Election results significantly change the immigration picture, some say
The recent mid-term election "has really changed the immigration debate forever," said Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum. Pro-immigration groups such as Sharry's predict that the next session of Congress will be far more receptive to the most volatile elements of President Bush's immigration plan: a temporary guest-worker program and conditional legalization for millions of undocumented immigrants now in the country. In a post-election news conference, Bush again listed immigration as a top priority, describing it as "an issue where I believe we can find some common ground with the Democrats."
McClatchy Newspapers, November 11, 2006

Others predict a more arduous immigration policy debate
Democrats will take over leadership of committees in the House and the Senate that could guide new immigration legislation. Although conservative Republicans have led the opposition to accommodating some illegal immigrants, a handful of the newly elected Democrats, including Claire A. McCaskill of Missouri and Jim Webb of Virginia in the Senate, campaigned promising a tough approach to illegal immigration. Some Democratic incumbents who won re-election did the same.  “It is still a long way from a deal,” said Roberto Suro of the Pew Hispanic Center, a Washington research group. “The question is, can somebody illuminate a middle ground where people who come at this issue from all different directions can reach a settlement.”
nytimes.com, November 10, 2006


DREAM Act Reintroduced in Senate
(Source: Eunice Moscoso, Cox News Service)
On Friday, Nov. 18, a bipartisan group of senators officially introduced S. 2075, the DREAM Act of 2005, giving new life to legislation that has been in a holding pattern since the beginning of the year.  The DREAM Act - short for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors - would let thousands of illegal-immigrant high school students attend college or serve in the military and would give them a conditional visa that would turn into permanent residency if they complete two years of college or serve honorably for two years in the armed forces. It also would allow them to qualify for in-state college tuition.

The legislation would apply to illegal immigrants who arrived in the United States before age 16, have lived in the country for at least five years before the law's enactment, have graduated from high school or obtained a GED, and have no criminal record.

The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute in Washington estimates that the DREAM Act would make 279,000 people immediately eligible for college enrollment or military service. In addition, 715,000 illegal immigrants between the ages of 5 and 17 would become eligible in the future, according to the group.

Some lawmakers, like Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colorado, say they'll fight the act because it rewards illegal behavior.

The National Immigration Law Center has compiled a list of organizations endorsing the Dream Act.  Included among is The Center for New North Carolinians, established at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro in 2001 by the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina. Its mission is to "provide research, training, and evaluation for the state of North Carolina in addressing immigrant issues; collaboration with government and social organizations to enhance responsiveness to immigrant needs; and community support to provide training and workshops."  Others endorsing the act are: TESOL, the North Carolina Justice Center and the North Carolina Society of Hispanic Professionals


Decline in Number of Foreign Students in US is Reversed
The number of new foreign students coming to the United States increased this school year by 8 percent, after several years of weakness that followed the terrorist attacks of 2001. Another sign of a turnaround was a sharp upturn in student visas. India continued to send the most students to the US colleges and universities; China remained second. Korea, Japan and Canada were also in the top five.
nytimes.com, November 13, 2006


Bush Signs U.S.-Mexico Border Fence Bill
President Bush signed into law a bill authorizing the federal government to install fencing, cameras, motion sensors and other types of barriers to stem illegal immigration along 700 miles of the U.S.-Mexican border. "This bill will help protect the American people. This bill will help make our borders more secure," Bush said before signing the legislation.

The centerpiece of Bush's immigration policy, a guest worker program, remains stalled in Congress, with a few House Republicans blocking negotiations with the Senate for a bill that includes the president's proposal. The president used his remarks before the signing ceremony to again push for his guest worker plan. "There is a rational middle ground" between mass deportation of illegal immigrants and amnesty, he said.

The measure Bush signed before heading for campaign stops in Iowa and Michigan offers no money for the project that covers one-third of the 2,100-mile border between the two countries. Its cost is not known, although a homeland security spending measure the president signed earlier this month makes a $1.2 billion down payment on the project. The money can be used for fencing, access roads, vehicle barriers, lighting, high-tech equipment and other tools to secure the border.

Mexican officials have criticized the plan. Outgoing Mexican President Vicente Fox, who has spent much of his six years in office lobbying for a new guest worker program and a chance at citizenship for the millions of Mexicans working illegally in the U.S., calls the idea of a fence "shameful" and compares it to the Berlin Wall.

The Vatican decried the fence as "inhumane." Cardinal Renato Martino, in presenting Pope Benedict XVI’s message for the Roman Catholic Church’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees, lamented that "in a world that greeted the fall of the Berlin Wall with joy, new walls are being built between neighborhood and neighborhood, city and city, nation and nation.”  washingtonpost.com, October 26, 2006
To read the law: http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/immigration/securefenceact2006.html


Feds Offer States Flexibility in Testing Limited-English Students 
The Education Department has given states final permission to leave out the test scores of newly enrolled, limited-English kids when grading schools. The goal is to give schools extra time to work with limited-English students before being held accountable for their yearly progress. Schools welcome the offer because it helps them meet their goals - and avoid penalties - under the No Child Left Behind law. The policy applies only to students who have been in a U.S. school for less than a year. States may exempt their math and reading scores when measuring yearly progress.

Though freshly repackaged, the flexibility is not new. States have been allowed to exempt test scores on a case-by-case basis since 2004, when former Education Secretary Rod Paige announced the draft policy. Forty of them now do it. The final version, announced Wednesday by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, opens the offer to all states.

Spellings' announcement finalizes one other change that's proved popular with states. Schools can consider students as "limited-English students" - and include them in progress reports that way - up to two years after these children have proven they know the language. Schools campaigned for that. Principals say they could never show yearly progress for their group of limited-English kids if they couldn't include the ones who had succeeded. cnn.com, September 14, 2006


Education Department Eases Stand on Teacher Quality
Changing course, the Education Department will allow states to count teachers as highly qualified even under standards that may do little to ensure quality. Last May the Education Department ordered a phaseout of the system which allows veteran teachers to be considered highly qualified under factors that states choose, such as job evaluations, teaching awards or service on school committees. Watchdog groups and the department itself say many states are using this system to set weak, improper standards.

Now Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has pulled back, telling states this week that they now are "strongly encouraged," though not required, to stop using this method to rate teachers. The change could affect tens of thousands of teachers who have not met the conditions of the No Child Left Behind Act. The department says timing is the reason for the pullback; coming up with a regulation to enforce the change could take a year or more. cnn.com, September 8, 2006


Spellings Says No Child Law Near Perfect
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings believes the No Child Left Behind Act is close to perfect and needs little change. "I talk about No Child Left Behind like Ivory soap: It's 99.9 percent pure or something," Spellings told reporters. "There's not much needed in the way of change."

Spellings' comments signal what amounts to the Bush administration's starting position as the law comes up for renewal. That is scheduled to happen as soon as next year. Since Spellings helped craft the law which she now enforces, it is unsurprising that she strongly supports it. Signed by Bush in 2002, the law is widely considered the most significant federal education act since Congress approved its original version in 1965.

Spellings has made her mark as secretary by enforcing the law with flexibility. In areas such as tutoring and testing, she has approved experiments to see what may work better - an approach that has won her praise. A result of the law, she says, is that states and schools are debating how better to help children with limited English skills and students with disabilities, adding that "Just the level of sophistication of the conversation around these issues is, to me, the big news out of No Child Left Behind." AP Report, August 31, 2006