Twelve Republican senators wrote a letter on Nov. 20 to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano telling her that legalizing undocumented workers will hurt unemployed American workers. They criticized her comment such legalization would be a “boon” to the economy.

“With all due respect, legalizing those who have no legal right to be in the United States will not be a ‘boon’ to American workers,” the letter said. “Rather, it would only exacerbate the unfair competition American workers currently face as they struggle to find jobs.”

Immigration reform opponents say they will seek to mobilize popular opinion against any effort to legalize unauthorized immigrant workers while so many Americans are out of jobs.

The Obama administration in its first year has been already dealing with various major issues – wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, health-care overhaul and the recession. However, Napolitano said, dealing with the question of what to do with immigrants who are here illegally can’t wait until everything else is out of the way.

She said in a speech last month that American workers will never be able to win the best terms for their labor as long as some employers are willing to hire the substantial part of the workforce that is illegal.

“Everybody recognizes that our current system isn’t working and that our immigration laws need to change,” Napolitano told a gathering at the Center for American Progress. “America’s businesses, workers and faith-based organizations are calling for reform.”

 During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama said comprehensive immigration legislation, including a plan to make legal status possible for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, would be a priority in his first year in office.

Immigration is among the most controversial issues on Obama’s legislative agenda, with critics opposing what they call an amnesty for illegal workers and businesses concerned about a possible outcome of a worse economy and more unemployment for American workers

“Passage of comprehensive legislation that places unauthorized immigrants on a path to legalization would be beneficial not just for immigrants but for the broader U.S. economy and society,” said Michelle Mittelstadt, director of communications at Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank in Washington that studies the movement of people worldwide.

She said she believes comprehensive immigration reform legislation is likely to be introduced in Congress early next year.

“It is clear that there must be substantial reform of a U.S. immigration system that virtually everyone acknowledges does not work for any of its stakeholders,” Mittelstadt said. “Things will not improve absent reform.”

The job markets for immigrants and non-immigrants are separate and complementary, according to Corinn Williams, executive director of the Community Economic Development Center in New Bedford. “I just do not see U.S.-born workers filling the jobs immigrants do in New Bedford in such areas as seafood processing and manufacturing,” she said. According to Williams, there is a strong argument in favor of legalization despite the current economic downturn and high unemployment.

According to the poll released by America's Voice in May, 57% of respondents said that the poor economy makes it more crucial that Congress address immigration reform as opposed to the 39% who believed it was not the right time.

Contrary to Williams, Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, said he does not believe a bill will pass while unemployment is over 10 percent. “Unemployment is making the bill unlikely,” he said. The center is a nonprofit research group that favors a reduction in the number of immigrants.

Buying power of Latino and Asian groups will increase in the following 5 years, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia.

There is direct competition between illegal immigrants and American workers, according to Krikorian. Millions of unemployed Americans could be holding the jobs held by illegal workers, he said.

Krikorian said that employers like having a loose labor market. “That’s the issue,” he said. “Will the employers be in the driver’s seat or the workers?” Illegal immigration, he said, helps employers at the expense of workers.

Maria da Glória de Sá, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, said most employers may be against change because undocumented immigrants would come out of the shadows. That would end the exploitation of illegal immigrants, she said. Moreover, she said, the current situation hurts legal  workers as well as the undocumented.

Unemployment rates are for March 2009 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Immigration data are from the 2000 Census.

Some argue that legalization could have economic benefits, especially during the recession. Franklin Soults, communications director at Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, said immigration reform would have a positive impact on the economy. Since the legalized immigrants will earn more, they will spend more and be obliged to pay taxes. “It will be a boon for everyone,” he said.

Soults said reform would help regulate the flow of immigrants into the country and provide stability in the workforce. 

Despite the benefits that some see, change in the way the country deals with immigration and immigrants will not be easy to implement. Audrey Singer, an immigration policy expert at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, said because of the current economic situation, in which the effects of the recession and high unemployment are significant, it is hard to push for the change. “Economic context is going to be a bigger barrier than politics,” she said.

Singer said in tough times people look for someone to blame, and immigrants often get the blame. She said that while the cost of reform will be high, the cost of border security is also high. But, she said, legalizing millions of illegal immigrants and providing them status and rights are more important than the cost. “We have to face it at some point,” she said.

University of California-San Diego Professor of Economics Gordon Hanson presented the report "The Economics and Policy of Illegal Immigration in the United States" at Migration Policy Institute. In the report, Hanson examined the effects of illegal immigration on the economy.

