'Just News' Blog: March 2007 Archives

Texas Teen to be Released

"Shaquanda Cotton, the black teenager in the small east Texas town of Paris whose prison sentence of up to 7 years for shoving a teacher's aide sparked nationwide controversy, will be released Saturday morning, prison officials confirmed on Friday.

Her release, ordered by a special conservator appointed to overhaul the state's scandal-ridden juvenile prison system, is the first of what could be hundreds as a panel of civil rights leaders begins reviewing the sentences of every youth incarcerated by the Texas Youth Commission to weed out those being held arbitrarily."

HOWARD WITT in the Chicago Tribune. Earlier coverage here.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 03:33 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

GOP Immigration Plan Favors Workers Over Relatives

A White House proposal for overhauling immigration laws would abandon the long-standing practice of admitting immigrants seeking to reunite with their families, instead giving preference to applicants based on the nation's employment needs.

The wide-ranging proposals to stem illegal immigration also include enforcement requirements that must be met before other changes can go forward. Those include posting 18,300 Border Patrol agents on the frontier with Mexico — about a 53% increase — and erecting more than four times the current amount of border fencing. NICOLE GAOUETTE in the Los Angeles Times.

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Dozens Arrested in Md. Immigration Raid

Immigration agents arrested 69 people Thursday in raids on a temporary employment agency's offices and places where it provided undocumented workers, including the port of Baltimore, authorities said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents also seized a bank account containing more than $600,000 from the employment agency, Jones Industrial Network. ALEX DOMINGUEZ for the AP in the Houston Chronicle.

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Suicides in Prison a Growing Problem Down Under

Tasmania's director of prisons says self harm is an unfortunate part of prison life.

Convicted Port Arthur killer Martin Bryant is the latest inmate at Risdon Prison to attempt suicide.

The Prison Action Reform Group says suicide attempts happen on a weekly basis.

Bryant has attempted suicide twice in the past week using two different disposable razor blades.

Posted on ABC News Tasmania

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A Brief History of Police Brutality and Racial Profiling

Police Brutality. For many, those two words conjure up images long past. We think of haunting photographs from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s — police clubbing black protesters with batons or knocking them down with fire hoses. We think of the grainy footage of Rodney King being beaten by police in 1992 — barely 15 years ago, but ancient history to most of us.

However, the ugly truth is that the issue of police brutality is all too current. Many of us saw the chilling YouTube video of UCLA student Mostafa Tabatabainejab being repeatedly tasered by campus police last November for the supposed “crime” of not showing his student I.D.

LAURA TAYLOR in The Cornell Daily Sun

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A Look at the Absurdities of Airline Racial Profiling

The fact that we have to coin the new phrase "flying while Muslim" is indicative of the unraveling of our national social fabric.

Many Americans are aware of the case of six American Muslim imams (prayer leaders) who were removed from a US Airways flight. Notwithstanding the fact that the imams had already cleared TSA security and did nothing illegal, they were discriminated against by not being allowed to re-board any subsequent US Airways flights to Phoenix.

Another recent case illustrates the absurdity of racial profiling. Last September, a Jewish man was removed from an Air Canada Jazz flight in Montreal for merely praying in his seat. Jewish rabbis criticized the move as insensitive, saying the flight attendants should have explained to other passengers that the man was not doing any harm. ARSALAN IFTIKHAR on Yahoo News

Posted by Susan Grant at 03:18 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Prison Reform Protesters Flood the State Capitol

SACRAMENTO — Busloads of protesters fighting the construction of new penitentiaries swarmed the Capitol on Wednesday, while inside the statehouse, the simmering politics surrounding the prison overcrowding crisis boiled into full view.

The protesters attacked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to build 78,000 new prison and jail beds, saying that $11 billion worth of "bricks and mortar and debt" are no substitute for true reform.

Instead, the demonstrators — some dressed in orange prison jumpsuits and standing in makeshift cells — said lawmakers could quickly thin the inmate population by releasing geriatric and incapacitated convicts and by sanctioning thousands of parole violators in their communities rather than in state lockups. JENIFER WARREN in The Los Angeles Times

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Major Human Smuggling Ring Broken Up in Arizona

A human smuggling scheme responsible for arranging air transportation for thousands of illegal immigrants has been broken up with the indictments of 14 people who worked in travel agencies, officials announced Thursday.

Six Phoenix-area travel agencies were responsible for moving at estimated 6,800 people since 2005. JACQUES BILLEAUD in the Arizona Republic.

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White House Floats Immigration Proposal

The Bush administration floated elements of an immigration plan on Wednesday that would make it harder for millions of illegal immigrants to gain citizenship than under legislation passed by the Senate last year, according to officials in both parties.

These officials said the administration also suggested barring future guest workers who enter the country legally from bringing family members with them — a proposal unlikely to survive intact. DAVID ESPO for the AP in Time Magazine Online.

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Border Town Hospitals Straddle Care and Costs

Health care is an often overlooked facet of the national debate over illegal immigration, but in this border region, the impact on hospitals is apparent.

Federal regulations prohibit hospitals from inquiring about a person’s immigration status before offering treatment, but some like Copper Queen are kinder than others. The immigrants and their contacts know they will get good care here. ROBERT BAZELL for NBC News.

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NYC Revises Prison Standards

New York City’s jails would be able to listen in on inmates’ phone calls without a warrant, read prisoners’ mail without a court order, reduce living space behind bars, and use 23-hour lock-ins more widely under new regulations proposed by the Board of Correction that revise – prisoners' advocates would say "roll back" – the basic rules of the city jail system for the first time in 30 years. JARRETT MURPHY in City Limits Weekly.

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To some in Paris [Texas,] sinister past is back

"[A] 14-year-old black freshman, Shaquanda Cotton ... shoved a hall monitor at Paris High School in a dispute over entering the building before the school day had officially begun.

The youth had no prior arrest record, and the hall monitor--a 58-year-old teacher's aide--was not seriously injured. But Shaquanda was tried in March 2006 in the town's juvenile court, convicted of "assault on a public servant" and sentenced by Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville to prison for up to 7 years, until she turns 21.

