Aggregated Immigration Stories: February 2007 Archives

White House Pushes Immigration Overhaul

For weeks, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has waged a clandestine charm offensive on behalf of an immigration overhaul. He consulted with supportive lawmakers, listened to adversarial congressmen and slipped into the private offices of wary senators, the only sign of his presence the beefy security men waiting outside.

Today, Chertoff launches a higher-profile effort to win enough votes to pass a comprehensive overhaul when he testifies at the first Capitol Hill hearing on immigration legislation since Democrats took over. NICOLE GAUOETTE in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 04:26 PM | Permalink

Low Pay and Broken Promises Greet Guest Workers

To a rice farmer from Thailand making $500 a year, the recruiter’s pitch was hard to resist — three years of farm work in North Carolina that would pay more than 30 times as much as he earned at home.

The pitch was so persuasive that the farmer, Worawut Khansamrit, put his farm up as collateral to pay the recruiter $11,000 to become a guest worker. But after he arrived in North Carolina with 30 other Thai workers, he found there was only about a month’s work. He was then taken to New Orleans to remove debris from a hotel damaged by Hurricane Katrina — work he says he was never paid for. This month, he and other Thai workers filed a federal lawsuit asserting that they were victims of illegal trafficking.

Mr. Khansamrit’s tale highlights the abuses that many guest workers face at a time when President Bush and many in Congress are pushing to expand the guest worker program as part of an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws. STEVEN GREENHOUSE in The New York Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 04:17 PM | Permalink

Mexico Hopes to Control Migration

President Felipe Calderon hopes to accomplish the sweeping immigration reform Washington has failed to adopt - not just cracking down on the southern border but also creating a guest-worker program and improving conditions for illegal Central American migrants.

Proving that controlled, regulated migration is possible is the immediate political goal of Calderon, who is unveiling the ambitious reforms shortly before President Bush visits Mexico on March 13-14. AP in The Washington Post.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 04:14 PM | Permalink

Martin Luther King Jr.'s Vision Misinterpreted by Affirmative Action Opponents

On a warm August day in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. stood before the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and gave stirring voice to the Civil Rights Movement's most basic aspirations.

Among the many ideas that he outlined in what has become known as his "I Have a Dream" speech was a hopeful vision for a future in which his children could "one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Surely King never dreamed then that his eloquence would one day be turned against initiatives designed to target the kind of political, economic and social injustices that gave rise to the historic movement he helped to lead. Since the 1980s, however, opponents of affirmative action have cloaked their assault on such programs in the potent rhetoric of King's dream. CORNELIUS BYNUM in The Journal and Courier

Posted by Susan Grant at 12:03 PM | Permalink

Affirmative Action Harming Men on the Job?

In 1993, administrators at Northern Arizona University decided to give some of their professors a raise. Under the school's plan, female and visible minority professors would receive pay-equity raises of up to US$3,000 each. The plan excluded all 192 white male professors.

Eleven years later, an Arizona judge awarded US$1.4-million in back pay and raises to 40 of those male professors who brought a discrimination suit against the university. MITCH MOXLEY in the Edmonton Journal

Posted by Susan Grant at 11:55 AM | Permalink

Prison Reform on the California Horizon?

For the first time in a generation, the prospects for significant prison reform seem tantalizingly at hand.

Last week, after a meeting with the leadership of the state Legislature, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said, "Everything is on the table."

That included an acknowledgment that the solution will almost inevitably involve releasing inmates who no longer pose a danger to society -- and continue to occupy prison space at huge expense to the taxpayers.

Admittedly, Schwarzenegger's hand was forced by the prospect of a court order that would impose a cap on the prison population, and a court ruling rejecting his plan to transfer inmates to private prisons in other states. Another hurdle has been the Legislature's refusal to endorse his multibillion-dollar scheme to build new prisons and jail facilities throughout the state. ANONYMOUS EDITORIAL in The San Francisco Chronicle

Posted by Susan Grant at 09:14 PM | Permalink

Affirmative Action Policies in Texas Housing

Houston's affirmative action program -- it was created to stop discrimination but now it's helping the rich get richer. If you think affirmative action was controversial before, wait until you see what a multi-million dollar mess it has become.

Drive south on the bridge to Kemah and look to your right. It's hard not to notice an 11,000 square foot mansion. The property appraises at about $2 million. Do the owners look like they need affirmative action help from Houston's city hall? Well, they got it -- to the tune of $12 million. WAYNE DOLCEFINO in KTRK abc13.com

Posted by Susan Grant at 09:08 PM | Permalink

Split decision: Deportation redefines families

"Port-au-prince: The couple stood amid the tap-tap buses and trash heaps last June, freshly deported and disbelieving. They had left their two small children in South Florida with relatives, unsure what to tell them, without a proper goodbye. Now, standing on a sun-baked street in Haiti, they realized they lacked money for even a phone call. The father wore his uniform from a Coral Springs gas station, the same clothes he wore 17 days earlier when federal immigration agents came to their Sunrise [Fla.] home." RUTH MORRIS in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 01:15 PM | Permalink

Justice for construction workers

Abuses in the construction industry against immigrant workers, including underpayment, non-payment, overwork and dangerous conditions, are nothing new. But workers are fighting back. RUBEN CASTANEDA in the Washington Post reports on a federal class-action lawsuit filed last week in Maryland, and MYUNG OAK KIM, FERNANDO QUINTERO and LAURA FRANK do some in-depth reporting for the Rocky Mountain News in three pieces, here, here and here.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 09:27 AM | Permalink

A New Survey by Montana Police Aims to Reduce Racial Profiling

HELENA - An American Indian lawmaker said he wants police officers to keep track of the skin color of the people they pull over.

It's a way to curb racial profiling in the state, said Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Rocky Boy. Though Montana enacted laws in 2003 preventing police from stopping people based on race, Windy Boy said the problem still exists.

"Until society accepts the fact that racial profile discrimination is in existence in our society today, we'll never get over this hurdle," Windy Boy told the House Judiciary Committee Friday. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS in the Billings Gazette

Posted by Susan Grant at 08:53 PM | Permalink

The Changing Color of Racial Profiling

10 years ago, when we thought about racial profiling, we would think about the unfair, prejudicial suspicion of people who were caught "driving while black". These days, however, "breathing while brown" appears to be a much more suspicious activity.

Ever since the attacks of 9/11, swarthy Middle-Eastern-looking men are often viewed as potential terrorists by the public and law enforcement alike. Middle Eastern men were responsible for 9/11, the logic goes. Al-Qaeda consists mostly of Middle Eastern men, they say, and so that's who law enforcement and security personnel should look at first. MARY SHAW in Philadelphia Freedom Watch

Posted by Susan Grant at 08:47 PM | Permalink

Women Ousted From California Co-ed Prison

The Norco prison that houses the state's only coed inmate population has stopped accepting female prisoners and plans to transfer the women already there to make room for more men.

The move reflects both the corrections department's desperation for space in all of its 33 prisons as well as a burgeoning movement to reform the way women are treated in California prisons.