At a Migration Policy Institute panel in early December, Gordon Hanson said a constructive immigration policy would allow low-skilled immigration to occur in a manner that generated maximum productivity gains for the U.S. economy.

Hanson, director of the Center on Pacific Economies at the University of California, San Diego, said his research shows that illegal immigration’s overall impact on the economy is small. In this respect, he said, low-skilled native workers who compete with unauthorized immigrants are the clearest losers.

“Illegal immigration produces a tiny net gain to the U.S. economy after subtracting U.S.-born workers’ losses from U.S. employers’ gains,” Hanson said.  “And if we account for the small fiscal burden that unauthorized immigrants impose, the overall economic benefit is close enough to zero to be essentially a wash.”

Shuya Ohno, assistant communications director of the National Immigration Forum, a pro-immigration advocacy group, said immigration reform is inevitable since most Americans actually want a solution that will favor both businesses and workers. He said reform will provide economic stability and enhance future growth.

Katherine Vargas, Ohno’s colleague and the press secretary of the group, said illegal immigration is not sustainable, referring to the current undocumented labor force, which makes up 5 percent of the entire labor force. She said there should be a legal way for getting workers when there is a demand for them. Vargas also said the unfair competition affects the legal workers.

Ohno noted that unemployment is rising in the middle class and not among undocumented workers. There are still jobs available even in the recession—dishwashing, for example—if people want to work, she said. Vargas agreed that American workers and illegal immigrants are not competing for each others’ jobs.

To deport undocumented workers who make up 85 percent of the agriculture industry would be bad for the economy and does not make any sense, Ohno said. “It is completely absurd.”

He gave the example of the federal raid in March 2006 on the Michael Bianco factory in New Bedford, which closed and moved to Puerto Rico after the raid. , the factory, he said, could not find replacements for all the illegal immigrants whom the company employed despite the high unemployment rate in New Bedford.

Transatlantik Akademi üyesi Nathalie Tocci, son zamanlarda Türkiye’nin dış politikasında önemli değişiklikler olduğuna dikkati çekerken, iç politikadaki  gelişmelerin bu süreci etkileyecek önemli etkenlerden biri olacağını vurguladı.

Transatlantik Akademi üyelerinden Profesör Ahmet Evin ise, Başbakan Erdoğan’ın Washington’daki temaslarında Amerika’nın Afganistan’a asker talebiyle enerji alanındaki konuların öne çıkacağını belirtti. Profesör Evin, Türkiye’nin bir şekilde Afganistan stratejisine katkıda bulunacağını, ancak bu katkının ne olacağının merak edildiğini söyledi. Avrupa’nın enerji kaynaklarının güvenlik açısından kontrolünü Rusya’ya bırakmamak için Nabucco Projesi’nin de tartışılacağını söyleyen Ahmet Evin, boru hattının nasıl dolacağına ilişkin konunun İran’la ilişkileri de etkileyeceğine dikkati çekti.

Alman Marshall Fonu uzmanı Ian Lesser ise görüşmelerde İran’ın gündemin bir numaralı maddesi  olacağını söyledi. Washington’ın öncelikli konularından olan İran’ın nükleer silahlanmasıyla ilgili olarak Amerika’yla Türkiye’nin endişeleri ve bakış açılarının farklı olduğunu  kaydeden Lesser, ancak iki ülkenin birbirine tamamen zıt bir politika izlemediğini belirtti.Bunun yanısıra, Afganistan konusunda politika olarak Avrupa ile aynı doğrultuda hareket eden Türkiye’nin asker gönderme talebini yerine getireceğini düşünmediğini  söyleyen Lesser, Türkiye’nin İsrail ve Ermenistan’la  ilişkilerinin de Obama-Erdoğan görüşmesinde öne çıkacağını belirtti.

Read the story here VOA Turkish

Timothy E. Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation, said bringing women’s issues into the climate change debate is essential since women are already the greatest victims of AIDS, violence and refugee problems. “Climate change is making these problems worse and worse,” Wirth said at a press conference at the National Press Club.

Wirth noted that as the temperature of the Earth’s surface increases, food production will decline across the world, which will add enormously to the pressure on women who are responsible for sustaining their families.

The report supports the idea that family planning, reproductive health care and gender relations, particularly in developing countries, have the potential to influence the future of climate change.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., emphasizing the unequal burdens climate change places on women, said women are likelier than men to die from conditions related to climate change.

Robert Engelman, vice president for programs at the Worldwatch Institute, a globally focused environmental research organization based in Washington, said integrating gender considerations into the climate change framework is a new but crucial concept.

He said women who are in charge of their own lives have the power to change global warming by contributing to slower population growth, and their own efforts are “practical, necessary and hopeful.”

