New political climate awaits legislators
1/5/2004. Mercury News
With a number of contentious issues from last year still unresolved, laws addressing everything from driver's licenses for illegal immigrants to workers' compensation reform will loom large when the Legislature reconvenes today....

. . . While Abuses Are Confirmed
1/5/2004. The Washington Post
THE LATEST REPORT from the Department of Justice's inspector general on the treatment of immigration detainees rounded up after Sept. 11, 2001, is among the most disturbing to date. Elaborating on a chapter of an earlier report, it documents a pattern of physical and other abuses of inmates at the Bureau of Prisons' Metropolitan Detention Center in New York and apparent obstruction of the inspector-general's efforts to bring these to light....

Longer Road for Va. Drivers
1/3/2004. The Washington Post
Nardos Kefle waited for an hour and a half to get her Virginia driver's license yesterday, patiently standing in a long line that snaked out the door and down the sidewalk in front of the Alexandria office of the state's Department of Motor Vehicles. When at last she made it to the counter, she was turned away, snagged by a new state law that requires her to prove she is in the United States legally....

Bush to Seek Immigrant Benefit Protection
1/3/2004. The Washington Post
President Bush will propose protections for the Social Security taxes paid by the workers who would come into the country under massive changes to immigration laws he plans to announce on Wednesday, Republican officials said Saturday. Bush's plan would make it possible for such workers from Mexico and perhaps other countries to collect retirement benefits without being penalized by their home countries for the years they spent working in the United States, the officials said. ...

WHO-TV pulls 'borderline racist' ads
1/2/2004. The Des Moines Register
Central Iowa television station WHO has pulled the political ads that were criticized by Iowa labor leaders for their anti-immigration message. Jim Boyer, general manager for WHO-TV, said the ads took a position he did not want represented at the station. "We took a look and decided the ads were unnecessarily inflaming and borderline racist," Boyer said. "It was a piece of business we did not want."...

TV station pulls political ad opposed by labor leaders
1/2/2004. Associated Press
One central Iowa television station has stopped airing political ads criticized by labor leaders for being an anti-immigration message while officials at a second station were discussing the ads. "We took a look and decided the ads were unnecessarily inflaming and borderline racist," said Jim Boyer, general manager for WHO-TV, who said the ads took a position he did not want represented at the station. "It was a piece of business we did not want."...

Labor leaders urge immigration ads pulled
1/2/2004. Associated Press
Iowa labor leaders have urged two local television stations to pull anti-immigration political ads that appear to be sponsored by a coalition of workers....

Freedom Riders Share Their Reasons for Participating in the Historic Ride
1/1/2004. AFL-CIO
Throughout the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, the spirit and determination of the riders inspired and energized people at every stop. Each rider spent two weeks away from home and traveled thousands of miles to carry a message and to support the cause of justice and freedom for all. Listen as they describe their reasons for making the historic journey....

Local 54 and casinos help keep workers legal
12/30/2003. Press of Atlantic City
A few years ago, officials of the Local 54 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union noticed that many of its 15,000 members were being suspended or fired because of immigration problems....

Striking Latino miners have little to celebrate this year
12/30/2003. The Salt Lake Tribune
Red Christmas lights surrounded the portrait of the Virgin of Guadalupe inside the weathered old trailer on the road to the Co-Op Mine. Like the Greeks, Chinese, Italians, Irish and Czechs before them, the mostly poor Latino miners are battling mine owners for basic rights such as safety, a living wage, a pension and health insurance. ...