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"Amid bitter national debate about immigration policy, the case was a political lightning rod. It still is. In early March the jury deadlocked after three days of deliberations, and a mistrial was declared. The trial that just ended centered on questions about Domínguez's death, such as whether he was kneeling when shot. Almost nothing was said about his life."
DEBBIE NATHAN in The Nation.
"The next time they appear in Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr.'s Luzerne County courtroom, four young Hazleton men who ran afoul of the law had best know their ABCs.
Learning English is a central part of the sentence that Olszewski imposed on the Spanish-speaking men, who earlier this week pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a robbery in May in Hazleton, about 100 miles northwest of Philadelphia."
ANGELA COULOUMBIS in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Then she was pulled over by a Houston police officer, who told her he found it suspicious that a Latina was driving a late-model car. The first thing the officer requested? Figueroa's Social Security card, as proof of citizenship.
..."I have been living here for the last 17 years, and to have an officer stop me for no reason and ask for papers, it made me feel like he didn't think I belong here," said Figueroa. "It makes people feel that anytime that something happens to you, you can't call police.""
MONICA RHOR for the Associated Press.
"As he sought to quiet the furor last week over his use of the slur "wetback" and to defend himself against charges that he was espousing racism, Mustang Ridge City Council Member Charles Laws argued that he grew up with the word "out here, and everybody said it."
Inadvertently or not, the 75-year-old Laws struck to the core of why Mexican-Americans consider the term highly offensive."
"A vibrant Latino subculture built in Prince William County over more than a decade is starting to come undone in a matter of months.
With Latinos fleeing the combined effects of the construction downturn, the mortgage crisis and new local laws aimed at catching illegal immigrants, Latino shops are on the brink of bankruptcy, church groups are hemorrhaging members, neighborhoods are dotted with for-sale signs, and once-busy strip malls have been transformed into ghost towns."
N. C. AIZENMAN in the Washington Post.
"Last week, a federal judge criticized what he called the government's poor negotiation skills with landowners. He is set to rule on several of the lawsuits as early as today. The judge also dismissed one of the more controversial suits, against the University of Texas at Brownsville, after lawyers for both sides came up with an 11th-hour compromise that will allow federal surveyors on the campus."
CARRIE KAHN on NPR.
Three apartment complexes already suing Farmers Branch over a rule requiring verification of a tenants' citizenship or immigration status have asked a federal court to sanction the city. They are asking for fines and costs of the court filings.
"They have violated a standing order of a court," said attorney Bill Brewer, who represents the apartment complexes.
An attorney for Farmers Branch said Tuesday the situation was a mistake the city intends to correct. ASSOCIATED PRESS in the Houston Chronicle.
New York officials have long taken pride in the city’s status as a global gateway. But lately, senior executives of some of the country’s biggest corporations, like Alcoa, have been complaining that American immigration policies are thwarting New York’s ability to compete with other world capitals.
Every big employer in the city, it seems, can cite an example of high-paying jobs that had to be relocated to foreign cities because the people chosen to fill them could not gain entry to the United States. PATRICK McGEEHAN and NINA BERNSTEIN in The New York Times.
"The unsettling thing about living in a surveillance society isn't just that you're being watched. It's that you have no idea."
DANNY WESTNEAT in the Seattle Times.
"During his nearly four years as a translator for U.S. forces in Iraq, Saman Kareem Ahmad was known for his bravery and hard work. "Sam put his life on the line with, and for, Coalition Forces on a daily basis," wrote Marine Capt. Trent A. Gibson.
Gibson's letter was part of a thick file of support -- including commendations from the secretary of the Navy and from then-Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus -- that helped Ahmad migrate to the United States in 2006, among an initial group of 50 Iraqi and Afghan translators admitted under a special visa program.
Last month, however, the U.S. government turned down Ahmad's application for permanent residence, known as a green card. His offense: Ahmad had once been part of the Kurdish Democratic Party, which U.S. immigration officials deemed an "undesignated terrorist organization" for having sought to overthrow former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Ahmad, a Kurd, once served in the KDP's military force, which is part of the new Iraqi army. A U.S. ally, the KDP is now part of the elected government of the Kurdish region and holds seats in the Iraqi parliament. After consulting public Web sites, however, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services determined that KDP forces "conducted full-scale armed attacks and helped incite rebellions against Hussein's regime, most notably during the Iran-Iraq war, Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom."
