“In nominating a leader as skilled and dedicated as Rep. Solis to this important office, President-elect Obama is sending the clear signal that American workers, regardless of their country of birth, are a valued part of America’s future and a top priority for his administration,” he said.

Another group, Farmworker Justice, said Solis “is an excellent choice for Labor secretary and has long been a supporter of worker rights, including those of farmworkers.”

Read more about Solis here.

Chertoff also said he regretted that Congress did not pass “comprehensive immigration reform” which “was the most balanced approach to border security, and also what we need economically and from a humanitarian standpoint.”

Chertoff was heavily involved in negotiations on Capitol Hill on a broad measure that would have given illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship and created a guest worker program. The measure failed in the Senate.

If this “Americanization” fails, the nation could see major problems in 20 or 30 years, with foreign-born populations detached from the larger society and engaging in anti-social behavior, said Alfonso Aguilar, who heads the U.S. Office of Citizenship.

Aguilar compared the potential strife to what is occurring in some Western European countries where foreign-born populations do not feel part of the larger society and are not accepted by many as full citizens.

“We should not be naive and assume that the assimilation process is going to happen automatically,” Aguilar said, at a press conference.

The task force recommends that the federal government take a leadership role in an “Americanization movement,” but also says that states, local governments, non-profit groups and the private sector should play a key part.

The report strongly emphasizes that immigrants must learn English in order to fully integrate into American society.

Aguilar said that immigrants currently want to learn English but that many cannot find classes.

He said the report is not recommending “an ugly, English-only approach,” but “a friendly, pro-active literary effort.”

Read the report here.

— Customs and Border Protection (CBP) increased the size of its work force last year from 46,473 to 51,533 by adding officers, agents and agriculture specialists.

— CBP has doubled the size of the Border Patrol from about 9,000 in 2001 to more than 18,000 as of Nov. 21, 2008.

— CBP has constructed more than 520 miles of vehicle and pedestrian fencing along the Southern Border, including about 93 miles in Fiscal Year 2008. The agency is building toward a total of roughly 670 miles of fencing.

— Since January 2008, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removed or returned more than 323,000 illegal immigrants from the United States, about a 20 percent increase over the previous year.

— ICE dramatically increased penalties against employers whose hiring processes violate the law, securing fines and judgments totaling in the millions, as well as jail time for the most egregious offenders.

See the full release here.

The document is titled: “Building an Americanization Movement for the Twenty-first Century.”

In a press release, the Task Force on New Americans says that one of the recommendations will be to “strengthen immigrant integration into American civic culture.”

It also says that “successful integration involves a message of inclusion that emphasizes American civic principles and welcomes people from all backgrounds to fully become American.”

The task force was formed as part of a Bush Administration effort to promote citizenship.

According to the story, the center is available 24-hours-a-day to field complaints from Mexican nationals about their treatment in the border state, where as many as half a million illegal immigrants live and work in the shadows.

“We want to offer a human voice at the other end of the line, so they can feel protected and know that someone is here for them,” Alejandro Ramos, head of the Mexican Consulate’s Department of Protection, told Reuters.

Read the story here.

Compean and Ramos are serving 12 and 11 years in prison, respectively for shooting a Mexican drug runner and trying to cover it up.

Supporters say that the agents were wrongly convicted for protecting the United States against a criminal illegal immigrant.

Lawmakers — including Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Dianne Feinstein of California — have urged president Bush to pardon the agents.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican who has taken up the cause of Ramos and Compean in the House, was upset at the latest round of White House pardons.

“The fact that the president has neglected to free these men from their imprisonment while freeing drug dealers, embezzlers and other criminals is insulting to the American people,” he said. “For the sake of justice, let’s hope this is not the last round of pardons and commutations.”

Read about the latest White House pardons here.

In the coming weeks, the Virginia Commission on Immigration will send the state’s governor two dozen recommendations, most of which would help immigrants instead of penalizing them, the paper said.

The recommendations include shortening the Medicaid residency requirements for certain qualified immigrants, offering in-state tuition to immigrants who meet specific criteria, and creating an immigration assistance office, the Post said.

