by the El Reportero’s news services

Sebastián Piñera

On Jan. 17 Sebastián Piñera, the candidate of the rightwing Coalición por el Cambio, comfortably won the presidential election run-off. Piñera’s win is historic. Not only is he the first rightwing candidate to win the presidency since the restoration of democracy in 1990 (after the Pinochet regime quit power), but he is also the first rightwinger to win the presidency since Jorge Alessandri in 1958.

Eduardo Frei Ruiz Tagle, the defeated candidate (and former president, 1994-2000) of the ruling centre-left Concertación, swiftly conceded defeat. President Michelle Bachelet, a socialist, also congratulated Piñera, who will formally take office on March 11 and hold the presidency until 2014.

Mujica wins Uruguay’s election to retain power for Frente Amplio José Mujica swept to power in the second round of Uru­guay’s elections, securing ­a second consecutive term for the left-wing Frente Amplio coalition. Mujica defeated Luis Alberto Lacalle of the main opposition Partido Nacional (Blancos) by more than ten percentage points. The FA also won a majority in both the lower chamber and the senate, repeating the feat it achieved in 2004 when it became the fi rst governing party in over 50 years to enjoy an absolute majority in both chambers.

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by Luis Carlos López

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A major immigrationstudy released here this month by political economist Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda is helping trigger new efforts to move a comprehensive immigration bill onto Congress’s front burner.

The national policy review states that implementing a program to bring the nation’s estimated 11.9 million undocumented residents onto a path to legalization would create $1.5 trillion in U.S. economic growth over the next ten years.

Hinojosa-Ojeda’s research is receiving worldwide attention, with positive reaction and recognition among several influential U.S. policymakers, plus a few brickbats from anti-immigration forces, he told Hispanic Link News Service. It is stirring thousands of blogosphere debates Following a well-attended news conference here, the University of California at Los Angeles professor met with interested Administration and World Bank officials, hosted a briefing for 50 congressional staffers, shared findings from his multi-year project in detail with D.C. think tank brain trusts, and held additional one-on-ones with international and domestic media.

The assessment, “Raising the Floor for American Workers: The Economic Benefit of Comprehensive Immigration Reform,” compressed to 25 pages for mass distribution, projects that legalizing undocumented immigrants, in combination with a program that allows for a future immigration flow based on labor market needs, is far more pragmatic and profitable than any alternative deportationonly scheme being promoted by some members of Congress.

“If we pursue a deportation-only policy, it will drain our already anemic economy by $2.6 trillion over the next ten years and cost billions to implement,” Hinojosa-Ojeda, who serves as executive director of the North American Integration and Development Center, affirmed.

He called undocumented immigrants “a hidden economic engine” that is constantly being repressed, maintaining, “Legalization empowers workers immediately to become much more committed and integrated in the economy.”

The report was released Jan. 6 to the press by the Center for American Progress and the Immigration Policy Center, and discussed with a panel of economic and social strategy experts.

LOW-WAGE WORKERS BENEFIT

Hinojosa-Ojeda told Hispanic Link his organization will continue encouraging and producing community impact studies, suggesting that any on the effect of workplace raids on the welfare of communities where they were conducted could prove of particular value.

He said he anticipates communities nationwide to use the report’s data to construct actions that will benefit them.

Among the report’s other findings:

• Contrary to public perception, low wage workers will benefit from legalization of undocumented workers.
• The number of unauthorized immigrants residing in the United States has increased dramatically since the 1990s from an estimated 3.5 million to its present total, estimated at nearly 12 million.
• Despite the huge increase in federal funding for border security — a 714 percent growth since 1992 — the apprehension rate for undocumented immigrants has declined since 2001.
• Increased border enforcement does not effectively deter undocumented immigrants from entering the United States.
• A massive deportation strategy creates other negative consequences. With tougher enforcement, fatalities along deserts and other dangerous crossing areas increase; the underground market for smugglers places further stress on the immigrants, and unfair labor practices continue to exploit undocumented workers.

These issues, Hinojosa-Ojeda said, would be mitigated with legalization reform.

At the study’s release, Daniel Griswold, director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, echoed Hinojosa-Ojeda’s conclusions by presenting the institute’s recent finding on the economic benefits of legalization.

Both studies concluded that increased enforcement and reduced low-skill immigration will have a negative impact on the income of all households.

“I think it is very signifiescant that two independent studies came to the same conclusion,” Griswold said. “The common feature is that legalization provides better jobs for middleclass Americans.”

Hinojosa-Ojeda confirmed that sparked a lot of negative commentary along the right-wing media, particularly criticism from blogs.

“It’s creating a massive buzz on the right wing but they haven’t been able to negate the fundamentals,” he said.

FULL REPORT AVAILABLE

Immigration Council.In addition to Hinojosa-Ojeda and Griswold, other experts weighed in on the benefits of legalization were Heather Boushey, senior economist at the Center for American Progress, and Benjamin Johnson, executive director of the American

The panel was moderated by Vice President for Immigration Policy and Advocacy at the Center of American Progress Angela Kelley.

