A makeshift sailboat carrying close to 200 people capsized off the coast of the Turks and Caicos Islands. At least fifteen are dead. The boat was carrying Haitians aiming to make the U.S. coastline in Miami and had been at sea for three day before hitting a reef. Lieutenant Commander Matt Morlag, spokesman for the U.S. Coastguard in Miami, joins us with an update on the continuing search.

The Obama administration seems to be taking a softer approach to illegal immigrants than the Bush White House did. Gone are the days of Federal Agents swarming a warehouse and making mass arrests. Force is being replaced by fees. The White House said yesterday that they would focus on fines and civil sanctions and not criminal charges when business are suspected of employing large numbers of illegal immigrants. Joining us this morning is New York Times national immigration correspondent Julia Preston.

For more, read Julia Preston's article, U.S. Shifts Strategy on Illicit Work by Immigrants, in The New York Times.

The issue of immigration reform has been pushed aside recently by the economic crisis, but now it's back on center stage. This week a coalition of reform advocacy groups is beginning a campaign to push for comprehensive immigration reform. President Obama has announced that he will meet with congressional leaders to take up the issue on Monday. Tamar Jacoby, President of ImmigrationWorks USA, joins The Takeaway to look at the push for immigration reform.

The Department of Homeland Security last week warned in an internal memo that the disastrous economy may spur some Americans to join right-wing extremist groups. The memo focused particularly on U.S. servicemen and women and drew outrage from some who say it paints returning vets with an ugly brush. Janet Napolitano, the head of DHS, has been apologizing ever since. But does the report hold any water? The Takeaway talks to Charles Blow, an op-ed writer for our partners, The New York Times. He's been taking his own look at the link between the economy, extremism, and servicemen.

For more, read Charles Blow's article, The Enemies Within, in the New York Times.

If Turkey succeeds in its bid to join the European Union, it would become the most populous state in the EU. But European countries are divided over the issue of allowing a predominantly Muslim country gain such a powerful role. Nowhere is the debate over this more heated than in the Netherlands, where an increasing Muslim population has caused a populist backlash and a string of high profile murders in recent years. We talk to the Dutch Minister for European Affairs, Frans Timmermans, who is in the U.S. to promote the economic benefits of tolerance.


This 2008 news report from Russia Today documents the increasing divide over the growth of Islamic communities in The Netherlands.

Hispanic immigrants, both legal and illegal, make up eight percent of the labor force in this country. In factory towns like Morristown, Tennessee that figure almost doubles. The tensions in this small town between unemployed workers and illegal immigrants may give us an indication of how the Obama administration will have to approach its immigration policies in the midst of a troubled economy. The Takeaway is joined by Julia Preston, New York Times Immigration Correspondent, who spent six months watching the dynamics of Morristown's labor market.

Julia Preston's story will be available Sunday in the New York Times.

We're spending $275 billion dollars on a federal housing market bailout plan. But is this money going to fix the problem which has created ghost towns of abandoned or empty homes across the United States? Richard LeFrak is chairman and CEO of LeFrak Organization, a real estate builder and developer joins The Takeaway. He has a provocative idea what might actually fix the housing mess: giving immigrants legal residency in exchange for buying up our homes.

As the global economic crunch, governments are limiting immigration and foreign work visas to try to keep jobs available for citizens instead of immigrants. This week Australia announced it was limiting immigration limits by 14 percent. Here in the U.S., a provision in the economic stimulus package limits the hiring of foreign workers by any company receiving government bailout money, including all those big banks. It sounds like common sense to protect citizen's jobs, but Vivek Wadhwa, Duke adjunct professor and a researcher at Harvard Law School's Labor and Worklife Program, joins The Takeaway to tell us why he thinks it will hurt the economy in the long term.

Somali immigrants living in Minneapolis, Minnesota are finding that an increasing number of their children have autism. Is it random coincidence, or evidence of a larger epidemic? New York Times global health reporter Donald McNeil joins The Takeaway to report.

Check out McNeil's story on the cases, An Outbreak of Autism, or a Statistical Fluke? in today's Science Times.

For more, watch this report and follow the story in The Huffington Post and in The MinnPost.

How has the notion of the American dream changed for the new generation of Mexicans in the United States? The Takeaway talks to Gustavo Arellano, who writes the syndicated "Ask A Mexican" column, and is a contributing editor for the Los Angeles Times opinion page.

What is your American dream? Join the discussion on The Takeaway's New American Dream section.

A rising tide of violence stemming from Mexico’s drug war has sent thousands of Mexican nationals fleeing across the border to the United States. Some of them go home, but thousands more say they cannot without fear of reprisal. Understandably, the number of Mexicans seeking asylum in the United States has skyrocketed in the past year. We’re joined by Carlos Spector an immigration attorney in El Paso, Texas, who has been helping people flee the violence.

Here is raw footage of Mexican troops being deployed to the border city of Ciudad Juarez, the country's most dangerous drug city.

In a new program the U.S. military will begin recruiting skilled immigrants who could become citizens in as little as six months in exchange for three to four years of service. It’s the first time since the Vietnam War that enlistment in the armed forces will be possible for temporary immigrants. Julia Preston, national immigration correspondent for The New York Times, joins The Takeaway to explain the program and the reaction it's getting.

For more, read Julia Preston's article, U.S. Military Will Offer Path to Citizenship in the New York Times.

The history of the United States is filled with stories of immigrants, many illegal, who have come to the U.S. in search of work. So when the U.S. economy enters a recession and unemployment rises, do these same workers head home? According to Demetrios Papademetriou, President of the Migration Policy Institute, the answer is no. He has recently published a report that says illegal immigrants are likely to stay put in the current economic crisis. He joins us now to explain his findings.

Over 10 million Hispanic voters turned out on Election Day and they overwhelmingly cast their support for President Obama, who received twice as many votes from the Hispanic community than John McCain. Now that Obama is in the Oval Office it’s time for Latinos to cash in and push their agenda. The question is: are they organized enough to maximize the power that they’ve earned? Joining us for a look at how Latinos need to leverage their political influence is Gebe Martinez. She’s a longtime Washington watchdog and a Politico contributor.

Read Gebe Martinez's article, Latinos fight for political recognition at Politico.com

Voters in Nashville, Tennessee head to the polls today to decide whether English should be the only language for all government business in town. This means marriage licenses, parking tickets, and court summons could only be written and responded to in English. Reporter Blake Farmer of WPLN has been covering the “English First" movement since the legislation was first proposed more than a year ago. He joins us from Nashville.

Roberto Lovato hopes an Obama administration can "turn the tortilla" on immigration reform.

As President-elect Obama prepares to take office, our neighbors to the south have a few suggestions for the incoming president. A new report from the Brookings Institution documents several of them: expanding free trade, changing the rhetoric on the war on drugs, even normalizing relations with Cuba. The director of the Latin America Institute at Brookings joins the Takeaway to discuss the possibility of new approaches to Latin American relations.

"I think it's a moral imperative that we grant these people an amnesty because they were often toddlers and children when they entered the United States. And they are not guilty of anything except obeying their parents."
--Douglas Massey on immigration status in the U.S

Hasidic Rabbi Aaron Rubashkin expanded his family's Brooklyn butcher shop into the largest kosher meat plant in the nation. The underside of his success was revealed this spring after an immigration raid at his Iowa plant, including violations of child labor laws.