Gov. Brown Signs License Bill, Vetoes Sanctuary Bill

Do President Obama and Mitt Romney differ on immigration? Not if you start from an ideological position that views any immigration enforcement with suspicion. This weekend, Gov. Brown of California vetoed the anti-detainer bill, AB 1081. Thanks to all FAIR supporters for writing the Governor and convincing him that this was a bad bill.

The Vanishing Milkmaids of New York

“Yes, politicians can overcome partisanship and unite around something: making New York state the next yogurt capital. However, that can’t happen without a new immigration process. And our political leaders have not been able to break through the logjam of inaction on immigration,” says National Immigration Forum executive director Ali Noorani.

“If Democrats and Republicans cannot come together on an immigration strategy, the Empire State will not be able to foster its upstate dairy farmers’ dreams for a yogurt cluster economy. That cluster economy is good for all of upstate New York, not just dairy farmers, because each skilled farmworker sustains about three nonfarm jobs — someone has to package and deliver the fruits of farmworkers’ labor. And with a 13 percent poverty rate, upstate New York could use those additional jobs.”

Do Romney and Obama Differ on Immigration?

“The immigration debate highlights a larger truth about America’s two major parties–administrative priorities, not principles, distinguish them. Neither party objects to quotas, detention, deportation, surveillance, national identification, conscription of employers, regulations, sanctions, nor the other draconian features of America’s immigration bureaucracy. The status quo legal institutions have the full support of both parties’ political establishments: their practical differences amount to little more than tinkering around the edges,” says David Bier, of the libertarian leaning Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Gov. Brown Signs License Bill, Vetoes Sanctuary Bill

“Gov. Jerry Brown has vetoed legislation designed to curtail the deportation of undocumented immmigrants arrested on minor or non-violent offenses. Assembly Bill 1081 would have prohibited local law enforcement agencies from holding arrestees for federal immigration authorities unless the crime or conviction involved a serious or violent felony,” the Sacramento Bee reports.

However, “Some illegal immigrants could get a California driver’s license under a bill that Gov. Jerry Brown announced he signed into law late Sunday,” the Christian Science Monitor says. “AB2189 by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, (D) of Los Angeles, will let the Department of Motor Vehicles issue licenses to illegal immigrants eligible for work permits under a new Obama administration policy. The bill requires the department to accept as proof of legal residence whatever document the federal government provides to participants in its deferred action program.”

DHS Hosts Honduran, Guatemalan Delegation

“Immigration officials from Guatemala and Honduras toured U.S. Immigration facilities on a trip to south Texas in August to learn more about U.S. detention and removal process and policies, said ICE on Sept. 28,” GSN Magazine reports.

“During the three-day trip, the Guatemalan and Honduran officials, along with foreign service nationals and representatives from foreign nongovernmental organizations, traveled to south Texas to gain personal insight into the lifecycle of the detention and removal process, according to ICE.”