Illegal Immigration

Illegal Immigrants Gaining Access to Public Housing
More controversy is swirling around the problem of illegal immigrants in the U.S. - this time with regards to public housing and how some illegals are able to circumvent the system.

Amnesty for Immigrants - Sign of Weakness or Sympathy?
Why I, a native-born, 100% American, believe illegal immigrants should be given amnesty if they're willing to pay a price for breaking our laws.

Texas Officials Critical of President’s Border Fence Plan
Government officials in the Rio Grande Valley are taking issue with President Bush’s plans for building a fence on the border between the US and Mexico, saying that the fence would block access to the river by farmers, wildlife, and recreation.

Illegal Mom Who Killed Her Son Sentenced to 26 Years in Prison
An illegal immigrant who violently killed her toddler will face deportation—but only after she spends nearly 27 years in a US prison at taxpayer expense.

Hazelton, PA, Doesn’t Want to Be an Illegal Immigrant Melting Pot
In Hazelton, Pennsylvania, the city will defend measures designed to reduce the financial stress illegal immigrants place on the city budget. But Latino groups and the ACLU have come out in full force to fight the municipality.

PA Town Cracks Down on Illegals, Hispanics Leaving in Droves
Wednesday marks the implementation of a tough law targeting illegal immigrants in Hazleton, Pennsylvania.

Arizona Minuteman Project Declared an Unqualified Success
The month-long campaign of the Arizona "minutemen"—volunteers recruited to patrol a stretch of the Arizona/Mexico border to report illegal alien crossings—was extremely successful and brought nationwide attention to the critical problem of illegal immigration.

Is illegal immigration really illegal?
When you build a wall it locks you in just as well as it locks others out.

Profiles in Courage: Illegal Immigrants
No one is asking for medals of valor but until we begin to address the enormous problems created by unregulated corporate greed on a global scale by demanding fair wages and minimal standards of labor, the least we can do is accept responsibility and offer forgiveness. A Jazzman Chronicle by Jack Random.

Tory Great White Fails to Hunt Down Quarry
Simon Hoggart: Preparing for the discussion on illegal immigrants working in the security industry, David Davis must have felt like a shark who sees the limbs of the next swimmer plunge into the water

Illegal Immigration Spurs Constitutional Amendment
Fed up with the federal government's refusal to control illegal immigration, a South Carolina Senator has proposed using Article V of the Constitution to give states the powers to control illegals.

US Deports Mother Who Took Sanctuary
· Mexican arrested after year in Chicago church · Focus on children of illegal immigrants

Martial Arts Equalizer for Border Agents
On the evening of August 8, 2007 a Border Patrol agent fatally shot a suspect who was illegally smuggling immigrants across the border between the United States and Mexico. This is the fifth fatal shooting involving Border Patrol agents in a border state this year, and things are only going to get more dangerous for those in law enforcement.

Illegal Immigration In The United States
Discussion of illegal Immigration In the United States.

Critics Say Tactic of Raiding Building Sites to Scare Out Immigrants is Repulsive and Illegal
Critics say tactic of raiding building sites to scare out immigrants is repulsive and illegal.

Florida Sheriff Sends Out Posses to Flush Out Illegal Immigrants
With the US Senate bogged down in a debate about what to do with the country's 12 million illegal immigrants, a sheriff in a small town in Florida has been testing a new and somewhat controversial solution to the crisis.

The New Hampshire Debate - Recap of a Fear Mongering Feast
They threatened nuking Iran with tactical nuclear weapons, kicking out all immigrants. John McCain even insinuated that Bill Clinton started the Kosovo war, comparing it to erroneously Bush's "illegal" Iraq war. This Republican group offered nothing substantive in terms of policy, other than fear-mongering and the usual empty and predatory rhetoric.

Who Is An American?
With all the current buzz about illegal immigrants in America, outsiders, like me, cannot help but ponder over what constitutes an American. Can one really define an American in the unambiguous, clear cut manner that would identify, say, a Britisher, or an Italian, or a German?

