Austin, we have a problem....

A senior U.S. legislator said on Wednesday that President-elect George W. Bush is likely to support a plan that would allow millions of Mexicans to be employed legally as "guest workers" in the United States. "I have not had the president (Bush) say 'We want to do this and we support it,' but I have every confidence they will support what we are talking about," U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm said. "We are very serious about moving ahead on this. I think we have a once- in- a- lifetime opportunity to get this done," said the Texas Republican. "We have millions of people ... working illegally in America. They do not have protection under the law. It is a terrible situation." Gramm said he thought it was possible for a measure to be introduced in the U.S. Congress quite soon that would grant Mexicans the same rights in the workplace as U.S. citizens.

Sacramento

An amnesty plan for a small group of undocumented immigrants [illegal aliens] has created false hopes of legal residency among thousands who won't qualify for it, authorities said Friday. "A lot of people have been misled" about the workings of the late amnesty approved by Congress and President Clinton last month, said Sharon Rummery, spokeswoman for the INS. Many longtime illegals "think they have something coming through late amnesty, but in most cases that won't happen," she said. -- After the regulations are published, "we want to have a workshop" explaining the requirements for late amnesty, said Salvador Santillan, director of the California Hispanic Resource Council of Sacramento. The meeting will be open to the public. The nonprofit council assists immigrants [illegal aliens] in gaining legal residency. For more amnesty information, call the Mexican Consulate......

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Re: Law-abiding U.S. needs illegal labor

The author quotes Leonel Castillo, top aide to Houston Mayor Lee Brown, saying: "Chavez simply reflects the two- sided attitude of so many people in this country who want to restrict the border except when it comes to their own domestic help". That's not a fair characterization what Chavez did. Ms. Chavez gave a shelter and money to Martha Mercado out of compassion for someone in need, and not as a compensation for any "domestic help". Mr. Castillo seems to interpret the fact that many good samaritans provide illegal aliens with humanitarian help as an expression of this country's need for illegal immigration. That is an example of false conclusion based on invalid reasoning. After all, more than half of respondents polled in last several months were against illegal immigration. Unfortunately, many would- be immigrants interpret America's humane civility as an open invitation to illegally crossing the American border.

Washington

"It's clearly illegal to harbor an undocumented person [illegal alien]. It's also clearly illegal to hire them in any way, shape or form," said Maria Cardona, spokeswoman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. No investigation has been announced, and given the sketchiness of the details, Cardona and immigration attorneys said it is difficult to determine which laws may be involved. But they suggested the following possibilities: Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, Chavez could face charges of "harboring a fugitive" if she knowingly allowed an undocumented immigrant [illegal] to stay in her home. Under that same act, Chavez could have violated requirements to check, and file appropriate INS forms on, Mercado's immigration status if she employed Mercado. And if Chavez were found to have harbored an undocumented immigrant [illegal] for "commercial advantage or financial gain," she could face penalties of up to 10 years in prison.

Houston Chronicle

More than just another Nannygate, Tuesday reflects the quandary of a nation that abhors lawbreakers and yet depends on cheap illegal labor, experts say. Chavez, who was a top Bush campaign adviser on immigration issues, favors tightening control of the border and restricting illegal immigration. Yet the conservative head of a Washington think tank acknowledged Tuesday that she had knowingly taken in in the early 1990s. "Chavez simply reflects the two-sided attitude of so many people in this country who want to restrict the border except when it comes to their own domestic help," said Leonel Castillo, top aide to Houston Mayor Lee Brown. Also see: Aiding, harboring and abetting illegals.

National Review - Jim Boulet, Jr.

John Sweeny's ferocity on Capitol Hill is a product of his looming impotency nationwide. Proof of the continued decline of organized labor can be found in, of all places, The Nation, in the magazine's January 1st issue. "Simply to maintain the status quo," wrote Janice Fine, "the labor movement must organize 500,000 new workers a year." Fine notes that this break-even number was surpassed just once from , and "early estimates [for 2000] fall well below that threshold." These numbers provide some context as to why the AFL-CIO will insist on a compliant Secretary of Labor. These same numbers also suggest why the AFL-CIO undertook what it admits was "a historic policy shift on immigration." On February 16, 2000, the AFL-CIO's executive council announced the labor federation now supported amnesty for illegal aliens.