Just three months earlier, Superville sentenced a 14-year-old white girl, convicted of arson for burning down her family's house, to probation.

"All Shaquanda did was grab somebody and she will be in jail for 5 or 6 years?" said Gary Bledsoe, an Austin attorney who is president of the state NAACP branch. "It's like they are sending a signal to black folks in Paris that you stay in your place in this community, in the shadows, intimidated.""

HOWARD WITT in the Chicago Tribune, here and here; SCOTT HENSON blogging the links here.

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Factory Struggles After Immigration Raid

Michael Bianco Inc. was a success story, a small leather factory in a struggling city that landed military contracts at such a rate that its work force more than quadrupled in the span of a few years.

Federal officials said that growth was on the backs of illegal immigrants. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement rounded up 361 workers in a March 6 raid at the waterfront factory, and arrested the company's owner and three top managers.

Yet inside the factory, sewing machines still rattle away as remaining workers continue stitching together backpacks and vests for U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Owner Francesco Insolia has been back on the job since the day after his arrest, and the company says more than 400 people have applied for jobs since the raid. KEN MAGUIRE in the Houston Chronicle.

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Immigration a Federal Issue, But Problems Are State's

Speakers testifying at a hearing Wednesday said that although immigration policy might be a federal responsibility, inaction is creating dire problems in the state — from labor shortages that threaten the state's elite standing in the agriculture industry to criminal smuggling operations overrunning private South Texas ranchlands.

The consequences and complexities of the immigration system, and Congress' problems dealing with the issue, came under scrutiny at the meeting of the State Affairs and Border and International Affairs committees. JUAN CASTILLO in the Austin American-Statesman.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 10:20 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

White House Quietly Addressing Immigration Reform

With President Bush looking to counter a legacy increasingly marred by the war in Iraq, the White House has launched a bold, behind-the-scenes drive to advance a key domestic goal: immigration reform.

For a month, White House staffers and Cabinet members have met three to four times a week with influential Republican senators and aides to hash out a consensus plan designed to draw a significant number of GOP votes.

With that effort largely completed, Republicans were set to present their proposal Wednesday to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who would lead the Democrats in any attempt to move a bill through the Senate. NICOLE GAOUETTE in the Los Angeles Times.

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Immigrants Becoming U.S. Citizens at High Rate

Legal immigrants in the United States have opted to become American citizens in historically high numbers in the last decade, according to a study published yesterday by the Pew Hispanic Center. JULIA PRESTON in The New York Times.

The number of naturalized citizens in the United States grew to nearly 13 million between 1995 and 2005, a historic increase that reflects the nation's changing ethnic makeup and could increase the power of immigrants to affect public policy at the ballot box, according to a study released yesterday by the Pew Hispanic Center. DARRYL FEARS in the Washington Post.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 10:04 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Kansas Governor Announces New Grant Aimed at Cracking Down on Racial Profiling

A state effort to prevent racial profiling will be helped by a new federal grant, Governor Kathleen Sebelius announced today.

The Governor's Task Force on Racial Profiling and the Kansas Department of Transportation has received a federal grant of $643,613 to prevent racial profiling on Kansas roadways.

"Racial profiling, whether actual or perceived, hurts the relationship between our law enforcement personnel and the people they protect. That's why we want to ensure racial profiling is not occurring in Kansas , and why I've been so proud of our task force's work to prevent it," Sebelius said. Posted on the Kansas City infoZine

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Critic of Affirmative Action Speaks Out in South Africa

Once again a prominent academic has stated that the application of affirmative action is exacerbating the skill shortage crises: "Job equity damaging, says Ramphele"

Former University of Cape Town vice-chancellor Mamphela Rampele said that "Sector Education and Training (Setas) had failed in skills development". These statements expressed by a black academic of Ramphele's qualification are crucial in context of the current skills shortage crises debate.

Considering the enormous challenges the shortage of skills presents to construction companies engaged in the building of the stadiums and infrastructure ahead of 2010, it is hardly surprising that the debate has attracted attention. The more pertinent question though is to what extent the policy of affirmative action has influenced the current crisis. COUNCILLOR COLIN GAILLARD in The Mercury

Posted by Susan Grant at 08:24 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Taylor Detention Facility Ended "Catch and Release"

In 2005, the so-called "catch and release" of non-Mexican immigrants became ensnared in concerns about terrorism and a fiery debate in Congress about immigration and border security. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of non-Mexican immigrants, most from Central American and Asian nations, were entering the country illegally.

The immigrants, known as OTMs, the Border Patrol term for "other than Mexicans," knew that if detention beds were not available — they usually weren't — they would probably be released, with notices to appear later for court hearings.

In response to such pressure, Department of Homeland Security promised last March to create more family detention facilities. In May 2006, the Hutto center opened in a former state prison in Taylor. JUAN CASTILLO in the Austin American-Statesman.

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Anti-Affirmative Action Measure Tested in Detroit

DETROIT A federal judge in Detroit will hear arguments in September over a lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of an anti-affirmative action measure approved by Michigan voters.

U-S District Judge David Lawson said today he will hear arguments then on whether the suit should be dismissed.Groups supporting affirmative action are fighting the new law, which bans the use of race and gender preferences in public university admissions and government hiring and contracting. AP WIRE REPORT WLNS.com

Posted by Susan Grant at 09:58 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Pennsylvania Immigration Trial Begins

ACLU attorneys were in federal court this week to challenge a local law that would legitimize discrimination against the immigrant community in Hazleton, PA. Current law punishes landlords and employers who do business with undocumented immigrants.

“Anti-immigrant laws like those in Hazleton are misguided, unconstitutional and undemocratic,” said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the national ACLU. “These laws encourage racial profiling and undercut American values of fairness and equality.” Posted on the U.S. Immigration Weblog

Posted by Susan Grant at 09:48 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Governor's Prison Plan May Be Too Little Too Late

MARTINEZ - Sitting in his sterile office within the secured walls of County Jail, sheriff's Cmdr. Joseph Caruso ponders the future of detention in Contra Costa.