The prison always has had an unprecedented mix of genders because of its intensive drug rehabilitation efforts. Of the prison's roughly 700 female inmates, about 500 are drug addicts sentenced to rehabilitation; the rest are felons. PAIGE AUSTIN from The Press-Enterprise on Fox11AZ News

Posted by Susan Grant at 08:42 PM | Permalink

Politicians Push Census to Use Prisoners' Last Known Address

As Democrats in the New York State Senate strive to squeak out a long sought-after majority in the upper house of the legislature, they might just get help from tens of thousands of convicts from Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx.

The U.S. Census Bureau counts the state's 71,466 prisoners as "residents" of their cells upstate, inflating the populations of small towns such as Malone, Chateaugay and Dannemora, where the prisons are located.

It's not just an academic problem for data nerds, according to Peter Wagner of the Prison Policy Initiative, a Massachusetts-based nonpartisan research group that has taken the lead in pushing the census bureau to count prisoners at their last known address. That's because all those city people puffing up the populations of small towns in the north add up to an entire extra senate district, and help account for the generation-long Republican hold on the state senate. EILEEN MARKEY in City Limits Weekly.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 02:47 PM | Permalink

Directo a México

Immigrants who wire money get help from the Fed; Directo a México lets customers without Social Security numbers wire money at little cost. Molly Hennessy-Fiske in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 10:04 AM | Permalink

Border Crime Down, Many Fear Immigrants Targeted

Crime in Texas border counties dropped overall in the first year of Gov. Rick Perry's state-led border security operations, but increased in some of the border's most populated and violent regions.

Crime dropped in the 16 Texas-Mexico border counties by 8.2 percent on average between 2005 to 2006, two years of crime report data the El Paso Times analyzed show.

Some lawmakers and civil rights advocates, though, said the decreased crime reporting did not ease their concerns that some local officers are using grant money meant for fighting drug-related and violent crime to target undocumented immigrants. BRANDI GRISSOM and LOUIE GILOT in the El Paso Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 05:18 PM | Permalink

Citizen Requests Soar Before Big Changes

Citizenship applications are skyrocketing in Southern California and across the nation, as green card holders rush to avoid a proposed fee increase, a revised civics test and possible changes in immigration law.

Applications filed in Los Angeles and six surrounding counties shot to 18,024 in January from 7,334 in the same month last year, a 146% increase, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Nationwide, the number hit 95,622, up from 53,390, a 79% increase. ANNA GORMAN and JENNIFER DELSON in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:39 AM | Permalink

Race, Politics and a Bridge in South Carolina

A powerful congressman, James E. Clyburn, wants to connect this forlorn central South Carolina community of about 500, across an artificial lake and swamp, to the equally destitute settlement of Lone Star, population 214, using nine miles of bridge and roadway.

The House majority whip has staked his pride and a lifetime’s tempered pugnacity on ending that echo and this hamlet’s isolation with a new bridge. He faces the derision of hunters, environmentalists and much of South Carolina's political establishment, who all see it as a pork-barrel waste of $150 million.

Undergirding Mr. Clyburn’s 10-year fight for what opponents mock as a “bridge from nowhere to nowhere” is the issue of race, the starting point in his four-decade ascent. The potential beneficiaries are mostly poor, rural blacks; the opponents are largely whites. ADAM NOSSITER in The New York Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:37 AM | Permalink

Time, and Time Served

According to New York State prison statistics, 31,043 parole hearings were held in 2005. One of them was for William R. Phillips, Inmate No. 075-A-0322.

For Mr. Phillips, a veteran former New York City police officer who, well into his 70s, is one of the oldest inmates in the state, parole hearings were a futile routine. For this parole hearing, his fourth and possibly last, Mr. Phillips struck a desperate tone.

Mr. Phillips’s was convicted of a double homicide and the dozens of cases he worked to make as a police offer were thrown out. Despite claims of a frame-up and allegations of prosecutorial misconduct that reached the United States Supreme Court he remains behind bars, serving a sentence of up to life in prison.

But in the next few months, Mr. Phillips, now 76, may win his release in court. A victory in his case could also set a precedent for the state’s most violent felons seeking parole, nearly all of them rejected under former Governor Pataki.

The issue at hand stands at the very core of the prison system: rehabilitation. After three decades behind bars, Mr. Phillips has accomplished virtually everything an inmate can do.

Still, in the end, Mr. Phillips is routinely denied parole — decisions that spur anger in some judicial quarters. GEOFFREY GRAY in The New York Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:34 AM | Permalink

Federal Supervision of Race in Littlerock Schools Ends

The Little Rock School District was released on Friday from federal court supervision of its desegregation efforts, almost 50 years after President Eisenhower dispatched federal troops to enforce an integration order that the Arkansas governor defied.

In a written order, Judge William R. Wilson Jr. of Federal District Court declared the district “unitary.” That meant it had met its obligations under court-ordered remedies to address lingering questions about its commitment to equal opportunity in education.

Judge Wilson said the school board could “now operate the district as it sees fit, answerable to no one” save its students, patrons and voters. STEVE BARNES in The New York Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 01:25 PM | Permalink

17-State Sweep Targets Illegal Hiring

In a sweep across California and 16 other states, federal immigration officials descended on eateries such as the Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Hollywood on Wednesday and Thursday, arrested almost 200 illegal immigrants working for a janitorial company and filed criminal charges against the firm's top three officials.

Accusing Florida-based Rosenbaum-Cunningham International of building a business around "a ghost workforce that was paid in cash," agents raided establishments in 63 locations — including West Hollywood, Arcadia, Anaheim, Ontario, Orange, Irvine and San Diego.

The arrests are the latest high-profile attempt by the Bush administration to shore up its enforcement credentials as Congress and the White House gear up for another round of debate over the nation's immigration laws that is expected to begin within weeks. NICOLE GAOUETTE and ADAM SHRECK in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 05:32 PM | Permalink

One Immigrant Family's Hopes Lead to Jail Cell Suicide

It took 20 years of sacrifices and separations for Nery Romero’s parents, immigrants from El Salvador, to obtain legal residency for the whole family in the United States. But Mr. Romero, 22, quickly forfeited his right to stay.

His criminal convictions — for an attempted robbery in 2003, and for breaking into two parked cars to steal stereos in 2005 — were more than enough to make him deportable. So it was not exactly a surprise when his probation officer showed up at his parents’ home in Elmont, on Long Island, on Feb. 8 with a half-dozen immigration agents who took him from the room he shared with his girlfriend and infant daughter.

Mr. Romero was taking a powerful prescription painkiller for an unhealed leg injury, and his girlfriend says the agents took along the medication, assuring her that he would get proper care.

Five days later, he was dead. He hanged himself with his bed sheets in a cell at the Bergen County Jail in New Jersey, the authorities said. And they were quick to suggest an explanation.

A closer look, though, reveals a different and more complicated picture of Nery Romero’s short life and unusual death. It raises questions about his treatment in the jail, where the family and other inmates say he spent days crying out for painkillers that he never received. It also shows the long shadow cast by his parents’ immigration: Like so many, they came for the sake of their children, yet disrupted the children’s lives along the way. NINA BERNSTEIN in The New York Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 05:24 PM | Permalink

U.N. Questions Canada Over Racial Discrimination

GENEVA: A United Nations anti-racism panel wants to know if Canada can ensure that it will avoid repeating the mistakes that led to the U.S. deportation of a Syrian-born Canadian to Damascus, where he was tortured and imprisoned for nearly a year.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized last month for Ottawa's role in the ordeal of Maher Arar — one of the best-known cases of so-called "extraordinary rendition" in which the U.S. transfers foreign terror suspects without court approval to third countries for interrogation.