Mcjobs Are Giving Britain a Reputation As Europe's Offshore Banana Republic
Tough inspection to enforce the minimum wage would help to end workforce abuse and illegal immigration. By Polly Toynbee

Border Fence Bosses Sentenced for Hiring Illegal Immigrants
The president of an engineering company that helped to build a border fence to prevent Mexicans crossing illegally into the US was hoist with his own petard yesterday when he was sentenced to six months house arrest for hiring illegal immigrants.

EU Warned of New Wave of Illegal Immigrants
The European commission yesterday warned of a fresh wave of tens of thousands of illegal migrants arriving on the beaches of southern Europe this summer and issued an appeal for help in curbing migration from sub-Saharan Africa.

Mexico Fury As Bush Gives Go-ahead to Border Fence
Relations between the US and Mexico today took a turn for the worse after George Bush signed legislation for a 700-mile border fence to counter illegal immigration into the US.

Foreign workers in the USA and UK
In the USA recently over 1 million immigrants, both legal and illegal protested at there lack of rights and residency in a country that many of them have spent years working in.

Sarkozy Forced to Review Plans to Deport Children of Illegal Immigrants
The French interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, was yesterday forced to issue an amnesty to hundreds of children of illegal immigrants who were to be deported at the end of their school term, after a protest movement of teachers and parents began hiding children from police.

Illegals: Some Win - You Lose
You as a taxpayer are the loser - in every respect - every time a new law is passed. So when it comes to new immigration laws, who are the winners?

Spain Will Urge Africa to Stem Immigrant Tide
Spanish authorities yesterday pledged to use satellite monitoring and a diplomatic offensive to prevent fresh waves of fishing boats full of illegal immigrants setting out from west Africa for the Canary Islands.

Fresh Stalemate Over Us Immigration Bill
US senators were today locked in renewed stalemate over plans for major reforms that would put millions of illegal immigrants on the path to US citizenship.

US Senators Reach Compromise on Immigration Bill
US politicians reached a breakthrough overnight on an immigration bill that would put the vast majority of the country's 11 million illegal immigrants on the path to US citizenship.

Immigration Ignorance
What is driving all of this passion surrounding illegal immigration? What is not being reported about this issue? Read on to find out.

Migrants Take Protest to La Streets
At least half a million people took to the streets of Los Angeles at the weekend in support of America's illegal immigrants - part of a surge of protests before a week when the future of millions of "undocumented workers" could be decided.

Spanish Search for African Migrants Lost in Atlantic
Spanish rescue services resumed their search yesterday for a boatload of illegal immigrants lost on the Atlantic, as reports emerged that fishing canoes carrying Africans desperate to reach Europe were now setting out from as far away as Senegal, almost 1,000 miles to the south.

US Republicans Back Fence to Keep Out Drugs and Immigrants
Republicans in the United States Congress have approved the construction of a 700-mile fence along the border with Mexico to block the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs into the country.

Navy Deal to Fight Illegal Migration
Spain, Italy and France are planning to launch joint navy patrols in the Mediterranean to fight illegal immigration, drug-trafficking and terrorism. Initial agreement came during a meeting between Spain's socialist prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and Silvio...

Fire at Dutch Airport Prison Kills 11 Illegal Immigrants
Guards at a detention centre at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam were last night accused of negligence after at least 11 illegal immigrants burned to death in a fire at the complex.

Cuban Boy Dies in Smuggler Tragedy
A six-year-old boy drowned when a smugglers' speedboat ferrying illegal Cuban immigrants to the United States capsized off the coast of Florida.

France Rejects Migrant Amnesty
The French interior minister, Dominique de Villepin, yesterday unveiled a package of tough new anti-immigration measures and warned that mass amnesties for migrants who had entered the country illegally were "completely out of the question".

Spain Grants Amnesty to 700,000 Migrants
Spain declared an amnesty yesterday for about 700,000 illegal immigrants - bucking a Europe-wide trend of cracking down on economic migrants.

Vigilantes Gather for Arizona Round-up of Illegal Migrants
Illegal immigrants cross the wire fences of the US Mexican border every night. Now 2,000 volunteers are to begin their own patrols to keep them out. Paul Harris reports from Tombstone.