He leans back, looks to the ceiling, then snaps forward and knocks on his wooden desk.

"We're all eagerly waiting to see what happens with the state prison system -- we don't know what's going to be the resolve," Caruso said. "If we had a two-week period where we couldn't send (inmates) to state prison, we would not have enough beds."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $10.9 billion plan to alleviate California's prison overcrowding will undoubtedly impact Contra Costa County with the proposed shift of state prisoners back to local jails. The plan calls for money for the construction of much-needed county jail space, but it has not fully addressed the additional operational costs. MALAIKA FRALEY in The Contra Costa Times

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Familial bonds: Is government's policy to detain immigrant families fair?

"The controversy raises two questions: Is it inhumane to confine children and families for running afoul of immigration laws? And are there better alternatives than locking people up?

Critics answer yes to both. Lawsuits filed on behalf of 10 children confined in Taylor accuse federal officials of illegally and inhumanely housing children, failing to meet the standards of a 1997 court settlement for the care of minors in immigration custody, and ignoring Congress' orders to exhaust other options before detaining families — in homelike environments.

At a hearing on the lawsuits last week, even U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks expressed exasperation at the restrictions under which families are living at the Hutto facility.

"This is detention. This isn't the penitentiary," Sparks said. Detainees "have less rights than the people I send to the penitentiary."

JUAN CASTILLO in the Austin American-Statesman.

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Democrats Face Hurdles Passing Immigration Bill

Democrats may have support from President Bush on immigration, but they face other obstacles in getting a bill through Congress.

The Democrats lack enough votes within their party and must overcome lingering Republican disdain for what some consider "amnesty" for some people in the U.S. illegally, as well as union opposition. SUZANNE GAMBOA in the Houston Chronicle.

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Brain Injury Affects Decision Making, Could Influence Sentencing

Damage to an area of the brain behind the forehead, inches behind the eyes, transforms the way people make moral judgments in life-or-death situations, scientists reported yesterday. In a new study, people with this rare injury expressed increased willingness to kill or harm another person if doing so would save others’ lives.

The finding could have implications for legal cases. Jurors have reduced sentences based on brain-imaging results showing damage. BENEDICT CAREY in The New York Times.

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Looking back, moving ahead

"As activists prepare to commemorate the march's one-year anniversary with two events Sunday — one at the Los Angeles Sports Arena and the other at the downtown Federal Building — many believe that time has proved its enduring impact."

TERESA WATANABE in the Los Angeles Times.

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Prison Guards Union Softens Stance

Behind the scenes, the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. — the 30,000-strong prison guards union famous for punishing its political enemies and supporting tough-on-crime policies that keep the prisons full — has been embracing its critics.

Union officials have opened up the organization to academics, pushed for new spending on alternatives to incarceration, and begun regular meetings with other unions.

Over the last three months, the union has convened a working group of inmate advocates, defense attorneys and politicians who support the kinds of shorter sentences that were long anathema to the union. Their goal: creating a sentencing reform bill that, with the union's sway over lawmakers, could pass the Legislature this year. JOE MATTHEWS in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 08:18 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Fired U.S. Attorneys Allowed Illegal Immigrants Five Strikes

Documents released in the controversy about eight fired U.S. attorneys show that federal prosecutors in Texas generally have declined to bring criminal charges against illegal immigrants caught crossing the border — until at least their sixth arrest.

A heavily redacted Department of Justice memo from late 2005 disclosed the prosecution guidelines for immigration offenses, numbers the federal government tries to keep classified. DOJ officials would not say Thursday whether it has adjusted the number since the memo was written, citing "law enforcement reasons." SUSAN CARROLL and MICHAEL HEDGES in the Houston Chronicle.

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House Bill Includes Guest-Worker Program

A bipartisan proposal for comprehensive immigration reform that would allow millions of illegal immigrants to participate in a guest-worker program and possibly gain citizenship was introduced in the House yesterday, the first to be submitted since Democrats took control of Congress this year. DARRYL FEARS in the Washington Post.

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Doubts Arise on Immigration Bill's Chances

House lawmakers stood before the television cameras on Thursday and hailed the introduction of a new measure to secure the border and move millions of illegal immigrants toward citizenship.

But behind the scenes, there was much more uncertainty than celebration among proponents of what would be the most substantial overhaul of immigration laws in two decades. RACHEL SWARNS in The New York Times.

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Kids Removed from Texas Immigrant Shelter

Federal officials have moved everyone out of a Texas shelter for children caught crossing the U.S. border on their own amid allegations that youngsters were being sexually abused.

The decision to transfer 72 children from the Texas Sheltered Care facility this week came after an investigation launched last month by the FBI and local authorities into allegations that the staff had abused numerous children. MIGUEL BUSTILLO in the Los Angeles Times.

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Immigration Law in Pennsylvania City May Set Precedent

Attorneys for Hazleton, Pa., told a federal judge Thursday that the town's efforts to crack down on illegal residents would reinforce U.S. immigration policies, but civil liberties lawyers argued the issue should be left in the hands of Congress instead of local governments.

The arguments closed the nation's first trial testing cities' right to enforce local laws against illegal immigration.

U.S. District Judge James M. Munley's decision, which is not expected for at least two months, could set a national precedent for about 70 other communities that have or are considering similar measures. ERIC HAYASKI in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:39 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Inmate Screenings Yield Detainees for ICE

Ten percent of inmates arriving in the Orange County sheriff's jail system during the first five weeks of a new screening program were found to be likely illegal immigrants and were set to face hearings that could result in their deportation.

The statistics were from Jan. 19 to Feb. 25, as Sheriff Michael S. Carona began requiring that jail deputies screen all foreign nationals for immigration violations. GARRETT THEROLF in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:33 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

L.A. Church Offers Migrants Sanctuary

Construction crews at Our Lady Queen of Angels are putting the finishing touches on a controversial new addition to the historic downtown Los Angeles church: living quarters in which to harbor an immigrant family facing deportation.