But the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has asked what steps Canada has taken since on new guidelines for information sharing and monitoring of security probes, so that forces "have clear policies and more training on issues of racial, religious and ethnic profiling." ASSOCIATED PRESS in the International Herald Tribune

Posted by Susan Grant at 09:54 PM | Permalink

Prison Reform Efforts Need to be Strengthened

Shouldn't California's prison reform efforts match its prison overcrowding problem?
Prison overcrowding has been an issue in the state for several years. California's prison system is designed to hold 100,000 inmates but currently houses roughly 175,000, with a good portion sleeping in gyms, on cots in the common areas, or two-to-a-cell that was only designed for one. BYRON WILLIAMS in The Huffington Post

Posted by Susan Grant at 09:42 PM | Permalink

DNA Lab Slows Investigations

California's crime labs are facing huge delays in processing DNA samples that could help identify the guilty and free the innocent, says a state commission that is recommending emergency funding to hire more technicians.

While the sleuths on ``CSI'' and other TV crime dramas get their lab results in a matter of minutes, the Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice says in real life the process can take six months in California. BRANDON BAILEY in the San Jose Mercury News.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:20 AM | Permalink

Troops on Border Help Fuel Drop in Migrant Arrests

Just last year, immigrants from Brazil and countries other than Mexico rarely hired human smugglers — they turned themselves in after crossing the Rio Grande because limited jail space forced agents to give them an appointment with an immigration judge. Few ever showed.

Today, new jail space, a simplified deportation process for so-called OTMs (other than Mexicans), and a border deployment of thousands of National Guard troops is responsible for a 27 percent drop in apprehensions of migrants along the Southwest border over the last four months, Border Patrol officials said. JAMES PINKERTON and SUSAN CARROLL in The Houston Chronicle.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:11 AM | Permalink

Detention Facility for Immigrants Criticized

The day Mustafa Elmi turned 3 years old he had to report to his cell three times for headcount. To be able to get one hour of recreation inside a concrete compound sealed off by metal gates and razor wire he had to pin his picture ID to his uniform.

Such routines characterized Mustafa's life, as well as that of his mother, Bahjo Hosen, 26, during their first seven months in the United States, the country to which they fled to escape political persecution in their native Somalia. They ended up in the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility, one of the nation's newest detention centers for illegal immigrants that the Department of Homeland Security touts as an "effective and humane alternative" to keep immigrant families together while they await the outcome of immigration court hearings or deportation. SYLVIA MORENO in the Washington Post.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:07 AM | Permalink

California Prison Drug Treatment Called Waste of Money

California's $1-billion investment in drug treatment for prisoners since 1989 has been "a complete waste of money," the state's inspector general said Wednesday, and has done nothing to reduce the number of inmates cycling in and out of custody.

One study of the two largest in-prison programs found that recidivism rates for inmates who participated were actually a bit higher than those of a group of convicts who did not receive treatment, Inspector General Matt Cate said. JENIFER WARREN in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:02 AM | Permalink

An Rx to Thin California Prison Population

California's prisons are jammed with thousands of mentally ill inmates who didn't get help before their incarceration and aren't likely to get much while locked up. Not only is that like a chapter out of the Dark Ages, but the high rate of repeat crimes among parolees is costing taxpayers a fortune.

Tomorrow, state Sen. Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat from Sacramento, will introduce a bill that calls for a complete overhaul of mental health care behind bars, with the goal of putting a big dent in both the overcrowding problem and the high recidivism rates. STEVE LOPEZ in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 08:59 AM | Permalink

2 Groups Compare Immigrant Detention Centers to Prisons

Two advocacy groups for refugees said on Wednesday that the Bush administration routinely detained immigrant families in prisonlike housing that separated young children from their parents and sometimes provided inadequate medical care, food and educational opportunities, despite calls from Congress to house such families in “nonpenal, homelike environments.” RACHEL SWARNS in The New York Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 08:56 AM | Permalink

N.Y.U. Student Republicans Mount Jaunty "Immigrant" Hunt

They’re not exactly descending upon Washington Square Park with horse and hound, but members of the College Republican Club of New York University have certainly managed to offend some rather more proletariat sensibilities with their “Find the Illegal Immigrant” challenge, scheduled for today between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
TOM ZELLER in The New York Times Blog

BILL HUTCHINSON in the New York Daily News.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 08:53 AM | Permalink

Muslim Woman's Body Denied Transport Because of Racial Profiling

Racial profiling is common practice at airports and is often used against Arabs traveling to and from Palestine and Israel. Now an Israeli airline is even refusing to carry the corpse of a Muslim woman back to her homeland.

Palestinian media sources reported on Thursday that Israeli El- Al airlines have refused to carry the body of Lamis Jarrar from the USA to her homeland.

Jarrar, a lecturer at the Howard University in Washington, died last Friday. Her relatives wanted her body to be transported to Israel so that she could be buried in her hometown of Akka. However, El Al officials told the relatives they "don't carry the body of a Muslim" and that they would not allow the body to be transferred aboard their one of their planes. POLLY BANGORIAD in IMEMC News

Posted by Susan Grant at 06:17 PM | Permalink

Affirmative Action Then and Now

Affirmative action and other set-asides for minorities and women have come under increasing fire in recent years. These programs, first started decades ago, were once a given in higher education for everything from admission to financial aid. Today, women and minority students cannot count on the same level assistance from affirmative action that their parents may have received.

The backlash against affirmative action comes largely from the group that feels damaged by these programs--white males. As the standard of living for African Americans in the United States has risen, whites claim that the “leg up” provided by set-aside programs constitutes an unfair advantage. Similarly, white males point out that since women now make up the majority of college students, they can hardly claim discrimination. The critics of affirmative action promote a merit-based system, in which admission and scholarships are awarded to the most worthy, with race or gender not considered at all. CHRIS DAVIS in Education Training

Posted by Susan Grant at 06:08 PM | Permalink

California and New York Continue to Battle Prison Overcrowding

New York's Eliot Spitzer, the tough ex-prosecutor turned governor, wants a commission to examine closing some of his state's dozens of prisons. Meanwhile, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is pressing for $11 billion in bonds to add 78,000 beds to California's already burgeoning and overtaxed system.

What's going on here? Partly, it's what both men inherited. New York's prison population peaked at 71,000 inmates in 1999 but has dropped by 8,000 since. Major explanations: dropping crime levels (especially in New York City) and increased efforts to find alternative treatment for nonviolent offenders.

California's prison population, meanwhile, has continued to surge. It's now at 173,000 inmates, an $8 billion yearly bill. Overcrowding and threats of riots are so serious that a senior prison official last year warned of "an imminent and substantial threat to the public." NEAL R. PEIRCE in The Houston Chronicle

Posted by Susan Grant at 05:58 PM | Permalink

Lower Voter Turnout Is Seen in States That Require ID

States that imposed identification requirements on voters reduced turnout at the polls in the 2004 presidential election by about 3 percent, and by two to three times as much for minorities, new research suggests.