Bush Search for New Terror Chief
The White House was yesterday scrambling to find a new candidate for the high-profile post of homeland security chief after its original choice was forced to stand down for hiring a nanny who was an illegal immigrant.

Migrants Must Not Die at Sea, Berlusconi Told
The head of Italy's coastguard yesterday stepped into a growing row over illegal immigration with a sharp reminder to Silvio Berlusconi's rightwing government of its humanitarian responsibilities. Admiral Eugenio Sicurezza, whose officers are in the front line of attempts to stem...

Italy's Right Beats Drum on Migrants
A member of Silvio Berlusconi's cabinet yesterday stirred the bitter debate over immigration by declaring that people attempting to enter the country illegally should be "returned to sender" en masse before they are allowed to land. The comments from Roberto Calderoli, a member of the...

The New Frontier
Cyprus's position at the crossroads of Europe, Africa and the Middle East puts it firmly in the vanguard of the EU's battle against illegal immigration, writes Helena Smith.

UK Diplomat in Romania Punished for Immigration Leak
James Cameron, a British diplomat based in Romania, was disciplined yesterday by the Foreign Office over the leaking of information to the Conservatives about illegal immigrants from eastern Europe. The decision was made at the end of a four-hour hearing at a disciplinary panel. He has a...

Britain Forces Through Demand to Retain Eu Airline Passenger Data
France and Germany last night bowed to a British demand that EU governments automatically retain data on airline passenger records to help fight illegal immigration and investigate terrorist networks. British officials claimed victory for a tough new approach just days after Tony Blair...

Hispanics Targeted in Election Ploy
With campaign figures showing that George Bush raised a record $130m (£74m) last year for his re-election bid, the president moved yesterday to woo America's fast growing Hispanic community by proposing a guest worker programme which would legalise the status of millions of illegal immigrants...

Bush Woos Hispanic Immigrants
President George Bush is expected to unveil proposals today to allow at least some of the estimated 10 million illegal immigrants in the US to become legal guest workers, in an election-year gambit aimed at the country's fast-growing Hispanic electorate. The initiative is likely to create...

Latinos Call for Strike Over California Drive Ban
Millions of Latinos in California are being asked not to work, shop or attend school next Friday in protest at the new governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's repeal this week of a bill that would have allowed illegal immigrants to obtain driving licenses. Latino organisations are calling for...

Migrants Lost As Boat Capsizes
Spanish air-sea rescue services were searching waters around the Canary island of Fuerteventura yesterday after 15 illegal immigrants from Africa fell overboard while being transferred from a fishing boat to a rescue launch. They were among 31 immigrants whose boat capsized while they...

Spanish Inquiry Into Drowning of Migrants
Spain's national ombudsman yesterday opened an investigation into why 36 illegal African immigrants drowned within reach of a big US-Spanish naval base. Spanish authorities took almost an hour to answer a call for help and launch a rescue boat when a speedboat with more than 40 immigrants...

EU Border Agency to Boost Controls
The EU is to boost the fight against illegal immigration by setting up an agency to help manage its external borders - about to extend to Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The new body is designed to coordinate national controls and will include experts from all 25 member states after next...

France Sets Targets for Expelling Migrants
The French interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, has launched his toughest and most controversial offensive yet against illegal immigration, setting local authorities individual "expulsion targets" for the coming year. In a circular last week to France's prefects, Mr Sarkozy said he wanted...

Berlusconi Praised for Remarks on Immigrants
Silvio Berlusconi won rare plaudits in the European parliament yesterday for highlighting the painful issue of illegal immigration - and failing to make any of the gaffes for which he is now notorious.

Refugees Die After Being Thrown in Sea
Dozens of refugees and illegal immigrants from east Africa were feared drowned in the Gulf of Aden yesterday after smugglers forced them off a boat at gunpoint, six miles from the coast of Yemen, according to a UN official. At least 21 people died and fears were mounting for a further 80...

