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Re Biden plans big changes in immigration system some wont be easy (Nov. 18): Just read Michael Smolens column about immigration.

One thing that is seldom mentioned in the debate is sanctioning employers. When I was a young contractor looking for day laborers, I heard that the Border Patrol was confiscating peoples trucks if they were transporting illegal workers. So I started asking for papers from the workers.

If Homeland Security started fining or arresting employers for employing illegal workers, both the job market and the reason to immigrate would dry up.

I know well-connected employers would cry bloody murder. And society would have to face the paradox of plentiful cheap labor versus illegal immigration. Perhaps it would allow a real conversation to take place.

Neil MeyerEscondido

Opinion resources

The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters.

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Readers React: Employers must be part of the illegal immigration issue - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Italian and Slovenian police say they have foiled an international criminal organization that helped migrants travel from a center for asylum seekers in Ljubljana to European countries -- mainly Italy, France and Germany. Alleged members of the association included people in charge of security at the hosting facility, investigative sources said on November 20.

Investigators at the police department of Ljubljana and Italian police last week completed a joint investigation into a criminal organization that allegedly trafficked immigrants in Slovenia and Italy.

A total of 12 people were charged as part of the investigation, including seven suspects who were detained, the police department of the north-eastern Italian city of Trieste said on November 20.

The investigation was directed by prosecutors in Trieste, based on a European investigation order requested by Slovenian magistrates.

The probe was carried out by security officials and border police in Trieste together with officials in Rome. The criminal complaints and arrests were filed and carried out in Slovenia.

Security officials said they discovered at least 26 episodes in which the criminal organization aided and abetted illegal immigration with the illicit transfer of 108 immigrants.

Italian authorities, alerted by Slovenian police, reported eight episodes between June and October this year in which 31 immigrants were apprehended by police along the border between Italy and Slovenia in the woods between Trieste and Gorizia.

During one of these operations, an Afghan citizen was arrested in the north-eastern Italian city of Gorizia on charges of aiding and abetting illegal immigration.

The probe, which was mainly carried out in the Slovenian Republic, discovered a criminal group that favored illegal immigration from Turkey, Iraq, Greece, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia until Slovenia, and from Slovenia to other countries in the European Union, investigators in Trieste said.

In many cases Italy was the country of destination.Several members of the criminal group, who were waiting to obtain international protection, were staying at the hosting center in Ljubljana, where the illegal transfers were organized.

According to evidence discovered by Slovenian police, one of the main suspects, who is also an asylum seeker, managed contacts abroad with the other members of the organization in order to follow the arrival of migrants in Slovenia and their subsequent illegal transfer to Italy and to other EU member States.

Members of the criminal group were well informed regarding immigration laws within the European Union and police procedures, investigators said.

The group was structured and members had different roles: some organized the departure of migrants from the country of provenance while others selected the places where they would be staying along the way. Others selected payment methods and confirmation of the migrants' arrival at their final destination in order for payments to be completed, the sources said.

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Migrant trafficking ring uncovered by Italy-Slovenia probe - InfoMigrants

A 22-year-old woman from Bangladesh has been arrested by Tamil Nadu police from Minjur, an industrial Chennai suburb, for staying without a valid visa.

This is the second such arrest of an illegal Bangladeshi immigrant near Chennai in the last three weeks after a 22-year-old man was arrested from another industrial suburb Avadi.

Local media said that the 22-year woman, Papia Ghosh, arrested by police yesterday (24 November), had entered India illegally after befriending a West Bengal resident, Shashi Sheikh, through Facebook.

Both of them had come to the hosiery town of Tiruppur and stayed their briefly. Sheikh got a job with a container firm at Minjur and this brought them to the Chennai suburb.

Ironically, both of them had registered their marriage at Pollachi in the States Coimbatore district in February.

Three weeks ago, Tamil Nadu police arrested 22-year-old Basha, who entered the country illegally and was working at a construction site in Arikambedu near Avadi Heavy Vehicles Factory which manufactures the latest battle tanks for Indian defence forces.

Basha had crossed into India four years ago and had worked at the hilly resort town of Kodaikanal for two years before coming to Avadi two months ago.

This is the latest in a slew of incidents in which illegal Bangladeshi immigrants have been detected in this part of the country.

Observers say that many illegal Bangladeshi immigrants are present in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana and Karnataka, where they are employed at construction sites, rubber plantations, coffee estates and other related sectors, besides brothels.