The study, prepared by scholars at Rutgers and Ohio State Universities for the federal Election Assistance Commission, supports concerns among voting-rights advocates that blacks and Hispanics could be disproportionately affected by ID requirements. But federal officials say more research is needed to draw firmer conclusions about the effects on future elections. CHRISTOPHER DREW in The New York Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 11:59 PM | Permalink

Tougher Tactics Deter Migrants at U.S. Border

All along the border, there are signs that the measures the Border Patrol and other federal agencies have taken over the last year, from erecting new barriers to posting 6,000 National Guardsmen as armed sentinels, are beginning to slow the flow of illegal immigrants.

The only available barometer of the decline is how many migrants are caught. In the last four months, the number has dropped 27 percent compared with the same period last year, the biggest drop since a crackdown immediately after 9/11. In two sections around Yuma and near Del Rio, Tex., the numbers have fallen by nearly two-thirds, Homeland Security officials say. JAMES MCKINLEY in The New York Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 11:56 PM | Permalink

Supreme Court Split Over Affirmative Action Case

In a split decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the affirmative action policy of Michigan's Law School constitutional, but struck down the school's undergraduate admissions policy which used a point-based system.

In the case against Michigan's Law School, Grutter v. Bollinger, the nation's highest court ruled the system used for admissions was constitutional in a 5-4 vote.

Justice Sandra Day-O'Connor wrote in the majority opinion that the U.S. Constitution "does not prohibit the law school's narrowly tailored use of race in admissions decisions to further a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body." STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS in The State News at Michigan State University

Posted by Susan Grant at 09:50 PM | Permalink

China Considers Rehabilitation over Prison

The mainland's proposal to reform re- education of minor offenders through labor from a "prison" system into one of "special schools" may not serve its "well-intended" purpose, according to Hong Kong University associate professor of law Fu Hualing.

Re-education through labor, or laojiao, is an administrative measure under which the police are empowered to sentence a person guilty of minor offenses, such as petty theft, prostitution and illegal drug use to a maximum of three years' incarceration CAROL CHUNG in The Standard

Posted by Susan Grant at 09:44 PM | Permalink

State Inmate Transfer Ruled Illegal

A Superior Court judge ruled today that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger acted illegally by declaring an emergency in California's overcrowded prisons and transferring inmates to other states.

The ruling by Judge Gail Ohanesian says the governor violated the Emergency Services Act and the state constitution, and that contracts sending prisoners to lockups in Tennessee and Arizona are illegal.

The judge's order is stayed for 10 days, giving the state time to file an appeal. JENIFER WARREN in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 03:56 PM | Permalink

University to Retire Its Indian Mascot

The University of Illinois will retire its 81-year-old American Indian mascot, Chief Illiniwek, after the last men’s home basketball game of the season on Wednesday. The N.C.A.A. in 2005 deemed the buckskin-clad mascot an offensive use of American Indian imagery and barred the university from being a host of postseason events. AP in The New York Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 03:55 PM | Permalink

Court Backs White House on Detainees

A federal appeals court today upheld the constitutionality of a new law that strips federal courts of the authority to review the cases of foreign prisoners held by the military at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.

Twice before the United States Supreme Court has ruled that federal courts may consider habeas corpus petitions by the Guantánamo Bay detainees. In response to those decisions, Congress has twice rewritten the law in an attempt to limit the avenues of appeal by the detainees.

The most recent revision to the law, at issue in today’s decision, was signed by President Bush last October. It eliminated the jurisdiction of federal courts over habeas challenges by any non-citizens held as enemy combatants, and set up a military review for the prisoners at Guantánamo, with limited right of appeal to the federal courts afterwards.

By a 2-to-1 vote, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia found that the law, the Military Commissions Act of 2006, did not violate a provision in Article 1 of the Constitution that prevents the government from suspending habeas corpus — the right of a detained person to challenge the legality of the detention — except in “cases of rebellion or invasion.” STEPHEN LABATON in The New York Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 03:53 PM | Permalink

Justices to Revisit Thorny Issue of Sentencing Guidelines

The Supreme Court returns on Tuesday from a monthlong recess to face a daunting and urgent task: explaining what it meant two years ago when it ruled that the federal sentencing guidelines were to be treated as “advisory,” no longer binding on federal judges.

The decision that dropped that bombshell on the criminal justice system, United States v. Booker, has not penetrated public consciousness in the way that, say, the Miranda decision on the right against self-incrimination did a generation ago. But in its own way, it has been no less revolutionary, creating turmoil in criminal sentencing.

The justices will hear arguments on Tuesday morning in two cases that will provide the latest chapter, although almost certainly not the final one, in the court’s continuing and, to many, profoundly unsettling reappraisal of the roles of juries and judges in criminal sentencing. LINDA GREENHOUSE in The New York Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 08:12 AM | Permalink

The Privileged Side of Immigration

There are few among the select group who are officially classified as ''aliens of extraordinary ability'' or whose presence is deemed in the national interest.

In 2005, the year for which the most recent statistics are available, only 4,491 extraordinary ability immigrants became permanent residents -- compared to the almost 380,000 ''ordinary'' immigrants who obtained green cards through family or business sponsors.

In the past, the program has been perceived as either too lenient toward undeserving applicants or too strict toward truly talented ones. Today, some immigration experts say, the pendulum has swung toward rigidity. ALFONSO CHARDY in the Miami Herald.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 11:41 PM | Permalink

Racial Profiling a Rising Problem in the Downtown San Jose Club Scene

Tensions are rising in downtown San Jose between club owners, cops and the public over alleged racial profiling in and around the area's numerous clubs and bars. By JAMES HOHMANN, RODNEY FOO, MARIAN LIU and LESLIE GRIFFEY in The San Jose Mercury News

Posted by Susan Grant at 08:58 PM | Permalink

Affirmative Action Methods Questioned in Arizona

National anti-affirmative action activists are investigating Arizona's higher-education admissions policies, but university officials say they aren't concerned.

Race is not used in admissions decisions at the University of Arizona, Arizona State University or Northern Arizona University, officials said.

American Civil Rights Coalition, a California-based organization that is partly responsible for removing race from college-admissions decisions in California and Michigan, is investigating university admissions methods in Arizona and eight other states. The organization plans to announce its findings this month. EUGENE SCOTT in The Arizona Republic

Posted by Susan Grant at 08:44 PM | Permalink

Immigrants Struggle With Rising Fees

Supporting herself and a 7-year-old son on a preschool teacher's salary in suburban Marin County, one of the nation's priciest housing markets, keeps Russian immigrant Sveta Nikitina on a tight budget.

One expense she can't control is the rising cost of filing the forms she needs to work and travel in the United States while she waits to become a permanent resident.

Those fees have already pushed her careful bookkeeping into the red.

And now her plans -- and those of many other immigrants -- could be pushed out of reach by a proposal to increase the filing fees for more than two dozen forms by an average of 66 percent. The increases are likely to be implemented by summer. AP in The New York Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 11:21 AM | Permalink

Nafta Should Have Stopped Illegal Immigration, Right?

The North American Free Trade Agreement, enacted by Congress 14 years ago, held out an alluring promise: the agreement would reduce illegal immigration from Mexico. Mexicans, the argument went, would enjoy the prosperity and employment that the trade agreement would undoubtedly generate — and not feel the need to cross the border into the United States.

