Clergy seeking voice in immigration talks
Clergy seeking voice in state immigration talks
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By Michael McNutt
Published: February 12, 2008
Religious leaders should be included in the mix with politicians and business officials in discussions involving the state's immigration law, a Lutheran bishop said Monday to members of the Oklahoma Conference of Churches.
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Death penalty discussed
Also during the session, Lydia Polley urged members to support Senate Bill 2193.
The bill, by Sen. Connie Johnson, D-Oklahoma City, would create a task force to study the state's death penalty procedures to see if it complies with U.S. constitutional standards and if it disproportionately affects minorities. The measure calls for a moratorium on the death penalty during the study.
Similar studies have died in committees. Polley urged lawmakers to let the bill advance out of committee "so it can be on the floor to be debated.”
Church Women United in Oklahoma presented its human rights award to Johnson and to Nathaniel Batchelder, director of the Oklahoma City Peace House.
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Culture and Lifestyle, Domestic Policy, Social Policy, Social Issues, Criminal Sentencing and Punishment, Religion, Christianity, Immigration Policy, Civil Trials, Trials, Protestantism, Lutheran Church, Capital Punishment, Immigration
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Illegals and the courts: Sanity returns..
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Perhaps the rule of law means something after all when it comes to illegal aliens:
• U.S. District Judge Neil V. Wake rejected arguments on Feb. 7 that an Arizona law banning the hiring of illegal aliens is an unconstitutional usurpation of the federal government's right to regulate immigration.
• Last month in Missouri, U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber upheld an ordinance that targeted employers of illegal aliens in Valley Park, Mo.
• In December, U.S. District Judge James H. Payne rejected a lawsuit filed against the state of Oklahoma and its law requiring employers to verify new employees' legal status. In a wonderful spate of sanity, Judge Payne said the illegals who brought the challenge didn't have standing -- because they're illegals, of course.
These rulings stand in sharp contrast to a federal judge's logic-defying ruling last summer that rejected Hazleton, Pa.'s, tough anti-illegals ordinance. That decision is on appeal.
University of Houston law professor Michael A. Olivas tells The New York Times that the recent litigation and rulings show the need for Congress to clarify the situation of illegal aliens.
Sorry, but no "clarification" is required. Here's a big hint -- the word "illegal" means what it means. And given that the judicial climate appears to be turning away what's wrong and embracing what's right, illegal aliens should be making some travel plans.
Immigration will drive the population of the United States sharply upward between now and 2050, and will push whites into a minority, projections by the Pew Research Center showed Monday.
"If current trends continue, the population of the United States will rise to 438 million in 2050, from 296 million in 2005," an increase of nearly 50 percent, the study by the Washington-based think-tank said.
More than 80 percent of the increase will be due to immigrants arriving in the country and their US-born children, who will make up nearly one in five Americans by 2050 compared with one in eight in 2005, it said.
Whites, who currently make up around two-thirds of the US population, will become a minority (47 percent) by 2050, the report said.
The Hispanic population, currently the largest minority group, will triple in size and double in percentage terms from 14 percent in 2005 to 29 percent in 2050, the report said.
The Asian population will roughly double in percentage terms, from five percent to nine percent, while the black population will remain static at around 13 percent.
The projections are based on trends over the past 50 years, during which legal and illegal immigration have played an increasing role in US population growth, the report said.
From 1960 to 2005, new immigrants and their US-born descendants accounted for 51 percent of population increase, and for 58 percent from 1980 to 2005, the report said.
But, the report warned, "possible future changes in immigration policy" could impact the projections.
Illegal immigration has become a top issue in the race for the US presidency, especially among Republican candidates, most of whom favor of a crackdown.