Justice Department to Send Election Observers to Arizona as Concern Rises About Illegal Voters

The Justice Department is sending a small pack of election observers to Arizona as Hispanic groups sound the alarm over an anti-illegal immigration group's mass e-mail seeking to recruit Election Day volunteers to help block illegal immigrants from voting.

Hispanic voting rights groups say the e-mail is just an attempt to intimidate minority voters. But election fraud monitors say that there are hundreds of examples of duplicate registrations, wrong information and past unregistered voters getting ballots.

Voter fraud allegations have emerged just days before the midterm in many crucial battleground states across the country, including Nevada, Pennsylvania and Florida.

The Justice Department announced Friday it would deploy more than 400 federal observers to 30 jurisdictions in 18 states ahead of Tuesday's election. But Arizona officials say the department had already committed to sending observers to their state.

Justice Department officials had notified Maricopa County that they would send a "handful" of election observers, even before the e-mail was sent, Matthew Benson, a spokesman for Arizona's secretary of state, told FoxNews.com. 

"We don't know why (the observers are) coming," he said. "But we do not believe it's in response to the e-mails making the rounds."

But William Gheen, executive director of Americans for Legal Immigration, said he knows why they're coming.

"They're sending them out because the Obama administration is doing everything it can to make sure as many illegal aliens vote in 2010 although that is a violation of federal law," he told FoxNews.com.

Benson noted that the Justice Department sends election observers to at least one Arizona county every election. In 2006, the department sent around 30 election observers to Maricopa County, he said.

Benson said the plan had nothing to do with the firestorm elicited by Ban Amnesty Now, or B.A.N., the group that sent an e-mail entitled "6 Days to STOP Illegals from Stealing the Election!"

The e-mail said "open-border criminals" in the unions, the White House and Hispanic groups are "determined to undermine" the election.

The e-mail originally included the signature of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, an immigration enforcement proponent and B.A.N. honorary co-chairman, but Arpaio's name was later removed after Sean McCaffrey, the president of B.A.N., said he didn't mean to send out the e-mail attributed to the sheriff.

That didn't deter one voting rights group, Mi Familia Vota, from sending a letter to Justice Department officials Thursday asking them to send election observers.

"We are very concerned when you have Sheriff Joe Arpaio putting out this type of call to the community with the fear and concern that illegals are going to take over the election," said Ben Monterroso, president of the group. "It's not that we're not concerned that the elections are secure, but the way that it's been written – anyone who has the appearance of a foreign person, i.e. being a Latino – then that can create intimidation and violate their rights to vote."

McCaffrey said Friday that, despite the erroneous attribution to Arpaio, he is looking for volunteers to provide information to his group about voter fraud, "especially stories concerning activities involving illegal aliens."

"We hope that by forwarding interested volunteers to state elections officials we may contribute to smooth, fair and legal elections in all 50 U.S. states," he wrote in a blog on the group's website. "Furthermore, we hope that those who seem so shocked and outraged that Americans are concerned about stopping voter fraud will own up to their actions and stop committing vote fraud."

McCaffrey told FoxNews.com in an interview that nearly 500 people have volunteered so far -- about 100 of them in Arizona.

Part of the concern for voter fraud monitors is a result of a ruling this week by a federal appeals court that stripped the state of its ability to request proof of citizenship when residents register to vote. State officials say the ruling could increase the likelihood of voter fraud but not in next week's midterms because the deadline for registration passed before the decision.

At Arizona polls, voters must show one piece of identification that includes their name, address and photograph, such as a driver's license. They also can provide two forms of ID with their names and address, such as a utility bill or bank statement. Voters can also provide one form a acceptable photo ID with another form of non-photo ID that includes their name and address, such as a passport and a utility bill.

Arpaio declined to comment, but McCaffrey told FoxNews.com that he apologized to the sheriff Thursday for using his name without his permission. Arpaio, he said, stepped down as honorary co-chairman.

"He'll continue to support us but he didn't want an official title with the group while he was being investigated by everyone with a badge at the White House," he said, alluding to the Justice Department's investigation into whether Arpaio's office was discriminating against Hispanics with its crackdown on illegal immigrants. 

Monterroso said he's happy the Justice Department is sending poll watchers, even if it's not in response to his group's letter. 

"I think it's the right thing to do," he said. "It's better to be safe than sorry. If they have people out there, we want to make sure people vote without fear of intimidation or harassment by anyone else."

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Greece, Turkey Vow to Tackle Illegal Immigration

VOULIAGMENI, Greece  -- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday promised closer cooperation with EU neighbor Greece to fight illegal immigration into Europe in exchange for Greek assistance to help relax visa rules for Turks.

