Posted on 06/17/2005 9:18:36 PM PDT by bayourod
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - Immigrants won a handful of protections from the 2005 Nevada Legislature, including measures that preserve their access to college scholarships, aim to improve their health and target human traffickers.
Advocates point to the battle over cutting back the cash-strapped Millennium Scholarship program as the most visible win for immigrants.
Republicans in the Senate had backed a plan that would have prohibited students without Social Security numbers from receiving the $10,000 college tuition awards. Late-night, hot-tempered negotiations blew up when Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, asked Democrats if they wanted the money to go to "illegal aliens."
Although the issue - along with new grade point average requirements and semester credit limits - forced lawmakers into a special session, the compromise deal removed the Social Security provision and was approved unanimously in the Senate and by a large majority in the Assembly.
"These are children who've gone through the public school system and their parents are paying taxes," said Jan Gilbert of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada. "We believe they deserve (the scholarship) like other students."
A bill that tries to reduce harassment and discrimination in schools ranks high on American Civil Liberties Union lobbyist Laura Mijanovich's list of victories for immigrants. Mijanovich said immigrant children, particularly Muslim girls who wear headscarves, are often bullied, and school employees don't always deal with the complaints.
AB202 requires schools to have a uniform system of reporting harassment or bullying, and mandates staff training.
"They need to understand there's a lot of bias and stereotypes that need to be broken, and I believe this bill will help them deal with it in a more positive way," she said.
Attorney General Brian Sandoval introduced two bills aimed at protecting recent arrivals to the state, including SB456, which cracks down on human trafficking, slavery and forced labor.
Migrant workers in the construction and agricultural industries, and young men and women caught in the sex trade are the most common victims in Nevada, Chief Deputy Attorney General Gerald Gardner said.
The bill rewrites a Nevada law on involuntary servitude to include enslaving someone by confiscating their passport or threatening them with deportation.
"It gives us a far stronger tool to prosecute those trafficking in human slavery by allowing us to get them for physical and nonphysical threats," Gardner said. "It also helps us target the middle men, those who do the recruiting and harboring of trafficking victims."
Sandoval's other effort, which would have regulated businesses that advertise translation services but often dispense specious legal advice on naturalization, died in an Assembly committee.
AB490 ran into opposition from legal experts who argued the businesses were illegally practicing law and should be shut down, not regulated.
Assemblyman Mo Denis, D-Las Vegas was more successful with his proposal to bar notaries public from advertising with the Spanish translation "notario publico" - a common term for "lawyer" in some countries.
Lawmakers also created and funded an Office of Minority Health to coordinate programs to try to improve minorities' access to affordable health care.
Advocates were less successful in pushing a bill that would have required construction companies that have contracts with the state to recruit more minorities and women. Faced with industry opposition, the bill was rewritten as a resolution encouraging women and minorities to take advantage of opportunities in the field.
That's why I support President Bush's guest worker plan. But your anti-illegals friends aren't going to accept any plan that results in the same number of immigrant laborers working here, legal or illegal.
Now you're crawfishing. If the only thing you say that counts is whether they are legal then you have to like them whether they became legal by reason of amnesty or otherwise.
The fact is that the antis will never support a new law that allows for the same number of immigrant laborers. What they have always really wanted is 9 million Mexican laborers kicked out and none allowed to return.
"Nevada's legislature has voted more of the largess of her legal citizens to support illegal aliens, ensuring that more will flock there, further indebting the lawful citizens of the state."
It is time we non-Nevadaians took note of this and stopped supporting this by patronizing all those glitzy casinos.
I'll take that as a "no" and a polite version of "pound sand". Thanks. We'll get back to you.
The only difference is their legal status? That's the whole point, that there's a difference between legal and illegal! The day after a foreigner's visa expires, that person is now in the country illegally, meaning that they are now a lawbreaker. But for a person like you who scoffs at the law, the difference between legal and illegal apparently means nothing.
Amnesty does absolutely NOTHING to solve the ongoing problem of illegal immigration. The majority of Americans seem to understand this simple fact but apparently you don't.
The fact is that the antis will never support a new law that allows for the same number of immigrant laborers. What they have always really wanted is 9 million Mexican laborers kicked out and none allowed to return.
