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Daily Border Bulletin is up! Stories of today include:

University of Houston creates research center for Mexico-U.S. law- The state of cross-border legal services between the United States and Mexico is the subject of the first research project of the new Center for U.S. and Mexican Law at the University of Houston Law Center.

Chicago Mayor proposes to bar immigration status checks- Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he would propose an ordinance that would bar police officers from turning over undocumented immigrants to federal agents if the immigrants do not have serious criminal convictions or outstanding criminal warrants.

D.C. approves bill against Secure Communities- In a unanimous vote, the D.C. Council approved a bill on Tuesday that will limit the ability of the federal government to enforce immigration laws by restricting the circumstances in which individuals can be held in the custody of local law enforcement at the request of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Daily Border Bulletin is up! Today's stories include:

U.S. needs to do more to protect foreign guest workers-  After allegations of violations of workplace standards in a seafood plant in Luisiana, there is a need to approve new rules protecting workers’ rights that have been blocked after business owners sued the Department of Labor and a group of senators from both parties shamefully voted to deny the department funding to enforce them, according to an editorial piece published in The New York Times.

Undocumented immigrants fight their right to work as attorneys- Three undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, and who later graduated law schools in California, Florida and New York, are trying to gain entry to their state bars so they can work as attorneys.

Americans support immigration policy at national level- Nearly 8-in-10 (77 percent) Americans say that immigration policy should be decided at the national level, while 1-in-5 (20 percent) say it should be left up to the states, according to Public Religion Research Institute’s June Religion & Politics Tracking Survey.

Daily Border Bulletin is up! Today's stories are:

Texan pastors plan to create National Church ID- A coalition of pastors proposes to create an identity card (ID) for undocumented immigrants to prevent them from being detained by police due to a lack of identity documents.

U.S. faciliates visa for tourists from India- In order to attract more tourists from India, the State Department announced an Interview Waiver Program for foreign visitors who were interviewed and thoroughly screened in conjunction with a prior visa application.

Mexico's Ambassadors suggest that Mexico and the U.S. co-host a World Cup- Mexico’s Ambassador to the U.S., Arturo Sarukhan threw out an ambitious, but crowd-pleasing, suggestion: that Mexico and the United States need to co-host the World Cup during a conference organized by the U.S.-Mexico Foundation, a nonprofit group that coordinates philanthropy and collaborative efforts between the United States and Mexico.

Daily Border Bulletin is up! Stories of today include:

California passes bill to ban status checks on immigrants- The California Senate passed a bill on Thursday that blocks local police from referring a detainee to immigration officials for deportation unless that person has been convicted of a violent or serious felony, reported news agency Reuters. The California Trust Act is now called “Anti-Arizona” bill because it shields immigrants from status checks by local police and challenges Republican-backed immigration crackdowns in Arizona and other states in the United States.

Immigrants produce the majority of U.S. patents- A recent study found more that immigrants were involved in three-quarters of patents from the United States top 10 universities, including MIT, Stanford and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Mexican border city attracts medical tourism- The Mexican border city of Mexicali has adopted medical care as its primary tourist lure, and it has been attracting a growing number of health care commuters from California and other nearby states.

Ciudad Juarez celebrates four days without murders- The first days of July have passed with no homicides in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

President Obama calls for immigration reform on Independence Day- President Barack Obama used an Independence Day ceremony in which immigrants serving in the U.S. military became citizens on Wednesday July 4th to renew his election-year call for new immigration laws popular with an important part of his political base.

Mexican actor Diego Luna directs film about Cesar Chavez- Mexican actor Diego Luna is directing the first feature film about Cesar Chavez, the Mexican-American union leader who organized farm workers in California and across the southwestern United States and led two historic grape boycotts aimed at drawing attention to harsh conditions in the fields.

Daily Border Bulletin is up! Today´s stories include:

Texas Senators push for public-private partnerships for border infrastructure- In a brief tour of two South Texas border cities Monday, Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, used the opportunity to tout a bill he has pending in the Senate that would allow for more public-private partnerships to increase staffing at ports of entry and improve infrastructure.

Peña Nieto lost election in the U.S.- The vast majority of the 40,000 Mexican expatriates who voted in Sunday’s election cast ballots against President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto.