Read the story here.

The event was triggered in part by an incident earlier this month in Suffolk County, N.Y., where a group of white teenagers allegedly beat and stabbed a Hispanic immigrant to death.

Janet Murguia, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group, said that violence against immigrants and Latinos has increased substantially in recent years because of “the anger and hatred” surrounding the immigration debate.

“Words have consequences. And hateful words have hateful consequences. In Suffolk County, hate has trickled down to a new generation of Americans,” she said, at a press conference.

According to prosecutors, the six teenagers in Patchogue, N.Y., were searching for Latinos to attack.

Murguia said local officials such as Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, and conservative talk show hosts on radio and cable television are “stoking the fires of anti-immigrant sentiment” which lead to such crimes.

Levy said in a written statement that critics are blurring the distinction between legal immigration, which he and millions of Americans approve of, and illegal immigration.

“It is reprehensible that anyone would suggest that the tens of millions of Americans who favor secure borders are necessarily intolerant or bigoted,” he said. “Since when is enforcing the law seen as something negative and inflammatory?”

Napolitano is an advocate of giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship. She also ordered the National Guard to the Arizona border to help stop illegal crossings and reduce violence.

Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immgration Forum, said that the choice of Napolitano “is a welcome signal that President-elect Obama intends to take immigration seriously during his administration.”

“As a border governor, Napolitano has exhibited a clear understanding of the challenges presented by our nation’s broken immigration system,” Noorani said.

Rep. Brian Bilbray, a California Republican who chairs the Immigration Reform Caucus, said he was eager to work with the incoming Secretary of Homeland Security.

“As the governor of a border state, Janet Napolitano knows better than anyone how important border security is to our national security. I believe we can work well together to re-authorize and improve the E-verify program, secure our borders and crackdown on illegal employment,” he said.

According to the AP, actor and director John Malkovich “is so touched by the plight of migrant children who cross illegally into the United States that he plans to make a documentary about it.”

Malkovich told AP that the documentary will be called “Triple Crissing” and will try to humanize the issue of illegal immigration.

Read more here.

On immigration, he picked Alexander Aleinikoff, dean of the Georgetown University Law Center and Mariano-Florentino Cuellar, a professor at Stanford Law School.

Here are excerpts of their bios, sent out by the Obama transition team:

Aleinikoff has been dean of the Georgetown University Law Center and executive vice president of Georgetown University since July 2004. He has been a member of the Georgetown faculty since 1997. He served as general counsel and executive associate commissioner for programs at the Immigration and Naturalization Service for several years during the Clinton Administration. From 1997 to 2004, he was a senior associate at the Migration Policy Institute. He has written widely on immigration, refugee and citizenship law and constitutional law.

Cuellar is professor at Stanford Law School. His work focuses on how organizations manage complex regulatory, migration, international security, and criminal justice problems. During the Clinton Administration, he served at Treasury as senior advisor to the Under Secretary for Enforcement, where he worked on countering domestic and international financial crime, improving border coordination, and enhancing anti-corruption measures. He has served on the boards of numerous organizations. He has testified before Congress on immigration policy and separation of powers.

See the list of Obama’s other chosen experts here.

The survey also showed that 52 percent of Europeans and 47 percent of Americans say that immigration will increase crime in their society.

However, a significant number of respondents also said that they are only concerned about illegal immigrants, not legal ones.

Read more here.

The plan includes “regaining ground among critial voting groups including Hispanics.”

Here is an excerpt:

“The GOP won’t be a majority party if it cedes the young or Hispanics to Democrats. Republicans must find a way to support secure borders, a guest-worker program and comprehensive immigration reform that strengthens citizenship, grows our economy and keeps America a welcoming nation. An anti-Hispanic attitude is suicidal.”

Rove’s roadmap — dubbed “A Way Out of the Wilderness” — was published in Newsweek. See it here.

The papers’ investigation found that most of the inmates released from custody were accused of minor crimes, but hundreds of convicted felons — including child molesters, rapists and drug dealers — also managed to avoid deportation after serving time in jail.

Read the story here.