The 188-year-old parish, also known as La Placita, is among the first churches in the nation to pledge participation in a new sanctuary movement expected to be launched in late April as a faith-based effort to help undocumented families and to press for immigration reform. LOUIS SAHAGUN in the Los Angeles Times.

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Immigration Conflict Raised in Firing of U.S. Attorneys

Justice Department officials said after the firings of eight U.S. Attorneys that poor performance and policy disputes were behind their decision. Immigration-related prosecutions were at least part of their concerns with Lam, Charlton and Iglesias, Justice Department officials have said, although officials have also said they had other problems with each. AP in The New York Times.

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Lawyers Say U.S. Acted in Bad Faith After Immigration Raids

Lawyers for some of about 350 immigrants arrested this month in a raid on a leather factory in New Bedford, Mass., appeared before a federal judge Wednesday, charging that the government had acted in bad faith, moving the immigrants to detention centers in Texas too quickly and denying them adequate access to lawyers. PAM BELLUCK in The New York Times.

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Illegal Immigrants Increasingly Rely on Stolen Documents

Immigration raids at six Swift & Company meat-packing plants in six states in December, as well as more recent sweeps in Michigan, Florida and Arizona, have exposed an expanding front in the underground business that caters to illegal immigrants looking for work, officials say.

As the authorities have aggressively prosecuted employers for hiring undocumented workers, companies are examining applicants more carefully, and fake documents no longer pass inspection as easily as they did. Illegal immigrants have turned increasingly to bona fide documents, stolen or bought by traffickers from actual Americans. JULIA PRESTON in The New York Times.

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U.K. Government Calls for the Closing of Women's Prisons

Following the deaths of six women in one year at a women's prison in England, pressure has been building to close the facilities. Last week an independent commission echoed a reform group's critical report in August.

On March 13 a government report recommended that most, if not all, of the country's 17 existing women's prisons should be shut down in the next decade or converted into jails for men.

SARAH IRVING in Women's ENews

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Chinese Journalist Jailed for Speaking Out Against the Government

New York, March 20, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is appalled that freelance writer and former Web site editor Zhang Jianhong was sentenced Monday to six years in prison by a court in Ningbo, in the eastern province of Zhejiang.

Zhang was arrested in September 2006 and charged the following month with “incitement to subvert the state’s authority” for calling for political reform in articles posted online. He founded the literary Web site Aiqinghai in August 2005 and was its editor until authorities shut it down in March 2006 for illegally publishing news.

“It is outrageous that China continues to jail its own citizens for their critical reporting and commentary, even as it gears up to host the Olympic Games in 2008,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “We call for this sentence to be overturned and for Zhang Jianhong to be released immediately.” BLOG ENTRY posted on the Committee to Protect Journalists

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Columbia J-School Honors Best Race Reporters

Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Bryant Gumbel’s REALsports program lead the roster of honorees in the ninth annual awards judging for the Let’s Do It Better! Competition and Workshop on Journalism, Race and Ethnicity at Columbia’s Journalism School.

The awards will be presented at a luncheon on Thursday, May 3, 2007, the leadoff event in a three-day workshop designed to showcase exemplary performance on leading and covering issues or race, ethnicity and demographic change in the United States.

The Let’s Do It Better! Workshop was established in 1999 through a Ford Foundation grant to foster coherent, complete and courageous coverage of race and ethnicity in America as “an urgent journalistic duty,” said Arlene Morgan, the school’s associate dean who directs the competition and workshop. “The award winning work must meet the standards of voice, complexity, context and authenticity, as well as serve as a teaching tool for the newsroom managers and journalism educators who attend the workshop,” added Morgan, explaining the criteria for winning. From Columbia website.

Posted by Marc Cooper at 09:33 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

U.S. to Offer Care to Infants of Illegal Immigrants

In a reversal, the Bush administration said Tuesday that babies born in the United States to illegal immigrants with low incomes could automatically qualify for one year of Medicaid coverage, just as babies born to United States citizens did.

Federal officials dropped their insistence that illegal immigrants document the citizenship of the newborns. State officials, hospitals and pediatricians had said the requirement made no sense because, under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, people born in this country are United States citizens. ROBERT PEAR in The New York Times.

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House Bill Offers Citizenship

Two lawmakers will fire the opening salvo in this year's immigration debate Thursday when they introduce the first House bill in many years to call for citizenship for illegal immigrants.

Reps. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) will unveil broad legislation that would also create a new worker program, stiffen worker verification procedures and overhaul the visa system to reduce waiting times for legal immigrants.

In recognition of the tensions that surround the controversial issue, the bill also contains provisions designed to appeal to conservatives who want stronger border enforcement and oppose citizenship provisions that grant amnesty to people in the country illegally. NICOLE GAOUETTE and TERESA WATANABE in the Los Angeles Times.

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New Tactics Disrupt Illegal Immigration

Crossing has become so difficult that the number of people coming to Sasabe has dropped by more than two-thirds from last year, according to Mexican officials.

The turn of events here in the busiest illegal-immigration corridor on the border — where more than 1 million migrants have entered in recent years — is among the most dramatic examples of how tougher border enforcement is disrupting the flow of migrants.

Previous crackdowns have served only to shift illegal crossings to new areas, but so far this year there are no signs that the border has sprung another leak. Apprehensions have decreased in every area along the Southwest border, in some places by more than two-thirds. RICHARD MAROSI in the Los Angeles Times.

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At 104 degrees, the forecast is death

"TUCSON, Ariz. - A controversial new initiative by an Arizona doctor would actually predict, like a weather report, the likelihood of a death among immigrants illegally crossing the border from Mexico when the desert heat hits this spring.

The season of triple-digit heat will be arriving soon, and Dr. Samuel Keim is ready for it, planning to roll out what state officials call a first-of-its-kind prognosticating report stating which days will have "a probability of death" for immigrants crossing the arid wasteland."

IJJ 2003-2004 Border Justice Fellow MICHAEL MARTINEZ in the Chicago Tribune.