Rapid population growth and industrialization affect the levels of gas emissions, he said, and the world is running out of time to reverse this trend. This is a long-term problem, which is not only a governmental commitment but also a “fundamental human issue,” Engleman said.

Jose Miguel Guzman, chief of the population and development branch of the fund, said the way people organize their lives and achieve sustainable life styles is relevant to climate change.

The greatest number of the famous Chinese terra cotta warriors ever to travel to the United States will be on display beginning Thursday at the National Geographic Museum in Washington.

Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor, includes 15 life-size terra cotta figures and 100 sets of objects from the tomb of China’s first emperor, Qin Shihuangdi.

In the media preview of the exhibition, Terry Garcia, National Geographic’s executive vice president for mission programs, said that 96,000 tickets had been sold and that he hopes to reach 100,000 by this weekend.

Garcia said this has been an important week for China-U.S. relations, highlighted by President Obama’s visit to China.

Feng Xie, the deputy chief of mission of the Chinese Embassy, who was at the preview, called Obama’s visit a “great success” and indicated that China-U.S. relations have reached a new historic starting point.

“Obama’s visit to China is historic, and so is the Terra Cotta Warriors” exhibition he said.

The terra cotta warriors have been described as the “eighth wonder of the world.” Discovered after being buried for more than 2,000 years, the warriors are said to reveal secrets of the Qin dynasty.

The exhibition began its U.S. tour in California last year and then visited Atlanta and Houston. Washington, where the warriors will on display through March 31, is the final stop.

Speaking at a committee hearing Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said there have been “more flu deaths than previously realized and fewer vaccine does than originally promised.” He said this created public frustration and confusion among those with the highest risk.

He cited a report last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that 22 million people have been made ill by the H1N1 virus, with 98,000 people needing hospitalization and about 4,000 people dying from the flu or from complications associated with the virus.

Lieberman noted that the estimated 120 million to 160 million doses promised to be available were not delivered. Instead, he said, there are now 42 million doses, equal to the number of highest-risk individuals.

“Things looked better two weeks ago, when 11 million more doses were delivered, with another 8 million doses projected to be available this week,” he said. “But by last Friday only about 5 million more were available.”

Sen. Susan M. Collins (R-Maine), the committee’s senior minority member, criticized the shortfall and expressed her frustration and anger.

“It is mid-November, and we know that supply production is still lagging behind those repeated assurances,” Collins said. She invited the administration to work more closely with state and local public health officials.

Nicole Lurie, the Health and Human Services assistant secretary for preparedness and response, said an increase in the amount of vaccine is expected in the weeks ahead.

She said increasing the investments in technology and manufacture capacity is vital to preparing for and responding to threats. She added that health care facilities need to be supported during the current pandemic.

Alex Garza, the assistant Homeland Security secretary for health affairs, said the department continues to monitor the pandemic at state, local and tribal levels.

Rear Adm. Anne Schuchat, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said a national campaign to encourage domestic and international travelers to take steps to prevent the spread of flu will be launched. She added that during the holidays, reducing the spread of the H1N1 virus among those who are traveling will be important.

Partners in Early Childhood and Economic Development, a program funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, convened the conference last week.

Participants said that to make such education a national priority, proponents should come together more systematically at the federal and state levels to help policy makers understand the economic implications.

Shannon Rudisill, associate director of the Child Care Bureau, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said they are trying to build a common perception about early child education by bringing a range of ideas together while they are working on the policies. She emphasized that cooperation is vital for quality improvement.

During the “Taking Early Care and Education Policy Forward” panel, participants said they appreciate the Obama administration’s concerns about early childhood education across the nation.

The economic recovery bill passed by Congress in February created new early care and education jobs and included more than $5 billion for early learning programs, including Head Start, Early Head Start, child care, and programs for children with special needs.

Barbara Gault, executive director of the Washington-based Institute for Women’s Policy Research, said the role of the state and federal governments should be defined and that there should be public and private funding for early child care.

John Williams, a consultant at Development Communications Associates, emphasized the importance of working at the community level for early child care. Williams expressed the need of working together with school districts. “Early care education support is critical,” he said.

Williams also said the policies should be targeted to be “inclusive” for all children, regardless of the family profile.

Danielle Ewen, of the Center for Law and Social Policy, spoke to the need for change in the financing aspect of the current system. She said there should be an economic model to make early childhood education a public good. Ewen said a “revenue based investment” should be constructed in the long term.

In the short term, she said public and private partnerships are important and there is a need for better data about outcome, impact and providers in early child care.

