HUNTSVILLE, Ala. A proposal that would crackdown on illegal immigration has been tabled despite a call by a group of conservative Christians for backers to attend the Huntsville City Council meeting and "intimidate" members into supporting it.

Councilman Glenn Watson pulled the ordinance before debate began tonight. He said he wanted to give a task force time to study illegal immigration and its affect on the city. The proposal would establish penalties for companies that hire illegal immigrants and property owners renting to them.

About 100 people were at the meeting. That came after an e-mail was sent urging backers to attend.

The message circulating among members of the Conservative Christians of Alabama sought support for Watson's ordinance.

The e-mail said - quote -- "Your presence is needed to cheer our speakers and intimidate the Huntsville City Council."

By Stephen Barr

After seven years of negotiations, the Justice Department and a union representing 218 immigration judges signed their first collective-bargaining agreement yesterday.

Leaders of the union, the National Association of Immigration Judges, said the contract would improve communication between Justice headquarters and the judges, who serve in 53 cities and detention centers across the country, by guaranteeing quarterly meetings to discuss security, workload and other issues.

By most accounts, immigration law is second only to tax law in complexity, and interest in immigration issues and deportation cases has risen sharply since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The judges, who are employees of the Justice Department, handle about 300,000 cases a year, rendering final agency decisions on asylum claims and some national security issues.

by Tena Starr

Like many farmers, Bill and Sue Tester of West Glover have long had trouble finding reliable workers. They’re Christmas tree growers, and the work they offer is hard and monotonous.

“Every year when I’d advertise for help, especially for harvesting, I’d get 20 calls,” Mr. Tester said. “They’d show up and work one or two days and wouldn’t work anymore.  They’d leave me in the lurch, like when we were loading trucks or something.  I’d wind up hiring 20 people and end up with maybe three people who wanted to work.”

The unexpected solution came from Mexico. 

One year the Testers hired a tree shearing crew, all Hispanic labor.  They were impressed with the work and eventually arranged to have two young Mexican men come back and work full-time.  Those workers showed up with documentation and appeared to be in the country legally. 

BY STEPHEN OHLEMACHER

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- Big increases in immigration since 1990 have not hurt employment prospects for American workers, says a study released today.

The report comes as Congress and much of the nation are debating immigration policy, a big issue in this fall's midterm congressional elections.

The Pew Hispanic Center found no evidence that increases in immigration led to higher unemployment among Americans, said Rakesh Kochhar, who authored the study.

by James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.

The U.S. economy includes a significant number of unlawfully present workers who are undocumented and unaccounted for. Research by the Government Account­ability Office (GAO) indicates an alarming degree of collaboration on the part of employers in hiring illegal workers.[1] This excessive acceptance of a shadow work­force encourages illegal border crossings, encourages other companies to break the law, and forces states and local communities to subsidize cheap, illegal labor by bearing social costs such as uncompensated emergency room care, education, and social services.

Both the House and the Senate have proposed leg­islation for strengthening workplace enforcement. Both envision using the Basic Pilot program, created in 1996 under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, as a principal tool for denying unlawfully present workers employment.[2] This approach fails on a three counts:

It is unlikely that Basic Pilot will prove to be an effective tool;
The implementation of the program will place excessive and unnecessary burdens on the U.S. economy; and
There are practical and more effective means to enhance workplace enforcement.
I propose an enforcement strategy that could be implemented without creating more government and a huge and expensive information technology program. This strategy could be implemented by revising the U.S. tax code to facilitate cooperation between federal agencies in enforcing the law. I pro­pose amending the tax code in a way that will pro­tect privacy rights and still allow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with the cooperation of the Social Security Administration (SSA) and Inter­nal Revenue Service (IRS), to find those large employers who intentionally violate the law by hir­ing illegal workers and giving the government incorrect information.