'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.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 12:55 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 12:52 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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

Posted by Susan Grant at 03:33 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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

Posted by Susan Grant at 03:22 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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

Posted by Susan Grant at 03:08 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 02:30 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 02:27 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 07:42 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 03:52 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 10:25 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 10:13 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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

Posted by Susan Grant at 08:28 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 10:11 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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

Posted by Susan Grant at 09:38 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 08:28 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 06:15 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 06:12 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 10:09 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

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

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.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 10:02 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:41 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 09:32 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 08:40 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 08:36 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 08:35 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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

Posted by Susan Grant at 11:13 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 10:28 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 10:24 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Amanda Becker at 10:22 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by Dan Kowalski at 07:02 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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

Posted by Susan Grant at 09:02 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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)

'Just News' Blog

March 31, 2007