Immigrants

Re "Medi-Cal effort nabs few cheaters," Oct. 6 We spent $16.6 million to deny eight people health services? As you wrote, "One congressional oversight committee found that the regulations cost the federal government and six of nine states surveyed this year $16.6 million in new administrative costs but resulted in snagging only eight illegal immigrants." The U.S. can further be proud of money-saving through its healthcare freeloading off Europe, which provides services to tourists.

Federal authorities intercepted two smuggling boats Tuesday off San Diego County in separate incidents in which some suspected illegal immigrants appear to have escaped after wading to shore. Customs and Border Protection agents patrolling the coast about 3:30 a.m. arrested two suspected smugglers on a boat eight miles offshore. The men, both Mexican citizens, had just dropped off six passengers at a beach in Carlsbad, and two of those were later arrested, authorities said. The other four were not found.

Taiwanese immigrant Thomas Liu was locked in a constant battle with his son Gordon throughout his years at Arcadia High School. The father disapproved of his son's baggy pants, loud music and computer games. After Gordon's parents forbade him to play online video games, hired him a tutor and got him into college, they thought everything would finally be all right. Instead, their son buckled under the pressure, started taking drugs and nearly dropped out of school. The elder Liu eventually sought help in a parenting class at the Asian Youth Center in San Gabriel.

Senate Democrats blocked a GOP bid to require 2010 census forms to ask people whether they are U.S. citizens. The proposal by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) was aimed at excluding noncitizens from the population totals used to figure the number of congressional representatives for each state. Critics said Vitter's plan would discourage immigrants from responding to the census and would be hugely expensive. They also said that it's long been settled law that the apportionment of congressional seats is determined by the number of people in each state, regardless of citizenship.

When President Clinton delivered on his campaign promise to "end welfare as we know it," he also led millions of Americans who depend on federal assistance into a new world that nobody knows. Few pieces of legislation ever have the sweeping impact of the welfare legislation that Clinton signed. And few stir up as much anxiety. Not only prototype "welfare families"--those headed by young, single mothers--will feel the new law's sting.

Bertha Eudave was 18 when she left Guadalajara and joined the flood of migrants streaming north. Together with her 18-year-old husband and kid brother, she sneaked across the border and wound up in the San Fernando Valley. If not the poorest inhabitants of tony Woodland Hills, the Mexican teens weren't far behind. For five months they lived in an abandoned car, doing yard work when they could get it and searching for steady jobs.

An unprecedented wave in citizenship surged Wednesday when 10,000 immigrants took their oaths in Los Angeles in the first of several mass ceremonies that will add a one-month high of 38,000 new citizens to Southern California. The huge numbers are expected to increase in coming months and by the end of the year, the seven-county region will account for nearly one-third of a record 1 million new citizens nationwide, according to federal immigration officials.

She put it off for years, but last week Alicia Fojo finally made the trip: She and her husband awoke at 5 a.m. and headed with some trepidation for downtown Los Angeles and the offices of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. By noon, Fojo had completed the application for her new "green card" and the elderly couple was heading back home to Santa Barbara County.

Ellis Island is coming to the Central Library in downtown Los Angeles. The immigrant experience in Los Angeles will be on display Sunday at the library with more than 3,000 photographs donated by Armenian, Arab, Iranian, Israeli, Jewish, and Turkish families. From 1 to 5 p.m. there will be speakers from various ethnic groups.

An immigrant identification project proposed in Anaheim has won endorsement from La Palma's City Council. In a unanimous vote, the council this week passed a resolution endorsing a six-month federal Immigration and Naturalization Service pilot program. The project would station an INS officer at Anaheim City Jail to identify illegal immigrants and deport them.