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October 31, 2007

Immigration creates tension in Clinton campaign

Like the debate over Iraq, the exchanges over granting licenses to illegal immigrants underscored the tensions for Mrs. Clinton as she seeks to court various interest groups who are the building blocks of winning the Democratic nomination.

She has recently intensified her efforts to win the caucuses in Iowa, where an influx of illegal immigrants has raised concerns among many of the state’s long-term residents. But she must also court Hispanic voters who are expected to wield greater clout this election season through early primaries in New York and California. MARC SANTORA in The New York Times.

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October 30, 2007

A new low: North Carolina cops target immigrant churchgoers

"Sepúlveda, pastor of the María, Reina de las Américas parish in Mt. Olive, said the majority of his Hispanic congregation consists of undocumented immigrants.

The church is less than two miles from the Butterball slaughterhouse operation, where many of his Hispanic parishioners work.

Several months ago, law enforcement officials set up roadblocks three weekends in a row on the two roads that provide access to the church.

Parishioners were stopped and asked to show their driver's licenses on the way to and from services. Attendance at Mass eventually began to drop as the roadblocks increased in frequency."

ELISABETH DeORNELLAS in the UNC Daily Tar Heel.

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October 29, 2007

Immigrants criticize mental health care for detainees

"One was diagnosed with schizophrenia. The other was manic-depressive. But as far as the federal immigration detention system is concerned, the pair say, their illnesses were checked at the door.

The cases of two immigrants in South Texas reflect the systematic medical maltreatment detainees face across the country as the government rushes people in and out to save a buck by skipping treatment, said Javier Maldonado, a San Antonio immigration lawyer."

Hernán Rozemberg
in the San Antonio Express-News. 

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New Hispanic Voters in Iowa Push Democrats Into Balancing Act

"Hispanics here in Iowa [are] posing a challenge to Democrats who are eager to court a new interest group but wary of offending conservative white voters concerned about immigrants flowing into their state."

LESLIE WAYNE in the New York Times.

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October 09, 2007

California First Amendment Coalition Assembly Comes to USC

CFAC’s 12th Annual Free Speech and Open Government Assembly brings together the best and brightest of law, journalism and public policy. 

It all happens at the USC Annenberg School on October 25-26. IJJ is a co-sponsor of this landmark annual event. 

New Yorker magazine writer Jeffrey Toobin will be there, discussing secrecy and the US Supreme Court. Hear Newsweek columnist Stuart Taylor on the rush to judgment in the Duke rape case. 

Check out more than a dozen debates and panels on topics ranging from confidential sources (with Judith Miller, Josh Wolf and Lance Williams) to "place blogging" (with Dan Gillmor and Kevin Roderick). Take in forums on social networking, national security secrecy, immigration reporting, cameras in the courtroom, tribal secrecy, access to police records--and more, all featuring leading lawyers, journalists, new media maivens, policy wonks and other experts. 

Whether you can attend for just a few hours, or two full days, your intellectual batteries--and your faith in First Amendment principles--will be recharged.

Find out more, see the program abd register by clicking here. 

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Hispanics in Dallas suburb feeling disheartened

"The racial rhetoric and rampant rumors that followed have left many Irving Hispanics – even those who are in the U.S. legally – feeling forced into the shadows.

Many Hispanics are afraid to leave their homes or send their children to schools in a suburb where one-third of the population is foreign-born. They feel racially profiled by police and unwanted by white neighbors.

"It may not be real, but there's that feeling," said Mr. Carranza, who became a U.S. citizen at age 18. "As Hispanics right now, our skin becomes our yellow star.""

BRANDON FORMBY in the Dallas Morning News.

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October 08, 2007

Licenses for Immigrants Finds Support

Opponents have decried Gov. Eliot Spitzer's move to grant driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants as a “passport to terror” and a “frightening” policy shift that is “dangerous and inconceivable.”

But the governor’s policy is drawing support from some terrorism and security experts, who, like Mr. Spitzer, regard it as a way of bringing a hidden population into the open and ultimately making the system more secure, not to mention getting more drivers on the road licensed and insured. NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and DANNY HAKIM in The New York Times.

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October 07, 2007

U.S. lets in more immigrants for farm labor

With a nationwide farmworker shortage threatening to leave unharvested fruits and vegetables rotting in fields, the Bush administration has begun quietly rewriting federal regulations to eliminate barriers that restrict how foreign laborers can legally be brought into the country.

The effort, urgently underway at the departments of Homeland Security, State and Labor, is meant to rescue farm owners caught in a vise between a complex process to hire legal guest workers and stepped-up enforcement that has reduced the number of illegal planters, pickers and middle managers crossing the border. NICOLE GAOUETTE in the Los Angeles Times.

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LA immigration sweep targets valley gangs

In an ongoing crackdown, 28 foreign nationals suspected of having ties to street gangs in the San Fernando Valley were arrested by federal immigration agents Friday during early morning sweeps throughout Los Angeles County.

More than 200 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents fanned out across the Valley, Palmdale and other areas of the county, raiding residences and arresting members of 15 street gangs, officials said.
SAM QUINONES in the Los Angeles Times.

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Race gap: crime vs. punishment

If criminal legal proceedings seem to turn out differently for people of different races, when does a constitutional problem exist?