But today the number of illegal migrants has only continued to rise. Why didn’t Nafta curb this immigration? The answer is complicated, of course. But a major factor lies in the assumptions made in drafting the trade agreement, assumptions about the way governments would behave (that is, rationally) and the way markets would respond (rationally, as well). LOUIS UCHITELLE in The New York Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 11:19 AM | Permalink

U.S. Border Clampdown Has Violent Side Effects

Jeannine Pallotto often rides her favorite Arabian horse on desert trails through stands of saguaro cactus and ironwood trees crisscrossed by smuggling corridors.

Mindful of escalating violence tied to a crackdown on the border, though, she knows when to retreat from strangers.

Illegal border crossings are declining because of tougher enforcement, posting an overall 27 percent drop in the four months ending Jan. 31, the U.S. Border Patrol says. All sectors on the southern border, even the nation's busiest one, based in Tucson, are showing drops in apprehensions of illegal migrants. MICHAEL MARTINEZ and OSCAR AVILA in The Chicago Tribune.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 11:14 AM | Permalink

Border Crackdown Spawns Violence

"With illegal immigrants facing increased risk of capture at or near the border, smuggling organizations are waiting for them to get well north of the border before hijacking them, usually at gunpoint. For some years, such incidents have been seen in and around Phoenix, where the bajadores break into immigrant stash houses to take over what is known as the "collections process." While immigrants wait for relatives and friends to send the agreed-upon smuggling fees so they can move on to their final destinations farther north or west, the bajadores take the group hostage and begin extorting exorbitant ransom fees." SYLVIA MORENO in the Washington Post.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 06:19 AM | Permalink

The Power of the Press?

Has media attention caused ICE to melt? All one can say is that on Friday, ICE released a pregnant 28-year-old Honduran and her two young daughters from the T. Don Hutto immigration jail in Taylor, Texas, just outside of Austin. LISA FALKENBERG in the Houston Chronicle. "We don't know why they did it today, but It seems indicative to me of the fact that they have the discretion to release anyone at Hutto whenever they'd like," said Rebecca Bernhardt, with the ACLU. "And we'd like to see them exercise their discretion more broadly."

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 05:04 PM | Permalink

Hispanic workers suffer during boom

"Although [Arizona's] construction industry has fueled some of the fastest growth in the nation, it is killing or injuring Hispanic workers like Machic at a greater rate than it is the overall workforce." CHAD GRAHAM and MATT DEMPSEY in the Arizona Republic.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 11:40 AM | Permalink

What really happened in border shooting?

"The long and short of it is, the system worked — as it should have." PAULINE ARRILLAGA for the Associated Press. [See also the IJJ post for Jan. 11, 2007.]

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 04:36 AM | Permalink

Denver Governor Pushes for Rehabilitation Over Prison

Gov. Bill Ritter is emphasizing treatment programs over prison beds - a give-'em-another- chance philosophy that differs from the previous administration's lock-'em-up stance.

An amended budget plan submitted by Ritter last week calls for an $8 million increase in spending next year with the aim of decreasing future prison construction and operating costs by $14.2 million or more.

To cover some of the costs of the programs, Ritter would reduce prison-bed spending by $3.2 million in the 2007-08 budget. Owens' budget called for $12.9 million to cover the costs of additional prison beds. MARK P. COUCH in The Denver Post Online

Posted by Susan Grant at 05:46 PM | Permalink

Groups: Immigration fight belongs in Congress

"[Tx.] State Rep. Veronica Gonzales, D-McAllen, said the group was troubled by what it called an onslaught of bills targeting illegal immigration filed in the state Legislature. "We do not want to see our state passing patchwork legislation that may run afoul or inconsistent with federal law or the U.S. Constitution," Gonzales said at a Capitol news conference." JUAN CASTILLO in the Austin American-Statesman.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 07:33 AM | Permalink

Cuban medical workers defect from posts, aim for U.S.

"In his quest to reach the United States, Ariel Perez slipped away from Cuban informants, evaded Venezuelan border guards and kept his distance from Colombian guerrillas. But Perez, a Cuban physician who fled to Colombia from Venezuela last year, faces one final hurdle: U.S. bureaucrats." JOHN OTIS, Houston Chronicle, South American bureau.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 03:15 PM | Permalink

Immigrant workers take on giant Tyson in bid for union

"Adopting farm labor organizer Cesar Chavez's rallying cry: "Yes, we can," immigrant workers have now taken on behemoth Tyson. On March 1, workers will vote on whether to unionize under the United Steelworkers union. If they succeed, the union would represent 2,450 workers in Tyson's Holcomb plant, about 80 percent of whom are Hispanic." ROXANA HEGEMAN for the Associated Press.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 03:06 PM | Permalink

Immigrant Tuition Bill Endorsed in Connecticut

A bill that would allow undocumented immigrants in Connecticut to pay in-state tuition to public colleges and universities received the endorsement of the state university chancellor, while drawing concerns from some legislators during a public hearing Tuesday. MARK SPENCER in the Hartford Courant.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 10:32 PM | Permalink

Study Forecasts Explosion in Ohio Prison Population

While Ohio's population is expected to be flat over the next five years, its prison population will explode by 20 percent by 2011, considerably more than the national average of 13 percent, according to a first-of-its-kind forecast released Wednesday.

The study by the Pew Charitable Trusts, based on information from the states, said it could cost U.S. taxpayers up to $27.5 billion to build and operate prisons for the 192,023 additional convicts expected to join the 1.5 million Americans already in state or federal prison. TOM BEYERLEIN in the Dayton Daily News.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 10:13 PM | Permalink

Bush Pledges to Work With Dems on Immigration

Calling Democrats "patriotic people who care about our country," President Bush told reporters on Wednesday he can work with a Democratic Congress despite heated differences on Iraq.

Bush also identified immigration as a key concern he shares with Democrats. A guest-worker program, Bush said, could ease the burden on border security. On the subject of illegal aliens already living in the country, Bush stressed he didn't favor deportation. However, he stopped short of suggesting an alternative. AMAN ALI in The Hill.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:54 PM | Permalink

Police Debate Immigration

Allowing already strapped local law enforcement agencies to do federal criminal immigration checks will lead to racial profiling, will ruin relations with ethnic communities and is simply "bad public policy," Garden Grove Police Chief Joseph Polisar said Tuesday.

Enforcing criminal federal immigration law is the responsibility of the U.S. government, which has failed to secure its borders and hasn't fully funded immigration resources, Polisar said. PEGGY LOWE in the Orange County Register.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:51 PM | Permalink

On Different Pages With Bilingual Education

Over community objections, the Education Department is converting shuttered schools in Bensonhurst and East Flatbush into specialized education programs, but E.S.L. isn't among the class offerings.

The recent decisions about Lafayette and Tilden provide the latest flashpoints for months of friction between the Education Department and immigrant families and their advocates. It is a deeply paradoxical confrontation, because many immigrants express support for the trend toward small high schools. They approvingly cite the department’s own statistics, which show that students in small schools have better promotion and graduation rates than those in large schools.

