Emerging Trends in Undocumented Immigration

[This is a guest-post from my son, Greg Weeks]

From the new Pew Hispanic Center report:

The annual inflow of unauthorized immigrants to the United States was nearly two-thirds smaller in the March 2007 to March 2009 period than it had been from March 2000 to March 2005, according to new estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center.

This sharp decline has contributed to an overall reduction of 8% in the number of unauthorized immigrants currently living in the U.S.-to 11.1 million in March 2009 from a peak of 12 million in March 2007, according to the estimates. The decrease represents the first significant reversal in the growth of this population over the past two decades.

Food Riots in Mozambique

Food prices have risen in 2010, driven especially by the drought and fires in Russia that have limited the harvest being exported from that country. In very poor and rapidly growing countries like Mozambique even a small rise in price can severely threaten a family's food security and the frustration has led to violence, although the fact that the rioting was spurred by young men is not surprising in a country like Mozambique where one out of every ten people is a male aged 15-24.

The trouble this week started Wednesday in the capital, Maputo. Protesters, most of them young men, started marching peacefully but then began throwing stones, burning tires and looting shops. Police opened fire, and tourists and business people were trapped in their hotels or at the airport as mobs cut off the airport road. At least seven people were killed and scores injured.

The government has urged calm, saying it can do little about the high prices, which were sparked by a drop in the value of the import-dependent nation's currency. It pointed out that Mozambique grows only 30 percent of the wheat it needs. "The importation of wheat and other commodities incur high costs in international markets," government spokesman Antonio Nkutumula said.

This Is NOT How to Cope With Population Growth

A tragic story unfolded in Maryland (suburban Washington, DC) today when police were forced to shoot and kill a man who broke into the offices of the Discovery Channel with explosives taped to his chest and held three employees at gunpoint. He had been convicted of disorderly conduct for a protest he organized outside Discovery's offices in February 2008, and had been on probation which included coming no closer than 500 feet to those offices. However, his probation had ended two weeks ago.

"The Discovery Channel produces many so-called 'Environmental Programs' supposedly there to save the planet," Lee [the suspect] said in an ad he took out in a Washington newspaper to promote the protest. "But the truth is things are getting WORSE! Their programs are causing more harm than good."

In court and online, Lee faulted the Discovery Channel for shows as varied as "Future Weapons," "It Takes a Thief" and "Planet Green."