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Leaders of Worthington, a city of 11,000 in southwest Minnesota, complained to the governor about unauthorized workers who used false documents to escape prosecution for crimes they commit, leading to a governor's report that estimated unauthorized migration costs the state $180 million a year. Local Congressional representatives voted in favor of the December 2005 House enforcement bill, saying that their constituents want far more done to reduce illegal migration. (www.state.mn.us/portal/mn/jsp/content.d ... nistration)

Young men in rural areas are most likely to volunteer for military service: 44 percent of U.S. military recruits come from rural areas with lower-than-average incomes, especially in the southern states. Profiles in Fall 2005 found that many of those enlisting were jobless and saw few prospects at home, so that leaving for a guaranteed military job was attractive. In 2005, Whites were 60 percent of recruits, Blacks 14 percent, and Hispanics 12 percent.

The federal government provided at least $450 million to help clean up New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and foreign-born workers were part of the clean-up labor force. Some came on their own, but others were hired by contractors, such as New York-based LVI Services, which reportedly paid $10 an hour with few questions asked and housed workers in camps closed to outsiders. Some local workers complained that the contractors were hiring unauthorized workers at low wages rather than local and often unemployed workers seeking jobs.

Meat. In 2003, an estimated 527,000 workers were employed in 5,700 US meatpacking and processing plants. CPS data found that two-thirds of meatpacking workers were male, 43 percent were under 35, and 42 percent were Hispanic; 26 percent were non-US citizens. Average annual earnings are $21,300 a year, below the $33,500 average for US manufacturing workers.

The first Supreme Court case under new Chief Justice John Roberts in October 2005 was IBP vs Alvarez. It involved the question of whether meatpacking employees should be compensated for the time that it takes them to walk from the place where they put on safety gear to their place of work on the dis-assembly line. The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that workers should be paid for the average 4.4 minutes of walking time, and the US Supreme Court in November 2005 upheld that decision. US industrial firms, many in small towns, continue to restructure by, in some cases, reducing wages sharply. Auto parts maker Delphi, with 50,000 US employees in 31 plants, filed for bankruptcy in October 2005. Delphi proposed reducing hourly wages from $28 to $10 an hour. In places such as Lockport, New York, with 3,800 Delphi workers among 22,000 residents, the result is a threat to jobs as well as housing prices and other assets, as many of the 600 smaller suppliers to the Lockport plant are likely to reduce wages in order to continue to sell to Delphi.

K-12. The federal No Child Left Behind law mandates testing of pupils in K-12 schools using the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for a sample of students. Many states also use other tests to assess all their students, and results can vary widely. For example, about 87 percent of Tennessee eighth-graders were proficient in math in 2004 under the state test, but only 21 percent were proficient under the federal test.

States must use the NAEP, but can satisfy the No Child mandate to have all their students be proficient by 2014 using state tests. To ensure that they meet this benchmark, many states have adopted relatively easy tests, prompting a call for national tests as in England, France and Japan.

About 20 percent of US K-12 students are Hispanic, and half speak Spanish as their first language. In November 2005, an Hispanic student in an alternative school in Kansas City was suspended for speaking Spanish in the hallway; the suspension was later reversed, and the family was considering a suit.

Museums. Many living history museums that portray farm and village life one or two centuries ago are struggling, as families that once took auto trips fly in an era of less-expensive flights.

GAO-05-96. 2005. Safety In The Meat And Poultry Industry, While Improving, Could Be Further Strengthened. January 12. Kandel, William and Emilio A. Parrado. 2005. Restructuring of the US Meat Processing Industry and New Hispanic Migrant Destinations. Population and Development Review. Vol 31, No. 3 September. 447-471.

http://migration.ucdavis.edu/rmn/more.php?id=1078_0_2_0