The Obama administration wants a faster way to reunite Americans with their illegal immigrant spouses and children. This has been pursued by advocates but blocked by Republicans who doesn’t want that type of legislation to be passed in Congress.

At present, illegal immigrants have to leave the United States before they can appeal to the federal government to waive the three to ten year ban to legally come back to the country. The length of the ban depends on the period that the person stayed illegally in the United States.

Last Friday, the Obama administration proposed a change in the rule that would allow spouses and children to ask the government to decide on their waiver request before they were deported back to their country in order to return to the United States the legal way.

The illegal immigrants are still required to go back to their home countries to complete their visa process but getting the provisional waiver in advance would decrease the time they would spend out of the United States from months to just days or weeks. This would minimize the bureaucratic delays that would separate Americans from their families. At present, it would take up to six months for the government to process a waiver.

Once a user who uses the same password for the email and Facebook is compromised by the Ramnit worm, the attacker could then access both accounts. This is why security experts advise people to use different passwords for each web site.

Facebook assured its users that it has the situation under control. The social network giant said that its security experts have reviewed the data and most of the information was obsolete. They also began remedial steps for affected users.

California passed a law over the weekend that allows undocumented immigrants to apply for public financial aid for college. This would be the highest profile change in policy with regards to illegal immigrant youth since the failure of the Dream Act last year.

Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signed the California Dream Act into law last Saturday and said that it would give top students a chance to improve their lives as well as the lives of others. The Republicans opposed the bill but it was passed easily by the Democrats in the state legislature.

The federal Dream Act failed to get the support in Congress. The act would have given undocumented students a way to short-term permanent residency status but they would not be qualified for federal aid such as Pell Grants.

In 2001, California and Texas were the first of several states that allowed undocumented students pay resident tuition rates as long as they met certain requirements. The Texas bill allowed undocumented Texans access to state financial aid. Texas Governor Rick Perry’s support of the bill has become a problem for him during his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. The conservatives criticized him for his suggestion that those who opposed the law had no heart.

A federal judge ruled last Monday that Alabama’s new law that targets illegal immigration. It came just two months after another federal judge stopped a similar law in Atlanta. After news came out of the decision in Alabama, people are speculating that Georgia’s House Bill 87 will follow the same fate.

Alabama’s immigration law was scheduled to take effect on Thursday but Chief U. S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn issued an order last Monday to suspend the implementation of the law until September 29.

Judge Blackburn said that she needed more time to study the law to rule on the merits of the legal challenges. She said that she would come out with a decision by September 28. But this didn’t stop people from speculating about Georgia’s law.

People who are against Georgia’s law saw the federal judge’s ruling as something positive for their cause. They say that the law oversteps on the federal government’s authority to regulate immigration. They say there’s a limit as to what a state can do to enforce immigration and it is found within the United States Constitution.

The Justice Department filed a suit earlier this month to halt Alabama’s law. It stated that it preempted federal law. Blackburn heard oral arguments about the case last week. The Justice Department used a similar argument to block some parts of Arizona’s law.

President Barack Obama stated on Tuesday that he plans to add more security along the U.S.-Mexico border and wants get the Republican support with regards to the country’s naturalization policies. This is an answer to the Republicans call for increased security along the border.

The president added more guards to patrol the border as well as the installation of new fencing and surveillance systems. He cited statistics to back up his border policy. He said that a 40 percent decrease is observed on arrests at the border. That means there are less people trying to illegally cross from Mexico. What President Obama neglected to mention was that there was a record number of deportations last year. Hispanic activists claimed that the administration is targeting them.

The speech that President Obama made was to reassure the voters that they don’t need to worry about border security and to regain the support of the Hispanic sector, which he needs if he wants to win his reelection attempt next year.

He didn’t give any new border security policies and set no deadline for legislation. Instead, he asked the supporters of his proposals to pressure their congressmen to act on the measures. This would prevent illegal immigrants from going into the country.