Erdogan is visiting Greece for the second time in five months, as the two countries seek to boost trade and sideline their traditional rivalry.
"On (immigration) we will start cooperation so that we can deal with this problem ... it is a common problem," Erdogan said after a two-hour meeting with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on the fringes of a Mediterranean climate change conference near Athens.

Greece is the European Union's busiest transit point for illegal immigration and has faced a spike in recent months in clandestine traffic across its 125-mile land border with Turkey.

Greek officials have long accused authorities in Turkey of failing to make a determined effort to stop immigrants sneaking into Greece and of ignoring an agreement to accept the return of detained migrants.

Papandreou said Greece and Turkey had agreed to "reactivate" that agreement.

"We decided on a common initiative toward the EU ... to make our cooperation more systematic and much more effective in dealing with this problem," he said.

"At the same time, we discussed the very important issue of liberalizing the visa process for Turkish citizens entering the European Union."

NATO allies Greece and Turkey have improved ties over the past decade but remain at odds over war-divided Cyprus and boundaries in the Aegean Sea. The disputes have hindered Turkey's bid to join the European Union.

Papandreou said the two leaders had discussed the course of efforts to resolve those disputes "in a very positive atmosphere."

And Erdogan described as "very significant" a recent decision by his government to grant Turkish citizenship to 12 senior clerics at the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, the center of Orthodox Christianity around the world.

Clerics must have Turkish citizenship to be able to succeed the current Ecumenical Patriarch, 70-year-old Bartholomew I.

On Thursday, NATO's secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on a visit to Athens that Greece and Turkey were showing a greater willingness to cooperate.
"I appreciate very much the close contact, as I see it, that we are now witnessing between Ankara and Athens," the NATO chief said.

"I think Prime Minister Erdogan's visit to Athens ... is yet another testament to the improvement of relations, and we appreciate that very much."

Leaders and representatives from 16 Mediterranean countries are attending the meeting at the seaside resort of Vouliagmeni, south of Athens, also joined by environmental campaigners and representatives of the World Bank and European Investment.

Papandreou said Mediterranean countries were "particularly vulnerable" to global warming -- facing more frequent droughts, heatwaves and forest fires -- and said he was encouraged by Erdogan's presence at the conference.

"This is proof that two neighbors can place their differences to one side to face common threats," he said, in his opening remarks earlier Friday.

The conference ends Saturday.

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Illegal Aliens Canvass for Votes in Wash. State

SEATTLE -- When Maria Gianni is knocking on voters' doors, she's not bashful about telling people she is in the country illegally. She knows it's a risk to advertise to strangers that she's here illegally -- but one worth taking in what she sees as a crucial election.

The 42-year-old is one of dozens of volunteers -- many of them illegal immigrants -- canvassing neighborhoods in the Seattle area trying to get naturalized citizens to cast a ballot for candidates like Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, who is in a neck-to-neck race with Republican Dino Rossi.

Pramila Jayapal, head of OneAmerica Votes, says the campaign is about empowering immigrants who may not feel like they can contribute to a campaign because they can't vote.

"Immigrants really do matter," Jayapal said. "If we can't vote ourselves, we're gonna knock on doors, or get family members to vote."

So far the illegal immigrants going door-to-door aren't meeting opposition. Craig Keller, an organizer for Respect WA, a group pushing for stricter immigration law in the Washington, said he doesn't mind illegal immigrants volunteering for vote drives, he just wants to make sure mistakes on the voter rolls don't allow them to vote.

"Anybody can go out and wave a sign, but when it comes to who's making the choices, there's no question they need to be citizens," Keller said.

In close elections across the country, the immigrant and minority vote is considered key for candidates, especially Democrats.

Earlier this week in Nevada, a television ad urging Latinos not to vote sparked outcry from Democrats, who called it a dirty trick meant to keep Hispanics home and boost Republican candidates. Univision and Telemundo -- the nation's two largest Spanish-language networks -- canceled the ad, which the Republican group Latinos for Reform had planned to eventually run in Nevada, Florida, California, Texas and Colorado through the Nov. 2 election.

Seattle is home to a wide array of immigrant communities, from Latinos to east Africans and Asians.

Congress declined this year to consider overhauling the country's immigration law, much to the chagrin of immigrant advocates who had expected Democrats to do so by now.

Still, OneAmerica Votes launched one of the largest get-out-the-vote campaigns in the state on behalf of Democratic candidates. The organization is an offshoot of OneAmerica, one of the state's largest and the most influential immigrant-rights advocacy group.