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Arizona Police Officer Accused of Racial Profling During Drag Racing Bust

A police officer in a small central Arizona town has been accused of racial profiling for calling federal immigration officials after discovering that the occupants of a car he stopped for drag racing were illegal immigrants.

The incident took place this week in Gilbert, an upscale city of about 160,000 in suburban Phoenix. When the Gilbert Police officer stopped the drag-racing sports car, the driver told him he didn’t have an Arizona driver’s license but rather a Mexican driver’s license although he wasn’t carrying it.

Unable to verify the lawbreaker’s identity or information, the officer proceeded to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials who subsequently deported the driver and his two passengers to their native Mexico because they were in fact in the United States illegally. Blog posting on the Corruption Chronicles

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Prison Drug Offenses on the Rise

There were 5,657 people sent to prison in New York for nonviolent drug offenses in 2004. That number was up to 5,835 the following year and 6,039 in 2006, according to a review by the Correctional Association of New York. More than half of the drug offenders in state prison have been serving sentences based on convictions for lower-level offenses -- that is, Class C, D and E -- felonies, which involve small amounts of drugs. About 40 percent of those inmates are in prison for simple possession of drugs, not selling them.

Many, if not most, of the drug felons serving sentences for selling drugs have substance abuse problems that need to be treated, according to the Correctional Association. Several studies by the national Institute on Drug Abuse have found that those who take part in drug treatment programs becomes less inclined to engage in criminal behavior as a result. TIMESUNION.COM

Posted by Susan Grant at 08:56 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

G.O.P. Candidates Confront Immigration Politics

Immigration, an issue that has divided Republicans in Washington, is reverberating across the party’s presidential campaign field, causing particular complications for Senator John McCain of Arizona. ADAM NAGOURNEY in The New York Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 08:41 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Kennedy Says Immigration Bill Will Happen

Just because a comprehensive immigration bill has not yet been introduced in the Senate that doesn't mean the issue has gotten off the track, Sen. Edward Kennedy said today.

The Massachusetts Democrat said bipartisan negotiations are continuing both among the members of the Judiciary Committee and with the White House. The veteran lawmaker has made the calculation that it's better to get as much agreement on the elements of what is likely to be a complex and controversial bill before it gets introduced than after. DENA BUNIS in The Orange County Register.

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A 'double standard' for child detainees

"Life at Bokenkamp, with its bingo nights, dodge ball tournaments, trips to the beach and rigorous school days, is a stark contrast to conditions at the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Center, a converted medium security prison in Central Texas being used to house about 400 immigrant parents and their children, from infants to teens."

LISA FALKENBERG in the Houston Chronicle.

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Smuggler's Life on the Line

In his opening statement, the attorney for truck driver Tyrone Williams conceded a central point. Yes, the lawyer declared, Williams was "clearly guilty" of hauling illegal immigrants in a sealed trailer — a tortuous, four-hour passage up the Rio Grande Valley that 19 of them did not survive. It was also true, added Craig Washington, that once his client discovered all those "poor people" piled in stacks, he hastily unhooked his trailer and high-tailed it for Houston, concocting an alibi on the fly.

As these concessions made clear, the United States vs. Tyrone Mapletoft Williams would not be a search to determine who was behind the wheel one steamy May night in 2003, or whether the trucker was in league with smugglers.

Rather, the trial would turn on intent, on what Williams knew, or should have known, was unfolding in the back of his 18-wheeler as he rolled up U.S. Highway 77 — windows down, Jamaican music on the CD player, a young woman at his side. PETER H. KING in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 07:50 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Immigrants' journey took a deadly turn

PETER H. KING in the Los Angeles Times takes an in-depth look at the 2003 immigrant smuggling tragedy in South Texas.

"[T]he doors were shut and locked from the outside, sealing tight a trailer filled with too many human beings. The dying would begin before they had made it halfway to Houston."

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Immigration Raid Rips Families

"During her two years working in a garment factory alongside hundreds of other immigrants, there were few assurances in Marta Escoto's uncertain life. One of them was the promise she made to her children -- I will always take care of you.

It was a promise she was unable to keep this month. Escoto and at least 360 other illegal immigrants were taken into custody here March 6 after a raid by federal agents on the Michael Bianco Inc. factory -- a military contractor 60 miles south of Boston. Many of them, including Escoto, 38, were women whose detention separated them from their children, some of whom were stranded at day-care centers, schools, or friends' or relatives' homes."

ROBIN SHULMAN and SYLVIA MORENO in the Washington Post.

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Justice Thomas on Affirmative Action

The late Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously declared he could not define pornography but knew it when he saw it. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas does not define affirmative action in the same way a lot of other people do, but he knows when he has not benefited from it.
He reveals that view and more in a rare and surprisingly expansive interview with Business Week senior writer Diane Brady, posted on the magazine's Web site. CLARENCE PAGE in The Washington Times

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Affirmative Action in the Legal World

Attempts by Fortune 500 legal departments to force outside counsel to hire more minorities and women may tempt law firms to violate federal anti-discrimination laws, an affirmative action foe says.

In a research paper released Tuesday, Curt Levey, a conservative activist who helped lead the high-profile fight against the University of Michigan's affirmative action programs, says firms may violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the federal law that prohibits employment discrimination, if they give minorities special preferences in the hiring process. "Whether you are using racial preferences because your clients want you to or [because] you want to, you almost certainly are risking liability," Levey said. ROSS TODD in Law.com

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Cries for Reform

No longer are the people crying loudest for change prisoners and their families.

The cries are coming now from legislators, citizens and the Department of Corrections. A lot of the cries are prompted by costs. The Department of Corrections is asking for $1.6 billion for fiscal year 2007-08, a 13-percent increase.

The picture painted yesterday was of a system bloated with inmates -- many nonviolent offenders with substance-abuse issues -- who aren't getting enough help or training. Poised to fail when they are released, they often return to prison and add to the swelling population.

John S. Shaffer, executive deputy secretary of the state Department of Corrections, said yesterday's state prison population was 44,700, or 115 percent of capacity. The number of prisoners grows by 125 a month.

