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Here’s the April 2 editorial of The New York Times:

Immigration is good for the financial health of Social Security because more workers mean more tax revenue. Illegal immigration, it turns out, is even better than legal immigration. In the fine print of the 2008 annual report on Social Security, released last week, the program’s trustees noted that growing numbers of “other than legal” workers are expected to bolster the program over the coming decades.

One reason is that many undocumented workers pay taxes during their work lives but don’t collect benefits later. Another is that undocumented workers are entering the United States at ever younger ages and are expected to have more children while they’re here than if they arrived at later ages. The result is a substantial increase in the number of working-age people paying taxes, but a relatively smaller increase in the number of retirees who receive benefits — a double boon to Social Security’s bottom line.

We’re not talking chump change. According to the report, the taxes paid by other-than-legal immigrants will close 15 percent of the system’s projected long-term deficit. That’s equivalent to raising the payroll tax by 0.3 percentage points, starting today.

That is not to suggest that illegal immigration is a legitimate fix to Social Security’s problems. It is another reminder, however, of the nation’s complex relationship with undocumented workers. Would the people who want to deport all undocumented workers be willing to make up the difference and pay the taxes that the undocumented are currently paying?

It is also a reminder of Social Security’s dynamism. As society and the economy evolve, so does the system, responding not only to changes in immigration and fertility, but also in wage growth and other variables. As such, it is adaptable to the 21st century, if only the political will can be found to champion the necessary changes. Those include modest tax increases and moderate benefit cuts that could be phased in over decades — provided the country gets started soon.

By the Editorial Staff
www.ImmigrationNewsman.com

Sometimes it’s interesting how immigration attorneys struggle to get a green card for their clients. Remember Dorismar? She’s the Argentine bombshell also known as Dora Noemi Kerchen who starred in “Latinas Gone Crazy.” In 2006, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security abruptly deported her and her husband to Argentina. Her lawyer, Michael Feldenkrais, fought to get her classified as an “alien of extraordinary ability.”

What exactly was her “extraordinary ability?”

Here’s an interesting video from MSNBC:

Rhode Island Gov. Donald Carcieri says the federal government has dropped the ball on immigration reform. He recently signed an executive order targeting illegal immigrants in his state.

“This is not about taking a hard line against immigrants,” said Carcieri. “It’s about making sure that those who come here can realize their goals of economic security and a better quality of life.” Harking to his own immigrant roots, the governor said he supports people who follow legal channels to realize the American Dream.

“The motive is to get control of an issue that has to be dealt with,” he said. “If you’re here illegally, you shouldn’t be here.”

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, an estimated 40,000 illegal immigrants reside in Rhode Island.

“Unfortunately, over the last few decades, the federal government has consistently ignored the complex issue of illegal immigration,” said Carcieri. “As a result, the flow of illegal immigrants has become epidemic, with the consequential costs being borne by state taxpayers.”

Public anger against illegal immigrants is already entrenched in parts of Northern Virginia and is also seeping into Maryland as legislators face unprecedented demands to launch a crackdown in the state that has been more tolerant of them. At least 20 bills focused on illegal immigration have been introduced in the state legislature this session.

A recent Washington Post poll found that about half of Maryland residents considered illegal immigration a problem. Eighty-five percent of those surveyed said they wanted local government to actively deal with the issue.

Many undocumented immigrants are worried about local laws allowing police to question them about their legal status.

“Now I am too scared to go back and return my license plates,” said Raul Romano, 40, who said he and his family had recently fled Prince William County, where they lived for eight years. “”I left my job, my apartment, my daughters left their school. Now, here we are in Maryland, starting over again.”

All throughout his authoritarian rule, Fidel Castro enjoyed delivering speeches that lasted four hours and more. In June 2006, the Cuban leader was quoted by a Dominican newspaper as saying that immigrants are the equivalent of “modern slaves,” without whom industrialized nations could not keep going. He expressed sorrow for Mexico that after being “ransacked” by the United States, now is forced to sustain itself with the remittances.

“Every minute it becomes more difficult for them (the United States) to control the slaves (the immigrants),” Castro said.

There’s a politically powerful community of Cuban immigrants in Miami. Castro himself has derided them, calling the immigrants gusanos (worms), escoria (trash) and more recently “the Miami Mafia.” There’s reason for Castro to get annoyed because under his rule, more than a million Cubans fled to the United States, settling mostly in Miami.

But now that Castro has stepped aside as Cuba’s president, should the United States ease restrictions on Cuban-Americans who seek to visit or send money to relatives on the island? Would this signal a better future for Cuban immigrants?

A Southern California tree nursery company recently filed a lawsuit, saying that California discriminates against workers who do not speak English because the state doesn’t offer tests in other languages. GroWest officials claimed that their only crane operator, who has been their employee for 24 years, failed the mandatory test to get a Certification for Crane Operators because it was in English. Company officials said that had the test been given in Spanish, their employee would have passed it.