Ahmad's association with a group that had attempted to overthrow a government -- even as an ally in U.S.-led wars against Hussein -- rendered him "inadmissible," the agency concluded in a three-page letter dated Feb. 26."
KAREN DeYOUNG in the Washington Post.
Seven months after the New Jersey attorney general, Anne Milgram, ordered local police departments to question people they arrest for certain crimes about their immigration status and to report illegal immigrants to federal authorities, the rate of such referrals has nearly doubled.
But immigrants and their advocates say that some people have been unfairly swept up in the dragnet because of overzealous enforcement or confusion over how Ms. Milgram’s directive was supposed to be implemented, creating a chilling effect on some immigrants’ relationships with the police. KAREEM FAHIM in The New York Times.
"Inspector Martha Mendoza ushered Juan Cruz Santiago, a small man with salt-and-pepper hair, away from the others. During gentle questioning under a ficus tree, he admitted that most days, he and his 66-year-old father worked for tips only. So did nearly half the other employees, he said. It had been that way for at least six years.
"It's bad," the 41-year-old Oaxacan immigrant whispered to Mendoza, his eyes darting nervously toward his boss' office. "Other carwashes are the same, no?"
Many are. A Times investigation has found that hand carwashes, automotive beauty shops patronized by tens of thousands of Southern California motorists every day, often brazenly violate basic labor and immigration laws, with little risk of penalty."
SONIA NAZARIO and DOUG SMITH in the Los Angeles Times.
"Looking back, Glenda Ortiz can see she did everything wrong when she bought her house in 2005. In fact, to understand the housing crisis that has swept the country, one need only listen to the tale of the Ortiz family."
BRIGID SCHULTE in the Washington Post.
"It was a momentous occasion for Josefa Morales.
She was married in front of 200 people at a Murfreesboro hotel on Dec. 19, 2004.
Elmer Virula, 51, a notary public who claims to be a reverend, a certified public accountant and immigration lawyer, was responsible, according to court records. All the while, he charged for his services, the court records say.
Virula is being sued by the state attorney general's office for unauthorized practice of law, falsifying marriage licenses and certificates. The lawsuit alleges that Virula misled consumers — mainly immigrants — when he claimed he could provide legal services from his offices on Billingsgate Road in Antioch, South Mountain Street in Smithville and Nolensville Pike and Thompson Lane in Nashville."
CHRIS ECHEGARAY in the Tennessean.
"If you're an underage drinker caught trying to get into a bar with a fake driver's license, you might get charged with a misdemeanor - if you get charged at all.
But if you're an illegal immigrant who presents a questionable Mexican driver's license to a Phoenix police officer, you'll likely get charged with a felony forgery, held in jail without bond, convicted and deported - sometimes even when the document is real.
Defense attorneys want to know why there appears to be a different standard applied to non-U.S. citizens when the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees equal protection under the law, regardless of immigration status."
MICHAEL KIEFER in the Arizona Republic.
"When some local law-enforcement agencies became more involved in arresting illegal immigrants, victim advocates worried that the crackdowns would erode trust with immigrants.
Now, a year later, they say their fears are coming true, as undocumented residents avoid reporting crimes to police out of fear they could be deported."
Daniel González in the Arizona Republic.
"One frigid March morning last year, federal agents raided a factory in this old whaling town, arresting hundreds of illegal immigrants as they sewed vests and backpacks for U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Most were shackled and sent to a detention center in Texas, where they faced rapid deportation unless they could post thousands of dollars in bail -- money they didn't have -- to buy time to mount a defense.
Then, a mystery benefactor appeared. The anonymous donor ponied up more than $200,000 to spring 40 people from detention.The payments, which until now haven't become public despite extensive news coverage of the raid itself, came from Bob Hildreth, a Boston financier who made his millions trading Latin American debt. He was "infuriated" at the televised images of workers being shipped to Texas, he says. Helping them make bail is "payback.""