You know this is strictly your opinion and can't be backed up by any type of FReeper poll or survey.
Thank you JH for stating the obvious without the essay filled with "where to for's" and etc.
Common sense can show one, even through the rhetorical speak, that if one breaks the law in this way, they at the most, are guaranteed a ticket back to from whence they came.
bayourod is fixated with the idea that "law and order" is a bad thing and apparently feels that "law breakers" are to be treated the same as anyone else. Especially if lawbreakers are not legal citizens.
That's not the issue. You're personalizing it for purely emotional reasons.
This is the issue: why do you favor trespass laws to protect your home, but you are opposed to border controls to protect your country?
I'm not opposed to border controls. In fact I've posted numerous articles about how good Homeland Security is doing.
I have pointed out the reality that it is impossible to seal our borders. The reason I have pointed out that illegal laborers can never be stopped from crossing the border is because some people have drunk the kool-aide that President Bush is a traitor because he hasn't sealed our border, or refuse to support any Republicans or any legislation until the border is first sealed.
Will Rogers said the solution to German Submarines was to heat the oceans up to 210%. People laughed because they understood that such a feat was impossible. But some people actually believe that we can "seal the border", and accordingly blame Bush for not having already done so. Do you believe we can seal all 105,000 miles of land and shore surface borders plus air entry? And of course you know that 50% of all illegals now in the country originally entered legally?
Well, then do you support Tancredo's guest worker plan?
Making our borders secure would require a comprehensive effort, but I believe it could be done. It's probably not possible to shut down all border crossings, but I would imagine with even a modest effort we could reduce the flow by 80 percent. That would be a great start.
A big part of the effort would require cracking down hard on businesses and employers who use undocumented or falsely documented migrant labor. What's happening is, they're getting cheap labor and passing all the social costs onto the American taxpayer. Until and unless we get serious about that part of it, we're going to fight a losing battle.
At the same time, we further doom our efforts if we regularize the trespassing by paying for the trespassers' children's educations and such. We cannot send the message that good things come to those who ignore the law and squat on our land long enough.
That could have been said about Will Rogers' proposal to heat up the oceans to 210%. Have you ever seen a serious study (or hearings) about sealing the borders.
We tried our best on a 66 mile stretch in "Operation Gate Keeper". Double fences (some concrete and steel), guard towers, flood lights inferred cameras, ground sensors, patrol roads, horse patrols, ATV patrols, 16 helicopters, fixed wing aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, trucks, and a ratio of 25 guards per mile were incorporated.
It was successful in reducing the number if immigrants crossing at that sector. Most just went further East to cross, but still about two hundred thousand are caught each year trying to cross, and another estimated 30 to 40 thousand make it across undetected. They dig under, climb over and break through the fences. That’s an average of 454 to 606 per mile per year.
Extrapolate to the 105,000 miles of U.S. land and sea borders and it equates to 2and1/2 million guards with over 40 million illegals still getting through each year.
Take the time to read the Inspector General's report on Operation Gate Keeper and you will never again respect the intelligence of anyone who says that we can "seal the border".
"Take the time to read the Inspector General's report on Operation Gate Keeper and you will never again respect the intelligence of anyone who says that we can "seal the border"."
I invite any and all to read that report. I was surprised to see a less than flattering portrait of the seriousness of that Clinton enacted program.
With tweaking it could be workable.
You didn't even read the Inspector General's Report report did you? I was so conservative in my estimate of effectiveness that I used the propaganda in the press showing how successful it was.
The Inspector general found that the actual daily reports of effectiveness ranged from 10% to 30%, and that the experienced guards estimated a 5% to 15% rate of effectiveness. That means that they were only catching 5% to 30% of the border jumpers.
If Steel and concrete fences with a ratio of 25 guards per mile can only catch 30%, a person would literally have to be a complete idiot to think that we could come anywhere close to ever sealing the border.
Michael Savage might get away with fooling the Neanderthals into believing the border could be sealed, but any candidate who ran on a "sealing the border" platform would be laughed into obscurity.
If you look closely you will notice that "With tweaking it could be workable." was my reply to your question about Tancredos guest worker program. If you would like to find my response to your post about Op Gatekeeper you can look to the post directly above the "tweaking" post.
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