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Northeast. Many of the 2,500 Somali refugees in Lewiston, Maine, which has 36,000 people, are having trouble finding jobs; at least half are unemployed. City officials require those who receive general assistance cash to take English classes in order to improve their chances for employment. The goal is to compress the usual multi-generational English-acquisition process to one generation so that the Somalis can get jobs in the service economy.

Latinos have found jobs in Down East Maine, where Ed Flanagan, president of Jasper Wyman and Son, a berry harvester, told the Washington Post on April 10, 2006 that Latino workers are "like migratory birds. I mean, we don't have to do much and they show up every year." Maine's Washington County had almost no Latinos in 1990, but today they dominate harvest crews that "rake" the berries from their bushes.

Latinos settled when a sea cucumber processor began to hire them in 1997; sea cucumbers are cousins of the starfish whose meat is prized in Asia. The first workers hired were ex-blueberry rakers and then network hiring led to more Latinos. Milbridge, a town of 1,300, is mostly white, but 20 percent of the 100 students are now Hispanic.

Vermont, with 620,000 residents, now has the lowest birth rate among states and the highest rate of students attending college out of their home state, 57 percent. As a result, many college graduates do not return, prompting calls to retain and re-attract young people. Vermont has the second oldest population, after Maine. Vermont's governor said that the lack of workers would lead to toleration of unauthorized workers on Vermont's dairy farms: "I respect the laws of the United States, of course. But the cows have to be milked."

Southeast. The Washington Post on April 3, 2006 profiled immigration to Gainsville, Georgia, the self-proclaimed "poultry capital of the world." Between 1990 and 2005, the city's population almost doubled to 32,000, while the number of Hispanics quadrupled, so that the town is now 50 percent Hispanic.

Gainsville's demographic change was induced by poultry processors such as Fieldale Farms, Koch Foods and Pilgrim's Pride. About 3,000 of Fieldale's 4,700 workers are Hispanic and earn $10 an hour. About 70 percent of the pupils in Gainesville Elementary are Hispanic, and 90 percent qualify for subsidized meals.

The reaction to the Hispanic influx has led to tough anti-immigrant legislation in the Georgia Legislature as well as local Congressional Representative Nathan Deal (R-GA) being a leader of the enforcement-only approach to dealing with migrants in the US House.

New Orleans is likely to become a new Mexican destination after Mexican migrants arrived to help with the clean up from Hurricane Katrina. An estimated 10,000 to 20,000 foreign-born workers are believed to be in the New Orleans area, most working for subcontractors paid by FEMA to clean up after the flood. Some blacks see the thousands of Latino migrants as usurpers who have come for jobs they once had.

The housing boom that attracted unauthorized workers to suburbs and exurbs; a stable interior force of 2,000 ICE agents to enforce immigration laws; and increasing local opposition to illegal immigration in the suburbs has led some communities to have local police trained in four-week courses to enforce immigration laws. About 160,000 foreigners were formally removed or deported in FY05, and there is no record of how many of these removals were a result of state and local police identifying unauthorized foreigners.

The Des Moines Register reviewed allegations of mistreatment made by some of the 2,200 employees of Swift & Co.'s Marshalltown meatpacking plant. Migrant advocates say that the dis-assembly line moves to fast, and that workers who are injured or complain are fired. One worker reported earning $12 an hour, far more than in her native Mexico.

Jackson Hole, Wyoming has emerged as a favored destination of the rich, increasing real estate prices and forcing service workers even in small towns to commute. Wyoming has no income tax and other state taxes are low, so some of the rich are making the state their home. Teton County has about 19,000 residents, and ranks first or second among the nation's 3,140 counties in adjusted household income.

Demographer William Frey reported in March 2006 that Latinos continue to spread out in the US, moving to historically white, non-Latino suburbs. Frey analyzed Census Bureau population estimates from 1990, 2000 and 2004 for 361 US metropolitan areas, and found that Latino populations grew by more than 40 percent in six: Atlanta; Cape Coral, Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina; Indianapolis; Nashville; and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Hispanics were 14 percent of the US population in 2004 and accounted for 49 percent of the population growth between 2000 and 2004.

RICO. The all-Republican Canyon County commission filed a racketeering lawsuit against four local businesses, charging that they deliberately hire illegal workers and impose costs on the county, becoming the first county to use the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act to sue employers for the costs of unauthorized migration. In Washington state, workers won a $1.3-million settlement in January 2006 from a fruit company.

Chicago-based lawyer Howard Foster filed the RICO suit on behalf of the county, which has 160,000 residents and is rapidly changing as a result of immigration. County Commissioner Robert Vasquez, who sent a $2-million bill to the Mexican government for services provided to unauthorized migrants in 2002, has been the driving force behind the suit; he is now running for Congress.

RICO targets a person or group for crimes committed systematically as part of an ongoing enterprise, and its civil component allows plaintiffs to sue for triple damages. In 1996, the RICO statute was amended to make knowing employment of illegal immigrants a violation, prompting Foster to file four RICO suits since 1998. A 2000 suit on behalf of one Connecticut cleaning company suing another was settled; the pending cases are against Tyson Foods and Mohawk Industries, a Georgia carpet maker.

David A. Fahrenthold, "Even in Maine, Latinos' Future Affects Economy," Washington Post, April 10, 2006. Peter Slevin, "In Ga., Influx Fills a Gap in Workforce," Washington Post, April 3, 2006. Jose De Jesus, "Employees at meatpacking plant allege mistreatment," Des Moines Register, April 2, 2006. Nicole Gaouette, "Uncommon Weapon in Immigration Fight," Los Angeles Times, March 7, 2006. Pam Belluck, "Vermont Losing Prized Resource as Young Depart," New York Times, March 4, 2006.