MIRIAM JORDAN in the Wall Street Journal.
Los Angeles Police Department officials, alarmed by the continued rise in the homicide rate this year, sought Tuesday to debunk the notion that racial animosity has been at the heart of many of the killings.
A detailed analysis of each of the homicides this year leaves little doubt that race is not the prime factor and that "the most likely suspect is one that looks just like their victim," Deputy Chief Charlie Beck said in a presentation to the department's civilian Police Commission.
By Monday, 93 people had been killed in Los Angeles this year, compared with 69 during the same period last year -- a nearly 35% increase. The rise is also outpacing those in New York City and Chicago -- cities that have seen significant, but less dramatic, increases this year. JOEL RUBIN in the Los Angeles Times.
The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a first-of-its kind lawsuit against the Palm Beach County School District over its low graduation rates, specifically for minority students.
In the past, the ACLU and other organizations have sued school districts for not distributing resources equally but no organization has pursued legal actions for not achieving equal results. CHRISTINE DeNARDO in the Palm Beach Post.
But in an effort to slow the revolving door of job-seeking immigrants willing to test high-tech sensors, bike patrols, and fences that guard the American boundary here, border patrol agents have initiated a tough zero-tolerance policy along this 12-mile zone that stretches west from El Paso, Texas.
Anyone caught crossing illegally, agents say, will be arrested and prosecuted, whether it's their first or 50th try. If they attempt to come back within five years, they face a felony charge. SARA MILLER LLANA for the Christian Science Monitor.
More than 20,000 Mexican troops and federal police are engaged in a multi-front war with the private armies of rival drug lords, a conflict that is being waged most fiercely along the 2,000-mile length of the U.S.-Mexico border.
A total of more than 4,800 Mexicans were slain in 2006 and 2007, making the murder rate in each of those years twice that of 2005. Like the increasing number of Mexicans heading over the border in fear, the violence itself is spilling into the United States, where a Border Patrol agent was recently killed while trying to stop suspected traffickers.
Drawing on firepower, savage intimidation and cash, the cartels have come to control key parts of the border, securing smuggling routes for 90 percent of the cocaine flowing into the United States. At the same time, Mexican soldiers roam streets in armored personnel carriers, attack helicopters patrol the skies, and boats ply the coastal waters. MANUEL ROIG-FRANZIA for the Washington Post.
"With the nation watching, the impact of Prince William County's illegal immigration crackdown will be measured not by the county board that pushed for it, or the police officers who will enforce it, but by an independent team of college professors and criminologists."
THERESA VARGAS in the Washington Post.
"South Texas landowners fighting border fence surveys have gained traction in court and could keep the federal government from meeting Congress' demand for 670 miles of Mexican border fencing by the end of the year."
CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN for the Associated Press.
A program along the border in parts of Texas and Arizona to haul illegal immigrants off to jail instead of shipping them home has overwhelmed the U.S. Marshals Service.
The 600 marshals stationed on the border with Mexico are dealing with as many as 6,000 new defendants a month. That's taking them away from other tasks such as capturing escaped prisoners and rounding up sex offenders, according to Justice Department documents. Wire reports in the Dallas Morning News.
"Civil rights groups said Thursday that they had reached a settlement with federal officials guaranteeing that workers nabbed in an immigration raid last month in Van Nuys can be accompanied by an attorney to all meetings and interrogations."
DANIELA PERDOMO in the Los Angeles Times.
"When Nelson Lopez applied to Virginia colleges this year, it never occurred to him that he might not be considered a state resident. After all, he has lived in the state since he was a baby, holds a voter registration card and will graduate this spring from an Alexandria high school.
Then last month, he got an e-mail from the University of Virginia: If he wanted to be considered an in-state student, he had to prove that his parents are in this country legally.
Lopez, 18, was born here -- he's a U.S. citizen. But his parents..."
SUSAN KINZIE in the Washington Post.
