House lawmakers call for National Guard at border
CNN Wire Staff
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A largely Republican group of House lawmakers said Wednesday they have sent a letter to President Obama asking for the National Guard to be deployed along the border between the United States and Mexico.
The request comes amid a heated debate on Capitol Hill over a comprehensive immigration reform bill - one of the president's top domestic priorities.
Will controversy cool Arizona tourism?
A. Pawlowski
CNN
Millions of visitors flock to Arizona each year to relax in beautiful places like the Grand Canyon, Lake Havasu and the resort town of Sedona, but a political storm is threatening to impact the state's tourism.
Anger in the wake of a new state law - which requires Arizona police to determine whether people are in the United States legally if there is a reason to suspect they aren't - has prompted some to call for a boycott of its hospitality industry.
"Our members are concerned," said Debbie Johnson, president and CEO of the Arizona Hotel & Lodging Association, which represents hundreds of hotels, bed and breakfasts and resorts in the state.
"They're hearing from a lot of folks who visit and they're obviously concerned with where this is playing out."
The fallout started last week when the bill was signed into law.
Jobs and Population: Rethinking illegal immigration
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Editor's Note: This article continues our series excerpted from AC360°'s contributor David Gewirtz's book, How To Save Jobs, which is available now. AC360° viewers can download it for free at HowToSaveJobs.org. To learn more about the book, follow David on Twitter @DavidGewirtz.
David Gewirtz | BIO
AC360° Contributor
Director, U.S. Strategic Perspective Institute
This article is a continuation of Jobs and population: Controlling population.
With all the hubbub coming from Arizona this week about the state's new immigration policies, I thought it might be interesting to share the results of some research I did last year on the subject.
While I was writing How To Save Jobs, I built a computer model to analyze the logistics of tracking down illegal immigrants and sending them home. The bottom line was simple: it would simply cost far too much and be logistically impractical to gather all 13 million people and send them home.
Let me be clear. Illegal immigrants are here illegally. They're violating the law.
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What my analysis showed, however, is that it would cost America billions of dollars simply to move illegal immigrants back home - and that's after they were located, apprehended, and processed through the legal system.
Let's put the illegal immigration problem into perspective
There are about 13 million illegal immigrants living in the United States today. Thirteen million people is a lot of people. That's pretty much the population of the state of Illinois, or the population of New York City and Los Angeles combined. That's almost 5 percent of the population of the United States.
Assuming you could gather all the illegal immigrants, it would take 166,666 buses, more than 13 billion gallons of fuel, and about 48 million pounds of food (around 195 million meals) simply to transport them to the nearest border.
We can't afford to be cynical about deficits
John P. Avlon
CNN Contributor
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America is facing trillion dollar deficits and unprecedented national debt. The Tea Party movement has channeled populist anger at out-of-control Washington spending and generational theft.
Now a bipartisan deficit reduction panel has begun to propose solutions to these urgent problems - but official Washington's response seems to be a collective roll of the eyes. Talk about a profile in cynicism.
Sound Off: Your comments 4/27/10
Editor's Note: After Tuesday night's AC360°, we heard from many of you about New York's good Samaritan and Arizona's Immigration law. What do you think?
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I saw the piece on Hugo Tale-Yax and on Crime & Punishment. That same day (April 18th), I witnessed a mugging right in front of my house. I and another gentleman tried to help by yelling for help and trying to chase the muggers away. There were about 5 five people nearby but no one did anything. Can you tell me if there is anything I can do to help Hugo's family? I know there is a wake for him in Brooklyn tomorrow but I would like to make a donation to him if possible.
I was watching AC360 tonight. One topic that cut my attention was about the Guatemalan individual who died without help from many people passing by. I was glad to see a good positive spin to show that Latinos would step up to the plate to help others even if their live is at stake. In the case of this unfortunate hero, he step up to save a lady in need, however we failed to rescue him...
Beat 360° 4/27/10
Ready for today's Beat 360°? Everyday we post a picture you provide the caption and our staff will join in too. Tune in tonight at 10pm to see if you are our favorite! Here is the 'Beat 360°' pic:
Fabrice Tourre (C), executive director of the structured products group trading for The Goldman Sachs Group, prepares to testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Investigations Subcommittee. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Have fun with it. We're looking forward to your captions! Make sure to include your name, city, state (or country) so we can post your comment.
Beat 360° Winners:
Staff:
Gabe Falcon:
"Hmmm, I should bundle up my testimony and sell it as junk bonds. Could make a killing."
Viewer:
Caroline from Charlottesville, Virginia
"Buy low, sell high, and take the Fifth."
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Why Democrats shouldn't toy with Lindsey Graham
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Gloria Borger
CNN Senior Political Analyst
Sen. Lindsey Graham is the new John McCain. Scratch that. Actually, he's the old John McCain.
That is, he's an independent Republican, often a lonely soul as he works with Democrats to get some deals on intractable issues such as climate change, immigration reform and the closing of Guantanamo Bay.
McCain used to be right there with the South Carolina Republican. Only now he's too busy (and electorally challenged) fending off a right-wing primary assault in Arizona. Seems that the 'maverick' moniker doesn't work as well when it means crossing the aisle to work with those big-government Democrats. So McCain's old Senate role became Lindsey Graham's new Senate role.
J/P Haitian Relief Organization
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AC360°
Tonight we have a report on the situation on the ground in Haiti. Sean Penn will talk to Dr. Sanjay Gupta about how relief is reaching Haitians, what improvements he's seen and what challenges lie ahead. Penn has been working in Haiti since the earthquake with his organization, the J/P Haitian Relief Organization.
The mission of J/P HRO is to “save lives and bring relief to the Haitian people quickly and effectively.”
Learn more about what the organization is doing in Haiti here..
Video: Profile of a good Samaritan
Dr. Sanjay Gupta | BIO
AC360° Contributor
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent
On Twitter
