Immigration Reform: Outside the Beltway
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Immigration Reform: Outside the Beltway

Congress has dropped the ball on illegal immigration, leading states and cities to enact new laws and round up immigrants on their own. We hear about the impact on local business. When immigrants are driven out, where do they go? Will the issue take center stage in the presidential campaign? Also, Iowa residents flee as flood waters rise, and rejecting the Bush Administration, the US Supreme Court says prisoners at Guantánamo Bay are entitled to their day in court.


Photo: Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images

Making News

Iowa Residents Flee as Flood Waters Rise ()

Tornados have struck four states in the Midwest, killing four Boy Scouts in Iowa.  Meantime, nine Iowa rivers have reached flood levels and fifty-three counties have been declared disaster areas. A levee has broken in Cedar Rapids, where Steve Buttry is editor of the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

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Main Topic

States, Feds Shift Tack on Illegal Immigration ()

Illegal immigration has become a big issue all over the country, in cities and towns that have never had to deal with it before. The Bush Administration is dramatizing the issue with high-profile raids, but in the absence of action by Congress, more and more state and local officials are passing their own laws. Local police departments are rounding up immigrants and turning them over for deportation. In Mississippi, it's a felony for an undocumented worker to hold a job. In Georgia, an immigrant was deported for fishing without a license. What's the economic impact on communities that crack down and those that don't? Are the presidential candidates caught between Lou Dobbs and Latino voters?

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Reporter's Notebook

Supreme Court Deals Blow to White House on Gitmo Detainees ()

In a big loss for the Bush Administration and Congress, the US Supreme Court ruled today that foreign suspects held at Guantánamo Bay do have the right to challenge their imprisonment in civilian courts. Congress stripped the federal courts of jurisdiction over habeas corpus petitions by foreign suspects in the war on terror in the Military Commissions Act. Today's five-to-four ruling gave it back. Jess Bravin reports on the Court for the Wall Street Journal.

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