“The issue doesn’t have anything to do with discriminating against people who do not speak English, but everything to do with safety,” said Graham Brent, executive director of the state commission that produces the test.

There are two points of view on this issue. A group calling itself “ProEnglish in the Workplace” pushes for the English requirement, as expected, but the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) says that English-workplace policies are discriminatory, and thus illegal under the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

What do you think? Share us your opinion.

By the Editorial Staff
www.ImmigrationNewsman.com

We need to present both sides. First The New York Times’ March 19 editorial titled “Citizenship, Thwarted” and excerpts from the reply of USCIS Director Emilio Gonzales:

Here’s the NYT editorial:

The director of the federal Citizenship and Immigration Services agency, Emilio Gonzalez, is stepping down next month, leaving behind a gummed-up bureaucracy and perhaps a million empty promises. That’s about how many people are stuck waiting to have their citizenship petitions approved by the agency, which was swamped last summer by a flood of applications that it failed to predict or prepare for.

The disaster erupted when the agency jacked up the price of its services by an average of 66 percent, a nasty bite for the immigrant families whose fees provide nearly all the money that keeps the rickety system going. Mr. Gonzalez justified the increases by promising that they would lead to better service and shorter waits.

The agency expected that the new fees would spur only a negligible increase in citizenship applications. But applications spiked 350 percent last June and July over the same period in 2006. More than three million applications of all types flooded in last summer. The five-month wait for citizenship that Mr. Gonzalez promised is now 14 months to 16 months. Many immigrants who had dearly hoped to vote in 2008 will have to sit the election out.

Those who know the citizenship system say it’s dumbfounding that Mr. Gonzalez did not foresee the surge, not only because the fees went way up, but also because 2008 is a presidential election year — always a time when would-be citizens hurry to get their papers in. …

The processing delays mock America’s respect for those who “play by the rules” and “get in line.” For millions who want to work but have no one to sponsor them and no specialized skills, there is no line to get into: no realistic hope of a visa and no functioning guest-worker program. As for the others who have gone the route of patience and paperwork, they are the ones whose expectations Mr. Gonzalez raised and crushed. …

Mr. Gonzalez will soon have time to reflect on a dismal monument to his tenure: the dreams of thousands of rule-following, line-waiting, would-be Americans, signed, sealed in envelopes with large checks and money orders, delivered by truckloads, waiting in shrink-wrapped pallets, unopened.

And here’s the Gonzales piece, aptly titled “Fit to Print?”:

The Times got it wrong again. I feel compelled to set the record straight for 17,000 employees who work late nights and weekends to welcome lawful immigrants into our society. I will not stand idly by as the New York Times insults the dedicated and professional services they provide.

If the Times seeks to add legitimacy to its editorial, they should first get the facts straight. USCIS received more than 600,000 applications for citizenship in June and July of 2007 – a 350 percent increase from the same time the year before. While this surge was substantial, it isn’t close to the “perhaps a million empty promises” the Times suggests.

Further, all applications received during that time have been opened, issued receipts, and entered into our processing queue. The idea that there are “envelopes with large checks and money orders, delivered by truckloads, waiting in shrink-wrapped pallets, unopened” at any USCIS facility, is an outright fabrication, hastily conceived by an imaginative writer.

What the writer failed to mention, and what I personally conveyed to the Times, is that more than half of all the citizenship applications received in June and July will be completed by September 30. Further, many of the applicants who filed for citizenship after July 2007 have already been naturalized. The writer also omitted that not withstanding our challenges, in 2008 we will process some 20-25 percent more citizenship applications than in 2007, while maintaining the integrity of the immigration system and the security of the process. …

My posting today demonstrates to the more than 700,000 newly naturalized citizens that this country embraces free and open debate. It is a shame, however that a newspaper like the New York Times – which boasts with each paper that it contains all the news that’s fit to print – only values its version of a story and leaves no room for that debate or for the facts.

By the Editorial Staff
www.ImmigrationNewsman.com

Here’s a funny way to look at the immigration debate:

By the Editorial Staff
www.ImmigrationNewsman.com

A federal Immigration official, who was himself an immigant, was recorded demanding sex from a young Colombian woman in exchange for a green card. Prosecutors said the woman gave in to one demand for oral sex. The official was arrested on corruption charges, prosecutors said.

According to investigators, Isaac Baichu, who interviewed green cards applicants as an immigration official, met with the woman to go over her application at a Long Island immigration office. She was with her new American husband.

During that meeting, Baichu allegedly asked for her cellphone number. According to local prosecutors, Baichu later called the woman and asked her to meet at the parking lot of a local restaurant. What Baichu didn’t know was she was recording the conversation on her cellphone.

CNN aired what it said was the taped conversation obtained by The New York Times:

FEMALE: “I don’t know. Just tell me we’re going to be friends. Or?”