Through home visits, phone banks and mailings the organization is aiming to reach about 40,000 registered voters in the Seattle area in an attempt to help Democrats gain ground in key races. Volunteers include other types of people who can't vote, such as legal permanent residents.

About 150 volunteers rolled out in nine cities across Washington this past week, knocking on 3,000 doors.

In Bellevue, a city of nearly 123,000 east of Seattle, Gianni knocked on 25 doors and spoke to 15 people, she said.

One man, a naturalized citizen from the Philippines, said he knew what she was going through after she shared she was in the country illegally.

"There's always a risk," Gianni said in Spanish about her legal status. "But if there's a change, I would feel like I contributed, even in a small part, to a change we all need."

Gianni arrived in the United States on a visa 13 years ago looking for work and stayed. For a while her only son lived here, but has since moved back to Mexico.

"In order for there to be a change to our broken immigration system," she said, "I believe one has to fight."

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In WA, illegal immigrants canvassing for votes

SEATTLE –  When Maria Gianni is knocking on voters' doors, she's not bashful about telling people she is in the country illegally. She knows it's a risk to advertise to strangers that she's here illegally — but one worth taking in what she sees as a crucial election.

The 42-year-old is one of dozens of volunteers — many of them illegal immigrants — canvassing neighborhoods in the Seattle area trying to get naturalized citizens to cast a ballot for candidates like Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, who is in a neck-to-neck race with Republican Dino Rossi.

Pramila Jayapal, head of OneAmerica Votes, says the campaign is about empowering immigrants who may not feel like they can contribute to a campaign because they can't vote.

"Immigrants really do matter," Jayapal said. "If we can't vote ourselves, we're gonna knock on doors, or get family members to vote."

So far the illegal immigrants going door-to-door aren't meeting opposition. Craig Keller, an organizer for Respect WA, a group pushing for stricter immigration law in the Washington, said he doesn't mind illegal immigrants volunteering for vote drives, he just wants to make sure mistakes on the voter rolls don't allow them to vote.

"Anybody can go out and wave a sign, but when it comes to who's making the choices, there's no question they need to be citizens," Keller said.

In close elections across the country, the immigrant and minority vote is considered key for candidates, especially Democrats.

Earlier this week in Nevada, a television ad urging Latinos not to vote sparked outcry from Democrats, who called it a dirty trick meant to keep Hispanics home and boost Republican candidates. Univision and Telemundo — the nation's two largest Spanish-language networks — canceled the ad, which the Republican group Latinos for Reform had planned to eventually run in Nevada, Florida, California, Texas and Colorado through the Nov. 2 election.

Seattle is home to a wide array of immigrant communities, from Latinos to east Africans and Asians.

Congress declined this year to consider overhauling the country's immigration law, much to the chagrin of immigrant advocates who had expected Democrats to do so by now.

Still, OneAmerica Votes launched one of the largest get-out-the-vote campaigns in the state on behalf of Democratic candidates. The organization is an offshoot of OneAmerica, one of the state's largest and the most influential immigrant-rights advocacy group.

Through home visits, phone banks and mailings the organization is aiming to reach about 40,000 registered voters in the Seattle area in an attempt to help Democrats gain ground in key races. Volunteers include other types of people who can't vote, such as legal permanent residents.

About 150 volunteers rolled out in nine cities across Washington this past week, knocking on 3,000 doors.

In Bellevue, a city of nearly 123,000 east of Seattle, Gianni knocked on 25 doors and spoke to 15 people, she said.

One man, a naturalized citizen from the Philippines, said he knew what she was going through after she shared she was in the country illegally.

"There's always a risk," Gianni said in Spanish about her legal status. "But if there's a change, I would feel like I contributed, even in a small part, to a change we all need."

Gianni arrived in the United States on a visa 13 years ago looking for work and stayed. For a while her only son lived here, but has since moved back to Mexico.

"In order for there to be a change to our broken immigration system," she said, "I believe one has to fight."

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Whitman's woes raise questions on illegal hiring

Republican Meg Whitman has forcefully denied that she knew her former housekeeper was in the country illegally, keeping immigration in the spotlight in California's gubernatorial race.

Q: What are people required to do to verify the immigration status of household workers, such as cleaners, gardeners, painters and carpenters?

A: In general, employers must fill out and sign the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' I-9 form, which requires them to acknowledge, under penalty of perjury, that they examined documents that entitle an employee to work. However, the form is not required for "casual domestic work in a private home on a sporadic, irregular or intermittent basis," according to CIS' employers guide.