For the complete report visit: ­http//immigrationpolicy.org/special-reports/raising-floor-american-workers.

­­by the El Reportero’s news services

Raul Castro

Economists had long expected a fresh devaluation; it was inevitable given the country’s excessive reliance on oil revenues, which under President Chávez has risen to account for 93 percent of total export revenues and about half of fiscal revenues.

Despite his stated antipathy to conventional economic measures, the self-proclaimed socialist Chávez never hesitates to implement them when the need arises. And under the Bolivarian Revolution, economic and monetary policy in Venezuela hasn’t shifted a jot away from the typical petro-state merry-go-round of his rightwing predecessors.

The opposition reacted with scorn to the president’s justification of the move as a way to boost the productive economy, saying it was a kick in the stomach for consumers this election year.

Cuba’s economic woes and slow reform could trigger social unrest

Cuba enters 2010 facing a “difficult” year from the economic perspective, President Raúl Castro maintained while closing the biannual session of parliament on Dec. 20.

Castro added that he would not be rushed into introducing improvised and pressured changes. His message last year was almost identical. There are only so many times his government can get away with it before an outbreak of social unrest.

But, with depleting foreign exchange as a result of a slump in nickel exports and tourism earnings, and pressing debt payments, the government has restricted rations and energy consumption and called for yet more belt-tightening, while postponing meaningful reform. Despite tight controls on Internet usage, a burgeoning blogosphere is emerging, and pushing for change.

Ecuador boosts decent salaries

The Ecuadorian government People’’s Revolution will be this week three years, with a salary policy that promotes decent salaries as the foundation to resolve the existing social inequality in the country.

That was an assertion by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa in a radio and television program, referring to the salary increase, from $218 to $240 a month, decreed as one of the fi rst measures to achieve what they call a “decent salary.”

Correa said sought-after equality would be reached with fairer taxes to the people with higher income, and workers should be better paid.

He said no company in Ecuador will be able to declare profits until the last worker has earned $320, an amount that multiplied by 1.6 employees per household would allow acquiring almost all the basic products, estimated at $517 a month.

Labor Relation Minister Richard Espinosa explained that the unified basic salary can be calculated considering three factors: inflation, productivity rate, and increase due to equality.

The recent $22 increase of the basic salary is for all sectors, equivalent to 10 percent, but for artisans, workers of the small-industry, agriculture sector and assembly plants is 30 percent, and 20 percent for household services.

­“The objective is to give the capital-work relation an approach aimed at workers’ development and labor justice, based on an integral sustainable structure, with proper legal foundations,” Minister Espinosa said. (Latin News and Prensa Latina contributed to this report).

by Hispanic Link Wire services

The U.S. Supreme Court has announced that it will hear the case of José Angel Carachuri-Rosendo, a lawful permanent resident who faces deportation for possession of an anti-anxiety drug.

His appeal is based on the claim that he was denied an opportunity to make a case in lower court as to why he should be allowed to remain in the United States.

The case could affect hundreds of immigrants who face deportation each year, according to a post on the Immigration Policy Center’s Immigration Impact blog Carachuri-Rosendo has lived in the United States since he was four years old and his four children and fiancé are U.S. citizens. In 2004, he was convicted of possession of less than two ounces of marijuana and sentenced to 20 days of confinement.

The following year, he was convicted of possessing a tablet of Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, for which he did not have prescription, and served another ten days in jail.

Even though his second conviction did not come under recidivism provisions, the court considered it a “drug trafficking crime,” a deportable offense, and the government initiated deportation proceedings.

In addition, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that his Xanax possession conviction renders him deportable without the opportunity for him to make a case to stay and without any consideration of the effect his deportation will have on his U.S. citizen children and fiancé.

The Supreme Court will have the opportunity to clarify whether a second possession conviction can be considered a “drug trafficking crime” without any recidivism findings present.

The action by the Supreme Court will also bring attention to immigration laws passed by Congress in 1996 which eliminated the discretion of immigration judges to make individualized decisions about whether a person should be deported.

According to Immigration Impact, “Such a result unfairly and unnecessarily disrupts the lives of not only those who are deported, but also their U.S. citizen families and friends who rely on them for support.”

The Immigration Policy Center is the research and policy arm of the American Immigration Council. IPC’s mission is to shape a rational national conversation on immigration and immigrant integration.

Two students win immigrant rights battle

By Erin Rosa

Two students who were set to be deported by federal authorities will get to stay in the United States, thanks to community organizing in Florida.

Jesús and Guillermo Reyes, two youths of Venezuelan descent, had deportation orders deferred for at least another year. Before the decision, the brothers were detained at an immigration lockup, but have since been released. Jesüs, 21, is a student at Miami Dade College and Guillermo, 25, is a graduate of the school. The victory is another notch in the belt for an organic movement that has been successful in halting deportations of young people who came into the country as undocumented immigrants with their parents when they were children.

In response to such cases, lawmakers have proposed the DREAM Act, federal legislation that offers a pathway to citizenship for undocumented kids who entered the United States.­