President Barack Obama will go to Texas on Tuesday to meet with legislators, business executives, Hispanic celebrities, and evangelical leaders to talk about how his administration is working to secure the border. He said that it’s time for Congress to act with regards to the 10.8 million illegal aliens in the country.

Activists are putting the blame on Obama’s administration for not prioritizing the issue. After the President’s speech, part of the fault will switch towards the Republicans who are blocking the legislations.

Majority of the Republicans and some Democrats don’t want President Obama’s measures because they would open a path to citizenship for people who entered the country illegally. The lawmakers said that it would reward those who broke the law.

Those who oppose the president on his immigration legislations also said that the administration hasn’t done enough to secure the nation’s border with Mexico. White House stated that it placed more guards on the southwest border and went after employers who hire undocumented workers.

Obama’s administration has already deported a large number of illegal immigrants, which has angered several Hispanic activists. In 2010 alone, there were 392,000 deported.

President Obama held private meetings with political figures, business leaders and religious leaders in the hopes that it would break the stalemate. He also met with a couple of Hispanic celebrities and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a piece of advice to Detroit to overcome its population loss. According to him, Detroit should pass a law that would allow immigrants to come in as long as they would stay in Detroit and live there for five or ten years.

New York’s population increased during the time when most America’s central cities experienced a decline. The city has been known for its immigrant-friendly spirit. Mayor Bloomberg said that Detroit should encourage immigration.

He added that the country has been built by immigrants and managed to be on top because of its immigrant population. To maintain its status as a superpower, the country should encourage more immigrants.

An old, industrial city like Detroit has its population dwindling not because it is mismanaged by the government but because of its policies on immigrants. The federal government can help the cities by passing legislation to welcome more immigrants.

From 1.8 million in 1950, Detroit has 714,000 residents in 2010. The city’s population decreased 26 percent in the last decade. People from all over the globe would want to go live in Detroit because the United States is still the world’s greatest democracy.

According to Detroit officials, they were unaware that Mayor Bloomberg would make that recommendation during his appearance on Meet the Press.

Immigrants who want to enter the US illegally will try any method to avoid detection by the authorities. The latest was two Mexicans who tried to sneak in using “dive scooters” that are self-propelled underwater devices.

The two males, aged 38 and 16, landed on Imperial Beach, Calif and hoped to get through under the cover of darkness. The Customs and Border Protection crew, during their helicopter surveillance, spotted them wearing wet suits and clutching their dive scooters. They were arrested as they tried to hide in the sand and were, later, taken to a local Border Patrol station and charged for illegal entry.

Michael Jimenez, the San Diego sector Border Patrol spokesman said “these devices can be used to come north along the coastline and steer into shore … where they can meet someone who will pick them up in a vehicle and further their entrance into the United States”. According to him, these two were picked up from very close to the international border.

Of late, due to the strict security along the California border, the Mexican immigrants try to the take the sea route to steal into US territory. Not only immigrants but also smugglers seem to use the sea route using under water movement devices like dive scooters.

Immigrants and smugglers employ strange methods to enter the US illegally. Under water scooters or dive scooters are one such. There have been instances of a surf board being used to offload marijuana into California.

Three years ago the border police had seized 33 vessels and made 230 arrests and this figure went up to 110 vessels and 867 arrests last year.

For an immigrant, the DREAM Act that got through the House by 216 to 198 is good news. However, it has to clear one major hurdle before it becomes law; the Senate.

The bill, once it becomes law, would pave the way to US citizenship for young people, if they are under the age of 30, have been living in the US continuously for at least five years, and had come into the country illegally, when they were under the age of 16 years.

There are other conditions, which need to be satisfied before the immigrant becomes eligible for citizenship. The applicant must have earned a high school diploma, passed the GED or have college acceptance, besides getting a satisfactory background check. The immigrant would then get permanent resident status and after 10 years can apply for citizenship.

There are two schools of thought on this DREAM Act bill. One that believes that the bill provides a legal way to an immigrant, generally thought to be a lawbreaker, to get amnesty and the other that sees this as an immigration reform that helps children who were brought into the country when they were young.

