be "open" to voting for piecemeal legislation.... Democrats tried to get an agreement yesterday to pass an agriculture worker bill that would create a program for future agriculture workers and offer a path to citizenship...

Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, an architect of the Democratic campaign that regained control of the House last year, says his party will not attempt comprehensive immigration reform until at least the second term of a prospective Democratic president. The congressman's statement was reported by a Hispanic activist and confirmed by Mr. Emanuel. "Congressman Rahm Emanuel said to me two weeks ago, there is no way this legislation is happening in the Democratic House, in the Democratic Senate, in the Democratic presidency, in the first term," Juan Salgado, board chairman of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, told...

Congress is grappling with a hot button issue - immigration legislation that would make a college education tens of thousands of dollars cheaper for illegal students than U.S. citizens. The controversy stems from the senate bill S.B. 2611, the so-called "DREAM Act," which would allow states to offer in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. Currently, that practice is banned under the federal Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. It prohibits public colleges from favoring undocumented students by offering them in-state tuition rates, unless those same rates are extended to all U.S. citizens regardless of their state of residency....

I just heard about this from the Kevin James radio show. they are sneaking this into the Agriculture bill. as predicted, they will cut up the shamnesty bill and insert pieces of it into other bills.

Two business groups filed a lawsuit Friday challenging a new Arizona law that makes it a crime to knowingly hire illegal immigrants. The Arizona Contractors Association and Arizona Employers For Immigration Reform asked a federal judge for a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the law, which was signed into law 11 days ago and takes effect Jan. 1. The business groups argued the law is an unconstitutional attempt by the state to regulate immigration and that cracking down on such hirings is a responsibility of the federal government. Julie Pace, a lawyer representing the groups, said the law would have...

Less than two weeks after a controversial immigration measure died in the Senate, a conservative group Monday announced a nationwide broadcast campaign "defending the Bush administration's approach to comprehensive immigration reform" - and even supporting the notion of amnesty for illegal aliens. The new campaign drew criticism from other conservative organizations, including some who were instrumental in the June 28 defeat of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act. One activist told Cybercast News Service that the group behind the new effort is "terribly misguided." "The Senate's failure to pass S. 1639 most obviously affects border security," said Richard Nadler, president of...

NATICK, MA - The immigration bill is out of the headlines, but Natick resident Bettie Magee wants to make sure the subject stays alive. "I don't know what I am going to do next, but I know I won't give up," Magee wrote in a recent e-mail. "We may have lost two battles, but we will win the war - eventually. We can't have chaos forever." Magee is a senior citizen who keeps busy writing representatives and journalists while encouraging everyone to get involved in the political process. She watched all of the debates of the immigration bill on CSPAN2....

After the utter collapse in the Senate last week of a comprehensive immigration bill, Washington insiders are blaming everyone and everything. Supposedly, talk-radio hysteria killed the bill. Or was it the purported racism of yokels? Or did most of us fail to appreciate the hidden benefits of open borders so clear only to those in Washington? In reality, the 1,000-page bill failed because millions of Americans opposed it, believing, among other things, that it provided virtual amnesty to illegal aliens. Through the "Z visa," the bill offered illegal aliens legal worker status - along with a ticket to eventual citizenship...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Even as most of the nation wolfed down burgers at backyard barbecues, about 35 students around the state refused to eat in hopes of bringing back a federal proposal that would help illegal immigrants go to college and become legal. In San Jose, five students spent Wednesday -- their third day without food -- amid banners and dozens of supporters in front of U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren's office to ask their representative to bring back the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act. The DREAM Act, as it is known, had been folded into the immigration...

Washington -- President Bush, U.S. congressional leaders and immigration advocacy groups are lamenting the defeat of legislation that would have made the biggest changes in U.S. immigration law in more than 20 years. The compromise bill was pulled from consideration June 28 following a 53-46 vote in the U.S. Senate against cutting off debate -- stopping debate would have allowed the measure to move to a vote on passage in that chamber. Both the bill’s supporters and opponents in Congress said the legislation was “dead” for the remainder of the Bush administration, which ends in January 2009. The bill aimed...

LAKE BUENA VISTA -- The Chairman of the Republican Party on Friday lambasted Democrats and Republicans who helped kill an immigration bill in the Senate and challenged them to come up with a solution beyond ``just build a fence along the border.'' ``The voices of negativity now have a responsibility to come up with an answer,'' RNC Chairman and U.S. Senator Mel Martinez, R-Fla. said. ``How will you fix the situation to make peoples' lives better? How will you continue to grow the economy? How will we bring people out of the shadows for our national security and for the...

As Mark Twain might say, reports of the Immigration Bill's death have been highly exaggerated. The bill might have been killed for the second time, but today's Wall Street Journal reports that at least three key parts of it may still have life (one of which, the Dream Act, I've previously written about). Yes, it's like Freddy Kruger. The bill never completely dies. These, too, must be killed: It ain't over 'til it's over.

WASHINGTON — Even as the Senate dealt a likely fatal blow to President Bush's push to overhaul the nation's immigration laws, some Democrats and Republicans began talking about trying to pass narrower, less ambitious pieces. Empowered by Thursday's 46-53 vote that effectively killed a bipartisan compromise bill dismissed by many conservatives as amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants, many Republicans now are reverting to their key priority: increased enforcement at the Southwest border and in the U.S. interior. And Democrats, for their part, are considering offering the DREAM Act, which would grant citizenship to illegal immigrant students. And they are...

Kolbe explains bill, but doesn't find support at SV town hall Congressman Jim Kolbe addresses veterans healthcare, Medicare, prescription drugs and his proposed guest-worker program at Wednesday's town hall meeting. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review) John Harrington of Elgin voices concern in regards to Congressman Jim Kolbe's proposed guest-worker program during Wednesday's town hall meeting in the council chambers of the Sierra Vista City Hall. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review) BY BILL HESS14 August 2003 Sierra Vista Herald/ReviewSIERRA VISTA, ARIZONA -- U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe said he needs support for a new guest-worker program to end the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States,...

<p>Congressman Jim Kolbe talks with Lori Dicaire, 34, at the Town Hall meeting at the Radisson Hotel concerning the guest-worker program. State Rep. Manny Alvarez (middle) listens.</p> <p>People from all sides of the immigration debate - and some with no ties to it at all - piled into an Arizona congressman's first public presentation of a proposal to legalize immigrants working in the United States and facilitate a legal means for more workers to come.</p>

Thursday, July 31, 2003 Kolbe visa plan a hard sell Even his fellow Republicans are leery at forumBy C.J. Karamargin ARIZONA DAILY STAR Winning over fellow Republicans will be Rep. Jim Kolbe's first task. The Tucson lawmaker held the first of a series of forums Wednesday on a proposal to grant temporary visas to foreign workers. Some of the deepest skepticism came from members of Kolbe's own party. Like Jim Coniglio and Tracie Bunker-Metz. The two Tucson Republicans listened as Kolbe explained his plan to a "town hall" co-sponsored by the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. Neither likes it. And...