“First, we need to understand and translate it into economic terms,” she said, regarding the significance of political pressures for better results on the issue.

She then pointed out that a new tax policy and a revenue based system is crucial to invest in early childhood education.

Read the full story here New Bedford Standard Times

The announcement was made by Janet Napolitano, secretary of Homeland Security, and John Morton, assistant secretary for immigration and customs enforcement, at a press conference Thursday.

“Technology is the heart of this new capability,” Morton said.

The program, known as Secure Communities, is operated jointly by the Homeland Security and Justice Departments and participating law enforcement partners. They automatically check the digital fingerprints of all individuals arrested at the local level against Homeland Security’s biometrics-based immigration records in addition to FBI databases. This allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement to take action to ensure that criminal aliens are not released.

“It has been a remarkable first year for Secure Communities,” Morton said.

He gave an example from Boston: a detainee identified through biometric records had been involved in a rape case in the past. Without Secure Communities, this would not have been known, Morton said.

According to the statistics, there were 1,425 matches in Massachusetts from Oct. 27, 2008 through Oct. 31, 2009.

Since 2008, the program has identified 11,000 aliens charged or convicted with serious crimes such as murder, rape or kidnapping, and 1,900 of those have been removed from the United States.

There are currently 95 jurisdictions across 11 states using Secure Communities. Officials announced that the Washington Metropolitan Police Department will be the next to participate.

Secure Communities will be present in every state by 2011 and be available to every law enforcement agency by 2013, the officials said.

Napolitano said the top priority is to achieve strong and effective law enforcement. According to the secretary, biometrics is a new technological, accurate, cost-effective and efficient development that requires less manpower.

Read the full story here New Bedford Standard Times

Bugün NTV’ye konuk olan İran Cumhurbaşkanı Mahmud Ahmedinecad, ülkesinin nükleer programı ile ilgili önemli açıklamalarda bulundu.

“Nükleer meseleyi siyasi mesele haline getirdiler”

Batı ülkelerinin sürekli bahanelerle ortaya atıldığını, bu sefer de hedeflerinin İran olduğunu belirten Ahmedinecad, nükleer enerjinin doğal bir hak olduğunu ve yasalara ters düşmediğini, ancak konunun siyasileştirildiğini söyledi.

İran’ın ağır ambargolara maruz kaldığını belirten Ahmedinecad, baskı gördüklerini ve ülkesinin aleyhine propaganda yürütüldüğünü belirtti.

Uluslararası mevcut sistemin değişmesi gerektiğini söyleyen İran Cumhurbaşkanı, diğer ülkeleri diyalog ve işbirliğine davet ettiklerine dikkat çekti. Artık milletlerin birbiri üstünde baskı kurmak yerine işbirliği içinde olmaları gerektiğinin altını çizdi.

“Nükleer programımız müzakere edilecek bir şey değildir”

Konuşması sırasında ülkesinin işbirliğine hazır olduğunu bir çok kez belirten Ahmedinecad, İran halkının hakkını savunduğunu söyledi. Ayrıca, çözüm için önerilerde bulunduklarını ancak devam eden nükleer programın tartışılacak bir yanı olmadığını belirtti.

Ahmedinecad, dünya devletlerinin İran’ı anladıklarını, Batı’daki birkaç devletin tavrının herkese mal edilemeyeceğini söyledi.

Batı’nın diğer ülkelerdeki teknolojik gelişmelerden rahatsızlık duyduğunu belirten Ahmedinecad, kendileri dışında kalan ülkelerin onlara muhtaç olmasını istediklerini sözlerine ekledi.

Ülkesinde yürütülen nükleer programın tamamen barışçıl hedeflerle yola çıktığını ve böyle devam edeceğini söyleyen Ahmedinecad, buna karşı çıkan ülkelerin işbirliği yapmaktan başka çareleri olmadığını söyledi.

“Zorbalık çağı sona ermiştir”

Atom bombasına karşı olduklarını belirten İran Cumhurbaşkanı, bu bombaya sahip devletlerin aynı zamanda “dert sahibi” olduklarını ifade etti.

“Boşuna halkın parasını harcıyorlar” diyen Ahmedinecad, atom bombası ile zafer elde edilemeyeceğini belirtti.

Ahmedinecad, artık “kültür dönemi” olduğunu, atom bombası devrinin kapandığını ve zorbalıkla yoluna devam edenlerin çağın gerisinde kalmaya mahkum olduğunu söyledi.