Their complaint, though, is that those schools — with the notable exception of eight International Network schools that are aimed specifically at immigrant pupils — neither seek nor welcome students who need bilingual and E.S.L. classes. That accusation emerged last fall in a report by the New York Immigration Coalition and Advocates for Children. It is likely to re-emerge this Friday, when the City Council’s Education Committee holds public hearings on the small-schools policy. SAMUEL FREEDMAN in The New York Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:27 PM | Permalink

Anti-Bosnian Backlash Feared in Utah

Most of the thousands of Bosnians living in the Salt Lake City area are refugees of war, and all of them are toughened by the experience of making new lives in a new country.

Now, state and local officials say that the rage and grief after the multiple killings here in a shopping mall Monday by an 18-year-old Bosnian immigrant threaten a backlash, and they announced plans on Wednesday for outreach meetings and candlelight vigils to head off trouble and help the city heal.

KIRK JOHNSON in The New York Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:19 PM | Permalink

Maywood Suburb Wants Investigation of Police Misconduct

Allegations of sexual misconduct, racism and brutality are roiling the Police Department in the small suburb of Maywood, prompting the City Council this week to request an immediate investigation by the state attorney general's office.

The request for the probe comes after years of accusation from residents and activists that the Police Department has mistreated Latino immigrants, who make up the vast majority of the 30,000 residents. HECTOR BECERRA in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:13 PM | Permalink

Wisconsin Mayoral Candidates Debate Affirmative Action, School Diversity

It was two against one in the mayoral debate Sunday, as candidates Ray Allen and Peter Muñoz both criticized Mayor Dave Cieslewicz for his decision to condense two separate departments promoting diversity into one — the Department of Civil Rights.

Although this change occurred about a year and a half ago, both Allen and Muñoz said the merger of Madison’s Equal Opportunities Commission and the Affirmative Action Department remains an issue that needs to be addressed.

BRIDGET ROBY in The Bagder Herald

Posted by Susan Grant at 05:37 PM | Permalink

Michigan Governor Says Prison Mental Health Patients Need Better Care

Timothy Souders, a mentally ill inmate at Jackson prison, died of dehydration last August after being chained to a steel bed for almost four days. After Souders's death, a judge ruled that Michigan needs far-reaching mental health reform. In response, Gov. Jennifer Granholm reluctantly created a commission to investigate the state's prison system at the end of 2006 and made general mention of prison reform in her State of the State address last week. However, few reforms have materialized, and the state's prison system is still wedded to a deplorable ideology that neglects mentally ill inmates and focuses on punishment rather than rehabilitation. ANONYMOUS EDITORIAL The Michigan Daily

Posted by Susan Grant at 05:29 PM | Permalink

Card Issuer Solicits Illegal Immigrants, Critics Charge

Continuing to court the burgeoning market of Latino immigrants, Bank of America said today it is test-marketing credit cards for Spanish-speaking customers who may not have Social Security numbers.

The cards, which critics say will enable illegal immigrants to put down roots more easily in the United States, carry higher than usual interest rates and allow users to charge only $500.

The cards are designed to be a first step for immigrants trying to build a credit history, bank spokeswoman Alexandra C. Trower said today. E. SCOTT RECKARD in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 04:38 PM | Permalink

Nashville Mayor Vetoes English Bill

The debate about making English the official language of Nashville has drawn attention from far and wide, making headlines from Wyoming to England.

Mayor Bill Purcell attempted to tamp down that potential blow to Nashville's image Monday by taking the rare step of using his veto pen and declaring, "This is not who we are."

"If this ordinance becomes law, Nashville will be a less safe, less friendly and less successful city," Purcell said. MICHAEL CASS in the Tennessean.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 12:06 AM | Permalink

No to Schwarzenegger's Prisoner Export Plan

Moving prisoners out of state would be a wrong move because it treats people as if they were no better than livestock and it denies due process. Not that some people might not be desperate to get out of California's blood houses. DR. B. CAYENNE BIRD in the California Progress Report.

Posted by Susan Grant at 05:18 PM | Permalink

Suburban Immigrants Create Need for New Programs

As more immigrant families locate in outlying areas, schools struggle to cope with shifts in their student bodies' needs, such as help with basic English. Teachers struggle daily to balance the intense needs of immigrant students with the overall demands of educating everyone.

Instructors at Park Hill, however, are more strained than most. In the more than 16 years since it opened its doors, the suburban Riverside County school has seen a dramatic rise in "English language learners" — mostly Latino immigrants. The tally has risen from nearly none in 1995 to 362 as of this month — one of the steepest increases in the region. Such students now account for more than 40% of the student body. SUSANNAH ROSENBLATT in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 10:44 AM | Permalink

Empty Streets

"We've seen it too often," said City Manager Jeff Jenkins. "You've done this raid, [but] what have you done to fix the problem? And the problem still exists, basically the meaning of that being that Swift still is checking IDs the old way. If the old way's not working ... it can happen again." ISABEL C. MORALES in Al Día.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 06:23 AM | Permalink

Immigration furor boosts Klan chapters in Carolinas

"The Anti-Defamation League said this week that growth in North Carolina reflects a "surprising and troubling resurgence" around the country." FRANCO ORDOÑEZ in the Charlotte Observer.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 12:41 PM | Permalink

Yo Soy el Army

"Uncle Sam wants you - especially if you're Latino." MEGAN FELDMAN in the Dallas Observer.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 06:31 AM | Permalink

Hell In Hutto

"Nazmieh Juma Hazahza said there is only one way to describe her experience at the Hutto facility where she lived with her 11-year-old son, Mohammad: like being in hell. "A prison is a prison, no matter what. ... For me it was very hard, being there day after day, each day worse than the next one," said Mrs. Hazahza, who was released from the detention center Wednesday evening after spending more than three months in custody." PAUL MEYER and FRANK TREJO in the Dallas Morning News.

Stung by criticism over the jailing of eleven- (and three- and five-year-olds,) ICE slapped some paint on the place, fed pizza to the prisoners for the first time, and invited the press to visit. (And promised to remove the barbed wire.) "[G]uards told the Chronicle in separate interviews this week that the Hutto center was being sanitized, or "prettied up," for the media tour, with furniture, artificial trees and other amenities appearing in the facility immediately prior to the tour." LISA FALKENBERG in the Houston Chronicle.

"Khadijah Bessuges is confined by metal gates and razor wire. She wears a uniform. She sleeps in an 8-by-15 cell, and stands by her cot four times a day when the guards count heads. She has only two pairs of panties. Her favorite teddy bear was confiscated. But she has her father, Sebastien, who sleeps in the cell with her. Khadijah is 9 years old." NICOLE GAOUETTE and MIGUEL BUSTILLO in the Los Angeles Times.

There are alternatives, but ""our basic approach is detention," said Gary Mead, assistant director for detention and removal at Immigration and Customs Enforcement." JUAN CASTILLO in the Austin American-Statesman.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 06:12 AM | Permalink

Lockdown in Greeley

"The militarized sweep hit the community like a hurricane, says 33-year-old Sylvia Martinez, one of Greeley's most prominent new Latino activists. "It's frightening to see the power that the federal government has to blow through here and leave a shambles," she says as we eat lunch at one of the town's many Mexican restaurants. "This has been our Katrina, a man-made Katrina. There's no information, no accountability."" MARC COOPER in The Nation.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 03:23 AM | Permalink

Illegal Immigrants Slain in an Attack in Arizona

Three illegal immigrants were shot to death, three were wounded and others were missing Thursday near Tucson after gunmen accosted them as they traveled north from the Mexican border, the authorities said.

