Although most voters rank immigration as an important issue, it wasn’t one for the presidential candidates yesterday. Many of the problems that the United States faces – in health care, education, and public finance – are made worse by our cheap labor addiction and outsourcing costs to the public sector.
Romney Campaign Clarifies, Says He Won’t Grant New Deferred Action Petitions
“With hours to go before the presidential candidates meet in Denver for their first debate, Mitt Romney has scaled back his acceptance of a program by President Obama to grant reprieves from deportation to hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants,” the New York Times says.
“On Monday, after months of pressure to clarify whether he would end the program if elected, Mr. Romney said in an interview with The Denver Post that he would not cancel two-year deportation deferrals already granted by the Obama administration.”
Judge Halts Anti-Fraud Effort in N.M.
“Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration agreed Wednesday to settle a lawsuit and not revive a plan to cancel the driver’s licenses of immigrants who fail to verify whether they still live in the state. The administration announced the program last year but it was suspended by a state district court in Santa Fe after the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed a lawsuit,” TheRepublic.com reports.
Immigration Not an Issue in First Obama-Romney Debate
“Immigration — and Mitt Romney’s evolving position on how to address those who’ve already come into the U.S. illegally — has driven the conversation on the campaign trail this week. But despite the presidential debate being held Wednesday in Colorado — where more than 20 percent of the population is Hispanic — Romney and President Barack Obama focused almost exclusively on the economy, health care and the broader role of the federal government,” the Dallas Morning News says.
“With two more debates scheduled this month, however, the immigration topic is unlikely to disappear as Romney ups his outreach to Hispanic voters in an effort to inoculate some of his more strident immigration rhetoric from the GOP primary.”
Attention California Grocery Shoppers: Mi Pueblo Is Using E-Verify
“Mi Pueblo Foods, a grocery chain catering to the Latino market, is facing a boycott after agreeing to participate in a federal program designed to verify the immigration status of employees. Mike Henneberry, spokesman for United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 5, said the union will launch the boycott Monday in an effort to get the San Jose-based chain to roll back its use of the Internet-based E-Verify program,” the San Jose Mercury News says.
“Mi Pueblo spokeswoman Perla Rodriguez said the action is the latest “stunt” by a union that’s unsuccessfully tried to organize workers for years. She acknowledged the boycott could hurt business. ‘What concerns us is that the union says it cares about our employees, but taking this action could have a negative impact on our employees,’ she said. ‘At the end of the day, it could cost jobs. These are real people with real families who need to put food on the table.'”
Based around Central California, the Mi Pueblo site has a list of locations on their website.