Amerikai Magyar Hírlap, 2013 (25. évfolyam, 1-50. szám)
2013-01-11 / 2. szám
Why Immigration Reform May Happen This Year A long-awaited overhaul of U.S. immigration law has a good chance of happening this year, bringing major changes to the millions of people living here illegally-and perhaps giving the economy a boost. While details are sketchy right now, the Obama administration last week announced it is launching a major effort to push reforms through Congress soon. A major goal is to expand the guest worker program to allow more foreign nationals to legally work in the U.S. But the biggest hurdle may be whether to grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants in the U.S.-or deport them. Analysts say that unlike failed attempts in the past, they expect reform to get done this time-and it could end up being beneficial for the still sluggish economy. (Read more: Bleak Global Economy) “If there’s a way to bring millions of people legally into our system, they’d be paying more taxes and spending more money and creating more jobs,” said Michael Wildes, managing partner of the immigration, law firm Wildes & Weinberg. “It would be a big boost to the economy and any kind of amnesty provision that includes fees from illegal immigrants would help fill the treasury.” Others agree that this is the year something will get done. “I think some type of reform will happen soon,” said Jim Witte, director of the Institute for Immigration Research at George Mason University. “There are traditional allies among Democrats but there’s also a growing conservative coalition of businesses and law enforcement who want immigration reform as well.” I’ts estimated that some 40 million people in the U.S. are immigrants, according to the Census Bureau, with anywhere from 7 million to 20 million of them in the country illegally. Economic activity produced by illegal immigrant spending employs about 5 percent of the total U.S. workforce, according to a study by UCLA. The research indicates illegal immigrants produce a total of $150 billion of economic activity each year. And billions of dollars from illegal worker paychecks flow into and support the Social Security system-some $7.2 billion in 2009 alone, that they will be unable to collect. “The irony is that illegal immigrants are not entitled to many of the benefits they pay for,” said Jamie Longazel, a professor of sociology at the University of Dayton. “The reality is that many people receive benefits on the backs of those who suffer.” How to integrate them-or not-into the country could be the a stumbling block to any reform. But the idea of deporting millions of people isn’t realistic, said Christine Greer, an assistant professor of political science at Fordham University. “We can’t just pick up and move some 15 million people and their families out of the country,” Greer said. “It’s not feasible to do that. Besides, many kids came here with parents and had no choice. Some of the kids don’t even speak the language of their native land.” But it’s not just illegal immigration that’s at stake. Some analysts have argued that since the late 1990s, the U.S. needs to find a way to allow more workers-most specifically skille^ tech workers-to ynter legally. There are nearly one million people working in the U.S. under the current guést worker programs that allow U.S. employers to sponsor non-U.S. citizens in the country with temporary visas. That number is not big enough, said Scott Cooper, managing attorney at the immigration law firm of Fragomen, Del Rey, Benson & Lowey. (Read more: Why End of Stimulus May Not Be All Bad) “The U.S. needs more skilled workers from abroad and be more receptive to the contributions they make economically,” said Cooper. “We’re limiting our economy by not letting more in.” “We need go beyond the current quota of 140,000 legal immigrants per year and allow more qualified people with math and science skills to enter the U.S.,” said Ted Ruthizer, a lawyer who teaches immigration law and policy at Columbia University, said. “The Job market is screaming for them.” But not everyone sees an economic rainbow with immigrants, legal or not. “Their contribution is large, but I think it’s hard to accurately say what impact immigrants have on the economy, especially when it comes to the earnings and spending of illegal immigrants,” said Jim Witte. “You can say that some competition from illegal workers may depress the wages of legal workers. On the other hand you can also say that cheaper illegal labor frees up people at higher skill levels to put their talents to a higher value,” Witte said, yahoo.com Hungary names park after Hitler ally RESIDENTS of a small Hungarian town failed to stop a park from taking on the name of the country’s Nazi-allied wartime leader, after too few voters turned out for a referendum. The park in Gyomro, on the outskirts of Budapest, was named after Miklós Horthy last year following a motion by the far-right nationalist Jobbik party, the thirdlargest in parliament. Angry locals forced the referendum, but it was declared invalid after only 18 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots, the state news agency MTI reported. A large majority of those who did vote however were against the Horthy name change. Horthy, an autocrat who ruled from 1920 to 1944 when he was deposed by Nazi Germany, passed anti-Jewish laws, brought the country