NANCY ESHELMAN in The Patriot News

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Who Weeps for the Casualties of War Crimes?

As the war in Iraq completes it fourth year, who is held accountable for mounting civilian deaths? Sometimes individual soldiers are put on trial. But is that enough? HELEN ZIA asks the hard questions on the Women's Media Center and in the SF Chronicle.

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Guest Workers Fired After Protesting 'Slave' Conditions

"Hundreds of guest workers from India are protesting conditions in a Pascagoula shipyard that immigrant rights activists compare to slavery.

Many of the workers gathered in a church on March 11 in this Gulf Coast port, after their employer, Signal International, threatened to send some of them home. Signal is a large corporation that repairs and services oil drilling platforms around the world.

According to Bill Chandler, executive director of the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, 'they were hired in India by a labor recruiter sent by Signal. They had to pay exorbitant amounts to the company, to the recruiter and to the attorney who did the labor certification for them.'"

DAVID BACON for New America Media.

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Should Sam Kambo be deported?

"When Sam Kambo applied for a visa before entering the United States in 1994, the U.S. government knew that he was a leader of a group that had overthrown the government in his native Sierra Leone in a 1992 coup.

Kambo received his diplomatic visa, settled in Austin and earned bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Texas. He started a family here and landed a job at the Lower Colorado River Authority.

Now, 13 years after he left Africa, Kambo is in jail in San Antonio, and the U.S. government is trying to send him back to Sierra Leone, accusing him of overstaying his work visa."

JOHN KELSO and ANDREA BALL in the Austin American-Statesman.

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Federal trial to test legality of local anti-illegal immigration measures

"HAZLETON, Pa. — Jose and Rosa Lechuga operated a successful grocery store for a decade in this northeastern Pennsylvania city, but they say a local crackdown on illegal immigrants killed their business.

The Mexican American couple, in the United States legally, closed their store and moved to Arkansas. But they are returning as plaintiffs in a federal court trial opening Monday that has thrust the former coal town into the middle of the national debate over illegal immigrants."

MICHAEL RUBINKAM for the Associated Press.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 08:33 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Targeted Search or Profiling Sweep?

ACLU staff attorney Julia Harumi Mass said the number of collateral arrests compared with the arrests of people on ICE's deportation list raises questions.

In Contra Costa County from Jan. 8 to 19, Return to Sender resulted in 119 arrests, including 20 people on the deportation list, a ratio of about five collateral arrests for every "target" according to figures supplied by ICE.

"The extent to which the number of people swept in vastly exceeds the number they're targeting calls into question whether this is really a targeted search," Mass said. "It begins to look more like racial profiling than executing a warrant." TOM LOCHNER in the Contra Costa Times.

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Mass. Social Workers To Check On Detainees Sent To Texas

"Massachusetts social workers will travel to a Texas detention center to check on scores of workers from New Bedford accused of being in the country illegally. They were flown there before Massachusetts authorities determined whether all their children were receiving adequate care.

The development capped a day of sharp disagreement between Governor Deval Patrick and federal immigration officials over the high-profile raid Tuesday at Michael Bianco Inc. that netted 361 workers, most of them young and middle-aged Latino women. State and congressional officials asserted yesterday to the Bush administration that the detention of some of the workers was endangering their children.

Patrick, at a press conference, and later in a private conference call with Homeland Security officials, protested the decision to fly 90 of the detained workers from Massachusetts to Harlingen, Texas, before state social workers had a chance to inquire about their child-care needs, potentially leaving many children with inadequate care. Two young children were hospitalized yesterday for dehydration after their nursing mothers were taken away, state officials said."

RAJA MISHRA and BRIAN R. BALLOU in the Boston Globe.

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Haitian Immigrant, Now a N.Y. Legislator, "Jokes" About Shooting Immigrant Day Laborers

" Immigrant-rights groups, civil libertarians and union leaders Tuesday blasted a controversial anti-loitering bill, telling Suffolk County lawmakers that it would spur racial discrimination and undermine the ability of striking employees and others to protest injustices. But the most startling moment in the two-hour hearing came when Legis. Elie Mystal said he "would load up my gun and start shooting" if dozens of immigrants were congregating along streets in his neighborhood looking for work. Later, the Amityville Democrat and longtime opponent of local immigration measures said his remark was meant in jest. "I'm very sorry for making that comment. I misspoke," he said in an interview." JAMES T. MADORE in Newsday.

Mystal apologized again at a news conference in his office, flanked by Latino advocate Rev. Allan Ramirez, who accepted Mystal's apology because "this is the season of Lent." BART JONES in Newsday.

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New York's Non-Citizens Want the Right to Vote

Now non-citizens in New York are asking for the right to vote in city council elections, a right that would affect about 1.3 million legal adult residents.

With more than 60 community groups publicly behind them, the non-citizen immigrants say they pay the same taxes, use the same services and now want the same say in how the city is run. CARA ANNA in The Scotsman.

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Clinton Joins Call for Immigration Reform

Pressure is mounting on Capitol Hill for action on immigration, with the leading Democratic presidential candidate and the richest man in America adding their voices to a renewed push to overhaul a system that has let an estimated 12 million foreigners enter America illegally.

"We must pass comprehensive immigration reform," Senator Clinton told hundreds of cheering Irish immigrants at a rally in the Washington Court Hotel. RUSSELL BERMAN in the New York Sun.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:02 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

South African Labour Minister Says Affirmative Action Will Not be Abolished

LABOUR Minister Membathisi Mdladlana has vowed that government will not abolish affirmative action policies despite outcries from sectors of labour organisations and some opposition parties that consider it a form of discrimination against whites.

“Contrary to parliamentary calls by opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), affirmative action and current employment equity legislation will never be repealed but will be intensified instead,” Mdladlana said.

Business Day

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Governor's Top Prison Health Aide Resigns

The doctor appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to reform California's inmate health care system has resigned at the governor's request after he was demoted by a federal court-appointed receiver.

Dr. Peter Farber-Szekrenyi said he was asked to resign Monday by California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary James Tilton.

