by DFA Staff [courtesy of Blog for America]

The Los Angeles Tims reports on the Bush administration decision to bypass environmental rules in order to complete 670 miles of fencing along our southern border with Mexico:

In an aggressive move to finish building 670 miles of border fence by the end of this year, the Department of Homeland Security announced today that it will waive federal environmental laws to meet that goal.

The two waivers, which will allow the department to slash through a thicket of environmental and cultural laws, would be the most expansive to date, encompassing land in California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas that stretches about 470 miles.

Danny
Communications Director

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

The latest New Hampshire polls have Obama and McCain leading their parties: Obama, 36%; Clinton, 28%; Edwards, 22%; McCain, 35%; Romney, 31%; Huckabee, 13%.

Orange County has avoided disaster following this weekends storm. Emergency preparedness officials had warned that burn areas could facemajor landslides. "We have very saturated hillsides, so we're keeping awatchful eye," said Carol Singleton, a spokeswoman for the Governor'sOffice of Emergency Services.

The Department of Homeland Security is reconsidering its policy of allowing immigrant spouses to remain inthe United States when their abusive spouses refuse to help them obtainlegal status. Compassion is optional at the DHS, it would seem.

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Image courtesy of latimes.com  

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Bush Administration andthe Department of Homeland Security did a better job of responding tothe southern California wildfires than they did to HurricaneKatrina—but not by much. While kudos are given to GovernorSchwarzenegger and San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders for a quick response, the federal government was apparently slow to send out firefighting aircraft, instead preferring to stage phony press conferences at FEMA.

Congress is almost certain to override President Bush’s veto of a $23-billion water billyesterday, which includes funds to shore up California’s levies,reports the Contra Costa Times. Bipartisan support for the bill hasbeen strong, as it which would provide money for water projects allover the country.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

The Bush administration's announcement that the Department of Homeland Security will require employers to fire employees with invalid Social Security numbers threatens the health of California's economy. This new policy also stands in stark contrast to the carrot-and-stick approach to immigration reform that the Senate debated, and the president supported, as recently as June of this year.   

California's economy is as large as it is diverse. Our state is home to the largest agricultural sector in the United States, popular tourism destinations, and a vibrant construction industry. The new immigration enforcement guidelines, set to take effect in September, will threaten each of these sectors at a time when we can ill afford it.

One worrisome example of the immediate effect these guidelines will have is the upcoming fall harvest period, when California's farmers rely heavily on seasonal labor. Without access to seasonal workers, farmers will be unable to harvest their crops and the $32 billion agricultural industry will face what Senator Dianne Feinstein has predicted will be a "catastrophe." 

In addition to the effect on California's largest economic sectors, tax revenues will decrease and demands on social programs will increase. Migrant workers will be left with the option of unemployment or working in underground jobs where employers do not pay taxes or file the necessary paperwork for their employees. 

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by juls [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Who knew that Marinucci's story a week ago on the hiring of Canadian Christopher Matthews to be the California Republican Party's deputy political director would lead to his colleague resigning and accusations of breaking the federal law?  Here we are with yet another A1 story at the Chron.  Today's story breaks the news that the CRP may have violated federal law by failing to demand to see Kamburowski's green card.

by dday [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

The Chron gives a follow-up to last week's hilarious story that the California Republican Party has been hiring non-citizens to staff their top jobs, even as they decry the menace of immigration.  In fact, it turns out that one of their hires may not even be in the country legally.

Michael Kamburowski, the Australian immigrant hired as a top official in the California Republican Party, was ordered deported in 2001, jailed three years later for visa violations -- and has filed a $5 million wrongful arrest lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to U.S. District Court documents.

Kamburowski was named in March to be the chief operating officer of the California GOP. He is responsible for the state party's multimillion-dollar budget and oversees campaign funds and financing for the nation's largest state GOP organization.

This is hypocrisy on steroids.  You have a party that never misses an opportunity to rail against illegal immigration, hiring an illegal immigrant, essentially, as their COO.  Kamburowski says he's a legal resident now, and that he's suing DHS for unlawfully jailing him and attempting to deport him.

But the funniest part is, for a lot of this time, Kamburowski was selling real estate in the Dominican Republic:

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

The AP reports about a woman searching for her son in Tijuana,whom she says was deported illegally.  Pedro Guzman was jailed for amisdemeanor on May 11 and subsequently deported.  Guzman's relativessued the Department of Homeland Security and the Los Angeles CountySheriff's Department, saying that he was born in California and is a UScitizen.  The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern Californiasays that it has Guzman's birth certificate showing that he was born inLA county.

The conservative Heritage Foundation released a "scary immigrants" study that claims that the cost of amnesty for 12 million immigrants would be$2.6 trillion by the time they reach their 80s.  The Sacramento Beecompares this estimate to that of the Congressional Budget Office,which found that the proposed legalization program would actual producea surplus of $26.5 billion over 10 years.  Even the Cato Institutedisagrees with the Heritage Foundation study.  "Those numbers are wayout of whack.  The answer is not to limit the number of workers in oureconomy." said Daniel Griswold, Cato's trade policy director.

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