Foreign Born

WASHINGTON -- A majority of Hispanics born in the United States do not think undocumented Hispanic immigrants should be given driver's licenses, according to a new poll. Most foreign-born Hispanics disagree, according to the polling for the Pew Hispanic Center. Six in 10 Hispanics born in this country approve of measures to prohibit undocumented immigrants from getting driver's licenses, while two-thirds born in another country disapprove of such measures. The difference between foreign-born Hispanics and native-born Hispanics on the driver's license issue highlights the...

DAYTON, Ohio - On the same afternoon thousands of Hispanics in Alabama took the day off to protest the state's strict new immigration law, Mexican-born Francisco Mejia was ringing up diners' bills and handing containers piled with carnitas to drive-through customers on the east side of Dayton. His family's Taqueria Mixteca is thriving on a street pockmarked with rundown buildings and vacant storefronts. It gets packed with a diverse lunchtime clientele of Hispanic laborers, white men in suits, and other customers, white and black.

WASHINGTON -- The proportion of foreign-born Latinos at the lowest end of the wage scale fell by 6 percentage points over the decade ending in 2005, the Pew Hispanic Center reported yesterday. In 2005, foreign-born Latino workers accounted for 36 percent of workers earning less than $8.50 an hour compared with 42 percent in 1995, according to the center's analysis of US Census data. In the same period, the portion of foreign-born Latinos earning between $8.50 an hour and $16.20 in 2005 grew by about 5 percentage points.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - About 1,000 American-born children are forced into the sex trade in Ohio every year and about 800 immigrants are sexually exploited and pushed into sweatshop-type jobs, a new report on human trafficking in the state said yesterday. Ohio’s weak laws on human trafficking, its growing demand for cheap labor, and its proximity to the Canadian border are key contributors to the illegal activity, according to a report by the Trafficking in Persons Study Commission.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - About 1,000 American-born children are forced into the sex trade in Ohio every year and about 800 immigrants are sexually exploited and pushed into sweatshop-type jobs, a new report on human trafficking in the state said yesterday. Ohio’s weak laws on human trafficking, its growing demand for cheap labor, and its proximity to the Canadian border are key contributors to the illegal activity, according to a report by the Trafficking in Persons Study Commission.

CHICAGO -- Long-term exposure to American culture may be hazardous to immigrants' health. A new study found that obesity is relatively rare in the foreign-born until they have lived in the United States -- the land of drive-thrus, remote controls, and double cheeseburgers -- for more than 10 years. Only 8 percent of immigrants who had lived in the United States for less than a year were obese, but that jumped to 19 percent among those who had been here for at least 15 years.

WASHINGTON - Young Hispanics born in the United States are less likely to drop out of school and live in poverty than young Hispanic immigrants, but have higher exposure to gangs and violence, an independent research group says. The study, being released today by the Pew Hispanic Center, paints a mixed picture of assimilation for a fast-growing group of US citizens starting to wield their political rights: more education and job advancement, but also social problems. The survey and analysis of census data found the high school dropout rate among all Hispanic youths ages 16...

DAYTON, Ohio - On the same afternoon thousands of Hispanics in Alabama took the day off to protest the state's strict new immigration law, Mexican-born Francisco Mejia was ringing up diners' bills and handing containers piled with carnitas to drive-through customers on the east side of Dayton. His family's Taqueria Mixteca is thriving on a street pockmarked with rundown buildings and vacant storefronts. It gets packed with a diverse lunchtime clientele of Hispanic laborers, white men in suits, and other customers, white and black.

NEW YORK -- On a recent afternoon in a drab office near the banks of the Hudson River, a team of undercover investigators -- foreign-born and fluent in languages like Arabic and Farsi -- huddled in front of computers, hunting for extremists. The New York Police Department officers surfed jihadist websites and chat rooms where suicide bombings and beheadings are celebrated, and hatred of the West rages. Their assignment: Pose as Islamic extremists, locate and engage real ones, then extract any shred of information about possible terrorist threats against...

HOUSTON — Wearing brick-red-hued scrubs and chattering in Spanish, Miguel Alquicira settled a tiny girl into an adult-size dental chair and soothed her through a set of X-rays. Then he ushered the dentist, a woman, into the room and stayed on to serve as interpreter. A male dental assistant, Alquicira is in the minority. But he is also part of a distinctive, if little noticed, shift in workplace gender patterns. Over the last decade, men have begun flocking to fields long the province of women.

WASHINGTON - Young Hispanics born in the United States are less likely to drop out of school and live in poverty than young Hispanic immigrants, but have higher exposure to gangs and violence, an independent research group says. The study, being released today by the Pew Hispanic Center, paints a mixed picture of assimilation for a fast-growing group of US citizens starting to wield their political rights: more education and job advancement, but also social problems. The survey and analysis of census data found the high school dropout rate among all Hispanic youths ages 16 to 24 was 17...

WASHINGTON -- The proportion of foreign-born Latinos at the lowest end of the wage scale fell by 6 percentage points over the decade ending in 2005, the Pew Hispanic Center reported yesterday. In 2005, foreign-born Latino workers accounted for 36 percent of workers earning less than $8.50 an hour compared with 42 percent in 1995, according to the center's analysis of US Census data. In the same period, the portion of foreign-born Latinos earning between $8.50 an hour and $16.20 in 2005 grew by about 5 percentage points.

NEW YORK -- On a recent afternoon in a drab office near the banks of the Hudson River, a team of undercover investigators -- foreign-born and fluent in languages like Arabic and Farsi -- huddled in front of computers, hunting for extremists. The New York Police Department officers surfed jihadist websites and chat rooms where suicide bombings and beheadings are celebrated, and hatred of the West rages. Their assignment: Pose as Islamic extremists, locate and engage real ones, then extract any shred of information about possible terrorist threats against...

WASHINGTON -- A majority of Hispanics born in the United States do not think undocumented Hispanic immigrants should be given driver's licenses, according to a new poll. Most foreign-born Hispanics disagree, according to the polling for the Pew Hispanic Center. Six in 10 Hispanics born in this country approve of measures to prohibit undocumented immigrants from getting driver's licenses, while two-thirds born in another country disapprove of such measures. The difference between foreign-born Hispanics and native-born Hispanics on the driver's license issue...

CHICAGO -- Long-term exposure to American culture may be hazardous to immigrants' health. A new study found that obesity is relatively rare in the foreign-born until they have lived in the United States -- the land of drive-thrus, remote controls, and double cheeseburgers -- for more than 10 years. Only 8 percent of immigrants who had lived in the United States for less than a year were obese, but that jumped to 19 percent among those who had been here for at least 15 years.

PROVIDENCE, - A civil rights group filed a lawsuit yesterday seeking to block Governor Don Carcieri from enforcing an executive order requiring some private employers to electronically check the immigration status of new hires. The lawsuit, filed by the state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, challenges an executive order that Carcieri signed in March to restrict illegal immigration. Carcieri's order requires state police and prison officials to identify illegal immigrants for possible deportation.

The agency overseeing the state's landmark health care law has begun enrolling thousands of legal immigrants into the subsidized insurance program after the state's highest court ruled that lawmakers unconstitutionally denied the benefit to foreign-born residents who have been in the country for less than five years. State lawmakers voted in 2009 to cut funding for low-income immigrants enrolled in Commonwealth Care because the federal government does not reimburse states for dental, hospice, skilled-nursing care, and other costs incurred by foreign-born residents...