The shootings came a day after gunmen in ski masks and carrying assault-style rifles robbed 18 people who had illegally crossed the border 70 miles to the south, near Sasabe. On Jan. 28 a man driving illegal immigrants from the border several miles from the scene of Thursday’s killings was ambushed and shot to death as the immigrants fled. RANDAL ARCHIBOLD in The New York Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:41 PM | Permalink

Immigration Raid Leaves Texas Town a Skeleton

The streets of this small, isolated city in the Texas Panhandle are virtually empty nowadays, and "For Rent" signs decorate dilapidated trailers and shabby 1940s-era military barracks that just weeks ago were full of tenants.

Sales of tortillas and other staples are down. Money wire transactions to Central America have mostly dried up. The "Guatemalas," as local residents call them, are almost all gone, and so are a significant number of Mexican nationals. An estimated 12 to 18 children are now living with only one parent since the other was arrested in a massive immigration raid at the biggest employer in town. SYLVIA MORENO in the Washington Post.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:36 PM | Permalink

Immigrants navigate degrees of danger

"ASPEN: “Juanita” came to Aspen from El Salvador six years ago and found work as a housekeeper for $8 an hour. She works at the same job today for $11 an hour, supporting her three children, her mother and occasionally her brothers back in El Salvador. She has the proper visa to live and work legally in the United States, but is still afraid to have her real name printed in the newspaper. As a legal resident, Juanita is eligible for benefits from agencies including the Aspen/Pitkin County Housing Authority. Still, she lives in fear of immigration authorities, who periodically show up at her Aspen apartment complex looking for illegal immigrants — like her boyfriend, she says." ABIGAIL EAGYE in the Vail Daily.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 11:20 AM | Permalink

Nashville Makes English its Official Language

Nashville's government has adopted English as its official language, following similar moves by several smaller cities around the country.

After months of debate, the city's Metro Council voted 23-14 on Tuesday to approve the measure requiring all government communications to be in English, except when multilingual communications are required by federal rules or are needed "to protect or promote public health, safety or welfare."

Bill sponsor Councilman Eric Crafton and his supporters said the change offers an incentive for immigrants to learn English. ASSOCIATED PRESS in The Houston Chronicle.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:41 PM | Permalink

Critics Call Family Detention Center Harmful

A few hours after Mustafa Elmi slipped undetected across the Rio Grande in June, he was arrested by Border Patrol officers for entering the country illegally.

Within two weeks, he was transported to a Central Texas facility wrapped in a high, razor-wire fence and overseen by an arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The Somali Muslim was fingerprinted, photographed and issued a uniform.

Surveillance cameras eyed him. Guards timed his meals on wristwatches. He was counted, along with the others, three times a day. And if he stepped out of line, his mother was there to shush him into submission.

Mustafa is 3 years old.

LISA FALKENBERG in The Houston Chronicle.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:38 PM | Permalink

Incoming Intelligence Chief to Ease Hiring Restrictions on Arab Americans

The incoming director of national intelligence, retired Navy Vice Adm. John M. McConnell, plans to change security rules to make it easier for intelligence agencies to hire first-generation Arab Americans for highly sensitive jobs.

These rules, dating from World War II, limit intelligence agencies' ability to employ first-generation Americans "who might have native language capabilities from serving in some of these very sensitive positions in the intelligence community" and hinder efforts to deal with radical Islam, McConnell said during his confirmation hearing Friday before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. WALTER PINCUS in the Washington Post.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:31 PM | Permalink

A Flight Risk At Age 5?

The news about the "family jail" for immigrants in Texas keeps rolling in. JOSH HARKINSON in Mother Jones:

"Inmate Faten Ibrahim was unlikely to escape. She lived at a compound built as a prison for Texas' worst criminals, within a double layer of razor wire. Her eight-by-eight-foot cell offered only a thin sliver of window, her toilet in an open corner left no cover for stashing break-out tools, and, at any rate, cracking the cell's thick steel door at night would have tripped an alarm. She certainly wasn't going to try bolting, especially since Ibrahim, who lived in the cell with her mother for three months, is five."

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 02:01 PM | Permalink

Washington's $8 Billion Shadow

"SAIC has displayed an uncanny ability to thrive in every conceivable political climate. It is the invisible hand behind a huge portion of the national-security state - the one sector of the government whose funds are limitless and whose continued growth is assured every time a politician utters the word "terrorism." SAIC represents, in other words, a private business that has become a form of permanent government." Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele in Vanity Fair.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 01:54 PM | Permalink

'Return to Sender' sweeps begin

"Two children walked out the door of their Redwood City elementary school last week, expecting their mother to pick them up. Only, she was nowhere to be found. Between the start of the school day and the ring of the final bell, the woman had been taken into custody by federal immigration agents."

MICHAEL MANEKIN and KELLY PAKULA in the San Mateo County Times.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 05:15 AM | Permalink

Arrests Keep Dipping Along Mexican Border

Border Patrol apprehensions are continuing to drop along the Mexican border, a sign that changes in policy and increased resources are paying off, U.S. Border Patrol officials say. ASSOCIATED PRESS in the Arizona Republic.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 05:54 PM | Permalink

A death threat falls in the digital forest

An anti-vigilante state legislator receives death threats via e-mail. E.J. MONTINI comments in the Arizona Republic.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 10:09 AM | Permalink

This Alien Life: Privatized Prisons for Immigrants

"As the government invokes national security to sweep up and jail an unprecedented number of immigrants, the private-prison industry is booming. In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks on New York, immigrants have become the fastest growing segment of the prison population in the U.S. today." DEEPA FERNANDES in CorpWatch.org, excerpted from her new book, "Targeted: National Security and the Business of Immigration."

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 05:01 AM | Permalink

Immigrant Entrepreneurs Shape a New Economy

Manuel A. Miranda was 8 when his family immigrated to New York from Bogotá. His parents, who had been lawyers, turned to selling home-cooked food from the trunk of their car. Manuel pitched in after school, grinding corn by hand for traditional Colombian flatbreads called arepas.

Today Mr. Miranda, 32, runs a family business with 16 employees, producing 10 million arepas a year in the Maspeth section of Queens. Now, he says, his eye is on a vast, untapped market: the rest of the country.

As the flow of immigrants to suburban and small-town America outpaces the growth of bustling ethnic centers in New York, many foreign-born entrepreneurs like the Mirandas are facing an unfamiliar crossroads. In the city, rising rents and density hamper growth, while swelling ethnic enclaves in the suburbs generate competitors. Yet in other places, opportunity beckons as never before, as immigrants expand the tastes of mainstream America. NINA BERNSTEIN in The New York Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 10:36 PM | Permalink

The Racial Politics of Speaking Well

SENATOR Joseph Biden's characterization of his fellow Democratic presidential contender Senator Barack Obama as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy” was so painfully clumsy that it nearly warranted pity.

There are not enough column inches on this page to parse interpretations of each of Mr. Biden’s chosen adjectives. But among his string of loaded words, one is so pervasive — and is generally used and viewed so differently by blacks and whites — that it calls out for a national chat, perhaps a national therapy session.