Historically, though, the courts have not welcomed these conversations. The Supreme Court in particular has consistently rejected arguments that studies identifying possible bias in the justice system should affect a particular case. But recent studies have kept the argument alive.  JONATHAN GLATER in The New York Times.

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October 06, 2007

Houston legislator launches probe of prison contractor

A Houston lawmaker is launching a broad investigation into a private prison contractor after the state closed one of its youth facilities this week, citing filth, poor safety and health violations.

Democratic Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, cited the "terrible job" Geo Group Inc. did running the West Texas youth lockup and said Thursday he plans to review adult corrections contracts the state has with the company.  POLLY ROSS and CLAY ROBISON in the Houston Chronicle.

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October 05, 2007

The black-and-white world of Clarence Thomas has nothing to do with race

Clarence Thomas' new autobiography, My Grandfather's Son, paints a stark picture of an America in which nothing but race matters. In his telling, virtually everyone who has ever wronged him has done so because of his race. Not surprisingly, in the eyes of many of Thomas' defenders, anyone who objects to this book must also do so because of his race. But the prism of Black vs. White in America is the wrong one through which to view this book. The real black/white problem Justice Thomas reveals is his own binary worldview.  DAHLIA LITHWICK for Slate.

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NYC to pay damages for strip searches

The city’s Department of Correction conceded yesterday that tens of thousands of nonviolent inmates taken to Rikers Island on misdemeanor charges had been wrongly strip-searched in violation of a 2002 court settlement, and were entitled to payment for damages.

As many as 150,000 such inmates have been searched at Rikers Island since 2002, lawyers for the inmates said. As part of a settlement agreement reached in Federal District Court in Manhattan yesterday, the Correction Department said it would immediately cease all strip-searches of inmates awaiting trial on misdemeanor charges at the jail. ALAN FEUER in The New York Times.

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O.C. inmates chafe at continuing lockdown

A three-week lockdown at a high-security Orange County jail -- triggered by racially charged fights between inmates -- is drawing protests from prisoners who say authorities are being heavy-handed by stripping them of basic privileges.

But Orange County Sheriff's Department officials said the get-tough treatment was needed to keep violence from continuing or spreading to other jail facilities. DAVID REYES and SEEMA MEHTA in the Los Angeles Times.

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Illegal immigrant students lobby for chance at residency

Illegal immigrant students boarded rush-hour Metrolink trains in Santa Ana last week to bring attention to pending legislation that could make them eligible for green cards and put them on the path toward U.S. citizenship.

These young adults, brought to the United States by their parents when they were children, tried to explain to commuters why the federal government should give them legal U.S. residency. Without green cards, the students said they could graduate from college but would probably have trouble pursuing professional careers. JENNIFER DELSON in the Los Angeles Times.

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Long Island immigration raids draw criticism, suit

"When Hempstead residents Cecilia and Fernando presented their passports to federal immigration agents during a raid to prove they were U.S. citizens, authorities accused them of having fake documents."

SUSANA ENRIQUEZ for Newsday.

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October 03, 2007

Some border cities block access to border-fence land

BROWNSVILLE, Texas: "Mayors along the Texas-Mexico border have begun a quiet protest of the federal government's plans to build a fence along the border: Some are refusing access to their land.

Mayors in Brownsville, Del Rio and El Paso have denied or limited access to some parts of their city property to Department of Homeland Security workers assigned to begin surveys or other preliminary work on the fence Congress has authorized to keep out illegal immigrants. Eagle Pass has denied a request from federal officials to build a portion of the wall within its city limits."

JUAN A. LOZANO for the Associated Press.

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October 02, 2007

Hispanics find growing enmity

"Miguel Muoz was standing in a drug store parking lot having a conversation in Spanish when a pickup pulled up beside him. The driver shouted curses, shook his fist and called Muoz an "illegal alien."

"He said, 'When you come to my country, you need to speak English,'" said Muoz, a Durham lawyer who immigrated legally from Mexico 17 years ago.

In that parking lot, Muoz said, he realized for the first time that some people see him as an invader in his own home.

As furor over illegal immigration rises across the nation, many Hispanics say they are increasingly the targets of hostility in a state where they once felt welcome."

KRISTIN COLLINS in the Myrtle Beach [S.C.] Sun News.

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October 01, 2007

DNA exonerations shaping legal system

State lawmakers across the country are adopting broad changes to criminal justice procedures as a response to the exoneration of more than 200 convicts through the use of DNA evidence.

All but eight states now give inmates varying degrees of access to DNA evidence that might not have been available at the time of their convictions. Many states are also overhauling the way witnesses identify suspects, crime labs handle evidence and informants are used.  SALOMON MOORE in The New York Times.

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Court orders a new delay on illegal worker rules

A federal judge in San Francisco yesterday extended for 10 days a temporary ban on a central measure in the Bush administration’s campaign to crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants.

After a two-hour hearing, the judge, Charles R. Breyer of Federal District Court, strongly suggested that he was leaning against the government in the case. JULIA PRESTON in The New York Times.

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A border fence 16 feet high and 'aesthetically pleasing'

"Brownsville Mayor Patricio Ahumada Jr. said Wednesday that the city is considering filing a lawsuit to block the construction.

"We're opposed to a fence as a community," said Ahumada, adding that city officials will meet Tuesday with attorneys who specialize in environmental law."

JUAN CASTILLO in the Austin American-Statesman.

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