In August this year, a 30-year-old Bangladesh woman was arrested from Madurai for staying illegally. She had married S Thoufiq, founder of Naam Manithar Katchi, who was involved in the kidnapping of businessmen for ransom to fund terrorist activities in the region.

A month ago, an illegal Bangladeshi woman was arrested from the Uppal area in Telanganas capital Hyderabad for running a brothel along with her Indian husband.

A native of Narayanagunj district in Bangladesh, the 35-year-old Moyna Akhtar aka Shafeeq Ul Islam had even obtained an Aadhar card.

Another Bangladeshi, a 26-year-old woman, was rescued from a brothel last month from Rachakonda near Hyderabad. She had entered illegally from Jashua district.

In June this year, a group of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants were detected in Tiruppur trying to get employment in the hosiery industry. Another six-member group of illegal migrants were found living in Cheral village in Keralas Ernakulam district.

These illegal immigrants earn up to Rs 800 as daily wages in Kerala, taking up various jobs. Kerala is facing a labour shortage for construction and rubber tapping, as locals find taking up such jobs a hurdle to getting married.

In Tamil Nadu, locals find easy money from various social welfare schemes and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme, forcing industries to look for workers from north and north-east regions.

Illegal Bangladeshi immigrants find their way to the deep south of India, disguising as Bengalis.

In May, Swarajya reported that illegal Bangladesh immigrants were detected at another Chennai suburb, Tambaram, after two groups of immigrants fought over sharing of Coronavirus relief materials.

The groups were let scot-free with police saying that they had left the place to another one. The illegal immigrants had come from Bengaluru, where they were employed in the construction sector.

In February this year, 40 illegal Bangladesh immigrants were deported by Tamil Nadu after discreet checks found they had settled in various parts of the State, while they arrested another four illegal immigrants later that month from Erode district.

In January, police arrested five illegal Bangladesh immigrants in Krishnagiri district, that borders Bengaluru in Karnataka.

In December 2018, Times of India reported that 21 illegal Bangladesh immigrants detected living in Tiruppur after getting Aadhar, voter identity and ration cards besides passports had felt being at home in Tamil Nadu. One of the immigrants had even filed an income tax return.

S B Chavan, who was the Home Minister during P V Narasimha Raos 1991-96 rule, told Parliament, in response to a question, that it is difficult to estimate the number of Bangladesh immigrants illegally living in India as they enter surreptitiously and are able to mingle easily with the local population because of ethnic-lingual similarities".

The Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis, in a report on illegal migration from Bangladesh in December 2016, said that in the absence of any authentic official data on the number of illegal migrants, the census data on population growth has been always presented as an indicator of large-scale illegal migration from Bangladesh to India, particularly the North-East.

Link:
Tamil Nadu Police Arrest Second Illegal Bangladeshi Immigrant In Three Weeks From Chennai Suburb: Here's A Chronology Of Such Immigration - Swarajya

WASHINGTON This nations empirical and inquisitive Founders considered information conducive to improvement, which is one reason the Constitution mandates a decennial census. And why James Madison soon proposed expanding the census beyond mere enumeration to recording other data. Today, the census provides an ocean of information indispensable to understanding this complex society. And it determines the disbursement of $1.5 trillion annually from the federal government.

On Nov. 30, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a census-related case concerning a question of large philosophic interest and practical consequences: Was it constitutional 22 states, 15 cities and counties and other entities say no for the president to order the exclusion of unauthorized immigrants from the enumeration of states populations used for apportioning congressional seats? Apportionment was the initial reason for the census, and remains its only constitutional function.

The president says: Because the census original and fundamental purpose concerns Americans as a political community, it would be incongruous to give congressional representation to illegal immigrants who are subject to removal from the country. Foreign tourists should not be counted, and military personnel stationed abroad should be, because the former are not, and the latter are, members of the political community.

This argument, though interesting for a political philosophy seminar, is insufficient for the Supreme Court, which must construe the two constitutional provisions concerning apportionment. One (in Article I) mandates an actual Enumeration of persons other than Indians not taxed. The second (in the 14th Amendment) says seats in the House of Representatives shall be apportioned among the states counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. An amicus brief by two constitutional scholars, Ilya Somin of George Mason University and Sanford Levinson of the University of Texas, demonstrates that neither provision allows the exclusion of unauthorized immigrants.

The Framers understood persons broadly, with the sole exception of Indians not taxed because they were considered noncitizens with an allegiance to distinct political communities: their tribes. The Framers would not have expressly excluded Indians not taxed if persons excluded foreigners or others with an allegiance to a government other than the U.S. government. So, the Framers clearly meant persons to include immigrants.

