Daily Border Bulletin: "The magic of diasporas,"AL Nabs Mercedes Benz Executive, Florida in a fight over detention centers

Immigrant networks are a bright spot in the world economy - The Economist takes a look at how migrants all over the world are contributing to the global economy: Diaspora networks—of Huguenots, Scots, Jews and many others—have always been a potent economic force, but the cheapness and ease of modern travel has made them larger and more numerous than ever before. There are now  215m first-generation migrants around the world: that’s 3% of the world’s population. If they were a nation, it would be a little larger than Brazil.

Alabama immigration crackdown nabs Mercedes executive - One of the unintentional consequences of Alabamas immigration law is that citizens and people who are in the country legally are being arrested for not having drivers license on suspicion of being in the country illegally. This was the case with a foreign born Mercedes Benz executive: Under Alabama's new immigration law, considered the toughest in the nation, everyone in Alabama must carry a valid identification card, including U.S. citizens. Before the new law, a citation would have been issued and the driver would have been sent on his way. Now offenders are taken to jail,Anderson said.

"It is really ironic and showed the absurdity of this law. Here you have a foreign employer who has brought many workers jobs ... caught in this web that is supposed to bring jobs," said Mitch Ackerman, executive vice president of Service Employees International Union. Ackerman was in Birmingham with 11 U.S. Congressmen to protest the immigration law. Due to a number of unintended consequences including this incident, Republican Governor Robert Bentley,  a strong supporter of the bill, was considering revisions, Canfield said.

Florida town in fight over immigration prison - A small town in Florida finds itself at the center of
a fight over what to do with the record number of immigrants who are being detained by the federal government: In one of South Florida's upscale, rural enclaves, where peacocks roam and horse trails are as
common as sidewalks, town leaders decided to bring in much of their money from an unusual business:
 a prison. Only the leaders of Southwest Ranches kept their plans quiet from residents for almost a decade, and the project has now ballooned into what would be among the federal government's largest immigrant detention centers. Many residents finally caught wind of the idea this year, when U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement announced a tentative deal, and they're angry. They've held protests at public meetings, contemplated whether to recall the mayor before his March election and whether to amend the town charter to make it easier to fire the city attorney pushing the deal.