Importing Disease

North Carolina leads the nation in rubella cases, the measles-like viral infection that can cause severe birth defects in pregnant women. In fact, N.C. accounts for more than half of the cases nationwide. Rubella -- almost completely eliminated in the U.S. after a vaccine was developed in the late 1960s -- has resurfaced over the last five years among North Carolina's Latino residents, many of whom immigrate to the state from countries that do not routinely vaccinate children against the disease. In 2000, North Carolina tallied 82 of the 152 cases nationwide -- almost five times the amount of Washington, the state with the next-highest total. Latinos accounted for more than 80 percent of rubella cases statewide, according to state Department of Health and Human Services statistics.

Bush Cabinet Nominee News

During nearly seven years at the helm of Houston's public schools, Roderick R. Paige earned a reputation as one of the nation's best urban educators. His tough-minded leadership is credited with fostering not only impressive gains in student test scores, but also an unprecedented level of confidence in the public school system. At the heart of the reform brought about by Paige, President-elect Bush's choice to head the Education Department, is the use of standardized tests to measure the performance of students and, ultimately, teachers and administrators. It is the same approach that Bush contends fueled the "Texas miracle," the much- touted increase in state standardized test scores, particularly among black and Hispanic students.

Bush Cabinet Nominee News

Christine Todd Whitman's quest to become governor survived revelations she employed illegal aliens, but she may face renewed questions about the issue as she seeks to run the EPA under President- elect Bush. So far, Governor Whitman is not being challenged over the incident, but critics are assailing Bush's choice to head the Labor Department, Linda Chavez, for giving money to an illegal immigrant [alien] living in her household. Bush stood by Chavez on Monday, saying she would make an excellent Cabinet officer. Whitman was vying for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 1993 when she disclosed that a Portuguese couple who have worked in her home since December 1986 did not gain legal residency in this country until July 1991.

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Re: The third-world comes to Los Angeles

The apartment building in which I live has, over the past ten years, lost its American born, English speaking tenants to be replaced by Mexican families. As soon as they rent, they start letting in other couples with children to live with them. These others arrive at night with their belongings in stolen shopping carts. Typically the two or three children are with a pregnant mother. Each apartment therefore gets turned into a warren with as many as 15 people living in it. It is impossible to keep the courtyard clean; they pitch candy wrappers and chewed corn cobs in the potted plants. It is impossible to do laundry in the building without an armed guard for each load; it is inevitably stolen. [There's much more to this nightmare of a story.]

Gang-Infested Orange County

A jury Tuesday convicted four reputed gang members of murdering a young woman in a slaying that sparked a massive sweep for suspects in a Placentia neighborhood. Judah A. Seelke was shot in the head and killed hours before midnight on Dec. 31, 1998, while on her way with girlfriends to a house party. Eyewitnesses and police said more than 20 suspected members of the Atwood street gang surrounded two cars carrying the women and fired up to 40 shots, apparently believing the occupants were members of a rival gang. Convicted on Tuesday of first-degree murder was Johnny Julian Trejo, who faces a possible sentence of 45 years to life. The other defendants - Benito Ray Trejo, Edmundo Juarez, and Ronnie David Cruz, were convicted of second- degree murder.

