Former Republican National Committee Chair Jim Nicholson spoke out during the GOP electoral challenges this month, urging Republicans to reach out to Hispanic voters by reassessing their position on immigration.  “We have to better inform and motivate and align with the Hispanic voters,” Nicholson said in an interview with Politico.  “That’s one of the key issues that the party and its leaders need to convene, and, you know, have a very open, transparent discussion about developing a party position on.” 

Nicholson, whose home state of Colorado turned blue in 2008 due in large part to heavy Democratic voting among Hispanics, said Hispanics could be open to Republican ideas.  “The Hispanic voters … in this country are center-right, more conservative, more family- and work-oriented people,” he said.  “We have to overcome some of the predilections that they have about Republicans so that we get more of their votes.”  

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Last week, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that she intends to “rethink” a program that would require every state to issue more secure driver’s licenses by the end of the year, USA Today reports.  The new licenses, required under a 2005 federal law, aim to prevent criminals and potential terrorists from getting fake IDs.  But the licenses have been opposed by many governors, citing the cost.  Added opposition comes from the American Civil Liberties Union, which claims the cards are, in effect, a national ID card. 

“It really has taken the form of a huge unfunded mandate on states which are struggling with huge cuts right now,” Napolitano said, shortly after being sworn in as head of DHS.  “There’s a lot of thinking out there that an enhanced driver’s license that wouldn’t necessarily be the Real ID … might be a better way to go and achieve a lot of the same objectives for a lot less cost.”   

Last year, DHS extended a May 11 deadline for states to issue new, tamper-resistant licenses.  States now have until Dec. 31 to issue new licenses that require applicants to present documentation in person showing they are in the country legally.  Napolitano said she will meet with governors to discuss the license program required under the Real ID law and “look at its cost compared to its value.” 

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Nashville recently voted down an English-only measure during a special election, The Tennessean reports.  The measure would have forced all Metro Nashville government business to be conducted in English.  The final vote was 32,144 for English only and 41,752 against.  With 19% voting, this is the largest turnout for a special election in the US in over a decade.   

Metro Councilman Eric Crafton, with support from his Nashville English group, introduced the bill, arguing that the city would save money in translation services and become more unified as the result of more immigrants learning English.  After the final tallies, Mayor Karl Dean called for the city to move on from this chapter.  “The results of this special election reaffirm Nashville’s identity as a welcoming and friendly city and our ability to come together as a community – from all walks of life and perspectives – to work together for a common cause for the good of our city,” he said. 

Overall, the ‘one country, one language’ sentiment pushed by Crafton to galvanize voters didn’t resonate because Nashville is becoming cosmopolitan and comfortable with its diversity, said University of Illinois professor Dennis Baron, who has written extensively on English-only measures.  “Nashville refused to be alarmed by unwarranted language endangerment,” he said.  “This is a good sign.  As I’ve said, these things tend to pass.  The forces against the measure worked very hard.”  Baron said English-only measures are often veiled attempts against immigrants and non-English speaking groups.  The argument over English-only found itself framed around Latinos and undocumented immigration, but it also would have affected the thousands of refugees the federal government resettles in Nashville.   

Numerous complaints were also levied towards the expense of holding the special election, with some voting against the measure due to the election’s $280,000 price tag.  “This is a waste of taxpayer money,” said Nashville resident Ruth Hall.  “It’s wrong, and I voted against it.” 

The defeat of English-only is a sign that voters recognize bad policy, said Maria Rodriguez, director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition who has fought against similar measures in that state.  “Voters are not duped anymore,” she said.  “They know when they see bad policy that is going to be costly and that’s not progressive.”   

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A group of civil rights advocates have filed a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Public Safety to block a law which would require additional requirements for driver’s licenses for immigrants.  The Associate Press reports that the lawsuit, which seeks to block the law’s enforcement, argues that it discriminates against people illegally.  The suit was filed on behalf of three immigrant women, all legally working in the US, who have been denied or likely will be denied license renewals because the DPS doesn’t accept their work authorization statuses.   

The law, which first took effect last October, requires all immigrants to show an official work authorization proof in the form of an official employment authorization document every six months to renew their licenses.  Jim Harrington, the group’s attorney, called the law “an unconscionable burden on immigrant survivors of domestic abuse and discriminatory against the Hispanic community.” 

