The Associated Press reports that Federal authorities have uncovered a scheme to lure Filipino teachers to the United States with false promises of jobs in Texas school districts. The authorities charged the Tolentinos, owners of Omni Consortium, a company that specialized in recruiting Filipino teachers, and three others, with conspiracy to commit alien smuggling, visa fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering. Furthermore, two former West Texas public school administrators, and an elementary school principal, Lokey and the Aguilars, also face charges that they sponsored work visas for dozens of the teachers in exchange for free trips to Asia.

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The San Diego (CA) Union-Tribune reported that a decade after images of illegal immigrants dashing across the border into San Diego helped fuel California's Proposition 187, immigration anxiety is slashing a new political divide in the Grand Canyon State, where the undocumented population has quadrupled from the 88,000 estimated by federal officials in 1990. A debate is raging over Proposition 200, an initiative that will require proof of identification and citizenship from voters and applicants for some government services that are not federally mandated. Government officials who fail to report violations could face a misdemeanor charge, stated The Arizona Daily Star (Tuscon). 

Its advocates call it the Protect Arizona Now, or the PAN, initiative. The initiative's authors made sure the ban did not include any federally mandated services – such as elementary and high school education and emergency medical care – that a federal court cited in striking down California's Proposition 187.

The Business Journal (Phoenix) adds that the latest poll by Northern Arizona University shows 42 percent of voters support Proposition 200, with 29 percent opposed and 29 percent undecided. Previous state polls showed support for Proposition 200 to be above 60 percent. That drop in support and the high number of undecided gives hope to critics of Proposition 200.