Author: mopress

Like many, many others, I knew Coretta Scott King, and I considered her
a mentor. In her memory, I will carry on best as I know how. My
favorite anecdote: the day she exclaimed to a working group of staff,
"We are not going to behave like any corporation!" And truly, we
never did. Bless your soul, Mrs. King. We’ll be thinking of you often.–gm

Of 15,662 magistrate court convictions and jail sentences handed to undocumented immigrants in 2004 across the USA, 13,479 were gaveled by judges in South Texas. The unprecedented spike in criminaliztion and incarceration of migrants was documented last August by Syracuse University’s TRAC project, but lay dormant on the information landscape until the Spanish language newspaper RUMBO headlined the report in Tuesday’s edition.

The sizable use of magistrate courts as a strategy of criminalization and incarceration continued during the first six months of 2005 according to Syracuse figures, with South Texas magistrate courts issuing 4,609 of the 5,014 total magistrate court convictions recorded. Jail time for these convictions averaged about three weeks in 2004; two weeks in 2005. The August report is still listed at the Syracuse web site as a "New Finding" but source code for the narrative indicates it was released in late August of 2005.

The number of immigration convictions in state courts across the USA for 2004 nearly equalled the total of magistrate court sentences, bringing the annual total to a little more than 30,000. In state courts however, the average jail term was 23 months.

The overall number of immigration convictions nationwide jumped 58 percent in 2004, primarily because of the magistrate court activity in South Texas.

"When the changes in the overall immigration enforcement effort are examined, it would appear that the Bush Administration has in fact adopted an across-the-board get-tough policy: more referrals, more prosecutions and more convictions," says the Syracuse report. "The overall counts for the entire nation seem clear. Referrals climbed from just under 24,000 in FY 2003 to almost 40,000 in FY 2004 — an increase of 65%. In the same period, prosecutions rose 82% — from almost 21,000 to just under 38,000. And the increase in convictions was similarly up, 18,000 to 31,000."

What Syracuse says about "Texas South":

Texas South, originally established in 1902, currently is the seventh largest in the nation with over 7 million residents, 43 counties and more than 150 assistant U.S. Attorneys.

From December 2001 until June of 2005 the U.S. Attorney in Texas South was Michael T. Shelby. He is now an attorney with Fulbright and Jaworski, a major national law firm based in Houston. In his May 13 resignation statement, Mr. Shelby praised the work of his office in handling cases involving international terrorism, corporate fraud and public corruption, but did not mention criminal cases involving immigration violations.

Given the circumstances, this seems a curious lapse. According to the case-by-case information provided the Executive Office for United States Attorneys by the district he until recently headed, the office in FY 2004 prosecuted a total of slightly more than 21,000 individuals, 18,340 of whom it said were charged with immigration violations. By comparison, his office said, it only prosecuted 90 white collar crime matters, 35 internal security and terrorism matters and 15 official corruption matters.

For the federal prosecutors in Texas South handling immigration matters, the data show that in 2004 — the year when their enforcement effort absolutely exploded — their favorite charge was a section of 8 USC 1325, illegal entry, that previously had been cited much less frequently. Convictions in the district where the section of illegal entry statute law was the lead charge went from 304 in FY 2003 to 13,778 in FY 2004. This jump means that in the most recent complete fiscal year that 8 USC 1325 convictions made up an overwhelming majority of all immigration matters in the district. See Table.

Records from both the Justice Department and the courts show that many if not most of these cases are handled in a cursory way by magistrate judges rather than district court judges. For a flavor of how the process works consider the case brought in the Southern District of Texas against one Eduardo Garcia Nunez.

The complaint was filed against Garcia Nunez by Amador H. Carbajal, a senior agent of the Border Patrol, who said the defendant had been apprehended by an agent who was not named while wading across the Rio Grande River near Brownsville on October 30, 2004. On the next business day, at a brief hearing before Magistrate Judge John William Black, Nunez was formally charged with violating 8 USC 1325(a) (1) for "willfully, knowingly and unlawfully" entering the United States at "a place other than designated by an immigration officer in violation of the law." During the same short session, represented by Sandra Zamora Zayas, a public defender, the defendant was advised of his right to trial, the right to remain silent, the right to bring witnesses on his behalf. Nunez, waiving all his rights, pled guilty and was sentenced to 30 days of confinement.

The official minutes of the whole process required only a few lines of text:

Counsel was appointed to represent the Defendant. The defendant was advised of and waived the following rights: The right to trial; the right to at least thirty (30) days to prepare for trial before the Magistrate Judge; the right to remain silent; the right to bring witnesses and present testimony on his/her behalf; the right to confront and cross examine witnesses. The Defendant was arraigned on the charge(s) contained in the criminal complaint. The Defendant pleaded guilty to the charge(s) in the criminal complaint. The Defendant was sentenced as outlined in the Judgment signed this day. … (Entered 11/01/2004)

Neither Mr. Shelby, the former U.S. Attorney, nor the public affairs officer in the Texas South responded to written inquiries requesting their explanations for the recent abrupt enforcement changes in the district.

