Here’s one indication that yesterday’s Supreme Court nomination is a milestone for people of Puerto Rican heritage: Many journalists and commentators are being corrected when they refer to nominee Sonia Sotomayor as the daughter of “immigrants.”

The judge’s parents were born on the island, but, as the National Association of Hispanic Journalists took the time to explain in a statement …

To be factually correct, her Puerto Rican parents are not immigrants, as some journalists have reported, since island-born residents are U.S. citizens conferred by an act of Congress in 1917. People who move to the U.S. mainland from Puerto Rico are no more immigrants than those who move from Nebraska to New York.

Yesterday I spoke to Latino groups, fellow Nuyoricans and members of the Cardinal Spellman High School Class of ‘72 for a story about the significance of Sotomayor’s nomination. Here’s a quote from Doreen Frasca, who defeated Sotomayor in an election for girls class president at Spellman.

She’s going to be an inspiration to many children, regardless of their heritage. Anyone that grew up with dreams and aspirations.

(Photos: AP)

White Plains High School students have made a tradition of rallying for the DREAM Act, which would create a legalization process for those who came to the United States as children and completed their education here. The students held a May Day walkout in 2006 and 2007 and marched from the school to the center of town.

This year, organizer Arturo Bravo is aiming higher and coordinating a march on Saturday, June 6, along with pro-immigrant groups in Ossining, Port Chester, New Rochelle, Mamaroneck and elsewhere. Now a Lehman College student in math and computer science, Bravo went back to WPHS on May 1 as a guest speaker, and got “re-energized” about the DREAM Act.

There’s a renewed buzz among supporters this year over the endorsement of people like Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and from the College Board.

“My hopes are very, very high,” Bravo said.

(Photos: Ricky Flores/The Journal News)

Fifth-grade students at Little Tor Elementary School in New City are bringing immigration history alive with a play written by two parents. Here are some scenes from a dress rehearsal this week. Read Hema Easley’s Journal News story here.

(Photos: Vincent DiSalvio / The Journal News)

The NY Times reports today on a 25 percent drop in migration out of Mexico in 2008, based on Mexican government statistics. The studies do not show any mass exodus back from the United States, and clearly there is still much coming and going between the two countries. Experts describe this as likely just a temporary stall due to poor job opportunities in the United States — though the Center for Immigration Studies sees increased enforcement paying off.

The surveys found that some families no longer had money available to hire smugglers, thereby slowing the illegal flow of migrants. But El Diario/La Prensa has an interesting report in which smugglers claim their business is not suffering amid recession. The Feet in 2 Worlds blog has an English recap here.

Click here for a new database showing how the local population is growing and shrinking among different ages and ethnic groups. A few things that stand out in the Census Bureau’s estimates from 2000 to 2008:

• Westchester’s Hispanic population reached 20 percent in 2008, up from 16 percent at the start of the decade. Overall, the Lower Hudson Valley’s Hispanic population is growing steadily, and the black population has remained about the same since 2000.


• Children under 5 in Westchester are now “majority-minority” — non-Hispanic whites make up 45 percent of children in this age group, Hispanics 33 percent, blacks 19 percent, and Asians 8 percent.


• Putnam’s black and Hispanic populations have grown over the decade, but the county remains overwhelmingly white (84 percent, or about 83,000 out of 99,000 people).

Nationally, the Hispanic and Asian populations are growing more slowly than in the past. AP reports that a decline in immigration — due to the economy and enforcement measures — is causing the slowdown.

The New York Times reports that rising numbers of Hispanic and Asian residents continue to fuel New York City’s growth. Manhattan is a different story, with white residents rising in number to almost half the population.

But one of the interesting patterns locally is the aging of the population. The numbers reflect a departure of young families who were priced out of the Lower Hudson Valley during the real estate bubble. (These numbers are too recent to show the full effects of the recession.) According to research by our data analyst Tim Henderson, the number of 30-something adults dropped by a quarter since 2000, while numbers of people in their late 50s grew by more than that. We’re also seeing a substantial drop in the numbers of young children. (Update: See our Journal News article here.)