It is amazing that this still requires clarification, but here it is. Black people get a little testy when white people call them “articulate.” LYNETTE CLEMETSON in The New York Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 10:14 AM | Permalink

Lawn-Care Entrepreneur Faces a Changing Racial Landscape

In the months that landscaper Nikita Floyd's employees tended the 50-acre grounds at a large African American church, he received no complaint about their work.

So it surprised and stung him when a minister at the Prince George's County congregation told him she was appalled that Floyd, who is black, sent a crew of a half-dozen Latin American immigrants to do the job. It was the mid-1990s, and Congress was considering immigration reform, but Floyd never imagined that his small company would be caught in the national debate.

When immigrants compete for jobs, black workers are more vulnerable, say economists who point out that blacks are still disproportionately employed in low-skilled jobs. KRISSAH WILLIAMS in the Washington Post.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 10:11 AM | Permalink

Candidates Campaign on Immigration

Candidates for an O.C. supervisorial seat are sending out mailers and speaking on the topic, even though it's a federal and state issue.

Judging by the anti-illegal immigrant campaign rhetoric, voters in Orange County might think they're going to the polls Tuesday to elect a new chief of the Border Patrol instead of a member of the Board of Supervisors, a job that has almost no authority over the immigration issues the candidates are raising. CHRISTIAN BERTHELSEN in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 10:00 AM | Permalink

Deportation Cases Soar as L.A. Jails Screen More

The number of Los Angeles County jail inmates identified as suspected illegal immigrants nearly doubled in the year since the Sheriff's Department started investigating their legal status.

The number red-flagged to face possible deportation once they serve their sentences went from 3,050 in 2005 to 5,829 last year.

The numbers skyrocketed from 658 in the second quarter of 2005 to 1,685 in the third quarter of 2006. PATRICK MCGREEVEY and STUART PFEIFER in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:57 AM | Permalink

U.S. Set to Begin a Vast Expansion of DNA Testing

The Justice Department is completing rules to allow the collection of DNA from most people arrested or detained by federal authorities, a vast expansion of DNA gathering that will include hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, by far the largest group affected. JULIA PRESTON in The New York Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:15 PM | Permalink

Immigration Raid Fuels War of Words in N. Houston

Disagreeing demonstrators dueled Saturday afternoon in a noisy but peaceful protest outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in north Houston.

The two groups had opposing views on last week's ICE raid at Republic Waste Services, where more than 48 employees were detained and questioned about their immigration status. ANNE MARIE KILDAY in the Houston Chronicle.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:05 PM | Permalink

Banished

"Ho Beua stands out in his purple Washington Huskies baseball cap. Beua is surely the only farmer in this tiny village who once enjoyed a prosperous life in Seattle, days when his only care in the world was whether his favorite team would beat the Cougars." KRISTI HEIM in the Seattle Times.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 12:45 PM | Permalink

Palestinian family freed from Texas detention center

"The Ibrahims have become unwitting players in a growing cause célèbre surrounding a relatively new immigration policy that allows the detention of families, including children and infants, on noncriminal charges while they await federal disposition of their cases." JUAN CASTILLO (2003 Fellow, Western Knight Center for Specialized Journalism, "Covering the Border,") in the Austin American-Statesman.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 05:34 AM | Permalink

Border Town Exemplifies Immigration Patterns

No longer thick with people waiting to sneak across the border into New Mexico, the town square in this immigrant smuggling hub is lined with four empty school buses waiting for customers to haul to easier crossing points.

The border town began to emerge as a top staging area for smugglers five years ago when tighter enforcement in Arizona slowly shifted a stream of immigrants toward a stretch of high desert in southwestern New Mexico. ASSOCIATED PRESS for the Las Cruces Sun-News.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:13 PM | Permalink

Thousands of Inmates to be Sent Out of State

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Friday that his administration would forcibly shift thousands of inmates to out-of-state prisons because only a few hundred had volunteered to leave.

The governor's decision escalates the pressure to overhaul a corrections system that officials say will be out of space by summer. A federal judge has given the state until June to relieve the crowding or face a possible cap on admissions. NANCY VOGEL for the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 08:58 PM | Permalink

Meatpacker: Immigrant Raids Were Show

The head of meatpacker Swift & Co. said federal officials wanted a high-profile example of an immigration crackdown when they staged raids at its plants in six states in an identity theft investigation late last year.

President and CEO Sam Rovit said the government rejected the company's offer to help in the investigation months before the Dec. 12 raids. ASSOCIATED PRESS in the Houston Chronicle.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:08 AM | Permalink

Immigrants’ Stories Expose Murkiness of Deportation Laws

"Camal Marchabeyoglu was looking forward to going home after a few months locked up for petty theft. But as he left the county jail, immigration officials welcomed him back into custody. They had remembered what he had practically forgotten: he was not a US citizen."

MICHELLE CHEN in The NewStandard.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 04:26 AM | Permalink

Attorneys: Government has no right to hold immigrant family

"Attorneys for members of a Palestinian family held for three months at immigrant detention centers in Haskell and Taylor [Texas] on Thursday petitioned federal district courts to order their immediate release, saying that there is no legal basis for the government to hold them and that continued detention is unconstitutional." JUAN CASTILLO in the Austin American-Statesman.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 04:11 AM | Permalink

Are They TUFF Enough?

Texans United for Families - TUFF - is "an umbrella organization made up of advocacy groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Grassroots Leadership Initiative, League of United Latin American Citizens, and Texas Civil Rights Project."

They are protesting the jailing of immigrant families at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas, run by Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) as contracted out to Corrections Corporation of America, a private prison company "that ICE pays more than $2.8 million a month to run the facility."

A local attorney says, "It's the lipstick on the pig problem. ... No matter how humane they make Hutto, the question still remains: Is it acceptable for the United States to imprison children, criminal or non? No, it's not. These families shouldn't be in prison."

DIANA WELCH in the Austin Chronicle.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 04:01 AM | Permalink

Immigration traffic law criticized in Louisiana

"A Louisiana state law that allows police to arrest people they suspect are in the country illegally during routine traffic stops is under fire from lawyers representing some of the thousands of Latinos who have come to the city since Hurricane Katrina. ... But since Katrina, lawyers say, the law has been used primarily to stop and detain members of the city's burgeoning immigrant workforce, the majority of them Latinos." ANN M. SIMMONS in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 03:37 AM | Permalink

Border Policy's Success Strains Resources

"Ringed by barbed wire, a futuristic tent city rises from the Rio Grande Valley in the remote southern tip of Texas, the largest camp in a federal detention system rapidly gearing up to keep pace with Washington's increasing demand for stronger enforcement of immigration laws." SPENCER S. HSU and SYLVIA MORENO in the Washington Post.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 03:16 AM | Permalink

Missing in America: 8,000 immigrant children

"Sixteen-year-old Juan Pablo Lopez’s trip to the United States began in a semi-trailer, packed with 150 human beings. He thought it would end for him alone in a cramped cell at the Juvenile Detention Center in Globe, Ariz."

BILL MYERS in the Washington, D.C. Examiner.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 11:43 AM | Permalink

Aggregated Immigration Stories

February 28, 2007