Most of the Framers, say Somin and Levinson, did not believe the federal government had the power to exclude immigrants there was no significant federal immigration restriction until 1875 so they could hardly have intended to exclude from apportionment illegal immigrants. Furthermore, the Framers expected that the congressional apportionment count would include the more than half the adult population that was not entitled to vote because of gender, or property requirements.

Members of Congress, Somin and Levinson argue, have always been thought to represent the interests of many persons in 1790, at most 70% of white men, and few others, could vote to whom they were not directly accountable at the ballot box. Today, most states deny the vote to children under age 18, and some felons, yet these groups are counted in congressional apportionment.

The 14th Amendment, which stipulates the enumeration of the whole number of persons, elsewhere uses the term citizens. So, by persons the amendments authors denoted a broader category. The Supreme Court has held that in this amendment persons refers to the total population, including immigrants, whatever their status under the immigration laws.

The court has repeatedly held that the person[s] the Fifth Amendments Due Process Clause protects (No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law) includes aliens in the U.S. population. And unlike foreign diplomats or tourists, the United States is the usual residence of unauthorized immigrants.

The 1787 Constitutional Conventions Committee of Style replaced inhabitants with persons, so supporters of excluding unauthorized immigrants from the census enumeration for apportionment argue, implausibly: The Framers considered the two words synonymous, and that foreigners by definition cannot be inhabitants. But Somin and Levinson say that in its original public meaning, inhabitants meant people who intend to stay somewhere indefinitely. Therefore, these facts matter: More than 60% of the estimated 10.5 million unauthorized immigrants have lived here more than 10 years, and more than 20% for more than 20 years.

Republicans would benefit from not counting illegal immigrants for purposes of apportionment: This would reduce congressional seats (and electoral votes) in mostly blue states (27% of such immigrants are in California) and shift power away from cities. Republicans generally say, however, that the Constitution should be construed according to the texts original meaning. Forced to choose between power and principle, well . . .

George Wills column is syndicated by The Washington Post.

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Will: Where the GOP and the Framers disagree - The Winchester Star

Immigration officials have been accused of using coercive tactics to gain access to peoples homes and businesses without search warrants.

Campaigners claim that rather than convince a judge of the need to perform a search, uniformed immigration officers often simply demand to be let into the premises they are targeting.

While the law allows them to enter if the occupant gives informed consent, critics have said many of the people targeted are unlikely to know they have the right to refuse without risking getting into trouble.

We have been extremely concerned with the number of cases in which immigration enforcement officers have failed to obtain fully informed consent, the Migrants Rights Network (MRN) told the Guardian.

Mahlea Babjak, the groups London project manager, said many people were not being given information regarding all the risks and alternatives to being questioned during an immigration raid, adding: Every business owner and employee has the right to feel safe in their workplace.

The practice was highlighted in evidence given in a case against two anti-raids activists accused of obstructing immigration officers. The district judge, Julia Newton, sitting at Highbury Corner magistrates court, dismissed the charges last Friday.

Raj Chada, of the law firm Hodge Jones and Allen, who represented the two activists, said many people visited by immigration officers were not in a position to give genuinely informed consent. What the hell are they going to say? The occupier often does not know they can say no. They call it informed consent, I call it coercive consent.

The MRN said people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds were among the principal targets of immigration raids against small businesses, which it said amounted to discrimination.

It said: These operations are rarely focused on intelligence and are consistently beyond a warrants scope. We urge the Home Office to stop conducting immigration raids in the community, as they are extremely harmful to a businesss local reputation and financial earnings, and damaging to employees mental wellbeing.

Activists from the Anti-Raids Network, which regularly documents enforcement activities, have also accused the authorities of pursuing them for political reasons after the case against two of their number was dismissed.

Babjak said: We are extremely concerned with the Home Offices recent targeting of activists, as we believe the Home Office must be held to account for its actions that undermine domestic and international law and the rights of all migrants.

Holly Lynch, the shadow immigration minister, said: This government repeatedly fails to respect the law and legal protections for people, while deliberately undermining the role of lawyers on immigration matters. These are serious issues and its vital that the law is adhered to at all times. Failure to do that puts at risk the possibility of sound and fair judgments being made.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: Immigration officers have a range of powers to tackle illegal working, which is a key driver of illegal migration and exploitative working conditions, including modern slavery. She denied officers were bypassing the need for a warrant if they ask for informed consent and stressed that the law allowed them to question people on that basis.

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UK immigration officials accused of using coercive tactics to access homes - The Guardian