Narco State Next Door

U.S. authorities would not say Tuesday whether they will seek the extradition from Mexico of a U.S. citizen who is wanted on charges of money-laundering and hostage- taking in connection with the Juárez drug cartel. Luis F. Blancas, 30, of Sunland Park [New Mexico] was being treated in a Juárez hospital Tuesday for wounds he suffered when the sport utility vehicle he was driving was riddled with bullets Saturday in east- central Juárez, officials said. Bill Blagg, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, announced last month that Blancas, his brother Marco A. Blancas and brothers Ricardo Carrillo Cano and Alfredo Carrillo Cano had been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of drug- trafficking, racketeering, extortion, hostage- taking and money- laundering. Blagg was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Naco, Arizona

Border bandits working 13 miles west of here robbed 14 migrants of their few possessions Monday as the group entered the country illegally near the San Pedro River. Carol Capas, spokeswoman for the Cochise County Sheriff's Department, said that while border robberies have been frequent in the Douglas area in recent years, they are less common in Naco. This is the first case reported in the Palominas area. The 10 men and four women told deputies they had entered the United States Monday afternoon. They encountered three men armed with handguns and wearing ski masks a short time later. The bandits ordered the group to stop and lie on the ground, then forced them to turn over their personal belongings and any cash they carried.

Phoenix

State education chief Lisa Graham Keegan said Tuesday that she will allow Arizona schools to continue bilingual education, as long as students are learning English and making academic progress. Although Keegan denied that she is failing to enforce an anti- bilingual education initiative approved by voters Nov. 7, her comments before the Scottsdale Parent Council indicated that she at least will not pursue the law with vigor. "Bilingual programs are successful when kids are speaking two languages, and their academics are on par. Do what you want and make it work, and nobody is going to go ballistic," Keegan said in one of her first public speeches since being passed over by President- elect George W. Bush for the U.S. secretary of Education post.

Naco, Arizona

A Polish woman and her five children were detained early Sunday after entering the country with 18 other illegal entrants [aliens] from Mexico. The Mexican man accused of leading the group was arrested and turned over to the Border Patrol's prosecution division for referral to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The woman and her children were carrying passports from their native country and were headed for Chicago to be reunited with her husband, said Rene Noriega, a Border Patrol spokesman. The husband's immigration status is not known. Arrests of smugglers are rare, because they blend in with the migrants they lead. The migrants are often unwilling witnesses more concerned with being deported so that they can try to re- enter the United States later.

Who's Who of Mexican Nationalists

As filing for Los Angeles city elections opens today, a broad field of candidates assembling for mayor is expected to include two prominent Latinos, despite vigorous efforts by political leaders to get one of them to drop out of the race. In three private meetings, Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina and former Clinton cabinet member Henry Cisneros urgently tried to convince their colleagues, would- be mayors Antonio [MEChA boy] Villaraigosa and , that one of them needed to pass on the race so the other could have a chance of winning. But it appears that those efforts have failed. Both Becerra and Villaraigosa plan to run to replace Mayor Richard Riordan. And each will probably hamstring the other, most political experts agree.

Out-Of-Control Migration

Broward County students got roughly 7,000 foreign-born classmates this year -- many of them coming from Latin America, especially Colombia, according to school officials who said they were caught off guard by the huge influx. "We know we've been getting new foreign-born students in every year. This seems to be higher than normal," said Jane Turner, the district's budget specialist. Turner said the district receives about 3,000 foreign-born students each year. Broward's public school population swelled to almost a quarter of a million students this year -- that's 10,000 more children than last year. School officials had attributed some of the gain to a migration pattern from South America, but they hadn't realized that almost 70 percent of the 10,000 new students this year were actually born in other countries.

Austin

On the opening day of this year's legislative session, LULAC blasted acting Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff, saying his Senate committee appointments disrespect the needs and interests of Texas Hispanics. "With his first official act, Lt. Gov. Ratliff has effectively disenfranchised the Hispanic community by showing disrespect for Hispanic leaders and compromising effective representation of the Hispanic community in the Texas Legislature," said Vincent Ramos, executive director of LULAC in Texas. In a press conference two hours prior to the session's start Tuesday, Ramos ticked off a list of complaints against Ratliff. "There are currently 12 Senate committees. Nearly 35 percent of the Texas population is Hispanic and 25 percent of the Texas senators are Hispanic, yet only one Hispanic senator has been named to a committee chair," Ramos said.