MALE: “Be friends. I want sex. I want sex. One or two times. That’s all. You get your green card. You won’t have to see me anymore.”

MALE: “I’m a nice guy. I’m an honest guy. I’ll do it for you. I’ll order my green cards. You’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you. Alright? Don’t worry. Just lean over. I’m going to be one second.”

CNN quoted prosecutors as saying that what happened next was detailed in the criminal complaint. The woman told prosecutors she attempted to leave the car, but Baichu grabbed her by the arm and told her he expected her to perform oral sex upon him then and there. She said she gave in to his demands, prosecutors say, due to his position in authority.

“We have pled not guilty and we deny any wrong doing,” Baichu’s lawyer, Sally Attia, said. Attia claimed her client was entrapped.

Baichu was not the first immigration official accused to taking advantage of undocumented immigrants. Wilfredo Vazquez, 35, a former immigration agent in Miami, has been charged with raping a woman he was transferring between detention centers, according to federal prosecutors. He faces charges of sexually assaulting a 39-year-old Jamaican woman on Sept. 21 at his home.

In 2006, former immigration officer Michael Maxwell testified before Congress on what he described as rampant corruption in the USCIS. Maxwell told the congressional hearing that charges that have been filed against some immigration officials. The charges include “soliciting sex for citizenship.”

The Department of Homeland Security issued this statement: “The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has absolutely no tolerance for employee misconduct.”

Michelle Brane, an advocate for undocumented immigrants, said that the potential for abuse is enormous. “Because this is a population that’s very vulnerable and they’re at the mercy and disposal of people who wield a lot of power over them. So this woman was very brave to come forward, if you think about it. She was taking a chance,” Brane said.

Baichu, himself an immigrant from Guyana, knows a green card is gold: “I got my green card just like you. I became citizen just like you. I know how hard it is for you, OK?,” according to the tape released by CNN.

Baichu, 46, handled some 8,000 green card applications during his three years as an adjudicator in the Garden City, New York, office of the USCIS, according to prosecutors.

Earlier this month, prosecutors said Baichu was arrested after he once again propositioned the woman for sex. That time they were listening in, too.

The first U.S. soldier killed in the Iraq war was Marine Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, a native of Guatemala. He immigrated to the United States when he was 14. He died serving America on March 21, 2003.

There are an estimated 20,500 soldiers who are called “green-card warriors,” a nickname for “non-U.S. citizens” deployed in Iraq.

About 40,000 immigrants who are on active duty in the U.S. military have been granted citizenship after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The Bush administration, as an offshoot of 9/11, allowed active-duty non-citizens who have served honorably in war on or after Sept. 11, 2001, to file for immediate citizenship.

On the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, media outlets often mention that 4,000 U.S. lives have been lost and tens of thousands more injured. Many of those dead are “green-card warriors” who fought for a country that wasn’t even theirs. But they surely fought for a country that they dearly loved.

Wondering why it’s taking too long for you to get your green card? Here’s what The New York Times said in its Feb. 17 editorial:

CITIZENSHIP BLUES

Three bits of news from the first two months of 2008 highlight the galling inconsistency and inadequacy of the federal government’s system for turning immigrants into citizens.

The first is that the wait for citizenship and green cards is up — way up. Citizenship and Immigration Services reported in January that the average time to process a citizenship application had risen to 18 months, from seven, and that green cards would now take a year, instead of six months or less.

It was a sorry moment for the agency, which jacked up its fees last year with a promise to use the new money to end vast paperwork backlogs. The opposite happened: the agency is drowning in applications from people who filed before the increase to avoid being gouged.

The second was the news last week that the agency had finally taken a baby step toward clearing its green-card backlogs by easing a rule on background checks by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The F.B.I. will still do full checks on every applicant, comparing fingerprints against a criminal database and names against lists of criminals and terrorists. It’s just that those who have had to wait more than six months for a green card because of one last, unfinished piece of an application — a “name check” of people who have ever been mentioned in criminal investigations, even peripherally — will get their cards.

The move is sensible, and long overdue. The understaffed agency has faced mounting pressure to act. An increasing number of immigrants, after waiting years for name checks, have sued and won, with federal judges ordering the government to do its job.

The third development is the surge in businesses using E-Verify, the federal system for checking employees’ immigration status. As more states and localities have adopted harsh campaigns to purge undocumented immigrants, E-Verify has taken on a larger role, with 52,000 employers now using it, compared with 14,000 a year ago. President Bush’s new budget includes $100 million to expand E-Verify, which the citizenship agency calls “a cornerstone” of “long-term immigration reform.”

You can tell a country’s priorities from what works and where the money goes. With billions for border and workplace enforcement, the government has been rushing to impose ever more sophisticated and intrusive means to keep immigrants out. Yet it continues to tolerate a creaky, corrosively inept system for welcoming immigrants in — an underperforming bureaucracy that takes their money and makes them wait, with a chronic indolence that is just another form of hostility.