Immigrants of working age are partly replacing the young people who left, experts say, and that’s helping to make the population more diverse.

School officials have already noticed a decrease in kindergarten enrollments. Jim Reese, Irvington’s assistant superintendent for business, told me today:

The way I look at it is the more expensive the housing, usually the fewer the students. Because families just starting out … are less likely to be able to afford communities where the median price of the housing is very high. They’re likely to try to relocate someplace else.

Port Chester is famous for its incredible range of ethnic restaurants, a reflection of the village’s immigrant population. Local artists and performers are apparently just as diverse, if not as renowned, as the restaurants. Some will take the stage Sunday for the second annual Port Chester Fest.

Tom Van Buren, who runs the folk arts program at ArtsWestchester, helped locate several performers that reflect the local culture.

Below is Grupo HAGUA, a Guatemalan dance troupe that mixes pre-Columbian and colonial traditions. The photo (courtesy of Van Buren) shows them performing at Kensico Dam last summer.

More local talent comes from Armonia del Peru, a brass band led by Gregorio Salazar and his son Hoover, below. Both are construction workers living in Port Chester, and they play a busy circuit of Peruvian patron-saint festivals in the tri-state area. Sunday will be their first time performing for the general public in Port Chester.

Gregorio is holding the group’s first album, recorded in Lima in 1982. If you look at the cover closely, you’ll see Hoover posing with the band as a toddler, holding a percussion instrument.

Port Chester Fest runs from noon to 8:30 p.m., with performances at the waterfront and in a few local restaurants. A group of poets will perform bilingual readings at the Copa Cabana restaurant.

Read more of this entry »

When Matthew Neuringer, a 21-year-old graduating Fordham student, ran for Southeast Town Board two years ago, tackling illegal immigration was at the forefront of his campaign. Neuringer ran alongside now Supervisor Michael Rights and Councilman Dwight Yee on the Save our Southeast line. He lost to current Councilman Roger Gross.

Now that Neuringer is running again to gain a seat on the Town Board, his fight to curb illegal immigration continues. He recently wrote a guest column to The Journal News entitled: “A LOCAL, PROACTIVE APPROACH IS NEEDED FOR SANCTUARY CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES,” outlining three ideas to stop “overcrowding,” “illegal hiring,” and “loitering.”

Neuringer is running with Joseph DePaola, 28, an attorney. Both men are facing a Republican primary challenge from attorney Elizabeth Hudak and police sergeant Bob Cullen.

Neuringer’s column after the jump. Read more of this entry »

Visitors at the Chuang Yen Monastery in Kent celebrated Buddha’s birthday in combination with Mother’s Day on Sunday. Reporter Greg Clary has a story here.

New tables from Census Bureau give snapshots of the foreign-born population from state to state. Here is a link to the charts. Profiles of the various nationalities give further detail about incomes, home ownership, education levels, etc.

Here is the link to New York’s major immigrant groups. (Did you know that Guyana was in the Top 10?)

Among President Obama’s proposed budget cuts is the elimination of reimbursements to counties for money spent on jailed immigrants. He would drop funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program and save $400 million — something President George W. Bush tried and failed to do, AP reports.

The president proposes to increase funding for some immigration-enforcement measures, possibly laying the groundwork for a legalization bill, reports the Los Angeles Times. His $3.4 trillion plan includes an 8 percent increase in border enforcement and security funding; sets aside $112 million, a 12 percent increase, to improve the E-verify system, and hires 80 new agents to identify criminal immigrants in the jails.

The elimination of SCAAP is already drawing criticism iin New York. Ed Kowalski of the group 9/11 Families for a Secure America had this statement: “Forcing state governments to pick up the tab for the federal government’s failures doesn’t save US taxpayers one dime. Further, President Obama has not offered any alternative to reimbursing the states for the high costs associated with prosecuting and incarcerating criminal aliens.”

The program reimburses counties for costs involving foreign-born inmates convicted of a felony or second misdemeanor. For 2008, according to the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Westchester received about $383,000; Rockland, $496,000, Putnam, $72,000, New York City, close to $18 million and New York state, $24 million.