Dutch Court Convicts Chinese People-smugglers
The Netherlands' role as a staging post for thousands of UK-bound illegal Chinese immigrants was underscored yesterday after a Dutch court convicted seven members of one of Europe's biggest human trafficking gangs of smuggling people into Britain. A Rotterdam court found two of the seven...

Expelled Journalist's Wife Forced to Flee Zimbabwe
Dolores Cortes Meldrum, the wife of the Guardian journalist Andrew Meldrum, who was illegally expelled from Zimbabwe last month, fled the country yesterday fearing she would face the same fate as her husband. She is due to arrive in London today. The Zimbabwe immigration service this week...

Human Trafficking 'mastermind' Goes on Trial
A Chinese woman, said to be one of Europe's most prolific people-smugglers, went on trial in the Netherlands yesterday for allegedly masterminding the transit of thousands of illegal immigrants from rural China to the UK. The woman, known as "Ms Ping", appeared with seven others at a...

The Southern Slave Trade
There is one group of illegal immigrants that Australia seems to welcome with open arms - those smuggled in by people-traffickers, writes David Fickling.

Food Giant Did Not Hire Illegal Staff
Tyson Foods, one of the world's largest chicken producers, was cleared yesterday of smuggling illegal immigrants from Latin America into the US to work in its plants. Three managers of the company were also cleared at the end of a trial in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Police rumble rumba king's illegal immigrant racket
The career of Papa Wemba - king of the Congolese rumba and the best-dressed man in town - never missed a beat for 30 years, peaking when the American record industry crowned him the best of all African singers.

US Sniper: Nomadic Life of a Confused Killer With Short Fuse
Picture emerges of 'sergeant-recruit' relationship between Gulf veteran and young illegal immigrant.

Migration and Brain Drain
Human trafficking and people smuggling are multi-billion dollar industries. At least 50% of the 150 million immigrants the world over are illegal aliens. There are 80 million migrant workers found in virtually every country.

Two Illegal Immigrants Were Granted Permits to Live and Work in France After Saving a Man's Life.
Two illegal immigrants from Guinea, with neither homes nor jobs, were granted permits to live and work in France after saving a man's life.

Liberian Migrants Die in Sicilian Shipwreck
At least 14 people died yesterday after a boat carrying illegal immigrants from Liberia capsized in a storm off the southern coast of Sicily.

Dutch Minister Unveils Tough Measures Against Illegal Immigrants
Still riding the wave of anti-immigration sentiment espoused by the murdered populist politician Pim Fortuyn, the Netherlands announced new measures yesterday which will turn it into one of Europe's least welcoming places for those seeking sanctuary. In a television interview which has...

Spain in Hi-tech War on Immigrants
The Spanish police have installed a £90m system of radars and night vision cameras to help it stop illegal immigrants being smuggled across the Strait of Gibraltar from Africa. The interior minister, Angel Acebes, said yesterday that the system would enable the frontier police to...

Briton Gets 10 Years for People Trafficking
A British skipper found guilty of smuggling illegal immigrants into Greece was yesterday handed a 10 year prison sentence and huge fines by a Pireaus court meting out the maximum penalty for a crime it described as "most serious". Michael Wood from Morecambe, Lancashire, clasped his head...

75 Refugees Found on Briton's Yacht
A British skipper whose yacht was found to be crammed with 75 illegal immigrants being smuggled into Greece claimed last night he had been coerced into taking part in the clandestine operation. Michael Wood, 45, speaking exclusively to the Guardian from police custody on the island of...

French to get more police and tax cuts
PM declares a republic of neighbourhoods. The French prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, promised to act against crime and illegal immigration yesterday, to address the public concern about security exploited by the extreme right in the recent presidential and general elections.

Government Refuses to Give in to Hunger Protest By Illegal Immigrants
More than 400 illegal immigrants went on hunger strike in a sports hall in Seville yesterday in an effort to embarrass Tony Blair and other EU leaders gathering in the city today for a summit that will concentrate on immigration. The hunger strikers at the Pablo de Olavide University...

EU Warned on Asylum Crackdown
European Union leaders have been bombarded with warnings not to overdo their planned crackdown on illegal immigration at tomorrow's Seville summit. Ruud Lubbers, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said yesterday that the EU was right to put the issue at the top of its agenda but wrong...