into an uneasy alliance with Hitler and was in charge when its Jews began being deported to death camps. But the late leader is revered by some as a hero after a shortlived communist revolution in 1919 and the traumatic loss of two-thirds of its territory at the 1920 Trianon Peace Treaty. Hungary’s communist rulers between 1948 and 1989 considered Horthy a fascist, but farright groups and public figures have since achieved something of a historical rehabilitation. At the same time, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been accused of pandering to nationalists and of stoking anti-Semitism, for example by adding a number of wartime authors with associations to fascism to the school curriculum. In 2012, Nobel peace laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel returned Hungary’s highest state honour because of what he called a “whitewashing” of history in the European Union member state. Last year, the government passed a law stipulating that from January 1, public areas could not be named after historical figures with associations to dictatorships. It said the legislation was primarily aimed at communist-era figures. AFP EU Sees 31% Near Poverty In Hungary Almost one third of Hungarians, 31%, are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, above the EU average of 24%, according to a survey by Eurostat. Residents are considered at risk if their disposable income is below 60% of the national average, if they are severely materially deprived or living in households where adults aged 18-59 worked less than 20% of their potential in the past year. The figure was highest in Bulgaria at 47%, followed by 40% in Latvia and Romania, 33% in Lithuania and 31% in Hungary and Greece. Január 11, 2013 ÍD Under pressure, drops contested vt>v Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party abandoned plans u, register for parliamentary elections before the 2014 poll, au, stitutional Court threw out the measure saying it limited voting The Constitutional Court ruling and Friday’s retreat represent major blow to conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who swept ' to power with a two-thirds majority in 2010 parliamentary elections but has since suffered a fall in public support. But critics have said the measure imposed undue restrictions on a basic tenet of democracy and would discourage large groups of undecided or swing voters from casting their ballot. The ruling was the second embarrassment in weeks for Orbán who has so far held an iron grip on Hungarian politics. Thousands of students took to the streets of Budapest last month to protest against cuts in higher education. Orban’s Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance approved a new voting system in November in one of the most hotly contested steps of a flurry of reforms that included a new constitution and a swathe of laws that critics say entrench Fidesz’s power. “Mindful of the practice of the European Court of Human Rights, the Constitutional Court has established that for those with Hungarian residency the registration requirement represents an undue restriction on voting rights and is therefore unconstitutional,” the court said in a statement. It added that voter registration for Hungarians outside the borders was justified. The changes would have required 8 million domestic voters to register in person or online at least two weeks before elections in 2014. Voters currently only have to turn up at polling stations on election day to be identified from an existing state-run database and cast their vote. The court also said some of the law’s provisions on political campaigns imposed “severely disproportionate” restrictions on the freedom of opinion and the media. Fidesz argued that voter registration was needed because in one of Orban’s symbolic measures new voters of Hungarian descent living abroad had been given the right to vote. Fidesz estimated the number of these voters could reach half a million. Minutes after the court ruling was published, Fidesz parliamentary group leader Antal Rogan told a news conference the party would back away from its plan to avoid a potential constitutional crisis. “The voice of reason and a sense oT political responsibility today requires a different move from us,” Rogan said. A survey by pollster Median conducted in September showed four in five people were opposed to the proposed registration. Undecided voters make up about half of the electorate according to opinion polls, which showed Fidesz still leading the main opposition Socialists, albeit by a much smaller margin than at the last election in 2010. “Fidesz wanted to focus on its core voters in the campaign via personal mobilization and the limitation of the use of the electronic media (radio and tv) ... the voter registration and the campaign ad limitations would have served this purpose,” said Peter Kreko, an analyst at think tank Political Capital. “The campaign will be more intense than they wanted ... and the new election system now will help Fidesz a lot less than they had expected (in 2014).” Reuters ANGYALFI RENT- A-CAR AUTÓBÉRLÉS MAGYARORSZÁGON A. Suzuki Swift 1.0 manual 150 usd/hét B. Fiat Punto 1.2, Opel Corsa 1.2, Suzuki Swift II 1.3 manual, air.c 190 usd/hét C. Suzuki SX4 1.5 manual, air.c 220 usd/hét D. Opel Astra 1.4 manual, air.c 250 usd/hét E. 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