Schwarzenegger appointed Farber-Szekrenyi director of the department's Division of Correctional Health Care Services in November 2005. Acting at the request of U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, Schwarzenegger also named the career health administrator as the primary official responsible for reforming a system blamed for numerous inmate deaths. KFMB NEWS CHANNEL 8, SAN DIEGO, CALIF.

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Georgetown Professors Tout Affirmative Action

Charles R. Lawrence III and Mari Matsuda argued in favor of affirmative action in the ASEAN Auditorium last night for an event entitled "We've Been Here Before: Hate Speech, Affirmative Action, Structural Inequality."

Both speakers are professors at Georgetown University's Law Center and co-authors of the book "We Won't Go Back: Making the Case for Affirmative Action." Lawrence spoke first about the two meanings of affirmative action. On a shallow level, he said that it is a way for the elite to justify their previous wrongdoings; on a deeper level, he said that it is a means to systematically restructure the institutes that foster prejudice. This second meaning, he said, provides the real justification for affirmative action.

At the same time, he said that affirmative action cannot be "neutral and colorblind" as long as general college admissions are not unbiased. KRISTYN WILLIAMS in The Tufts Daily

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Santa Fe Immigration Sweep 'Ongoing'

"A raid by federal agents that sparked panic in Santa Fe’s immigrant community last week and resulted in 30 arrests is over for now, but an immigration official said agents could be back in town anytime." BARBARA FERRY in the Santa Fe New Mexican.

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Study Links Prison Conditions and Recidivism Rates

Hard time is supposed to be hard. But a new study says harsher prison conditions also make criminals measurably more likely to offend again.

The study tracks nearly a thousand people released from federal prisons in 1987. Those whose federal inmate classification scores just barely landed them in low-security (rather than the cushier minimum- security) lockup ended up back in the pokey nearly twice as often as inmates whose scores were slightly lower.

Academic Article: “Does Prison Harden Inmates?” Chen (Yale University) and Shapiro (University of Chicago)

As reported in The Atlantic Monthly.

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Study Links Immigration, Employment and Incarceration

Between 1960 and 2000, the employment rate for black men plunged from 90 percent to 76 percent; for “low-skilled” black men (defined as high-school dropouts), in particular, it fell from 89 percent to just 56 percent. Between 1980 and 2000, meanwhile, the incarceration rate for black men rose from just 1 percent to nearly 10 percent.

A new study considers this shift in light of large-scale immigration, which may have crowded black men out of the labor market and made a shift to crime more appealing. The researchers found that as immigration increased the supply of workers at a particular education level, the employment rate for black men in that category declined, and the incarceration rate rose. From 1980 to 2000, the authors conclude, immigration accounted for roughly a third of the decline in the black employment rate, and about 10 percent of the increase in the incarceration rate for low-skilled African Americans.

Academic Article: “Immigration and African-American Employment Opportunities,” Borgas, Grogger and Hanson, National Bureau of Economic Research.

As reported in The Atlantic Monthly.

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In Arizona Desert, Indian Trackers vs. Smugglers

At a time when all manner of high technology is arriving to help beef up security at the Mexican border — infrared cameras, sensors, unmanned drones — there is a growing appreciation among the federal authorities for the American Indian art of tracking, honed over generations by ancestors hunting animals.

Tracking skills are in such demand that the Departments of State and Defense have arranged for the Shadow Wolves, a federal law enforcement unit of Indian officer along the Mexican border, to train border guards in other countries, including some central to the fight against terrorism.

In the renewed push to secure the border with Mexico, the curbing of narcotics trafficking often gets less public attention than the capturing of illegal immigrants. RANDAL ARCHIBOLD in The New York Times.

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Black Students Close Curriculum Gap, Study Says

By one academic measure, a little-noticed finding from that U.S. Education Department report showed that black high school students have caught up to their white classmates.

The study of the transcripts of 2005 high school graduates found that 52 percent of the black graduates had completed a four-year curriculum of at least "mid-level" difficulty. For their white counterparts that year, the rate was 51 percent -- a one percentage point difference that experts said was statistically insignificant.

Three surveys in the 1990s had found that black graduates trailed white graduates on that measure by a significant margin; the gap was 11 percentage points as recently as 1994. AMIT PALEY in the Washington Post.

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Day labor sites are hot spots in immigration fight

Advocates offer support to workers; others aim to expose illegal status. DIANNE SOLÍS in the Dallas Morning News.

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New Haven Welcomes Legal, and Illegal, Immigrants

The people have been arriving here for years from Mexico, Guatemala, Jamaica and Ecuador, some staying just a few months, but more settling in for years.

The way Mayor John DeStefano saw it, there were basically two choices: City officials could look the other way, as if the change were not happening, or they could embrace the transformation, doing whatever was possible to welcome the newcomers.

For now, this city is marching steadily toward becoming a safe haven for immigrants — whether they are in the country legally or not.

The Police Department has adopted a sort of “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding citizenship status. City Hall is sponsoring workshops to help illegal immigrants file federal income taxes. And this summer, New Haven plans to allow illegal immigrants to apply for municipal identification cards, in what immigration advocates describe as the first program of its type in the nation. JENNIFER MEDINA in The New York Times.

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Policy Shift on Death Penalty Overwhelms Arizona Court

Maricopa County, one of the nation’s fastest growing counties, now has an additional distinction: It is also a leader in seeking the death penalty.

During his two years in office, Andrew P. Thomas, the county attorney, has nearly doubled the number of times that the office has sought the death penalty, even though the number of first-degree murder cases prosecuted by the county has remained more or less the same for a decade.

A policy change that he enacted has contributed to a backlog of capital cases here that has crippled the county’s public defender system, left roughly a dozen murder defendants without representation, and prompted rancor and demoralization in the agencies that defend capital cases. JENNIFER STEINHAUER in The New York Times.

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ACLU to Sue Over Low Graduation Rates

American Civil Liberties Union representatives plan to meet with Palm Beach County School Superintendent Art Johnson on March 12.

The issue: ACLU officials said they may file a lawsuit charging that Palm Beach County students are not getting the adequate education guaranteed in the state constitution.