The sheer volume of DHS immigration referrals in Texas South (Houston) in FY 2004 (18,092) tower over the totals racked up by the four other districts along the Mexican border in the same year — 4,170 in Texas West (San Antonio) , 3,407 in Arizona (Phoenix), 2,801 in California South (San Diego) and 1,771 in New Mexico (Albuquerque)…..

The length of time it takes the government to process the immigration cases from the moment they are referred by the investigators to the time when they are finally disposed of in any way is much less in magistrate courts than it is in district court. In the magistrate courts the median processing time in 2004 was 0 days — in other words more than half were completed on the same day they were filed in magistrate court. While magistrate processing times have always been fairly short, 2004 set a new speed standard — down from 16 days in 2003. By comparison, cases processed in district court required a median time of 145 days in FY 2004 and 141 days in 2003.

Have all the debates you want about whether abortion is right or wrong. Should it be criminalized? With the new Bush court in place, we may soon be given new reasons to arrest people and throw them into freshly built jails.

In the same day (1) the Supreme Court announces it will consider whether Congress can criminalize ‘partial birth’ abortions and (2) South Dakota criminalizes abortions for the sake of instigating a Supreme Court reversal of Roe v. Wade. Doctors found guilty of breaking the law will be subject to fines of $5,000 or five years in prison.

I don’t know anyone who is strictly speaking pro-abortion. But to criminalize abortion is to attack a woman’s right to safely decide whether she will carry a pregnancy to term.

Sex ed, birth control, subsidized child care: these are the policies that will reduce abortions with freedom and dignity. Instead, we are being served an agenda hostile to sex ed, birth control, and child services (including cuts in children’s health insurance).  Add to this mix the criminalization of abortion, and you get a full scale hostility to what we used to call human progress.–gm

Kronberg is predicting that Republicans will compete to be "most restrictive" on the issue. State politicians, says the article, are following the lead of the US House of Representatives in calling for more fences and criminal penalties.

One fascinating fact: 4,207 babies out of 5,775 born at one Fort Worth hospital were delivered of undocumented mothers. After citing this fact, the newpaper next quotes a Republican politician about "the crisis". But what constitutes these babies as a crisis? Does Texas have a zero-growth population policy?

More sobering is reference to a report by the Center for Immigration Study in which author Steven A. Camarota argues that the meager growth in job opportunities between 2000 and 2004 went largely to immigrants. Strangely enough, Camarota reports this was least true in Florida (where Camarota gives 15 percent of new jobs to immigrants) and California (where he gives 49 percent). In Texas, Camarota’s figures show that 86 percent of job increases went to immigrant workers.

At first glance, it is not clear why Camarota’s working totals are somewhat different from numbers reported at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For "number working in 2004" Camarota reports 19.7 million "immigrants" and 115.3 million "native born" whereas the BLS reports employment of 20.3 "foreign born" workers and 119 million "native born". At the BLS table, unemployment for both sets of workers is tied at 5.5 percent.

Also not mentioned in the newspaper article is a Bureau of Labor Statistics report that foreign-born workers earn 75 percent of what native born workers earn and their increase in earnings is lower than native workers.

If we compare BLS earnings to Camarota’s totals, we might think that job growth between 2000-2004 offered earnings at substantially lower rates than what native-born workers were used to, with diminishing promise of advancement. Indeed, this offers a likely reason why immigrants will move to the front of the line when it comes to Republican scapegoating strategies. As voters come to the polls with the feeling that things are not getting better in the employment sector, Republican candidates can blame the very people who hold the worst jobs. This strategy will attempt to keep everyone’s eyes off the deeper meanings of employment stagnation. Meanwhile, with the scapegoats in focus, Halliburton stands ready to build the "concentration camps".

More than half of the foreign born working-age population in the USA are non-Hispanic says the BLS. Of 31.3 million foreign born people over age 16 in the USA, 14.6 million are Hispanic.

We’ve clipped the full Star-Telegram article:

By JOHN KIRSCHSTAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

Illegal immigration is emerging as a growing issue in the 2006 state elections, with several polls indicating rising public concern.

With an estimated 9.7 million immigrants living in the country illegally, including 1.3 million in Texas, constituents worry about competition for jobs and the effect on social services, according to lawmakers and political analysts. And some candidates, most of them Republicans, aim to take advantage of voter discontent.

State Rep. Vicki Truitt, R-Keller, said a recent poll she conducted indicated that immigration was the No. 1 concern of residents in her district, which includes most of Northeast Tarrant County. State Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, said immigration is also a top issue at town-hall meetings she holds in her district, which includes parts of Denton and Tarrant counties.

Across the region, far from Texas’ 1,200-mile border with Mexico, other candidates in the March 7 primaries say they see the same concern.

"It’s going to be the single biggest issue, along with property taxes, in state House and Senate races. And pretty much every candidate, both Democrats and Republicans, ignore it at their peril," said Harvey Kronberg, editor of an online political newsletter in Austin.