"In a stinging ruling, a Los Angeles federal judge said immigration officials' alleged decision to withhold a critical medical test and other treatment from a detainee who later died of cancer was "beyond cruel and unusual" punishment."
HENRY WEINSTEIN in the Los Angeles Times.
Since the federal government brought in the National Guard to help tighten controls along the Mexican border two years ago, reports show fewer people are crossing. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says seizures of migrants dropped 20 percent at the border between 2006 and 2007, from 1,072,000 people to 858,000 last year.
Those migrants still determined to cross are increasingly vulnerable. Many of the traditional coyotes who would shepherd migrants all the way to their destination will no longer risk a crossing, and they've been replaced by a more transient, more desperate breed. SUSAN FERRISS in the Sacramneto Bee.
"Two months after the Bush administration expanded a program to haul undocumented residents off to jail instead of shipping them home, the U.S. Marshals Service is overwhelmed.
The 600 marshals stationed on the border with Mexico are dealing with as many as 6,000 new defendants a month. That's taking them away from other tasks such as capturing escaped prisoners and rounding up sex offenders, according to Justice Department documents obtained by Bloomberg News."
JEFF BLISS in Bloomberg News.
"State victim advocates and social service agencies are trying to make local police aware of the visas, which they welcome for humanitarian reasons and as a way to help bring violent criminals to justice."
ANN MARIE SOMMA in the Hartford Courant.
"Arpaio finds creative ways to arrest illegal immigrants — using state law intended on human smuggling to charge them with smuggling themselves — something no one else in the state has attempted."
TED ROBBINS on NPR.
"An Austin advocate for immigrants will receive a grant to build a Texas-based network of former immigrant detainees and raise support for policies to protect their rights."
"A federal judge has ruled that the government must first try to negotiate a price with a South Texas landowner before seizing her property for the border fence. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen late Friday came a month after federal prosecutors argued that immediate access to property was necessary to getting 370 miles of fencing built by December. ... Tamez, a 72-year-old nursing professor who stands to lose land that's been in her family for centuries, viewed the ruling as a victory.
[Link to Judge Hanen's Order here.]
"Hoping to spark dialogue on the immigration debate, a Denver film organization has turned its lens on the 2006 Swift & Co. raids and their aftermath in Greeley."
CHRIS CASEY in the Greeley Tribune.
[Here's a trailer on YouTube.]
While Bill Clinton is apologizing for not having done more to reduce the disparity in sentencing for crack and powder cocaine that is in part responsible for putting one in nine young black men in prison, Hillary Clinton has come out against making retroactive the small change in sentencing guidelines that allows some people convicted to have their sentences reviewed by a judge and if they are found eligible, given early release.
Obama, meanwhile, supports making the sentencing change retroactive. MAIA SLALAVITZ in The Huffington Post.
The federal government said yesterday that it has received hundreds of court orders reducing the prison sentences of crack cocaine offenders in the two days since new sentencing guidelines took effect.
A spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons could not say how many prisoners have already been released under the U.S. Sentending Commission's new guidelines, but the bureau has processed about 400 orders modifying prison terms nationwide. DARRYL FEARS in the Washington Post.
The profiling, described in a February 2006 Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo that McClatchy obtained, shows that the government has relied more heavily on nationality as an indicator of security risks than was previously known.
Federal agencies have created internal lists of countries that are of "special interest" for national security reasons, wrote the memo's author, Ted Stark, supervisory special agent with the Office of Intelligence at ICE."
MARISA TAYLOR in the McClatchy Washington Bureau.
"Work-van drivers signaled long before their turns to avoid being pulled over for a traffic violation. Day laborers skipped their early morning coffee at 7-Eleven, and merengue tunes played to empty tables at Latino lunch counters across Prince William County [Virginia, S.E. of D.C.] yesterday.
It was the first day of a county ordinance that allows police to check people's immigration status for even minor legal infractions.
Police officials pledged to enforce the law fairly and to not stop and question individuals based on their racial or ethnic appearance, but many Hispanic residents said they feared they would be stopped without reason and deported for such violations as driving without a valid license or having a broken taillight."
PAMELA CONSTABLE and NICK MIROFF in the Washington Post.