President Obama, who is in the second school of thought, and his staff have been busy calling or tweeting people to promote this bill. They are being asked to influence their senators and representatives, telling them that the bill supports the economy, education, and more importantly, homeland security.

Supporters also point out that many of the high school graduates will be helpless when applying for jobs or admission to colleges because their status becomes illegal. Some of them have even gone on hunger strikes in support

The House of Representatives cleared a bill late Wednesday, that seeks to grant legal status to hundreds of illegal immigrant students, if they enrolled in college or serve in the US military. The bill is known as the DREAM Act, Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act was first introduced in the US Senate on 1 August 2001 and was re-introduced in the Senate and the House of Representative on March 26, 2009.

The bill has been passed for the first time in the House, in 10 years since its introduction. The DREAM Act passed the House by 216 votes and had eight Republicans joining in to approve the bill. Thirty-eight Democrats voted against the bill.

Stating that the passage of the bill was a historic one, President Obama said,”This vote is not only the right thing to do for a group of talented young people who seek to serve a country they know as their own, by continuing their education or serving in the military, but it is the right thing for the United States of America.” President Obama has called upon the Senate to follow suit, to pass the legislation. But Republicans are likely to block a vote when the bill comes up in the Senate on Thursday and therefore the bill is unlikely to get the required 60 votes to overcome the GOP filibuster.

Opinions are highly polarized on the DREAM Act. Speaking a few minutes before the vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, had this to say,” They want to use their degrees and their skills to help build something better for the next generation. That’s what our founders had in mind. We owe it to our founders and we owe it to these young people and we owe it to the future to cast our votes for a bill that makes America more American.”

And this from Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the senior Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, ” The DREAM Act is a nightmare for the American people. It insults American workers and taxpayers and anyone who believes in the rule of law.”

Colorado state and local government officials are prepared to discuss several controversial immigration issues this week that could turn failure to carry immigration papers into a criminal offense.

Starting on Monday, a collection of Republican state lawmakers titled the Republican Study Committee are scheduled to talk about the start of an immigration bill which is nearly the same as Arizona’s arguable SB-1070, which makes it a crime to fail to carry the proper immigration paperwork and widens the power of authorities to restrain people who may be in the country illegally.

As initially reported last week in the Colorado Independent, Republicans continue to try to force a bill like the Arizona law even though most of them realize that such a piece of legislature probably won’t get through the State Senate, which is controlled by the Democrats.

In addition, State Senator Kent Lambert said he felt that the proposed bill would more than likely entice people into starting a lawsuit if it was passed.

He told reporters that the issue wasn’t to try and create a bill in a manner in which a lawsuit could be avoided because it would be taken to trial either way.

Lambert said that the proposed new law would be ready to show to the legislature when the next session starts in January.

The Denver Daily News is reporting the Denver City Council is ready to cast their votes Monday on a resolution that supports the federal Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act.

The DREAM act, which is now being discussed in Congress, would give provisional residency standing to particular immigrant pupils who agree on and finish two years of either military service or two years of college.

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The regulation, which has garnered disapproval from illegal immigration opposition such as Tom Tancredo will probably be voted on sometime n the next few weeks.

Immigrant’s rights advocates have also praised outgoing Governor Bill Ritter for his stand on the Secure Communities agreement, which is a controversial federal program designed to help coordinate information held by the Homeland Security and Justice Department information to figure out if people who were detained for a serious crime should be deported.

Immigrant Rights Groups have criticized the Secure Communities, saying that the measure would make immigrants not want to report crimes because they would be afraid they could be deported.

Previous to bringing Colorado into the agreement, Ritter insisted the Federal Government should be the ones to provide information on the usefulness of the program as part of the plan.

Any more work on the plan might run past the outgoing governor’s term of office. Governor-Elect John Hickenlooper has said he is in support of the Secure Communities agreement in theory, but would respect anything completed by Ritter that is already part of the negotiations before he takes a definite course of action on the matter.