Border concerns

Kari Harris, a neighborhood watch leader in north Fort Worth, echoes the concerns felt by many Texans. She said she is concerned about jobs, and she worries that the state’s porous border with Mexico makes it easy for terrorists to enter the United States.

A recent Scripps Howard Texas Poll indicated that 79 percent of Texans believe the government is not doing enough to stop illegal immigration. Eighty-six percent also believe that U.S. businesses add to the problem by hiring illegal immigrants, the poll indicated.

That’s consistent with a national Rasmussen poll in November, in which 75 percent of respondents said they believe immigration will be somewhat or very important in influencing their vote on Election Day.

"I do think it should be a priority," Harris said. Truitt said state officials must demand more action by federal officials who oversee the U.S.-Mexican border. Federal officials should consider sanctions against Mexico if the tide of immigrants does not stop, she said.

The three candidates for the GOP nomination in Tarrant County’s state House District 99, incumbent Charlie Geren and challengers Chris Hatley and Colby Brown, said they applaud Republican Gov. Rick Perry’s recent decision to spend nearly $10 million to beef up border security. Perry, who is seeking re-election, said the money will pay for more border personnel, training and equipment.

But Geren said more needs to be done. He said he would like a state House committee to convene and hear testimony from border law enforcement officials about how the state could stop illegal immigration.

In Tarrant County’s House District 91, GOP primary candidate Kelly Hancock said the state should work with citizen volunteers to increase border patrols but was undecided whether the Minutemen group should serve as a model.

The state candidates are taking a page from their congressional counterparts who passed legislation in December calling for building more fences on the U.S.-Mexico border to keep out illegal immigrants.

U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Flower Mound, who supports the bill, described the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States as an "invasion" that is burdening social-services programs, including local hospitals.

Babies born to women living in the country illegally made up nearly three-fourths of the births at Fort Worth’s public John Peter Smith Hospital this year, the Star-Telegram reported. Of the 5,775 deliveries during fiscal year 2005, which ended in September, 4,207 were the children of women without immigration documents.

"The crisis is so severe that it’s imperative that we simply secure the border," Burgess said.

Illegal immigration has also fueled concern about jobs for native-born Americans. The Center for Immigration Studies reports that immigrants account for almost 44 percent of workers in farming, fishing and forestry and almost 26 percent of construction and extraction workers. The unemployment rate for native-born Americans in those industr

ies is 12.6 percent and 11.3 percent, respectively – about twice the national unemployment rate.

Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, said that not every job taken by an immigrant costs a native-born American a job.

"But it would also be a mistake to assume that dramatically increasing the number of workers in these occupations as a result of immigration policy has no impact on the employment prospects of natives," Camarota wrote in his December 2005 report.

However, Michele Waslin, director of immigration policy research for the National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil-rights advocacy group, said a "disconnect" exists between the nature of the U.S. work force and growing sectors of the economy. Workers are getting older and more educated, but most new jobs are in low-wage service industries that require little advanced education, she said. More immigrants will be needed to avoid labor shortages.

"You don’t see a lot of people raising their kids to be farm workers and work in meatpacking plants," Waslin said.

‘Immigrant bashing’

The Texas Democratic Party’s 2004 platform supports stronger border security. But it also opposes "immigrant bashing." Amber Moon, a spokeswoman for the state Democratic Party, said Republicans were exploiting immigration for political gain.

"Instead of proposing real solutions, it’s a race to the right, as they compete to see who can come up with the most inflammatory language," Moon said in a written statement. Truitt rejected that argument, saying she is responding to her constituents’ concerns.

The political risk among Hispanic-Americans may be minimal. They rank education, healthcare, the economy and jobs as bigger issues than immigration, according to a survey released in August 2005 by the Pew Hispanic Center. Although a majority of Hispanics surveyed nationally express positive attitudes toward immigrants, relatively few favor increasing the flow of legal immigration from Latin America.

"These findings clearly indicate that in a policy debate Latinos will not automatically or unanimously adopt what might be commonly perceived as the pro-immigrant position," the survey report states.

Locally, state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, whose district is more than 60 percent Hispanic, said his constituents rarely ask him about immigration issues. Burnam said Republicans could still suffer some backlash from Hispanic voters if they back punitive measures.

That happened in California after Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican, backed Proposition 187. The measure, approved by California voters in 1994, would have barred illegal immigrants from attending public schools and receiving social services from the state. Court challenges have prevented the proposition from taking effect. But Hispanic support for Republican candidates fell, helping Democrats gain power in California. And some Texas Hispanics are paying attention to the rhetoric.

"If candidates talk about shipping everybody back to Mexico, we’re certainly going to be aware of that and make sure the community knows," said Alberto Govea of Fort Worth, a former district director for the League of United Latin American Citizens.

But for now, many candidates see little downside in backing get-tough policies as they seek ways to gain advantage over rivals, Kronberg said.

"There will be a race among Republicans to be the most restrictive on immigration," Kronberg said.

This report includes material from Star-Telegram archives.

John Kirsch, (817) 685-3805
jkirsch@star-telegram.com

"Posted on Feb. 21, 2006"