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May 27, 2007

Recruiters corrupt guestworker program

"MONTERREY, Mexico- Standing in the baking sun outside the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, hundreds of Mexicans wait anxiously for temporary work visas. But even before they were fingerprinted and interviewed for the permit, many had already paid recruiters thousands of dollars in hopes of easing the way.

Supplying the U.S. guestworker program is a complex and sometimes criminal network of foreign recruiters who extort money from poor migrants and then keep them on the job by forcing them into debt or threatening their families back home."

TRACI CARL for the Associated Press.

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May 26, 2007

Panel Fears Border Fence Violates Treaty

"A planned, much-debated fence along the U.S.-Mexico border designed to keep people from crossing the Rio Grande could exacerbate flooding and skew the national boundary, a binational commission said Wednesday.

An impermeable fence anywhere between the river and levees, which can be as far as 1 1/2 miles from the river itself, could cause flooding in addition to violating a 1970 treaty, said Sally Spener, spokeswoman for the International Boundary and Water Commission."

LYNN BREZOSKY for the Associated Press.

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Immigration judges lack apt backgrounds

"Over the last two years, U.S. Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales has appointed more than two dozen individuals as federal immigration judges.

The new jurists include a former treasurer of the Louisiana Republican Party, who was a legal advisor to the Bush Florida recount team after the 2000 presidential election. There is also a former GOP congressional aide who had tracked voter fraud issues for the Justice Department, and a Texan appointed by then-Gov. George W. Bush to a seat on the state library commission.

One thing missing on many of their resumes: a background in immigration law."

RICHARD B. SCHMITT in the Los Angeles Times.

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May 24, 2007

Law students get a head start in the real world

"Erubey Lopez began law school at UCLA two years ago knowing he wanted to become an immigration attorney.

But Lopez, an immigrant himself, got an earlier start than expected this spring.

In an effort to provide real-world experience to students and attract young talent to the specialty, UCLA School of Law created an immigration clinic this year.

The clinic, a joint project between the school and the Public Counsel Law Center, allows students to work with attorneys on actual cases while learning the ins and outs of immigration law."

ANNA GORMAN in the Los Angeles Times.

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May 22, 2007

Immigration Reform Comes Down to Blood, Money

"As the Senate prepares this week to debate the most sweeping proposed change to the U.S. immigration system in more than four decades, Irvine, Calif., technology executive Bruce Warren and Los Angeles homemaker Monsorat Jaldon symbolize the high stakes looming for millions of families, businesses and workers.

The proposal would shift the way the nation awards green cards from a heavy preference on applicants with family ties -- a system adopted in 1965 -- to those with advanced skills, college degrees and English-speaking ability."

TERESA WATANABE in the Los Angeles Times.

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May 19, 2007

Judge says immigrants can press on with suit against hotel chain

"A federal judge has refused to dismiss a labor lawsuit filed by immigrants who say a hotel chain shortchanged them after luring them to post-Katrina New Orleans with promises of high-paying jobs."

ASSOCIATED PRESS

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May 17, 2007

Workers Sue Owners of Raided Factory

"A company targeted in an immigration raid in March tried to avoid paying overtime by making it appear workers were being paid by two separate companies, according to a lawsuit. ... Richardson said the lawsuit was filed on behalf of both illegal and legal workers, and that the law was "crystal clear" that all employees must be properly compensated for time worked, regardless of their immigration status."

JAY LINDSAY for the Associated Press.

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Civil activists join Latino wage suit

"Two leading civil rights litigators are joining forces to help push a class-action lawsuit against a major national construction firm that allegedly has shortchanged more than 1,000 mostly Latino workers in California out of millions of dollars in pay, lawyers involved in the case plan to announce today."

TERESA WATANABE in the Los Angeles Times.

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May 12, 2007

Immigrant Law Goes to Voters in Texas Town

"FARMERS BRANCH, Tex. - On Saturday, voters in this Dallas suburb will decide whether to keep a local ordinance designed to do what city leaders believe the federal government has forsaken: control the number of illegal immigrants.

It will be the first time that such a law will be subjected to a popular vote instead of merely the scrutiny of a government body.

... "This has also given people, for some reason, the right to voice their bigotry in a very public way," said Ana Reyes, 33, who was born in Indiana but has lived most of her life in Farmers Branch and is working with the group, Let the Voters Decide, to defeat the ordinance at the polls. "I've been called a wetback and yelled at to 'go back to Mexico.' "

... 20-year resident Jeff Rotundo: "I have more problems with the fire ants in Farmers Branch than I do with the Hispanics or illegal immigrants," he said. "When I first got here, it was open arms to everybody. Now the town is divided. I think it's a racial issue. . . . I'm a little embarrassed to be a resident here at this point." "

SYLVIA MORENO in the Washington Post.

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May 09, 2007

Posada Watch Update

If Luis Posada Carriles were Mexican rather than Cuban, surely a "corrido" would have been composed by now recounting his ability to slip through the grasp of the Department of Justice.

A federal court dismissed the criminal indictment against him on May 8, 2007.

JUAN A. LOZANO reports for the Associated Press.

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May 08, 2007

Court rules genital mutilation persecutes

"Like most little girls in Somalia, Hafza Hassan was subjected to genital cutting. Years later, she sought asylum in the United States, arguing she had endured a form of persecution targeting Somali women.

The federal government wanted to send her back to Somalia. Its lawyers said Hassan had nothing to fear because she couldn't undergo the practice a second time.

On Monday, a federal appeals court sided with Hassan. Judges concluded "all Somali females have a well-founded fear of persecution based solely on gender given the prevalence" of genital mutilation."

SHANNON PRATHER in the Pioneer Press.

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May 04, 2007

Police mum, but others say labor activist slain for fighting extortion

"Monterrey, Mexico: Santiago Cruz moved to this northern Mexico city to help organize Mexican farmworkers bound for the United States under a legal guest-worker program. His killers spared him no agony."

DAVID OVALLE in the Charlotte Observer.

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LAPD Slapped for Breaking Up Immigrant Rally

The LAPD has come under heavy fire for its violent break-up of the May Day pro-immigrant rally in Los Angeles. Several people were injured including seven reporters after the police dispersed the demonstration with batons and hundreds of rubber bullets. IJJ Associate Director MARC COOPER has this take in The Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Marc Cooper at 10:48 AM | | TrackBacks (0)

May 02, 2007

The Right to Marry

"A federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled yesterday against a county official who denied a marriage license to a couple because the groom-to-be was an illegal immigrant. The judge, A. Richard Caputo, said the official had violated the couple’s “fundamental right to marry.”"

JULIA PRESTON in the New York Times.

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