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Rhode Island Governor Carcieri’s March 2008 executive order on undocumented immigration has generated so much confusion in the state that a panel appointed to monitor the order’s unintended consequences has recommended he make a clarifying statement to explicitly explain the details of the order.  According to The Providence Journal Bulletin, the order has been widely misunderstood and misinterpreted by immigrant communities, as well as by the police and the public, causing chaos and worry among documented and undocumented immigrants, panel members said. 

The panel, a mix of Providence’s religions leaders, community advocates, and people from government, law enforcement, and business, gathered its impressions during a series of listening sessions with members of the Providence immigrant community.  The sessions, panel members not, underscore a high level of fear. 

“I know of a family in New Bedford that drives around Rhode Island to get to Connecticut because they are afraid to drive through Rhode Island,” said one session attendee at St. Edward Church in Providence. 

“I know of a man who has been cashing his paycheck at Stop & Shop for years.  After the executive order, the clerk at the store refused to cash his check.  This is discrimination legitimized by the executive order,” said another St. Edward session attendee.   

When he signed the order, Carcieri said it would enable an array of state government agencies to address the issue of undocumented immigration and take control of problems that had been dropped by the federal government.  The order was designed to require state agencies and vendors to verify the legal status of all employees, using the federal E-Verify database to screen new employees for the state and for state vendors to make sure they are legally permitted to work in the US.  It also calls for some state troopers and corrections staff to be deputized with immigration enforcement powers, and it calls for swifter deportation of prisoners found to be undocumented. 

Stephen Brown, executive director of the RI affiliate of the ACLU, said that the panel reports provide an excellent summary of the fear in the immigrant community.  While Brown did not suggest that the executive order initially created these fears, he said it has exacerbated them and resulted in the police being overly aggressive in question people during traffic stops about where they are from.  “It would help if the General Assembly restricted the police enforcement of federal immigration laws and clarify when passengers can be questioned on suspicion of criminal activity,” Brown said.   

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A federal court judge recently issued a split decision in court challenges brought by 17 immigrants who charged that their arrests last year by federal agents were unconstitutional.  Judge Michael Strauss found that six of the plaintiffs have made a prima facie case that constitutional violations took place, and will be allowed to pursue claims against ICE, according to The New Haven Register.   

Lawyers at the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale University are seeking to suppress evidence obtained by ICE when it arrested a total of 32 people in New Haven and North Haven in June 2007.  They allege that the officers conducted illegal searches and seizures, detained the 32 without reasonable suspicion, and arrested them without probable cause.   

Yale Law professor Michael Wishnie said that shifting the burden to ICE to justify its actions is traditionally unusual in immigration courts, although the practice has been happening more frequently since the federal government stepped up enforcement against undocumented immigrants since 2006.  Wishnie says that Straus will now hold departure hearing for 10 of the 11 remaining cases, at which point he said the men will seek voluntary departure rather, than a departure order by the government.  Voluntary departure makes it easier to seek legal entry at a later date, but in either situation, Wishnie said the men will appeal Straus’s rulings on the constitutional issues to the Board of Immigration Appeal.  If they lose there, they will take their cases to the 2^nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.   

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The Department of Homeland Security reversed a an enforcement rule last week, saying that it has lifted a new rule requiring high-level approval before federal agents nationwide could arrest fugitive immigrants.  The Associated Press reports that the rule, initially imposed by the Bush administration mere days before the election of President Obama, required that immigration agents obtain approval from ICE field office directors or deputy directors before arresting fugitives.  An approval would depend on an internal review that would consider, among other issues, “any potential for negative media or congressional interest.” 

The directive made clear that US officials worried about possible election implications of arresting Zeituni Onyango, the half-sister of Obama’s late father, who at the time was an undocumented immigrant living in public housing in Boston.  A copy of the directive, “Fugitive Case File Vetting Prior to Arrest,” was released to the AP just over two months after it was requested under the Freedom of Information Act.  The submitted copy censored parts of the document, including the names targeted under the directive, but the uncensored portions made no mention of President Obama, or Onyango.