Such legal action could make it a test case for the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 that holds school systems accountable for graduation rates. ACLU officials say it could be as long as six months before they file a suit, if any.

"The overarching issue is the low graduation rate across the board," said Ethelene Jones, president of the Palm Beach County chapter of the ACLU. "The second issue is the particularly low graduation rate for black students." RHONDA MILLER in the South Florida Journal Sentinel.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 10:41 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Fortress America

"At just 17 years old, Carbajal has sneaked across the border six times before. "It's never been this hard," he said, confessing that he would return to his home in the Mexican state of Guanajuato rather than try again. Although he may not know exactly why, Carbajal knows this for sure: The border is changing." A four-day series on border control by 2003-2004 IJJ Border Justice Fellow MICHAEL RILEY in the Denver Post. Links to graphics, audio, more.

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Selling Your ID For Quick Cash

"Asked by a federal judge why she sold her birth certificate, Rosie Medellin said she needed a few bucks and didn't really think it through. Bobby Joe Flores said he sold his ID documents to buy drugs. Margarita Moya and her son did it to raise money for medicine for a loved one." LYNN BREZOSKY for Associated Press.

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Doubts Rise as States Hold Sex Offenders After Prison

The decision by New York to confine sex offenders beyond their prison terms places the state at the forefront of a growing national movement that is popular with politicians and voters. But such programs have almost never met a stated purpose of treating the worst criminals until they no longer pose a threat.

About 2,700 pedophiles, rapists and other sexual offenders are already being held indefinitely, mostly in special treatment centers, under so-called civil commitment programs in 19 states, which on average cost taxpayers four times more than keeping the offenders in prison. MONICA DAVEY and ABBY GOODNOUGH in The New York Times.

First in a three-part series.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 01:51 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Black Lawyer's Suit Accuses Cochran Firm of Racial Bias

For decades, the law firm founded by the late Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. has been renowned as a black-run institution fighting for civil rights and against police abuse — not to mention getting O.J. Simpson acquitted of murder charges.

But now, in a development that has dismayed some in Los Angeles' African American community, attorney Shawn Chapman Holley has sued the firm, claiming, among other things, that its leaders discriminated against her because she is black.

Holley said that after Cochran's death in 2005, leadership of the firm was turned over to white men who began to discriminate against black lawyers and black clients. JESSICA GARRISON in the Los Angeles Times.

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Justice Thomas Scorns Media, Affirmative Action in Interview

In a rare interview, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas described himself as a high-achieving student who was mentored by a prominent priest when he enrolled in a Catholic college in Massachusetts in the late 1960s. But he bitterly rejected the idea that he benefited from affirmative action because he was black.

"That was the creation of the politicians, the people with a lot of mouth and nothing to say, and your industry," Thomas told a writer for Business Week magazine. "Everything becomes affirmative action." DAVID SAVAGE in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 01:46 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

"We are workers, not criminals."

"Controversy surrounding a Lake Forest day-laborer site took a new turn Friday as the American Civil Liberties Union announced it had filed a federal lawsuit against the city for maintaining an ordinance found unconstitutional in Los Angeles County. The ACLU alleged in court papers filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana that Lake Forest's municipal code that prohibits workers from seeking employment on the street or potential employers hiring from their cars was unconstitutional." JENNIFER DELSON in the Los Angeles Times.

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Justice, Peaches, and Immigration Reform

"As undocumented workers emerge from the shadows, new tensions will be created. Communities will change. The social contract in a region — the relationships that connect and bind us — will be tested.
New social justice issues will challenge employers. Workers with faces can't be as easily dismissed; their calls for better wages, health benefits and working conditions will no longer be whispers. We in the agricultural community have signaled an openness to reform and acknowledged the need for labor to fill "jobs that no one else wants." We also need to accept the responsibility for that labor." Op-Ed by DAVID MAS MASUMOTO in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 09:49 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Racial Profiling Examined in Ohio

The chairman of Cleveland City Council's Public Safety Committee intends to introduce a law to eliminate racial profiling by city police.

Councilman Kevin Conwell said his committee is likely to propose routine monitoring of traffic stops. One option, he said, would be to require police to log the race and gender of drivers and pedestrians they stop. The law might also require an independent expert to analyze who is being stopped and how often. SUSAN VINELLA in Cleveland.com

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Some Thoughts Against Affirmative Action

Affirmative action is not only useless, it pits race against race, each vying for the few prized seats in good schools.

First of all, there is NOTHING wrong with wanting to go to an Ivy League school. You get what you pay for. Education is important, and so is the institution from which you recieve that education. The degree from a CSU (California) is not nearly as valuable or meaningful as one from Princeton because the quality of each respective school is different. Allowing blacks entrance to a university to fill some quota or to enhance the "racial balance" of a campus is absurd. LJMITCHELL in ProgressiveU.org

Posted by Susan Grant at 09:48 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Republicans Ask for Congressional Oversight on Border Patrol Agents' Cases

More than three dozen Republicans on Wednesday asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and three committee chairmen to investigate the case of two U.S. border patrol agents, who are serving long prison sentences for shooting at a suspected drug smuggler at the border.

The case of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean has incensed conservatives, who are claiming that the Bush administration is siding with a Mexican criminal over U.S. border patrol agents. KLAUS MARRE in The Hill.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 08:50 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Farmers Seek Inmate Labor After Immigration Crackdown

The state of Colorado is considering letting prison inmates work on private farms after farmers complained that an illegal-immigration crackdown has left them short-handed, officials said.

Two vegetable farmers told prison officials and lawmakers that they need five to 20 workers and will pay up to $9.60 an hour — more than they have paid migrant workers in the past — but cannot find anyone to do the work.

The Pueblo Country farmers, Joe Pisciotta and Phil Prutch, said immigrant workers are afraid to come to Colorado because of its tougher immigrant laws passed last summer. Among other things, the laws require people receiving state and federal benefits to prove they are legal U.S. residents. AP in the International Herald Tribune.

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'Just News' Blog

March 31, 2007