Blair Expects New Eu Asylum Laws
Tony Blair expressed confidence yesterday that this week's EU summit in Seville would produce tight deadlines and concrete actions to address concerns about illegal immigration.

EU Splits on Linking Aid to Action on Migration
Efforts to forge Europe-wide policies to tackle illegal immigration suffered a setback yesterday when EU governments split publicly over linking aid to cooperation on tackling illegal migration. Proposals by Spain, backed by Britain, to suspend financial assistance to developing countries...

EU Told to Avoid 'war' on Asylum Seekers
European Union leaders were warned yesterday to step back from declaring "all out war" on illegal immigration and to reaffirm their commitment to asylum and human rights. With immigration propelled to the top of the European agenda, Amnesty International said it was vital to avoid...

Blair Threatens Aid Cut to Control Immigration
Tony Blair will today warn Turkey and countries in the former Yugoslavia that Britain will cut off aid if they fail to crack down on illegal immigrants passing through their borders. In a sign of his determination to toughen up immigration controls in the wake of the far right's success...

EU Plans New Force to Police External Frontiers
Europe's external frontiers could be policed by a supranational EU corps of border guards to help combat crime, terrorism and illegal immigration, the European commission proposed yesterday. In the latest move in a slow-moving strategy to forge common policies on asylum and immigration...

Anger at Le Pen Transit Camp Threat
France's far-right presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen said yesterday the country was being submerged by immigrants and that illegal aliens should be locked up in "fairly comfortable transit camps" and then expelled.

Italy to Declare Emergency on Refugee Arrivals
Italy will unveil emergency powers today to try to block a large number of immigrants and refugees who are said to be following the freighter which arrived in Sicily on Monday with 928 Kurds aboard. Illegal immigration is becoming a political crisis amid reports that 50,000 uninvited...

Italy considers state of emergency as 1,000 immigrants land in Sicily
Italy was considering declaring a state of emergency on illegal immigration last night after a ship with around 1,000 refugees, said to be Kurds from Iraq, arrived in Sicily from Turkish waters.

Refugee Siege Stops French Rail Freight
The French state railway operator, SNCF, said yesterday it was accepting no new UK-bound freight traffic because of the huge backlog caused by nightly break-ins at its Calais yard by would-be illegal immigrants to Britain. "We do not envisage permanently suspending freight traffic through...

Berlusconi stung by cardinal's criticism
The Roman Catholic church added to criticism of Italy's hardline policy on illegal immigration yesterday after a boat tragedy left at least six Albanians dead, less than a week after about 50 Africans drowned off Sicily.

Italian Navy 'let Immigrants Drown'
The Italian navy was accused last night of doing little to help shipwreck victims as more than 50 immigrants were feared drowned when their boat capsized in heavy seas off the southern coast of Sicily. The tragedy occurred at around 8pm on Thursday as the boat, laden with illegal...

Report Exposes Spain's Squalid Treatment of Migrants
Spain's government systematically abuses illegal immigrants in crowded detention camps, confining them indoors for weeks or months, without contact with lawyers or family, and forcibly removing children, according to the group Human Rights Watch. In a damning report that provides rare...

Stowaways Halt Cross-channel Freight Train and Escape Into Kent
Around 40 illegal immigrants were on the run yesterday after tampering with the brakes on a freight train emerging from the Channel tunnel and jumping off the stationary vehicle into the Kent countryside. Police said that the brake pipes were cut at 6.20pm on Sunday, bringing the 13-wagon...

Police Hunt Channel Tunnel Fugitives
Police in Kent were today searching for a group of about 40 illegal immigrants who appear to have tampered with the brakes of a Channel Tunnel freight train in order to smuggle themselves into the UK. The train company, English, Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS), believes the immigrants...

Channel Tunnel Camp to Stay Open
A French court today ruled against a Eurotunnel bid to close the Red Cross refugee centre at Sangatte, near Calais. The company had argued that the camp's proximity to its terminal at Coquelles makes it a jumping-off point for illegal immigrants to Britain costing millions in disruption...