American farmers fear labor shortages- A crackdown on illegal immigration, more job opportunities in Mexico and rising fees charged by smugglers are reducing the number of workers who cross the U.S. border illegally each year to help make up more than 60 percent of U.S. farmworkers.

Mexico´s presidential winner could affect American interests- Sunday’s Mexican election for president will have no immediate or dramatic effect on the U.S.-Mexico relationship, however, ties between the two countries, especially in the security arena and oil sector, could shift or adjust once the virtually elected president Enrique Peña Nieto  from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), takes office next December.

The end of an anti-immigrant state laws- Kristian Ramos, policy director of the 21st Century Border Initiative, writes an op-ed for the Huffington Post, stating that the three provisions that were struck down in Arizona’s SB 1070 anti-immigrant law have created legal precedent for other states to pass their own immigration laws outside of the existing federal ones. The Court was clear in striking down those three provisions; the Federal Government has pre-emptive powers in enforcing our nation’s immigration laws. 

Ohio needs more immigrants- Policy experts said Ohio’s economy could benefit from more immigrants moving to this state because they are much more likely than native-born residents to start businesses, and their establishments employ about one in seven people who work for small businesses.

The Daily Border Bulletin is up! Today's stories include:

Holder is cited in contempt- The attorney general Eric Holder is the first sitting member of a president’s cabinet in US history to be held in contempt of Congress after Republicans vented their fury over a gun-tracking investigation.

Hispanic voters are the new math of American politics- Arturo Vargas from NALEO projects that as many as 12.2 million Hispanics could vote in 2012.

Automobile parts maker will move production to Mexico- Federal Mogul is a worldwide maker of automobile parts, including wiper blades announced that it will move its production from Michigan City, Indiana, to its sister plant in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.

On April 19, 2012, the Border Mayors Association sent a letter to the White House with a request to include recommendations contained on NDN/NPI report Realizing the Full Value of Tourism from Mexico to the United States as part of the the federal Tourism Strategy. They claimed that Southwest border states are heavily dependent on trade and tourism from Mexico.

Read here the letter sent to the White House: Letter to White House RE Executive Order to increase tourism in the US

Last May, the White House realeased the report National Travel & Tourism Strategy, which highlights the importance of investing in border infrastructure as a way to increase tourism and transportation from Mexico. After the fact, the Border Mayors Association as well as the Mayor of Yuma, Arizona, Alan Krieger, sent thank you letters to the White House for taking into consideration their needs and desires on the National Travel and Tourism report. Here you can read both letters:

Thank You - White House Travel Tourism

Mayor Of Yuma Thank You

Kristian Ramos recently appeared on NPR's Tell Me More where he discussed a wide of issues including the Hispanic Vote in 2012, the Supreme Court ruling on SB1070 and Health Care.

The full segment along with a transcript of the event can be heard here, excerpts below.

On Mitt Romney, Hispanic Voters, and Cutting Funding for Programs Popular with Hispanics

"Well, I think the real issue here is - I'll tell you exactly why Hispanics are wary of Mitt Romney. On the issues that are important to them - on the economy, on jobs, Mitt Romney has come out very clearly and said, you know, where he wants to make his cuts, how he wants to balance the budget. He's tied himself to the Paul Ryan plan which is, hey, let's cut funding to public schools."

"Let's cut funding for teachers. Let's cut funding for police officers and firefighters and the middle class. Mitt Romney's sole campaign thing that resonates within his base is going after the Affordable Care Act, the health care act. He wants to do away with it completely. The Affordable Care Act is incredibly popular to the Hispanic community. People don't realize Hispanics are the most uninsured population in the country."

On Mitt Romney and Supreme Court Health Care Ruling

"I actually think, in this case, it really hurts Mitt Romney either way. Again, he has an enthusiasm gap with his base of just general voters and the real problem for him is he wrote the original version of it. It's the only thing that he can talk about on the stump with Republican voters. If it's repealed, he has nothing to talk about, really, and even if this thing gets knocked out, you know, the Obama administration can do some fixes to it and it'll come back in a different version. And it hurts Romney in the Hispanic community, as well, in terms of voter enthusiasm because he so clearly wants to repeal it."