Ülke çapında domuz gribi hakkında son gelişmeleri duyurmak için yapılan toplantıda, domuz gribi şüphesiyle hastaneye başvuranların sayısıyla çocuk ve genç yetişkinlerde görülen ölüm oranının beklenenden fazla olduğu açıklandı.

159 milyon kişinin yüksek risk altında bulunduğu ABD’de şu an sadece 32.3 milyon kullanılabilir dozun mevcut olduğunu belirten yetkililer, söz konusu durumdan kendilerinin de rahatsız olduğunu dile getirdi. Sağlık yetkilileri, üretilen aşıların yüzde yüz güvenli olamayacağını belirtirken, her aşı gibi domuz gribi aşısının da riskleri ve faydaları olduğunun altını çizdi.

Beş farklı risk grubuna dikkat çeken Amerikalı yetkililer, hazirandan bu yana üretilen ilk dozların, bu gruba dahil olan hamilelere, 0-6 ay çocuk sahibi olanlara, sağlık personeline, 24 yaş altı gençlere ve 25-64 yaş arası kronik sağlık sorunu olanlara uygulandığını belirtti.

Yetkililer, aşı üretiminde yaşanan gecikmelerin önümüzdeki haftalarda ortadan kalkacağını umduklarını belirtirken, üretilen aşıların risk altında bulunan grupların yanı sıra her kesimden kişiye ulaşmasını sağlayacaklarını söylediler.

Dünyadaki diğer H1N1 virüsü örnekleri üzerinde yapılan çalışmaların sonucunda söz konusu virüsün mutasyona uğradığına dair herhangi bir bulgu görülmediği açıklandı.

Aşı üretiminde yaşanan gecikmeler ABD’nin yanı sıra diğer ülkeleri de etkiliyor. North Carolina’da açılacak olan Novartis merkezi 2011’den itibaren üretim yapabilecek.

Rep. Michael E. Capuano raised $343,000 last month and transferred $1.2 million from his U.S. House reelection account to his Senate campaign. Contributions to Capuano from individuals totaled $306,536 .96 and political action committees and party committees gave $32,500. He ended September with $1,167,906 in his campaign fund.

Alan Khazei raised $1.1 million in September without receiving any funds from political action committees, according to his report filed with the Federal Election Commission. The Khazei campaign finished the period that ended Sept, 30 with $1,040,297 in his campaign treasury.

Coakley’s campaign raised $2,181,231—with only $41,450 coming from political action committees—and ended September with $1,953,512 in her campaign fund, according to her filing with the commission. Campaign spokesman Mathew Helman said Coakley had a wide range of individual contributors, including 3,707 who gave $100 or less.

“I am humbled by this display of support shown by our contributors and volunteers throughout Massachusetts and across the country,” Coakley said in a press release. “We more than doubled our fundraising goals for the month of September.”

Doug Roscoe, associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, said, “Realistically, the latest numbers show the Coakley, Capuano and Khazei campaigns all about equally armed for battle.”

He noted that none of the candidates came close to the numbers raised by candidates for statewide office in 2006, when Deval Patrick spent $8 million and Kerry Healey spent over $13 million in their campaigns for governor.

Since time is limited for the special election, which will be Jan. 19, it is not likely that the candidates will raise comparable amounts, according to Roscoe. “It means they are all about equally distant from having the resources to run a true statewide campaign,” he said.

Roscoe emphasized that Capuano as a House candidate had the opportunity to transfer money from his House campaign account. “These transfers represent 78 percent of his total receipts,” he said.

Coakley, however, was not legally allowed to transfer campaign funds she raised in her successful race for state attorney general to her U.S. Senate race account.

Roscoe does not consider it surprising that while Capuano was financially in a more advantaged position at the beginning, Coakley has been more successful in raising money for her campaign. She has “greater name recognition and a broader network of prior donors,” he said.

“If both candidates maintain their current pace of fundraising, Coakley’s financial edge will only grow and may become a significant advantage for her in the Dec. 8 primary,” Roscoe said.

Jennifer Duffy, senior editor at the Cook Political Report, also agreed that the Coakley campaign did really well during this short period of fundraising. Although Coakley lacked experience in raising money nationally, the funds she raised and the wise way she spent are “stunning,” Duffy said.

Duffy said that the amount Khazei raised is “pretty impressive” and that he is likely to continue raising more funds than Capuano because of his broader base of donors all around the country.

Duffy said that with only six weeks to the primary, there has not been enough interaction between candidates. “Perhaps it’s a sign of how much work they need to do to build name recognition and define themselves,” she said.

With statewide name recognition and a well-funded campaign, “Coakley is the candidate to beat,” Duffy said.

Read the story here New Bedford Standard Times