Dan Kowalski, editor of Bender's Immigration Bulletin, said "sporadic" work has not been clearly defined by case law, making it open to interpretation. A full-time nanny's employer, he says, would be required to fill out an I-9 form.

Independent contractors are also exempt. Kowalski says the term "independent contractor" is well-defined by case law; the person hired to paint a living room is not required to fill out an I-9.

Q: Is an employer shielded from legal trouble if the worker is contracted by an agency?

A: Yes. But Kowalski says that means the employment agency pays the worker. If Whitman paid the worker directly, she became the employer and should have signed the I-9 form, he says.

Q: What if the employer suspects a worker is using false documents or someone else's documents?

A: CIS says an employer must reject documents that "do not reasonably on their face appear to be genuine and to relate to the person presenting them." It sponsors a voluntary program that lets employers run a worker's information against Department of Homeland Security and Social Security databases. More than 216,000 employers were enrolled in the E-Verify program through September 2009.

I-9 forms are not submitted to the government, but an employer must keep them for three years after the hiring date or a year after the date of termination, whichever is later.

For more information, see CIS' employers guide, http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/m-274.pdf

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WTO says US ban on Chinese poultry is illegal

GENEVA –  The Obama administration received its first rebuke from the World Trade Organization on Wednesday as a three-member panel declared that an American ban on Chinese poultry is illegal.

The ruling came as the U.S. House of Representatives prepared a vote condemning Chinese currency manipulation and threatening possible trade penalties. But its negative outcome for Washington could bolster Beijing's claims that U.S. lawmakers are bending to protectionist pressure amid high unemployment.

The WTO said the U.S. was violating a number of its trade obligations by preventing Chinese chicken parts from entering the U.S. market, ruling against a measure in last year's U.S. federal spending bill.

The law extended a five-year U.S. ban on Chinese chicken declared after a 2004 outbreak of bird flu. The Obama administration has handled a number of cases it inherited from President George W. Bush's tenure, but the poultry case represented the first WTO complaint launched specifically against legislation signed by Obama.

The WTO can authorize sanctions against countries failing to comply with trade rules, but that usually takes years of litigation, and Washington can first appeal the 184-page verdict.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative acknowledged the defeat but said the restrictions in question were soon expiring and would be replaced by better conditions for Chinese poultry.

"The United States had explained that the temporary funding restriction was justified under WTO rules," spokeswoman Nefeterius McPherson said. "The panel, however, found otherwise."

Beijing and Washington banned each others' poultry in 2004 following an outbreak of bird flu. But China lifted the ban after a few months and has imported more than 4 million tons of U.S. poultry since 2004 — mostly feet and other parts of birds that are popular in China but not elsewhere. The U.S. refuses to do the same.

The U.S., the world's largest importer, and China, the biggest exporter, also are arguing over regulations affecting commerce in steel, tires, patents and Hollywood films.

China's exports have surged since joining the WTO in 2001, rankling manufacturers in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. Critics of the Asian country say its rise as a trade juggernaut has been aided by unfair policies that boost sales of Chinese goods abroad while limiting the amount of foreign products entering the Chinese market.

A key element of that argument concerns China's currency, the yuan, which some economists and lawmakers in Europe and the U.S. charge as being intentionally undervalued so that Chinese companies can sell products from textiles and TVs to shoes and auto parts at cheaper prices than European or American competitors.

U.S. manufacturers blame the level of the yuan for millions of lost jobs, and American lawmakers face rising pressure to cut into the unemployment rate ahead of November elections.

Democratic Party leaders say the House will take up a bill this week that would give the U.S. government power to impose sanctions on China or other countries found to be manipulating their currencies to gain trade advantages.

China on Wednesday repeated promises of exchange rate flexibility but offered no new measures that might avert a possible House vote.

In June, Beijing promised a more flexible exchange rate, but the yuan has risen by only about 2 percent against the dollar since then.

China, in turn, has sharply criticized what it deems an upswing in protectionism in the United States and other rich countries since financial markets collapsed in 2008. It has since become more assertive in challenging the U.S. and other countries to respective Chinese trade rights.

"While urging its trading partners to further open markets, the U.S. has adopted more restrictive and protectionist practices in its domestic market," Chinese Ambassador Sun Zhenyu noted at a WTO meeting Wednesday.

Sun said American industrial subsidies, stimulus plans, bailouts, national security exemptions and "Buy American" or "Hire American" provisions "go against the commitment to opposing trade protectionism made by the U.S. at various multilateral forums, contradict its own preaching of free-trade spirit and have negatively affected international trade."

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